![]() ![]() After leaving baseball, he spent years traveling to Europe, devoting himself to painting and writing, including his autobiography, The Way It Is. And for his protest, he paid a huge financial and emotional price. When he challenged baseball’s feudal system, Flood was only 31 and in his prime. In the majority decision, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that baseball’s exemption from federal antitrust laws-the court’s excuse for not directly addressing Flood’s complaint, based on the notion that the MLB was a game, not a business engaged in interstate commerce-was an “aberration,” and declared that it was up to Congress, not the court, to fix the situation. Over the next few years, the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which, in 1972, ruled against Flood in a 5-3 vote. Kuhn denied Flood’s request, so Flood decided to sue Kuhn and MLB, arguing that the league’s control over players’ employment violated federal antitrust law and workers’ rights. I, therefore, request that you make known to all the major league clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season.” 14 I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decisions. “It is my desire to play baseball in 1970 and I am capable of playing. “I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes,” Flood wrote. Flood said that “a well-paid slave is, nonetheless, a slave.” 10 Related Articles 9Īfter the 1969 season, the Cardinals owners decided to trade Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies, but he didn’t want to move to what he called “the nation’s northernmost Southern city.” The Phillies offered him a $100,000 salary for the 1970 season, a $10,000 boost from his Cardinals salary. When Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan broke into the major leagues in 1966, he spent the winter months working at a gas station. Most players had jobs during the off-season to make ends meet. Each year, the team owners told players, “Take it, or leave it.” Even superstars went hat-in-hand to owners at the end of the season, begging for a raise. The players had no leverage to negotiate better deals. Contracts, which were limited to one season, “reserved” the team’s right to “retain” the player for the next season. 8Įvery MLB player had in his contract what was known as “the reserve clause,” which tethered players to their teams. That year, players also won the right to hire agents to negotiate their contracts. From that point on, disputes would be settled by independent arbitrators rather than the MLB commissioner, who worked for the owners. Then, in 1970, the MLBPA established players’ rights to binding arbitration over salaries and grievances. Two years after Miller took the union’s reins, the MLBPA negotiated the first-ever collective bargaining agreement in professional sports. That began to change when the MLBPA hired Marvin Miller, who’d been the steelworkers union’s chief economist and negotiator, as its first full-time director in 1966. Players had no rights to determine the conditions of their employment. 5ĭuring most of Flood’s career, the MLBPA was a toothless tiger. His teammates selected him as their co-captain each year between 19. Louis Cardinals’ three National League pennants and two World Series victories in 19. He played in three All-Star games and was a catalyst for the St. He won the Gold Glove Award, as the best defensive outfielder, seven years in a row. During his Major League career, which lasted from 1956 to 1969, Flood batted. 4įlood used his anger at that bigotry to fuel his performance on the field. In many cities, Black players couldn’t stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as their teammates. During his playing days in the minors and majors, Flood, like other Black ballplayers, faced racist taunts from fans and ostracism from some teammates. He told the crowd of 3,800 that he felt a personal responsibility to fight racial injustice. In February 1962, at Robinson’s invitation, the 24-year-old Flood traveled to Jackson, Miss., to speak at a rally organized by NAACP leader Medgar Evers. For Curt, players’ rights and civil rights were part of the same idea.” 3 Flood, whose first season in the majors was a year after the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, “was one of the first ballplayers to get involved with the civil rights movement,” said Pace Flood. ![]()
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