Man, Major League Baseball is really in a mess now. Following the All-Star tie-game fiasco last week in Milwaukee, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was quoted as saying one big-league club may not be able to meet its payroll this week, and another team is sick with Tennessee Ernie Ford disease: "Another day older and deeper in debt." Then the threat of another players strike looms on the horizon. How does all this get fixed? How did it get broken?

The situation reminds me of something said back in the 1970s, in the early days of free agency, after the players won initial court fights to strike down the contractual reserve clause that bound players to one team for life unless they were released or traded. Remember Curt Flood? Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally? They were the first players in whose favor court decisions began shifting the power and wealth from the MLB owners to the players and player agents.

Arguments were raised by the players' lawyers at that time, and I recall one of them putting forth the point with a simple analogy. "Let's say Mr. Smith works for ABC Bank and is doing such a great job that the rival XYZ Bank would like to hire him to work for them. They find out he is making $50,000 per year, and they decide to offer him $75,000 to quit ABC and bring his brilliant business skills to XYZ. He can do it with no problem. He's free.