TAXONOMY

Controlled vocabulary for the archive. Free-text in metadata creates drift; this file is the single source of truth for what counts as a valid value for each enumerated field. The downstream front-end will validate against these values.

When a new value is genuinely needed, add it here first (with a brief definition), then use it. Don't add ad-hoc values to metadata files.

1. doc_type

The primary character of the document. Pick one.

Value	Definition
cba	Collective Bargaining Agreement / Basic Agreement between league and players' association.
constitution	Founding or governing document of a league or association.
agreement	Formal multi-party agreement that isn't a CBA or constitution (Major League Agreement, National Agreement, Professional Baseball Agreement, posting agreements).
contract	Executed or template contract (Uniform Player Contract; specific player contracts when historically significant).
policy	Formalized policy document (Joint Drug Agreement, domestic violence policy, gambling policy).
caselaw	Court ruling, opinion, or order.
legislation	Statute or public law.
hearing	Congressional or government hearing record.
report	Commissioned report, investigation report, or panel report (Mitchell Report, Blue Ribbon Panel, MMAC reviews).
memo	Internal memorandum (commissioner memos, league office memos when made public).
letter	Open letter or correspondence entered into evidence or formally published.
testimony	Standalone witness testimony (separate from a full hearing record).
statement	Formal public statement (player statements re: discipline, commissioner statements).
arbitration	Grievance or salary arbitration ruling.
lease	Stadium or facility lease agreement.
filing	Court filing (complaint, motion, response, brief).
bylaws	Organizational bylaws.
rules	Major League Rules, Official Baseball Rules, or comparable rulebook.
decision	Formal commissioner decision or order.

2. category

Maps 1:1 to a folder under documents/. Pick one.

Value	Folder	What goes here
cbas	documents/cbas/	MLB CBAs/Basic Agreements, MiLB CBA, MLUA CBA, related labor agreements.
governance	documents/governance/	League constitutions, Major League Agreement, National Agreement, MLBPA bylaws, MLB Constitution.
contracts-and-rules	documents/contracts-and-rules/	Uniform Player Contract (all eras), Major League Rules, Official Baseball Rules editions.
drug-and-conduct	documents/drug-and-conduct/	Joint Drug Agreement, JDPTP, drug policy memos, domestic violence policy, gambling policy, conduct policies.
antitrust-and-courts	documents/antitrust-and-courts/	Court rulings on antitrust, labor, IP, franchise matters. Federal Baseball, Toolson, Flood, Piazza, etc.
arbitration-and-grievances	documents/arbitration-and-grievances/	Arbitration rulings (Messersmith-McNally, Garvey, salary arbitration decisions).
legislation-and-hearings	documents/legislation-and-hearings/	Federal and state statutes affecting baseball; Congressional hearings.
franchise-finance	documents/franchise-finance/	Sale agreements, RICO complaints, financial reviews (MMAC), franchise valuation litigation.
stadiums-and-relocation	documents/stadiums-and-relocation/	Lease agreements, no-relocation agreements, public financing docs, relocation hearings.
commissioner-decisions	documents/commissioner-decisions/	Suspensions, formal decisions, orders, formal commissioner statements.
broadcasting-and-ip	documents/broadcasting-and-ip/	Broadcasting rights deals where public, IP/likeness rulings (CBC v. MLBAM, Cardtoons), RSN-related filings.
international-posting	documents/international-posting/	MLB-NPB, MLB-KBO posting agreements; related litigation.
minor-league	documents/minor-league/	Professional Baseball Agreement, MiLB-specific documents not covered by the MiLB CBA.
umpires	documents/umpires/	MLUA agreements and related documents specific to umpire labor.
agents	documents/agents/	MLBPA agent regulations, agent certification documents.
reports-and-investigations	documents/reports-and-investigations/	Mitchell Report, Blue Ribbon Panel, MMAC reviews, internal investigations.

3. date_precision

Pick one:

• day — full ISO date known.
• month — month and year known.
• year — year only.

