Lauren Goodman
December 5, 2013
Mr.Harvey
Curt Flood and the MLB
An excellent centerfielder on three pennant-winning St. Louis teams in the 1960s, Curt Flood hit better than .300 six times and won seven Gold Gloves in his 12 seasons with the Cardinals. A productive leadoff and number 2 batter who had at least 200 hits twice, his lifetime batting average was .293. Flood was born on Jan. 18, 1938 in Houston, the youngest of six children of hardworking but poor parents. The family moved to California when Flood was two. By seven, he could outrun other kids in his West Oakland ghetto neighborhood. By nine, he was the catcher for the junior’s Sweet Shop team in a local midget league. Nothing could of stop him from that point forward from pursuing his dreams as a professional baseball player.
But his baseball legacy is fated to have little connection with his accomplishments on the field. Flood is best remembered for his courage in challenging the reserve clause, a move as crucial to the economic rights of players as all famous Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier. He felt that the reserve clause was not unlike slavery. Before free agency existed, sports franchises generally held complete control over individual players. Their contracts contained reserve clauses, which specifically bound them to one team. Players who grew unhappy with their team had little leverage; sometimes they might be released from a contract, but their only real hope was that they might be traded to another team. | |
In 1969, the Cardinals sent Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a seven-player trade. Flood had several problems with the deal. He didn't appreciate hearing about it from a front-office underling. He didn't like Philadelphia, a losing team in a rundown ballpark with hostile fans in a city he regarded as racist. But, most important, he didn't think he should be treated like a commodity. At first, Major League Players Association executive director Marvin Miller tried to dissuade Flood from suing baseball, pointing out that an unsatisfactory ruling would end his career. But Flood believed that, despite his $92,000 salary. On Jan. 16, 1970, he filed his an anti-trust suit, known as Flood v. Kuhn. At the trial, Jackie Robinson, Bill Veeck and Hank Greenberg were among those who testified on Flood's behalf. But not one active player would testify, fearful of being blackballed from the game. Indeed, Arbitrator Peter Seitz would make his ruling in favor of Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally only two years later. Flood would later be recognized as a pioneer and his fight for basic rights honored by many sources.
By not signing a contract during Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally option year, both felt they were free agents, but the owners disagreed, arguing that under the reserve clause the one-year contracts were perpetually renewed. Both players submitted grievances to arbitration in an attempt to fight for the right to control their own destiny. A Seitz issued his ruling that Messersmith and McNally were free agents and could sign with other teams because organized baseball could not maintain a player’s services indefinitely and was fired the following day. A MLB appealed numerous times until all appeals were exhausted. A With no other option other than giving in, MLB signed a new agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1976 allowing players with six years’ experience to become free agents

According to Webster Dictionary a free agent in baseball is “A legal status that allows a professional athlete to negotiate an employment contract with the team of his or her choosing instead of being confined to one team. Athletes may become free agents after they have served a specific amount of time under contract with a team. Free agency allows athletes who are at the peak of their careers to shop themselves out to teams that are willing to pay top dollar and offer the most comprehensive benefits and perks.” In 1975, professional Baseball was the first major sport to adopt a formal free agency policy; football, basketball, and hockey followed. From a team's point of view, free agency can be problematic because it makes it easier to lose star players; those same players also can demand higher salaries. Teams bid for free agents, who usually sign with the highest bidder. In "restricted" free agency, a player While Flood lost his case, and struggled financially and emotionally for years afterwards, his fight is considered one of the seminal events in the players' struggle to abolish the reserve clause and obtain the right to free agency.