Curt Flood

Curtis Charles Flood (January 18 1938 – January 20 1997) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played almost his entire career for the St. Louis Cardinals. A defensive standout, he led the National League in putouts four times and in fielding percentage twice, winning Gold Glove Awards in his last seven full seasons from 1963-1969. He also batted .300 six times, and led the NL in hits (211) in 1964. He retired with the third most games in center field (1683) in NL history, trailing only Willie Mays and Richie Ashburn. He became one of the pivotal figures in the sport's labor history when he refused to accept a trade following the 1969 season, ultimately appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it paved the way for the modern era of free agency.

Playing career

Born in Houston, Texas, Flood signed with the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1956, and made a handful of appearances for the team in 1956-57 before being traded to the Cardinals in December 1957. For the next twelve seasons he became a fixture in center field for St. Louis; although he struggled at the plate from 1958-60, his defensive skill was apparent. He had his breakthrough year after Johnny Keane took over as manager in 1961, batting .322, and followed by hitting .296 in 1962 with 12 home runs. He continued to improve offensively in 1963, hitting .302 and scoring a career-high 112 runs, third most in the NL; he also had career bests in doubles (34), triples (9) and stolen bases (17), and collected 200 hits in an NL-leading 662 at bats. In that year he received the first of his seven consecutive Gold Gloves.

He earned his first All-Star selection in 1964 while leading the NL in hits and batting .311. His 679 at bats led the NL again and were the fifth highest total in league history to that point, setting a team record by surpassing Taylor Douthit's 1930 total of 664; Lou Brock broke the team record three years later with 689. Batting leadoff in the 1964 World Series against the New York Yankees, he hit only .200 but scored in three of the Cardinal victories as the team won in seven games for its first championship since 1946. In 1965 Flood had his greatest power output, with 11 home runs and 83 runs batted in while hitting .310. He made the All-Star team again in 1966, a season in which he did not commit an error in the outfield; his record errorless streaks of 226 games (NL record) and 568 total chances (major league record) ran from September 3, 1965 to June 4, 1967.

In 1967 he had his highest batting mark with a .335 average, though his other batting totals fell off from previous years, in helping the Cardinals to another championship. In the 1967 World Series against the Boston Red Sox he hit a woeful .179, but made some crucial contributions. In Game 1, he advanced Brock to third base twice, putting him in position to score both runs in a 2-1 victory; in Game 3, he drove in Brock with the first run of a 5-2 win. As team co-captain (with Tim McCarver) in 1968 he had perhaps his best year, earning his third All-Star selection and finishing fourth in the MVP balloting (won by teammate Bob Gibson) on the strength of a .301 batting average and 186 base hits. Ironically, had he not notably misjudged a Jim Northrup fly ball (ruled a triple) with two out in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Cardinals might have won their third championship of the decade; Detroit scored twice on the play, with Northrup later coming in for a 3-0 lead, and won the game 4-1. Up to that point Flood had been having his best Series, hitting .286 with three steals.

In 1969 Flood's batting average slipped to .285, even as averages throughout the league were rising due to the lowering of the pitching mound. He publicly criticized management late in the season for reorganizing the team before the Cardinals were officially eliminated, and received his seventh Gold Glove just as other events in his career began to affect the entire sport.

Challenge of the reserve clause

Despite his outstanding playing career, Flood's principal legacy developed off the field. He believed that Major League Baseball's decades-old reserve clause was unfair in that it kept players beholden to the team with whom they originally signed for life, even when they had satisfied the terms and conditions of those contracts.

