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Baseball fans and arbitration fans alike will be following the news in days to come, as arbitration hearings on the legality Major League Baseball's planned elimination of two teams commence today. The players union filed a grievance in early November charging that the owners' unilateral decision to fold two franchises is a violation of the contract which expired after this year's World Series, and must be part of negotiations for the new contract. Former National Labor Relations Board Chairman and baseball arbitrator William Gould believes that the proposed contraction---which would strongly affect the market for free agents---is not in keeping with a decade long history of arbitrators' rulings protecting free agency, and will be deemed in violation of the contract.