On October 27, 1998 – President Bill Clinton signs a bill overturning part of baseball’s 76-year-old antitrust exemption, putting baseball on par with other professional sports on labor matters. The new law overrides part of a 1922 United States Supreme Court ruling that exempted baseball from antitrust laws on grounds that it was not interstate commerce.
That exemption deprived baseball players of protections enjoyed by other professional athletes and that the players’ association blamed for contributing to baseball’s eight work stoppages since 1972, including the disastrous 232-day strike in 1994-1995.