NEW YORK (AP) — 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.

Seitz decided on Dec. 23, 1975, the clause meant only a single one-year renewal. The decision impacted all sports across North America and led to collectively bargained free agency in baseball.

“A titan of the industry. He impacted the industry at that time like few others,” said David Cone, a pitcher who was a member of the union leadership and a Moss client. “A bit eccentric, but very fun loving, just a gregarious personality, great guy to be around. Life of the party, a great guy to have a drink with.”

At the time of Seitz’s decision, the average Major League Baseball salary was just under $45,000. It rose to $76,000 in 1977 and by 2023 was $4.5 million, a 1,000-fold increase.

MLB’s revenues increased at a less steep rate, from $163 million in 1975 to more than $11 billion in 2023, a 70-fold rise.

“The difference between winning and losing was billions and billions of dollars, maybe tens of billions of dollars,” Moss said at a 25th anniversary party he threw in December 2000.

Baseball players’ gains were followed closely by other sports, with unions gaining liberalized free agency rights in the NBA in 1976 and the NFL in 1993.

Richard Maurice Moss III was born in Pittsburgh on July 30, 1931. He received degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Law School.

After two years in the Army, Moss worked for a Pittsburgh law firm, became a Pennsylvania assistant attorney general and in 1963 joined the United Steelworkers as an associate general counsel on a staff where Miller was assistant to union president David McDonald.

Miller was hired by the baseball union in 1966 and Moss joined him six months later. As Miller organized the players into a stubborn unit, Moss negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement in 1968, raising the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000. The 1970 agreement added grievance arbitration and the 1973 deal instituted salary arbitration.

“Marvin was really the perfect man for that time,” Moss told The Associated Press in 1991. “The players trusted him. He instilled confidence and respect in the players, and he was something of a father figure to them.”

Players showed their resolve during strikes in 1972 and ‘73 and a lockout in 1976. A lawsuit by Curt Flood seeking to end baseball’s antitrust exemption lost at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.

The first big breakthrough came in December 1974, when Seitz ruled in an arbitration that Oakland had breached the contract of Catfish Hunter by failing to make a $50,000 payment into a long-term annuity fund and he declared Hunter a free agent. The New York Yankees signed him to a $3.2 million, five-year deal, a sign of what players could earn without restrictions.

“Dick managed to win that case establishing something novel for baseball, the first real free agent who didn’t get there by being released,” said Donald Fehr, who worked under Miller and Moss, then headed the players’ association from 1983 to 2009. “The magnitude of the restraint was demonstrated.”

When Messersmith and McNally played seasons without contracts, the union filed grievances and Moss argued the cases before Seitz on Nov. 21 and 24 and Dec. 1, 1975. Seitz issued his decision on Dec. 23, ruling “there is no contractual bond between these players and the Los Angeles and the Montreal clubs, respectively. Absent such a contract, their clubs had no right or power … to reserve their services for their exclusive use for any period beyond the ‘renewal year’ in the contracts which these players had heretofore signed.”

Seitz’s decision was upheld by U.S. District Judge John W. Oliver in Kansas City, Missouri, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. where Moss conducted the oral argument on the union’s behalf. Free agency rules were agreed to in the labor contract of July 1976, and the first free-agent class to gain riches included future Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers.

Miller educated players on how to achieve their goals and Moss developed the legal tactics.

“Working in tandem was exactly what built the solid foundation,” said former pitcher Steve Rogers, a Moss client and longtime union official. “None of what is happening today exists without the solid foundation.”

Moss quit the union in July 1977 to become an agent, and his clients included future Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan, Jack Morris and Gary Carter. He negotiated Ryan’s deal for the first $1 million annual salary in 1979 and argued the case that got Fernando Valenzuela the first $1 million salary in arbitration in 1982.

In 1987, he helped expose owners’ collusive activities by giving the Chicago Cubs a blank contract for Andre Dawson, which the team filled in with a $500,000 base salary plus bonus opportunities. Owners lost three grievances and settled the cases with the union in 1990 for $280 million.

In 1992, he helped argue the grievance that led arbitrator George Nicolau to overturn Steve Howe’s lifetime ban, the pitcher’s seventh suspension for substance abuse. In both 1989 and 1994, he worked to organize a new league without ever getting teams on a field.

He is survived by his third wife, Carol Freis, whom he married in 1980, and a daughter from his second marriage, to Rolinda, Nancy Moss Ephron. Another daughter from his second marriage, Betsy, predeceased him.

NEW YORK (AP) — The company behind Tupperware, the plastic kitchenware that revolutionized food storage after World War II and became inextricably linked to the parties where women seeking a measure of financial independence and fun in midcentury America sold the colorful products, has filed for bankruptcy.

Tupperware Brands, the Orlando, Florida-based consumer goods company that produces the iconic line of containers, said it was seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling to revitalize its core business and failing to secure a tenable takeover offer.

Despite enjoying the same cultural ubiquity as Kleenex, Teflon and other brands whose trademarked names are eponymous with entire product categories, Tupperware has suffered from waning sales, rising competition and the limitations of the direct-to-consumer marketing model that once defined its success.

