Why Curt Flood is as important in baseball history as Jackie Robinson

Curt Flood did not play baseball in 1970, Major League Baseball's 101st year. The lesson Mr. Flood taught the game-treat all workers fairly-should be called baseball 101. Here is what happened and why we at The JUGS Newsletter rate Curt Flood as vital to baseball as the great Jackie Robinson. The following is taken from a magnificent book, A Hard Road to Glory, by Arthur Ashe, Jr...

The Curt Flood Supreme Court Case

In 1969, major-league baseball decided to celebrate its centennial with a gala dinner held on July 21st, in the nation's capital. Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays were named as the first- and second- greatest living players, yet all was not well with the country's number one sport. Earlier that Spring, the Major League Players Association had staged a boycott over disagreements concerning its pension fund, but that was mild compared to what was eventually set in motion on October 8th of the same year.

It was on that October day that Curt Flood, an outfielder with the St. Louis Cardinals, was told he was being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood felt that, after fourteen years of solid service with the same team, he deserved better. Perhaps it was the memory of the unequal treatment of black players in 1959, when he began with the Cincinnati Reds. Perhaps it was the black social revolution in the mid-1960s and the assassinations of prominent black leaders. More than likely, it was all of that plus every white and black player's hatred of baseball's reserve clause, which bound them for life to the first club that signed them.

Flood decided to fight the trade, on the grounds that the reserve clause violated Federal antitrust laws. On December 13, 1969, the Players Association voted 25-0 to support his suit against major-league baseball.

Flood had wide popular support among the players, though many kept their support quiet lest they endanger their own careers. However, the feisty Richie Allen stated: "Curt Flood's doing a marvelous thing for baseball and many people don't know it. I don't have the intelligence to do what he's doing, but my hat's off to him." Additionally, Jackie Robinson was fully and publicly supportive. He commented, "I think Curt is doing a service to all baseball players in the major leagues... all he is asking for is the right to negotiate."

Flood himself felt the pressure early on. "Many people didn't understand. I got nasty letters. They thought I was trying to destroy baseball." Flood was a proven talent, said his teammate Bob Gibson: "He has so much talent he frightens you."

On March 4, 1970, District Court Judge Ben Cooper denied Flood's request for an injunction and recommended a trial for hearing the case. This denial meant that Flood would indeed not play during the 1970 season. In that year, the average major leaguer's salary was $29,303.

Eight months later, on April 8, 1971, a three-judge United States Appeals Court appealed again, this time to the nation's highest court, which, on October 20, agreed to hear the case. Meanwhile, in 1971, Flood was playing his last major-league season with the Washington Senators.

The following year, on March 21, the Supreme Court began hearing Flood's case.

Finally, on June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-3 decision that baseball could retain its unique status as the only professional sport exempted from federal antitrust legislation. But the Court urged Congress to resolve the issue.

Congress never resolved the issue. The courts did, when Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith were given total free-agent status. It was Curt who paved the way.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A Hard Road to Glory is a three- volume work. It is the best history of Black Athletics in the USA, and it is also a legacy of monumental significance, left to us by tennis great Arthur Ashe. Please call Just Books for your own copies of A Hard Road to Glory. Just Books' toll-free number is: 1-800-874-4568.