The MLB Basic Agreement runs 440 pages, about the same as “A Tale of Two Cities,” Dickens’s master work set before and during the French Revolution. The Basic Agreement is the decidedly denser read, but if you look closely enough you will find its own backdrop of revolution. It’s right there buried in section E-10(a).
“This,” says one high-ranking club executive, “is the ultimate market-changing weapon. We’ve talked for years about this. Almost nobody uses it.”
