Content area
Full Text
The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration By Roger I. Abrams. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. 218 pages, hard cover, $27.50.
Can a game played by children, and the self-professed national pastime, provide lessons about the economics of business today? If that game is baseball, which continues to capture attention as new records are set on diamond-shaped fields and during negotiations in the back offices, then yes. "If you want to learn something about economics and game theory, baseball provides the full tablespoon of sugar that can sweeten that process . . . if you want to learn how baseball salaries are established, economics and game theory offer valuable tools of analysis." With this claim, Roger Abrams begins The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration. The education he weaves into the baseball story imparts lessons about the cost of worker motivation and loyalty, the strategies of business owners to assemble the best human resources, and the reaction of customers to a dynamic and not always successful product.
Written in an engaging style, filled with historical perspectives, modern-day examples, solid research, and personal experiences, The Money Pitch is a fascinating exploration of one sport that holds fond summer memories for many Americans. Abrams writes from his unique perspective as a salary arbitrator for major league baseball, a recognized national authority on sports law, the dean of Northeastern University's School of Law, and a lifetime baseball fan. His story is, as he notes, "both firmly grounded in the research literature and accessible to the serious sports enthusiast."
The "money pitch" of the title can be extrapolated beyond baseball into any field where the talent or knowledge of a person constitutes their value. Abrams defines it as a special talent each of us draws on: "All of us have a 'money pitch,' a surefire strategy we use to see us through a time of trial. It might be a student's study method that...