#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE FULL#
#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE TRIAL#
#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE SERIES#

District Judge Irving Ben Cooper wrote on Aug. “Since baseball remains exempt from the antitrust laws unless and until the Supreme Court or Congress holds to the contrary, we have no basis for proceeding to the underlying question of whether baseball’s reserve system would or would not be deemed reasonable if it were in fact subject to antitrust regulation,” U.S.

#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE TRIAL#

The trial lasted from May 19 through June 10 and witnesses included Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg. 16 in federal court in Manhattan, claiming antitrust violations and involuntary servitude, among other allegations. “However, I cannot see its applicability to the situation at hand.”įlood sued on Jan. That is fundamental in our society and I think obvious,” he wrote. “I certainly agree with you that you, as a human being, are not a piece of property to be bought and sold. I think it’s absolutely terrible that we have stood by and watched this situation go on for so many years and never pulled together to do anything about it.”įlood sent his letter to Kuhn on Dec. “I think the change in black consciousness in recent years has made me more sensitive to injustice in every area of my life,” Miller quoted Flood as saying in the union leader’s 1991 book, a “Whole Different Ball Game.” “But I want you to know that what I’m doing here I’m doing as a ballplayer. Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Tom Haller asked Flood whether race was a factor in his decision. 13 at the Sheraton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it voted 25-0 to give Flood the union’s support and pay his legal expenses, a group that included future Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente, Reggie Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Joe Torre and Jim Bunning. The union retained former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg to represent Flood.

#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE FULL#

Louis where I can devote full time to my business interests.”įlood conferred with his lawyer, Allan Zerman, and met with Miller and union general counsel Dick Moss the following month for four hours over lunch at the Summit Hotel in New York and discussed plans for a lawsuit against Kuhn, the AL and NL, both league presidents and the 24 clubs. But under the circumstances I have decided to retire from organized baseball, effective today, and remain in St. Flood issued a statement saying: “If I were younger, I certainly would certainly enjoy playing for Philadelphia. Louis traded the 31-year-old outfielder with Tim McCarver, Joe Hoerner and Byron Browne to Philadelphia for Dick Allen, Jerry Johnson and Cookie Rojas.

#CURT FLOOD MADE FREE AGENCY POSSIBLE SERIES#

He played for the Cardinals’ World Series champions in 1964 and ’67, becoming a three-time All-Star and winner of seven straight Gold Gloves. He signed with Cincinnati for $4,000, appeared in just eight games for the Reds over the 1956 and ’57 seasons and was traded to St. Since 1947, paragraph 10 (a) of every Uniform Player’s Contract stated the club could renew the existing contract “for the period of one year on the same terms.” Teams claimed the renewed contract also could be renewed under that provision.įlood was a teammate of future major league stars Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, California.

The National League adopted a reserve clause binding a player to his team in December 1879. “Challenging the reserve clause was essential to the blossoming sport we have today,” Cole said, later adding: “I just think it’s so important that players know the other sacrifices that players made in order to keep the integrity of the game where it is, and so I hope everybody has that conversation about Curt Flood on the bus.” When Gerrit Cole signed his $324 million, nine-year contract with the New York Yankees last week, the pitcher paid tribute to Flood and to Marvin Miller, the transformative union head finally elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Dec. “I think that’s what they were waiting for.”īaseball’s average major league salary has risen from just under $25,000 at the time of Flood’s letter to just over $4 million this year, an escalation testament to the power of free agency. The Supreme Court decided not to give it to me, so they gave it to two white guys,” Flood once said. “All the groundwork was laid for the people who came after me.

Curt flood made free agency possible