Curt Flood’s sacrifice still to be celebrated

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s rejection of Curt Flood’s lawsuit seeking to free MLB players from the reserve clause.

Both dates are problematic in their own way. ‘Juneteenth’ celebrates the end of long overdue exploitation. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived and announced to more than a quarter of a million illegally enslaved blacks in places like Galveston Bay, Texas, that they had been free for the past two years. Juneteenth is the celebration of an overdue freedom.

Flood’s loss at the Supreme Court level in 1972 was a stinging rebuke to a courageous player who dared to attack a deeply entrenched system of sports bondage. Under the reserve clause, players were tied to their teams until the clubs decided otherwise. Eventually baseball players finally won their freedom. In 1975, an arbitrator ruled that two white pitchers, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, could negotiate with any team as free agents. While Messersmith and McNally were acclaimed, the hero of free agency was Flood.

I was a Curt Flood fan. After Willie Mays, Flood was my favorite center fielder.

In 1968, Sports Illustrated listed Flood as the best center fielder in baseball. He was a starter for 10 seasons in St. Louis, including the Cardinals’ 1964 and 1967 World Series-winning teams. Flood was a genius-level defensive player and at one point had a 223-game errorless streak.

But Flood’s greatest contribution to the game was challenging the power structure and ‘status quo’ of MLB.

After the 1969 season, Flood was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood refused to accept a trade, but the terms of baseball’s reserve clause required him to play for Philadelphia. The reserve clause said that once a player was drafted, that player became the exclusive property of the team and, therefore, had no ability to negotiate a contract and was not entitled to any negotiating rights. A player could refuse to play, but was then barred from playing for any other team.

Flood, backed by the Major League Baseball Players Association, sued commissioner Bowie Kuhn and MLB, arguing that the reserve clause reduced competition and was therefore a violation of antitrust laws.

Flood’s famous letter to Kuhn in December 1969 was the initial assault on baseball’s stranglehold on the players. He wrote: “After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a property to be bought and sold regardless of my desires. I believe that any system that would produce that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and several states.”

Flood added: “It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I received a contract offer from the Philadelphia club, but I believe I am entitled to consider offers from other clubs before making a decision. Therefore, I request that I make all Major League clubs aware of my feelings on this matter and inform them of my availability for the 1970 season.”

Recently, I reviewed transcripts of a 1991 interview with Flood recorded for a documentary I wrote called The Journey of the African American Athlete. During the hour-long interview, Flood offered a number of revealing insights into this period of his baseball life. I understood why baseball put him on its permanent “non-grata” lists.

He compared MLB under the reserve clause to sharecropping: “The same system they used in the South where the plantation owner owned all the houses you lived in. And you worked for him and shopped at his store and so you could never get out of that vicious cycle.”

Flood was largely on his own. While the Players Association supported Flood financially, no current major player would openly endorse Flood. Retired baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson testified on Flood’s behalf.

Still, on June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court rejected Flood’s argument.

During that same interview, Flood said he was devastated. He called the decision “a very sharp knife stuck in very tender places in my heart.”

Flood lost the case, but his bold stance encouraged other players to fight back in free agency.

During the interview, Flood said he had mixed feelings about the arbitrator’s ruling. “I was pleased that finally something fell on the side of the baseball player who really gives his body for this profession,” he said. “But I was disappointed because I argued the same issues.”