Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports
In some ways, reading this was penance for reading the Jose Canseco book. I meant to start the baseball season with a good baseball book, you know something substantial. But I was stuck reading Vindicated instead. A Well-Paid Slave, of course, is a much better selection. In here, Snyder does a great job of explaining the battle over baseball's reserve clause.
Admittedly, it's not your typical baseball book. Let's just say that I don't usually come across quite so many Supreme Court Justices in my normal baseball reading. This one is chock full of them. Thurgood Marshall, Whizzer White, Arthur Goldberg, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and all your favorite justices are here.
The other reason I read this is that I didn't know much about Curt Flood, and for that I felt a little ashamed. While Flood ended up losing his case at the Supreme Court, his challenge to baseball's reserve clause led to the creation of free agency in the 1970s. In terms of impact on the game, he is one of the most important players of all time, and yet most fans probably don't know who he even is. His attempt to fight for free agency led him to give up over $100,000 of salary, lose several years of his career, and flee the country in despair.
While Flood deserves his status as a hero, it's painful to read about him. Sadly, the case practically ruined him. Mostly destitute after losing the case and blackballed from baseball, he ended up living in an alcoholic stupor for the next fifteen years. Finally, in the late 1980s, he was able to give up drinking. By then, also, more players began to recognize his sacrifices. Thankfully, he seemed to enjoy the last ten years of his life, but it's amazing he made it there.
Brad Snyder is a lawyer by trade, so there are long discussions about Supreme Court precedents, which at times were over my head. Still, the story is fascinating. The strangest part is to see how judges handled a trial about baseball. Justice Harry Blackmun, a fanatical baseball fan, wrote the majority opinion in favor of Major League Baseball. The opinion started with a "27-page ode to baseball history," including the entire text of the poem "Casey at the Bat" and a list of Blackmun's 79 favorite baseball players.
Here was a man who could clearly have used a blog in 1971. Having no outlet for his opinions on baseball, Blackmun was forced to include them in a Supreme Court opinion. The next year, he wrote the opinion for Roe v. Wade, which to the best of my knowledge does not include a list of Blackmun's favorite abortionists. I
t's tough to be a baseball fan and a judge deciding baseball's fate. Consider this exchange between the original judge of the case, Irving Cooper, and baseball star Joe Garagiola who was testifying as a witness for Major League Baseball:
In some ways, reading this was penance for reading the Jose Canseco book. I meant to start the baseball season with a good baseball book, you know something substantial. But I was stuck reading Vindicated instead. A Well-Paid Slave, of course, is a much better selection. In here, Snyder does a great job of explaining the battle over baseball's reserve clause.
Admittedly, it's not your typical baseball book. Let's just say that I don't usually come across quite so many Supreme Court Justices in my normal baseball reading. This one is chock full of them. Thurgood Marshall, Whizzer White, Arthur Goldberg, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and all your favorite justices are here.
The other reason I read this is that I didn't know much about Curt Flood, and for that I felt a little ashamed. While Flood ended up losing his case at the Supreme Court, his challenge to baseball's reserve clause led to the creation of free agency in the 1970s. In terms of impact on the game, he is one of the most important players of all time, and yet most fans probably don't know who he even is. His attempt to fight for free agency led him to give up over $100,000 of salary, lose several years of his career, and flee the country in despair.
While Flood deserves his status as a hero, it's painful to read about him. Sadly, the case practically ruined him. Mostly destitute after losing the case and blackballed from baseball, he ended up living in an alcoholic stupor for the next fifteen years. Finally, in the late 1980s, he was able to give up drinking. By then, also, more players began to recognize his sacrifices. Thankfully, he seemed to enjoy the last ten years of his life, but it's amazing he made it there.
Brad Snyder is a lawyer by trade, so there are long discussions about Supreme Court precedents, which at times were over my head. Still, the story is fascinating. The strangest part is to see how judges handled a trial about baseball. Justice Harry Blackmun, a fanatical baseball fan, wrote the majority opinion in favor of Major League Baseball. The opinion started with a "27-page ode to baseball history," including the entire text of the poem "Casey at the Bat" and a list of Blackmun's 79 favorite baseball players.
Here was a man who could clearly have used a blog in 1971. Having no outlet for his opinions on baseball, Blackmun was forced to include them in a Supreme Court opinion. The next year, he wrote the opinion for Roe v. Wade, which to the best of my knowledge does not include a list of Blackmun's favorite abortionists. I
t's tough to be a baseball fan and a judge deciding baseball's fate. Consider this exchange between the original judge of the case, Irving Cooper, and baseball star Joe Garagiola who was testifying as a witness for Major League Baseball:
"Do you always have a smile like that?" Cooper asked.Mind you, this conversation actually took place on the witness stand. So much for impartiality. Apparently, back then if you were a star baseball player, you could use your bar pick-up lines on judges too. Who knew?
"Yes, always," [Garagiola said.]
"That is a blessing."
Garagiola returned the compliment: "I wish you were on a bubble gum card, Judge. I'd have you."
Leave a comment