![]() And, most likely, it will continue to be in the future. Player movement has been brisk since the mid 1970s. Today, one rarely sees a player play their entire professional sports career with one team. “That’s what it was all about.When Derek Jeter reaches 3,000 hits in May or June of 2011, it will be something we, as a viewing public, might not see again in our lifetime. “I was one of the first to stand up and say, ‘At one point in your life you ought to be able to control your career,’ ” Flood said. But the awareness of the moral issue he raised helped pave the way for the reserve clause to be struck down in 1975.įlood, who died in 1997 of throat cancer, lived to see the fruits of his sacrifice. He eventually retired after playing 13 games with the Senators in 1971.įlood ultimately lost his case. Kuhn worked its way to the Supreme Court. He forfeited his $100,000 salary and was out of baseball in 1970 as Flood v. Just how much of Flood’s personal and professional demise was caused by his lawsuit against baseball or his personal demons is left up to the viewer to decide. He was also a chain smoker, a horrific businessman, an absentee father, a womanizer and an alcoholic. In addition to being a baseball player, he was an artist, a painter and a musician. Though Flood’s lawsuit against baseball is the central theme in the documentary, what is most compelling is the complexity of the man himself. But I was about 10 steps back just in case there was some fallout.” He had the financial backing of the players’ association led by Marvin Miller, but as McCarver says in the film: “Curt realized he was isolated, and I think he felt that isolation.”īob Gibson, Flood’s roommate with the Cardinals, added: “Was I behind Curt? Absolutely. “What I really want out of this thing is to give every ballplayer a chance to be a human being and to take advantage of the fact that we live in a free and democratic society and he should have some choice,” Flood said at the time. When Kuhn denied Flood’s request - citing baseball’s reserve clause, which kept a player bound to his original team even when his contract expired - Flood sued baseball. But in October 1969, he was traded along with catcher Tim McCarver, outfielder Byron Browne and left-hander Joe Hoerner to the Phillies for first baseman Richie Allen, second baseman Cookie Rojas and right-hander Jerry Johnson.įlood, who had played out his contract, refused to report and petitioned commissioner Bowie Kuhn to declare him a free agent. He appeared in three All-Star Games and was part of the Cardinals’ 19 World Series championship teams. ![]() Flood played a part in that.īorn in 1938, he spent 12 years playing center field for the Cardinals, winning seven Gold Glove awards and batting over. Players move from team to team in search of the biggest contract and best situation for themselves and their families. ![]() In baseball they do the same thing.”įree agency is as much a part of baseball today as the World Series. “In slavery they can ship you from one plantation to the other. “In the history of man there’s no other profession except slavery where one man is tied to one owner for the rest of his life,” Flood says in the opening of the documentary, which premieres on July 13. That’s the basic principle over which Flood sued baseball in 1970, an event chronicled in HBO’s new documentary “The Curious Case of Curt Flood.” Still, they share a link considering Flood played a role in Reyes being able to sign a rich free-agent contract this winter.Īs a free agent, the Mets shortstop will be able to choose what city he wants to play in and for what team he wants to play. Perhaps it’s understandable: Reyes is a native of the Dominican Republic and a knowledge of baseball history never has been a prerequisite for playing in the major leagues. Jose Reyes offered a polite “I don’t know who that is” earlier this week when a Post reporter asked him about the legacy of Curt Flood. ![]()
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