![]() He said, 'That's good enough for me.'" When Miller realized that Flood understood the odds against him and was still determined to go ahead with the case, he told him, "You're a union-leader's dream."Īll these moments are captured in the remarkable new HBO documentary, The Curious Case of Curt Flood, which premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. More important than that, I told him even if he won, he'd never get anything out of it-he'd never get a job in baseball again."įlood asked Miller if it would benefit other players. "I told him," recalls Miller, "that given the courts' history of bias towards the owners and their monopoly, he didn't have a chance in hell of winning. When Flood came to Miller, his mind was already made up. It was as if, as Miller once put it, "the courts were saying 'Yes, you're an American and have the right to seek employment anywhere you like, but this right does not apply to baseball players." ![]() The reserve clause, the antitrust exemption, and the legal decisions that had accumulated around it all had an aura of irrationality about them. Two players before Flood had challenged the reserve clause only to run up against baseball's exemption from antitrust laws, first established in 1921 in a decision by Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. It merely said that if you played for a team, you must play for that team the next season as well. Oddly enough, the language of the reserve clause was ambiguous. Unless the team chose to trade him or release him, his first big-league team would be his only big-league team for his entire career. Simply put, a player was a team's property. In 1969, players were still bound to a team for life by the so-called reserve clause. And though he was aware that it would cost him dearly, he never wavered. Those waves reverberate even to this day. The decision sent shock waves not only through baseball but ultimately through all professional sports. Not only did Flood refuse to go, but he went to his personal lawyer and then to Marvin Miller, founder and executive director of the Players Association, and told them he wanted to sue Major League Baseball. But this trade was turned out to be different from all other trades before or since: This time, one of the two principal stars-most baseball writers regarded it mainly as a swap of Flood for Allen-refused to go. But it's what Curt Flood didn't do in 1969 that helped change the game forever: He did not accept a trade.Īt the end of the 1969 season, the Cardinals traded him, along with Tim McCarver, Byron Browne, and Joe Hoerner, to the Phillies for Dick Allen, Jerry Johnson, and Cookie Rojas. He was on three pennant-winning teams with the Cardinals and earned two World Series rings. Louis Cardinals, won Gold Glove seven consecutive seasons, from 1963-1969. 293, was a three-time All-Star, and, playing centerfield for the St. (He took the 1970 season off, which is something I'll discuss in a moment.) He batted. ![]() Not that Flood suffers from such an examination. ![]() Who Curtis Charles Flood was and precisely his significance in baseball history is something that can't be understood just by looking at the record book. 2015 "Simmons, George Kissell, Curt Flood and Bob Forsch were all inducted into the Cardinals' Hall of Fame on Saturday.If Curt Flood had not existed, not even Marvin Miller could have invented him.2016 "Marvin Miller did that, Curt Flood, from on up.".2017 "There's likely no one in Cardinals history with a legacy more complex than Curt Flood, who sacrificed his standout career for a greater good from which he never personally benefited.".2019 "They are not working through the courts as the likes of Curt Flood and Oscar Robertson did several decades ago, but through their newfound ability to engage directly with the fans, who are almost always going to take their side over that of a coach or a faceless executive.".2020 "Members of Congress are asking baseball's Hall of Fame to elect Curt Flood.".2021 "Curt Flood took a stand against baseball’s entrenched powers.".2022 "I don’t actually need to sleuth the date of this game, because it’s right in this tweet, which is where I found the photo:Ĭurt Flood makes a leaping catch into the Ivy at Wrigley Field, September 18, 1962.".2023 "1971 - Curt Flood leaves the Washington Senators after 13 games and departs for Denmark, ending his playing career.". ![]()
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