In a great Alan Schwartz story today in the NY Times, Brian Cashman and others openly admit to what can only be described as collusive behavior between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball to control labor costs.
In my view, it's bad enough that pro sports leagues are able to collude internally against open bidding for new talent (via free agent/collegiate drafts and ridiculous wage controls for less-senior players agreed to by players' unions). But to so openly talk about collusion in the international market for talent?
I'd guess that I'm in the small minority on this issue, but it still gets my dander up.
One of my grad school papers was on collusion in baseball. Did you know that collusion was banned in the CBA by the owners rather than the MLBPA? They were so pissed at Koufax and Drysdale's joint hold-out in the Spring of 1966 that they insisted upon it and Marvin Miller (with his usual foresight) quickly told the players to agree.
To agree only if it was a two-way street. The players have always had smarter lawyers than the owners.
I'm not really against cost control for younger players. That has been bargained in exchange for a fairly healthy minimum salary.