![]() But Flood’s appeal and fight quickly went all the way to the U.S. He also suffered personal and financial hardships along the way that reportedly led to his alcoholism and the splitting of his family.įlood and the players union had banded together to file a lawsuit against major league baseball that was first dismissed. ![]() (Oakland Tribune file photo)įlood’s battle against baseball’s reserve clause, which tied a player to the team drafting him throughout his career unless a team decided to trade or release him, essentially cost him his baseball career. “In my own thinking, the Hall of Fame is slowly coming to terms with their own revisionist history,” said Flood’s son, who hopes that his father’s visibility will increase in the coming months.Curt Flood, in 1971, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his suit against professional baseball. With Miller’s induction into the Hall coming in July, the baseball-labor spotlight may turn to Flood next. The anniversary of Flood’s letter combined with Cole’s reference may well lead to momentum building for Flood’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame via a committee vote in another year. He died of throat cancer in 1997 just two days after his 59th birthday. “A well-paid slave is nonetheless a slave,” Flood said.īy the time the Supreme Court ruled against Flood, he was in Majorca, Spain, where he fled after an April 1971 game for the Washington Senators, the only team he played for after writing the letter after his 1969 season with the Cardinals.įlood’s personal life was in rough shape: Behind in child support and battling alcoholism, he returned to the US in 1975. Broadcaster Howard Cosell asked him about the incongruity of complaining about a trade to Philadelphia when he was making a then-comfortable $90,000 a year. “And ‘Are you doing this because you’re militant?’ and he said ‘No, I’m doing this because it’s what we should do, it’s the right way, it’s against the law, we should not be suffering this way, being bought and sold like we’re property.’ ”įlood faced scrutiny from the media as well. ![]() “They did ask him some tough questions, like ‘Are you just doing this to maybe position yourself for more money from Philadelphia?’ He said ‘No,’ ” said Judy Flood. “Curt was brilliant, brilliant on the field and brilliant academically.”įlood faced scrutiny from his peers, she said. “I’m always amazed that the question is still asked - it should be answered by now. The letter was not a product of lawyering or tweaking, Judy Flood said. “Whether it was the establishment of our organization formally in ’66 with Marvin, or when Muhammad Ali took the position he did in not going to war in ’67 or John Carlos in the Olympics taking the position he did on the stand like he did or this letter being written in ’69 and the subsequent arbitration in ’70 - all those confluence of events leading to Messersmith and McNally in ’74-75, I view that letter as an important steppingstone and foundation piece in our organization and our industry’s history,” said MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. Flood had already written the letter, said his widow, and was seeking support from the union for his cause. Judy Flood traveled with Curt Flood to San Juan in early December 1969 for the annual players’ association meeting. “How he went about showing respect was just magnificent, it really was,” said Judy Flood. “Just super pleased.”įlood’s widow, Judy Flood, was equally thrilled. “When I heard that from Gerrit, I was blown away,” said Flood’s son, Curt Jr. That Cole brought up Flood’s name pleased Flood’s family. Just one week before the anniversary of Flood’s letter, the newest Yankee, Gerrit Cole, gave a shoutout to both Miller and Flood for their efforts allowing contracts like Cole’s (nine years, $324 million) and other elite baseball players to be realized. The impact of free agency on the economics of baseball, as well as in the other professional leagues in the US, can hardly be overstated, and it can be traced to a letter written at a critical juncture in US history. The clause allowed owners to retain exclusive rights to a player, with the player unable to have any say in which team he played for throughout the course of his career.įlood’s appeal paved the way for collective bargaining progress made by the Major League Baseball Players Association, headed by Marvin Miller, culminating in the 1975 arbitration ruling that granted free agency to pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally. But each court decision chipped away at the reserve clause baseball’s owners were clinging to.
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