One hundred years ago in May, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a decision by the federal Court of Appeals that the Sherman Antitrust Act did not apply to what is now known as Major League Baseball. The high court ruled that the league was a “state affair,” not interstate commerce and therefore did not fall under the Sherman Act. It was a unanimous decision written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Teddy Roosevelt nominee and a favorite among progressives at the time.
