Senate leaders say they have ironed out the last issues in a bill that would revise professional baseball’s 76-year-old exemption from federal antitrust laws and reduce the chances of another crippling players’ strike. “As fans are returning to the ballparks, they deserve to know that players will be on the field, not mired in labor disputes,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said Wednesday. He said he hoped Congress could pass the legislation when it returns from its summer recess in September. The legislation would overturn parts of what Hatch called an “aberrant” 1922 Supreme Court ruling exempting baseball from antitrust laws. His bill revokes that exemption for labor relations, keeping it for relocation and minor leagues.
