Using a data set of well over 1200 different pitchers covering an almost 20-year time period, this paper reveals that the process of human capital formation for professional baseball pitchers is relatively slow, rendering minor league statistics to be of limited value when projecting major league performance. This indicates that a considerable amount of the performance differences across pitchers at the major league level are revealed only after they reach the majors, and hence is unforeseen given their minor league statistics.These findings illustrate just how difficult it is for all organizations to predict the future success of their apprentice-level employees. Even in an industry such as baseball-where employee output is easily measurable and highly quantifiable, and where the nature of the work at the developmental level is identical to that at the advanced level (i.e. pitching a baseball)-apprentice-level performance only provides modest insights into how that employee will ultimately perform at the advanced level. Thus, firms that erroneously overestimate the importance of apprentice-level performance are at risk of making systematic errors in personnel decisions.note that one property of OLS regressions is that the residuals are distributed N(0, s2). See Wooldridge (2002).

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%20 AGREEMENT%202006%20-%202012.pdf [hereinafter NFL CBA]. 4 See The Associated Press, Lockout over salary cap shuts down NHL, ESPN, http:// sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1992793 (explaining that a lockout in the NHL cancelled the 2004-05 season); National Basketball Players Association History, http:// www.nbpa.com/history.php (last visited Mar. 30,2009) (explaining that a lockout in the NBA led to a shortened 50 game regular season schedule in the 1998-99 season); Mike Lopresti,

The NFL survived the 2011 offseason despite being bombarded by a sports law perfect storm. The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA or the Players) decertified itself as the bargaining representative of NFL players on March 11, 2011, hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement that the NFL and the NFLPA agreed to in 2006 (the 2006 CBA). That night, nine current NFL players and one prospective NFL player, led by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and its 32 Clubs.The Brady lawsuit was just part of a litigious 2011 in professional football. The NFL responded to the Brady lawsuit with a "lockout." Players could not report to work, Clubs could not have any contact with players and, eventually, games could have been missed. In addition to the Brady lawsuit, the Players sought damages related to the NFL's television contracts that allegedly violated the 2006 CBA, retired players fought for their rights in the labor negotiations, and the NFL contended that the NFLPA had failed to bargain in good-faith in a proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board

This chapter examines the rules governing when individuals are eligible to play in professional sports leagues and organizations. The different nature of the sports leads to important differences in the eligibility rules, including their legal status. Additionally, as the governing body of collegiate sports, the NCAA plays an important role in the practical consequences of the leagues’ eligibility rules. The leagues have a variety of justifications for their eligibility rules. While these justifications are often valid, they seem to rely on minimal, if any, data. As a result, there are constant concerns about whether the eligibility rules are sufficiently reasonable and fair considering the limited window in which many athletes have a chance to play professionally.