Thanks for the correction. I forgot about the "national passtime" anti-trust exception dimension. The slave/reserve clause was a bit of a shadow of the old Peculiar Institution itself. I should say Curt Flood "did it" but didn't win his case. Seems appropriate from a symbolic standpoint that Flood was denied the fruits of his political/legal labors.
In Detroit we remember the usually great centerfielder Flood for misplaying Northrup's (or Horton's ?) fly ball into a triple in 9th inning of the 7th game of the '68 World Series which the Tigers won in St. Louis to comeback from a 3 to 1 deficit and Bob Gibson setting strikeout records on us. Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubeck , and most of the national press had sort of already given the series to the Cardinals prematurely.
Charles Brown
>>> "Michael Hoover" <hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us> 07/17/99 10:19AM >>>
Charles said:
> Historically, in the late 1800's there were no owners of baseball teams.
It was a free association of players ("producers"). Then the sport was
captured by owners who introduced the "Reserve Clause" by which players
were "slaves" who could be traded. They could not sell their talents on a
free market to the highest bidder.
Appropriately, it was only after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier,
that a Black player, Curt Flood, challenged the "Reserve/slavery "clause,
and won, though he never benefitted financially himself. Today's many, many
double digit millionaires in all sports are the beneficiaries of Flood's
abolition of the Reserve clause.
> Charles Brown
actually, Flood (a .293 lifetime hitter with 3 all-star appearances, 7 Golden Glove awards, 2 series championships, and potential hall of famer with the St. Louis Cardinals) lost his case in the Supreme Court. ..Harry Blackmun's 1972 majority opinion relied upon 'stare decisis' (three previous legal challenges to the reserved clause - 1922/1946/1953 - had been rejected) and the 'integrity of the game' (mythological baseball bullshit)...but HB, in noting baseball's unique anti-trust exception, urged congress to eliminate it and, in effect, opened the door to future reversal of his own opinion...
in 1975, a labor arbitrator ruled in favor of Andy Messersmith & Dave McNally (Baltimore Orioles pitchers) and in 1976 Minnesota Twins pitcher Bill Campbell became the first player to negotiate a post- reserve clause contract when he signed with the Boston Red Sox... probably not a coincidence that AM, DM & BC were white (nor is it likely a coincidence that the social and political movements of the 1960s and early 1970s that Curt Flood flood cites in his book _The Way It Is_ as being important influences on him were on the wane)...I don't recall any of the three thanking Curt Flood for his martyrdom..
Flood's suit stemmed from his opposition to being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1970 *and* to his previously being told that a white player on the Cardinals had received a larger raise than he did because it 'costs more for whites to live in America'... he sat out the 1970 season after filing his suit and returned for a few games in 1971 as a Washington Senator before leaving the game for good (except for a brief stint as a radio announcer for the Oakland A's in the late 1970s)... Michael Hoover