Talking a Good Game: 4 lawyers go to bat for 'Shoeless Joe'Author(s): Terry CarterSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 84, No. 4 (APRIL 1998), pp. 34-35Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27840183 .

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NEWS

'Cart' Blanche? A decision requiring accommodation for a disabled golfer has sports lawyers wondering what's next BY TED CURTIS

Rarely

before in pro fessional sports has

such a quiet buzz on the field of play resulted in such a loud rumbling in the stands.

The on-field sounds come from the golf cart of Casey Martin, who in February won an injunc tion requiring the PGA Tour to allow him to use a motorized cart during play to accommodate a

circulatory disorder that limits his ability to walk. The decision by U.S. Magistrate Thomas Cof fin of Eugene, Ore., was based on the Americans With Disabilities Act. Martin v, PGA Tour, No. 97-6309-TC.

The vocal response off the field comes from sports attorneys na tionwide considering the impact of the ruling throughout athletics.

"Sport governing bodies?or at least the PGA Tour?now will have to consider putting into place some official procedures to react to [ADA] issues," says Gary Roberts, a pro fessor at Tulane law school and past president of the Sports Law yers Association. "Leagues now

Casey Martin set the wheels of debate in motion with his request.

may have to take these claims from disabled athletes more seriously, and keep a close record as to how they handle them."

Pro and Disabled The issue of disabled athletes

is not entirely new to major profes sional competition. Jim Abbott? who was born without a right hand ?pitched in the Major Leagues for the New York Yankees and Ana

heim Angels after petitioning the American League for the right to use an oversized glove. And former Denver Broncos player Kenny Wal ker, who is deaf, enjoyed a success ful football career, often while using a sign language interpreter

_ on the sidelines. In college athletics,

NCAA rules permit blind swimmers to touch the lane dividers with their hands, something sighted swim

mers are not allowed to do. Of course, the Martin

decision could be short-lived if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagrees with Coffin's ruling that the PGA Tour is a "place of public ac commodation" through its tournament-week operation.

"There were two issues here," says Springfield, 111., disability attorney Bill Gor en. "One was whether the PGA Tour was a place of public accommodation and therefore subject to the ADA. The second was whether providing a cart is a fun damental alteration of the game of golf. The ADA states

that reasonable accommodation for a disability does not have to be made if it will result in a funda mental alteration."

Coffin found for Martin on both issues. But it is the public accom

modation finding that may afford the Tour its best chance on appeal,

many legal experts agree. One fed eral appeals court already has held in Stoutenborough v. NFL, 59 F.3d 580 (6th Cir. 1995), that the Na

Talking a Beed Gante 4 lawyers go to bat for 'Sh?eless Joe*

Any good pitcher knows the im portance of changing

^^^^^ tess Joe" Jack^ ''Shoeless Joe" Jackson SOn cleared for

into the National Baseball

The Chicago lawyers working ?n behalf of the long-deceased ballplayer aren't taking up the cause of his innocence, although he was prie of eight Chicago White Sox players acquitted of taking payoffs to fix the 1919 World Series.

Instead, the lawyers are focus ing on Jackson's ban from baseball, said to have been for life. The brief is built around this simple claim: *

'Shoeless Joe' was sentenced and has served his sentence in full."

"It's a different approach this time," says Rich Levin, head of pub lic relations for MLB.

While Major League Baseball has no official connection with the Hall of Fame, the Hall specifies in

ball's in?ligible list shall not be ?ri eligible candidate" for admission.

"This is pretty simple?" says Louis Hegeman, chairman of a group of four lawyers fighting for Jackson. "The problem is if yo? write [the brief] short and direct* it's dismissed as skimpy."

That is why the brief also delves into such details as the defi nitions of "person," "restored," "in eligible candidate" and so on.

Jackson has been portrayed as an illiterate innocent who suppos edly tried to return the $5,000 that was his share of the payoff, and in deed he set World Series records.

It is not surprising that Hege man has taken up Jackson's cause.

34 ABA JOURNAL / APRIL 1998 ap photos

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tional Football League is not a

place of public accommodation. Employment lawyer Allen Fa

gin of Proskauer Rose in New York City, agrees with that reasoning. "The [ADA] was intended to apply to places, such as restaurants or

stadiums," he says. "The PGA Tour simply is not a place."

But as long as Martin stands, the sports industry is left to consid er what concessions it will have to

make for disabled athletes. "It seems to me that an athlete

with a disability who cannot run the full length of a basketball court cannot demand that the court be shortened by 20 feet," offers Robert Berry, a sports law professor at Boston College Law School. "But where do you have to provide rea sonable accommodation?"

On the one hand, a player with a chronic bad back like PGA Tour player Fred Couples may not have a permanent disability under the ADA, says Berry. "But what about a player like [professional golfer] Scott Verplank who has diabetes?"

Sports and entertainment at torney Gary Crist of Jupiter, Fla., former in-house counsel for the PGA Tour, offers another hypothet ical. "If the left fielder for the New

York Yankees has the same condi tion as Casey, should Major League Baseball be forced to permit him to sit in a chair in the outfield be tween pitches?" he asks. "It's not outrageous. That is the logical con clusion of following Magistrate Cof fin's ruling.

"It's a Pandora's box," he adds.

"And this case threatens to throw that Pandora's box wide open."

The lawyer also headed the Nellie Fox Society, which after a seven year battle succeeded last year in getting the overlooked (and un tainted) former Cub into the Hall.

Hegeman acted this time at the request of legendary Red Sox hitter Ted Williams, who has been pushing for Jackson's admission.

Williams belongs to the Hall com mittee that would vote on Jackson.

It may be that the more recent ban of Pete Rose from baseball is what prevents Jackson from get ting a shot at the Hall of Fame. Jackson "might have had a chance before the Pete Rose rule," says John Ralph, spokesman for the Hall. "Now we have to see what Major League Baseball says."

?Terry Carter

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