On October 7, 1969, the Cardinals traded Flood, catcher Tim McCarver, outfielder Byron Browne, and left-handed pitcher Joe Hoerner to the Philadelphia Phillies for first baseman Dick Allen, second baseman Cookie Rojas, and right-handed pitcher Jerry Johnson. However, Flood refused to report to the moribund Phillies, citing the team's poor record and the fact that they played in dilapidated Connie Mack Stadium before belligerent – and, Flood believed, racist – fans; he was also irritated that he had learned of the trade from a reporter. He forfeited a relatively lucrative States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*100,000 contract by his refusal to be traded, and consulted with players' union head Marvin Miller. He also met with Phillies general manager John Quinn, who left the meeting with the belief that he had convinced Flood to report to the team. But after being advised that the union was prepared to pay the costs of the lawsuit, he chose to proceed.

In a letter to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Flood demanded that the commissioner declare him a free agent:

December 24, 1969

After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.

It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decision. I, therefore, request that you make known to all Major League clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season.

Flood v. Kuhn

Commissioner Kuhn denied his request, citing the propriety of the reserve clause and its inclusion in Flood's 1969 contract. In response, Flood filed a $4.1 million lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball on January 16, 1970, alleging that Major League Baseball had violated federal antitrust laws. Even though Flood was making $90,000 at the time, he likened the reserve clause to slavery; it was a controversial analogy, even among those who opposed the reserve clause. Among those testifying on his behalf were former players Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg, and former owner Bill Veeck; but no active players testified, nor did any attend the trial. Although the player representatives had voted unanimously to support the suit, rank-and-file players were strongly divided, with many fervently supporting the management position.

The case, Flood v. Kuhn (407 U.S. 258), eventually went to the Supreme Court. Flood's attorney, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, asserted that the reserve clause depressed wages and limited players to one team for life. Major League Baseball's counsel countered that Commissioner Kuhn acted in the way he did "for the good of the game."

Ultimately, the Supreme Court, acting on stare decisis "to stand by things decided", ruled 5-3 in favor of Major League Baseball, upholding a 1922 ruling in the case of Federal Baseball Club v. National League (259 U.S. 200). Justice Lewis Powell did not participate in the case due to his ownership of stock in Anheuser-Busch, which owned the Cardinals.

Aftermath and post-baseball life

Flood sat out the entire 1970 season. Eventually, the Cardinals were forced to give up two minor leaguers to the Phillies in compensation for Flood's refusal to report, one of whom – center fielder Willie Montañez – went on to have a 14-year career. Meanwhile, in November 1970 Flood was sent by the Phillies to the Washington Senators in a five-player trade, and signed a $110,000 contract with Washington. He ended his career with 13 games for the Senators in 1971 in which he batted only .200 and had lackluster play in center field. Former teammate Gibson later wrote that Flood once returned to his locker to find a funeral wreath on it. Despite manager Ted Williams' vote of confidence, Flood retired. He had a lifetime batting average of .293 with 1861 hits, 85 home runs, 851 runs and 636 RBI. Lou Brock called him a primary reason for his great success during the prime of his career.

Later that year, Flood wrote an autobiography entitled The Way It Is (ISBN 0671270761). He also indulged in his love of painting. Ironically, even though he lost the lawsuit, the reserve clause was struck down in 1975 when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that since pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally played for one season without a contract, they could become free agents. This decision essentially dismantled the reserve clause and opened the door to widespread free agency.

Shortly after his retirement, Flood owned a bar in the Spanish resort town of Palma de Mallorca; he eventually returned to baseball as part of the Oakland Athletics' broadcasting team in 1978. He was also the commissioner of the short-lived Senior Baseball League in 1988.

For years a heavy drinker and smoker, Flood stopped drinking in 1978 but kept his cigarette habit. He died of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California at age 59. His legacy was remembered in Congress via a bill, the Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1997 numbered HR 21 (Flood's Cardinals uniform number) and introduced on the first day of the 105th Congress in 1997 by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), it would remove baseball's controversial antitrust exemption. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced similar legislation in the Senate that year, called the Curt Flood Act of 1997 (SB 53) [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp105&sid=cp105PVhRP&refer=&r_n=sr118.105&item=&sel=TOC_17515&.

External links

References