A Fielder's Choice: How Agency Law Decides the True Owner of the 2004 Red Sox Final-Out Baseball

Abstract

(3 Willamette Sports L.J. 1 (2006)). This article applies property and agency law, along with the customs of Major League Baseball (MLB), to determine the ownership of a baseball that was key to a World Series victory. The author concludes that MLB owned the ball but gave it to a player involved in the victory. He then describes steps to ensure that future historic baseballs belong to the winning team, not to individual players.