Fangraphs: The Unionization of Baseball

[weams]

http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-unionization-of-baseball/

Marvin Miller advised Curt Flood not to sue. It would end his career, he told him. Even if he won, the court would never award damages. Flood had nothing to gain by taking baseball to court.

"But if we win," Flood replied, "it would help my teammates, wouldn't it? And it would help all the players in both leagues? It would help all of the players coming up in the future?" That, as Miller would later say, was Curt Flood.

[OFFNY]

o

Curt Flood was born on this day in 1938.

Although Flood lost his bid for free agency on a 5-4 vote in the Supreme Court, his case was the catalyst that helped solidify the Player's Union, which subsequently paved the way for Catfish Hunter to be declared a free agent following the 1974 season, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally in their successful bids to become free agents following the 1975 season, and the plethora of free agents that all signed with new teams following the 1976 season.

[mrpennybags]

That Flood quote gets me misty-eyed. If you put it in a movie, the critics would call it sappy and unrealistic.

[OFFNY]

That Flood quote gets me misty-eyed. If you put it in a movie, the critics would call it sappy and unrealistic.

Here is another poignant Curt Flood quote.

After he refused to report to the Philadelphia Phillies and began the proceedings of filing for free agency, a reporter asked him how a person who made $90,000 a year (almost $600,000 in today's market) could refer to himself as a slave.

Flood's response ...... "A well-paid slave is still a slave."

In fact, that is the title of his biography.