Re: monopoly definition

[DonKelley@aol.com]

There was a span of 50 years (1903-1953) when Major League Baseball had 16 teams playing in only 10 cities.  New York had three teams.  Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, and Philadelphia each had two. Cleveland did not, by the way.  It was during this period that the antitrust exemption was granted. 

In the 50's teams began travelling by plane instead of train.  In 1953 Boston's Lou Perini, owner of the Braves, got the idea that the team would draw better as the big fish in Milwaukee instead of being the second-fiddle team in Boston.  The St. Louis Browns followed suit the next year and became the Baltimore Orioles.  The following year the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City.  Three years after that the Dodgers moved to LA and the Giants moved to San Francisco.  Each team wound up with a monopoly in its own market.

As MLB expanded starting in the 60's mew markets were added.  With the exception of the Mets, each new team had a market to itself. Yes, Oakland is near San Francisco and Anaheim is near LA, but those are all top four markets. 

The point here is that Major League Baseball has allowed moves and expansion in an effort to expand the monopoly to cover as many markets as possible.

Last year's effort to contract was simply an attempt to run the monopoly only in profitable markets.