The company said Tuesday in its bankruptcy filing that consumers shifting away from direct sales, which make up the vast majority of its sales more than a quarter-century after the first Tupperware parties, has hit the storied business hard.

The company also cited growing public health and environmental concerns about plastic, internal inefficiencies that made it challenging to operate globally, and the “challenging microeconomic environment” of the last several years for its financial straits.

Tupperware said it planned to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and would seek court approval for a sale “in order to protect” the brand.

Tupperware’s roots date to 1946. As the company tells it, chemist Earl Tupper found inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory. He set out on a mission to create an airtight lid seal — similar to the one on a paint can — for a plastic container to help families save money on food waste.

The brand experienced explosive growth in the mid-20th century, particularly with the rise of direct sales through Tupperware parties. First held in 1948, the parties were promoted as a way for women to earn supplemental income by selling their friends and neighbors the lidded bowls for holding leftovers.

The system worked so well that Tupperware eventually removed its products from stores. It also led Tupper to appoint Brownie Wise, who came up with the house party idea, as a company executive, a position that was rare for a woman at the time.

In the decades that followed, the brand expanded to include canisters, beakers, cake dishes and all manner of implements, and became a staple in kitchens across America and eventually, abroad as well. A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a footman in Buckingham Palace captured pictures of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast table of Queen Elizabeth II.

The story behind the company also showed up on TV screens and on stage, with depictions in PBS’ 2004 film “Tupperware!” and the play “Sealed for Freshness.”

“For more than 70 years, Tupperware Brands has centered on a core purpose – to inspire women to cultivate the confidence they need to enrich their lives, nourish their families, and fuel communities around the world,” Tricia Stitzel, the company’s first female CEO, wrote as recently as 2018. “And we continue to make decisions, from our innovative products to our strategic growth strategy, which reflect this purpose.”

In the 2000s, Tupperware also diversified beyond its containers by acquiring beauty and personal care companies, most of them direct-selling brands like Avroy Shlain, Fuller Cosmetics, NaturCare, Nutrimetics and Nuvo.

Financial analysts, however, criticized Tupperware in recent years for sticking with the direct sales model and failing to evolve with the times, most notably the large number of women who work outside the home.

“The reality is that the decline at Tupperware is not new,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in Wednesday commentary. “It is very difficult to see how the brand can get back to its glory days.”

The company’s sales improved some during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Americans were cooking and eating more at home. But overall sales have been in steady decline over the years due to rising competition from Rubbermaid, OXO and even takeout food containers that consumers recycle. Vintage Tupperware also remains in demand as a collectible.

Overall, sales for food storage supplies are up 18% compared to before the pandemic, according to figures from market research firm Circana. But despite that growth – and the ongoing popularity of food storage videos on social media – the troubles for Tupperware remained.

Saunders explained that many consumers have migrated to less expensive home storage brands they can find at Target and Walmart. Amazon, the king of online retailers, also has its own line.

Historically, Tupperware marketed its products as higher-quality durable items. But consumers who are looking for durability are interested in more sustainable materials, such as glass and stainless steel, said Jennifer Christ, manager of consumer and commercial research for the Freedonia Group, a market research company.

“There’s less brand loyalty than there used to be,” Christ said.

In the past few years, Tupperware tried a few things to expand its reach and attract new customers. It started selling its products on Amazon as well as in stores at Target and Macy’s. In 2019, the brand also launched a line made with sustainable materials and expanded it two years later.

But financial troubles continued to pile up.

Last year, the company sought additional financing as it warned investors about its ability to stay in business and its risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

The company received an additional non-compliance notice from the NYSE for failing to file its annual results with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year. Tupperware continued to warn about its ability to stay afloat in more recent months, with an August securities filing pointing to “significant liquidity challenges.”

Shares for the company have fallen 75% this year.

In Tuesday’s bankruptcy petition, Tupperware reported more than $1.2 billion in total debts and $679.5 million in total assets. It said Tupperware currently employs more than 5,450 employees across 41 countries and partners with over 465,000 consultants who sell products on a freelance basis in nearly 70 countries. Particularly in India, Tupperware was introduced as a way for women to own their own businesses.

Many Tupperware sellers market the products online, but many also make their sales during Tupperware parties at their homes or neighborhood gatherings. In the announcement of the filing, the company maintained that there were no current changes to Tupperware’s independent sales consultant agreements.

Tupperware also pointed to aims to “further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company,” possibly signaling a move toward increased reliance of sales on the brand’s website or perhaps more online-focused marketing, although the company did not provide exact specifics.

In a statement, Tupperware President and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman acknowledged Tupperware’s recent financial struggles and said that the bankruptcy process is meant to provide “essential flexibility” as the company pursues this transformation. The brand, she maintains, isn’t going anywhere.

“Whether you are a dedicated member of our Tupperware team, sell, cook with, or simply love our Tupperware products, you are a part of our Tupperware family,” Goldman said in a statement. “We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process.”

The company’s bankruptcy filing, though, faces opposition from Tupperware’s new lenders, who want the petition dismissed or converted it to a Chapter 7 case, which would liquidate the company. Alternatively, they’re asking the court for permission to take action against the company, which could allow them to collect debt they’re owed.