Dick Moss, lawyer behind free agency in baseball who revolutionized pro sports pay, dies at 93

New York — Dick Moss, the lawyer who won the arbitration case that created free agency for baseball players and revolutionized pay for professional athletes, has died. He was 93.

Moss died Saturday at an assisted-living residence in Santa Monica, California, the Major League Baseball Players Association said Sunday. He had been in poor health for several years.

Hired by union executive director Marvin Miller as general counsel in 1967, Moss argued the 1975 case involving pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally that led to arbitrator Peter Seitz striking down the reserve clause. That provision for a unilateral one-year renewal had been included in every contract since 1878 and had enabled teams to control players by maintaining those agreements could be extended perpetually.