That began to change when the MLBPA hired Marvin Miller, who’d been the steelworkers union’s chief economist and negotiator, as its first full-time director in 1966. Players had no rights to determine the conditions of their employment. His teammates selected him as their co-captain each year between 19.ĭuring most of Flood’s career, the MLBPA was a toothless tiger.
CURT FLOOD FREE POSSIBLE OTHER SERIES
Louis Cardinals’ three National League pennants and two World Series victories in 19. He played in three All-Star games and was a catalyst for the St. He won the Gold Glove Award, as the best defensive outfielder, seven years in a row. During his Major League career, which lasted from 1956 to 1969, Flood batted. In many cities, Black players couldn’t stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as their teammates.įlood used his anger at that bigotry to fuel his performance on the field. During his playing days in the minors and majors, Flood, like other Black ballplayers, faced racist taunts from fans and ostracism from some teammates. He told the crowd of 3,800 that he felt a personal responsibility to fight racial injustice. In February 1962, at Robinson’s invitation, the 24-year-old Flood traveled to Jackson, Miss., to speak at a rally organized by NAACP leader Medgar Evers. For Curt, players’ rights and civil rights were part of the same idea.” He was particularly interested in the fact that SAG members had their own agents and lawyers, could negotiate with film studios over salaries, and could move to different studios-all things prohibited in Major League Baseball at the time.įlood, whose first season in the majors was a year after the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, “was one of the first ballplayers to get involved with the civil rights movement,” said Pace Flood. “On our first date, over dinner in 1964, he quizzed me about the Screen Actors Guild,” recalled his widow, Judy Pace Flood, who was a well-known actress during the ’60s and ’70s.
CURT FLOOD FREE POSSIBLE OTHER PROFESSIONAL
Every professional athlete owes Flood a debt of gratitude, but the billionaires who run Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame aren’t fans of Flood, whose outlook and activism were shaped by both the labor and civil rights movements.Įven before the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) had any influence, Flood was an eager trade unionist. An outstanding hitter and outfielder during the 1950s and ’60s, he sacrificed his career to challenge the control of baseball’s corporate plutocracy over players’ lives and livelihoods. A Well-Paid Slave provides the first in-depth look at Flood's lawsuit and its impact on both professional sports and the man who had the courage to see it through to the highest court in the land.Curt Flood belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Unlike countless others before him, Flood refused to have his life uprooted against his wishes and was willing to sacrifice his baseball career so that no future player would have to endure a similar indignity. Louis, which he stood to lose by moving to Philadelphia. He also had established a photography and portrait-painting business in St. After twelve years with the Cardinals, Flood's roots had grown deep into the St. Artistic, well read, fiercely intelligent, and politically active, Flood was strongly influenced by the example of Jackie Robinson, who personally recruited Flood in to the civil rights movement. Curt Flood chose door number three: He sued Major League Baseball for his professional freedom. When a player was traded, he had two choices: Report to his new team or retire. More important, players had no control over where or for whom they played. As a result, players could not receive fair market value for their services.
Baseball players were bound to their teams for life by a paragraph in the standard player contract known as the reserve clause. at the time, there was no such thing as free agency. Louis Cardinals traded their star center fielder Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies, setting off a chain of events that would change professional sports forever. Summary: "After the 1969 baseball season, the St.
0 kommentar(er)
