Baseball Owners to Pay Players $10.5 Million : Arbitrator Agrees With Union in Deciding Compensation for Gibson, Sutton, John, Others

Baseball owners must pay players $10,528,086.71 as compensation for the conspiracy against free agents between the 1985 and 1986 seasons, an arbitrator ruled today.

Thomas Roberts, who heard the Collusion I case, issued a 30-page decision by overnight mail to the Major League Baseball Players Assn. and the owners’ Player Relations Committee.

The Collusion I case, filed Jan. 31, 1986, affected 139 players. The case centered on Kirk Gibson, Donnie Moore, Carlton Fisk, Phil and Joe Niekro, David Palmer, Tommy John and Don Sutton. Roberts, in an opinion issued Sept. 21, 1987, found that teams did not sign free agents “through the conduct . . . uniformly established and maintained.”

1987 Decision

“The right of the clubs to participate in the free agency provisions of the Basic Agreement no longer remained an individual matter to be determined solely for the benefit of each club,” Roberts wrote in 1987.

The union had argued two methods for determining the damages against free agents in the conspiracy. Under one method of calculation, the union said players lost between $15 million and $20 million; under the other, the union claimed that players lost between $23 million and $25.5 million.

Owners said that under the first method of calculation, players lost no more than $2 million. Using the second method, the owners said players lost between $2.2 million and $4.4 million.

Roberts’ award today was only on the salary shortfall in the 1986 season. It did not cover possible money lost because of a decrease in the number of multiyear contracts.

The board of the Player Relations Committee “will promptly place the amount of the award in an escrow account for the benefit of the affected players,” said Milwaukee owner Bud Selig, committee chairman. “The board believes the award represents a beginning in the resolution of the dispute between the clubs and the union over free agency. “

On Jan. 22, 1988, Roberts made seven players free agents again. Gibson moved to the Dodgers for $5 million over three years and led them to the 1988 World Series championship.

After that interim award, Roberts spent more than a year listening to economic experts in order to determine how much money players lost because of the conspiracy.

Roberts reviewed a 5,674-page transcript and 288 exhibits before rendering his decision in the original case. His decision does not give awards to specific players; determining a mechanism for that is the next step in the case.

George Nicolau, an arbitrator who a year ago today found owners guilty of collusion between the 1986 and 1987 seasons, is hearing testimony on the damage phase of the Collusion II case. Lawyers expect the final witnesses to testify in September.

Nicolau also is hearing the Collusion III case, covering free agents between the 1987 and 1988 seasons.