4. date_type

What the date field represents. Pick one:

• issued — date the document was issued/published by its publisher.
• signed — date of signature (for agreements).
• ratified — date of ratification (for CBAs).
• decided — date of court decision.
• effective — date the document became effective (when distinct from signing).
• published — date of publication in an official reporter (for case law where slip op and reporter publication differ).
• introduced — date a bill was introduced (for legislation we track pre-enactment).
• filed — date of filing (for court filings — complaints, motions, briefs). Distinct from decided (when the court rules).
• executed — date of execution (for contracts and multi-party agreements where "signed" is too narrow — e.g., the 1921 Major League Agreement was "executed" by 16 club owners over several days).
• enacted — date of enactment (for legislation — when the bill becomes law, distinct from introduced and effective).
• adopted — date of adoption (for constitutions, bylaws, and organizational governing documents — used where "signed" or "ratified" don't fit the document's formal mechanism).

5. status

• placeholder
• needs_review
• verified

Definitions in STANDARDS.md §1.

6. file.format

• pdf
• txt
• html
• docx
• epub
• other (specify in processing_notes)

7. jurisdiction (controlled examples)

Free-form but follow these patterns where possible:

Pattern	Example
U.S. Supreme Court	U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals	U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Cir.
U.S. District Court	U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y.
State courts	California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeal, 4th Dist.
Congress	U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House Committee on Government Reform
Executive	U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
League	Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, American League, National League
Union	Major League Baseball Players Association
Arbitration	MLB-MLBPA Grievance Arbitration Panel
Local government	District of Columbia City Council, Anaheim City Council

For Federal courts, use the standard Bluebook abbreviation for the circuit/district.

8. subcategories and tags

subcategories are mid-level groupings within a category. Use only values established here; add new ones to this section before use.

Established subcategories:

For antitrust-and-courts: antitrust_exemption, reserve_clause, franchise_relocation, intellectual_property, labor_law, contraction, expansion.

For cbas: mlb, milb, mlua, basic_agreement, jda_addendum.

For governance: mlb_constitution, major_league_agreement, national_agreement, al_constitution, nl_constitution, mlbpa_bylaws.

For drug-and-conduct: peds, recreational_drugs, domestic_violence, gambling, social_media, dei_misconduct.

For franchise-finance: ownership_transfer, valuation, revenue_sharing, competitive_balance_tax, private_equity, expansion_fees.

For stadiums-and-relocation: public_financing, lease, relocation, eminent_domain, naming_rights.

For commissioner-decisions: suspension, discipline, unilateral_action, interpretation, pace_of_play.

For legislation-and-hearings: senate, house, joint, state, pre_enactment, enacted.

For arbitration-and-grievances: salary_arbitration, grievance, service_time, discipline_grievance.

tags are free-form, lowercase, underscore-separated. Use them for fine-grained discovery — owner surnames, individual player names where central to the document, recurring themes ("labor", "antitrust", "scotus", "ped"). Reuse existing tags rather than coining new ones; the front-end will eventually show a tag cloud and overgrowth is a problem.

9. Common tag conventions

When adding tags, prefer:

• People: lowercase, hyphen-separated last name first if needed for disambiguation. curt_flood, marvin_miller, bowie_kuhn, bart_giamatti, rob_manfred.
• Teams/franchises: full name, lowercase, underscore. oakland_athletics, washington_nationals, montreal_expos.
• Owners: surname only unless ambiguous. steinbrenner, cohen, fisher, attanasio.
• Concepts: lowercase, underscore. antitrust, reserve_clause, revenue_sharing, competitive_balance_tax, salary_arbitration, service_time, posting_system.
• Eras: pre_1900, dead_ball, live_ball, integration_era, expansion_era, free_agency_era, steroid_era, analytics_era.

10. Schema versioning

This taxonomy file is implicitly part of the schema. When a controlled value is added, removed, or renamed, bump the schema version in METADATA_SCHEMA.md and note the change here:

Changelog

• 1.1.0 (2026-05-19): Pass B schema/naming consolidation.
  • Added date_type values: filed, executed, enacted, adopted. These replace ad-hoc values previously used in 16 metadata files. The earlier off-spec value enacted_original (used in one file — 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act handout) is consolidated to enacted; the metadata for that file was updated.
  • Doctype policy clarified: filename doctype codes must come from the §1 table. The off-spec codes summary, audit, financials, plan, regulations, nara previously used in 9 filenames have been removed by renaming those files to use canonical doctypes (report, bylaws, or filing as appropriate). Descriptive intent that used to live in the doctype code now lives in the slug portion of the filename.
• 1.0.0 (2026-05-17): Initial taxonomy.