Page 20 - ARUBA TODAY

A20 SPORTS
Thursday 26 april 2018

Baseball document, thought worth millions, spurs court fight

By ANDREW DALTON calls for 5 percent. home after his 1978 retire-
Associated Press "SCP's outrageous demand ment.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — One constitutes civil extortion," He died the following year,
of the most valuable piec- the suit states. and National League Presi-
es of baseball memorabilia The lawsuit seeks the im- dent Chub Feeney had
— a copy of the 1876 Na- mediate return of the pa- given the family the right
tional League constitution pers along with unspecified to any memorabilia that he
that established business damages. An email sent happened to have, lead-
practices that remain the seeking comment from the ing the family to believe it
norm today — is at the cen- auction company was not could rightfully sell the doc-
ter of a legal dispute be- immediately returned. uments.
tween the family of a late Baseball historians say the Two years ago, a similar set
baseball executive and an document, largely the work of papers establishing the
auction house they say is of Chicago White Stockings rules of modern baseball
holding it hostage. owner William Hulbert, was sold for more than $3 mil-
Mary Elizabeth Fleig, the essential in giving a suspi- lion, and experts believed
92-year-old widow of Fred This May 18, 2017, file photo, shows the hands of SCP Auctions cious and disreputable the constitution at auction
Fleig, and a company vice president Dan Imler holding the 1876 constitution that game respectability in the could go for even more,
founded the National League and the modern business of big
owned by his son-in-law, league sports, that is going up for sale at SCP Auctions in Laguna late 19th century. perhaps surpassing a Babe
Keith Nadel, filed a lawsuit Niguel, Calif. "It is this model that gave Ruth jersey that once sold
Wednesday in Los Ange- Associated Press birth to every professional for $4.4 million.q
les County Superior Court sports league that followed,
against SCP Auctions. Press story appeared about Los Angeles law firm Green- from football to basketball
The two sides were work- the auction, Major League berg Glusker alleges that to European football," John
ing together last May to sell Baseball claimed it was the SCP Auctions has refused Thorn the official historian
the papers that had been rightful owner and the sale to relinquish control of the of Major League Baseball,
among Fred Fleig's belong- was stopped. document "unless and until told the AP last year.
ings when he died in 1979, The league and the Fleig it is paid a preposterous 25 The papers had been
a year after he retired as family later quietly reached percent 'commission' that among the belongings in
the National League's sec- a settlement for joint owner- is not provided, permitted 10 boxes sent from Fleig's
retary and treasurer. But af- ship of the papers, but the or justified" by the auction National League office
ter ads and an Associated lawsuit filed Wednesday by agreement, which only to his Danville, California,