Sports Law Scoreboard : Sports Lawyer & Attorney : Fox Rothschild Law Firm : Intellectual Property, Copyright Infringement & Privacy for Athletes

By Jeffrey S. Kravitz, Esq.

Marvin Miller died and there will be obituaries in most media outlets for this pioneer. His contribution to the profession was summed up by former All-Star third baseman Ron Cey, who I heard speak the other night. Cey is now an executive with the Dodgers and the discussion was about the how the game had changed over the course of the years. His immediate response was "Thank God for Curt Flood," the courageous player who challenged the baseball reserve clause. Before the legal challenge, players basically had to either accept management's contract or withhold their labor.

Well, without Marvin Miller, there would have been no Curt Flood. As head of the players' union, he directed and supported that fight, resulting in what are now record breaking salaries. What also needs to be pointed out is that baseball itself has prospered, growing from a $10 billion business in 1995 to a gross receipts business of over $30 billion last year. Miller had what has been described as the demeanor of an accountant and that in part allowed the American public to view him as a sane representative of (high priced) labor, rather than as a bomb thrower. The greatest player....obviously Jackie Robinson, but how many kids have baseball cards with union leaders on them?  

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Saw a terrific movie over the weekend called "Rice Field of Dreams", about the national baseball team in Cambodia. Part "Bad News Bears", part "The Caine Mutiny", the film chronicles the training and international debut of a team where there was none before.

Why is it great?

Each of the recruits brings boundless enthusiasm to the sport that they had never played before. Their organizing coach is a cook in a Japanese restaurant in Alabama (can't make this stuff up folks). The professional staff was sent over by MLB Asia to train the rookies. Predictably, they get crushed but live to fight again. Non-predictably, we learn a lot about training people, human emotion, ego, all good stuff. 

From the outside, all law firms look alike. From the inside, the ones that work are the ones where people make investment in each other teach skills and perform for the benefit of the clients. I commend this film to every lawyer/manager in terms of what works and does not work. Suffice it to say that the investment pays dividends in both sports and law.

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Post written by Jeffrey Kravitz and Jaysen Chung

At the end of last month, Kelly Phillips Erb posted an article on Forbes.com about a great night of MLB play as the regular season drew to an end (including the Rays big comeback against those Yankees). Perhaps more importantly to you gamblers out there, Erb put her readers on notice of the requirement to report your winnings from betting on sports games for tax purposes, “even if it comes from your neighbor or office pool” (leave it up to the IRS to take the fun out of betting on sports games).  Erb even identified the forms necessary to fill out to report the winnings as well as those to claim your losses. This is great advice for the casual gambler who doesn’t want to get caught up in any trouble for some innocent fun.  Like the phrase goes, “Better safe than sorry.” You never know what can of worms might be opened up by some innocent, casual sports gambling.  Though not necessarily tax-related, think back to Rick Neuheisel’s neighborhood basketball gambling pool that not only violated NCAA rules but also led to a whole slew of related headaches. As my father used to say, "You can do things the hard way or the easy way." I was an adult before I realized that the easy way was always his way!   

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