Baseball Makes Law Review

With the Mariners season underway, you may want to combine your love of baseball with your love (or hatred depending on how far into finals studying your are) of the law.  If so, take a glance at some of these law review articles about baseball.

Baseball’s Moral Hazard: Law, Economics and the Designated Hitter Rule, 90 B.U. L. Rev. 2083, by Professor Dustin Buehler and UW’s own Professor Steve Calandrillo, covers two topics sure to get anyone riled up: the DH and law & economics.  While Professors Buehler and Calandrillo make a good effort at explaining the value of the DH, those of us fortunate enough to have been raised without it (Go Phillies) will never concede that it is a utility maximizing rule.

Who Owns the View? Chicago Cubs v. Rooftop Owners, or Chicago National League Ball Club, Inc. v. Sky Box on Waveland, L.L.C., 1 Nw. J. Tech. & Intell. Prop. 6, by Charels Shifley and Patrick Shifley, describes the legal battle over views of Cubs games from the rooftops adjacent to Wrigley Field.

 Baseball’s Accidental Racism: The Draft, African-American Players, and the Law, 44 Conn. L. Rev. 197, by Professors Joanna Shepherd Bailey and George B. Shepherd of Emory, uses law and economics tools to determine that the draft and age limits imposed on U.S. born players violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Baseball Bats Out of Hell: Potential Theories of Liability Arising from Maple Bat Injuries, 8 DePaul J. Sports L. & Contemp. Probs. 95, by Joe Novosel, discusses many of the issues raised in your Torts class, but this time involving baseball bats. 

Topps Gets Exclusive License, Leaving Upper Deck on the Bench: an Analysis of Major League Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption in the Modern Era, 22 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 235, by Sarah A. Padove, discusses baseball cards, antitrust law, and Major League Baseball's exemption from antitrust statutes.

Also, the Green Bag puts out a series of articles comparing Supreme Court Justices to baseball players called Supreme Court Sluggers:

- John Paul Stevens IS No Stephen J. Field, 13 Green Bag 2d 465, by Adam Aft, Ross E. Davies, and Craig D. Rust

- Behind the Numbers, 13 Green Bag 2d 215, by Ross E. Davies and Craig D. Rust

- Introducing The Justices Scalia, Fortas, and Goldberg Trading Cards, 2 J.L. (1 J. Legal Metrics) 155, by Ross E. Davies, Craig D. Rust, and Adam Aft

Those articles include illustrations of Justice Stevens in catchers garb, Justice Roberts fielding, and Justice Scalia donning a baseball cap and cleats.  Here is a link to the baseball cards of the Justices: http://www.greenbag.org/sluggers/sluggers_cards_and_stats.html

To find all of those articles I used a sometimes overlooked tool called Legaltrac.  Legaltrac is an index to legal publications including law reviews, legal newspapers, and Bar journals.  Members of the UW Law community can access Legaltrac from the Gallagher Homepage under “Selected Databases”.  If you are not on campus, be sure to use the “Off-Campus Access” link in the upper right corner before you choose a database.

Enjoy!