![]() Five decades on, the document still offers hints of strength, vulnerability and courage. They stand as the opening skirmish of a battle that led to free agency and changed professional sports. They hold significance within the context of the nation’s civil rights movement. “After twelve years in the Major Leagues,” the opening line reads, “I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.”įlood’s words have since been analyzed and anthologized by scholars. The first step had to be a public declaration of his freedom. Instead, he resolved to challenge the injustice in court, despite knowing that his odds of victory were slim and that the fight would cost him his career. But because baseball’s longstanding reserve clause gave teams total control of its players, Flood’s only recourse would have been to quit. Flood had been traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies. Curt Flood sent the letter 50 years ago today, on Christmas Eve, to baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn. These battles over free agency are still relevant today-what Flood stood for has fortified college athletes who are now. However, unrestricted free agency didn’t come to the NFL until 1992. ![]() In 1970-the same year that Flood filed suit against MLB-the NBA legend Oscar Robertson sued the NBA to revoke its reserve clause.Īfter six years, the NBA finally agreed to a settlement that brought free agency to pro basketball. ![]() Both the NBA and the NFL had their own versions of reserve clauses. Three years later, the MLB adopted free agency. And in his now-famous letter to Kuhn, Flood said that being traded violated his “basic rights as a citizen” and was “inconsistent with the laws of the United States.” Kuhn denied Flood’s request not to be traded, and Flood responded by suing the league, claiming that the sport’s reserve clause-which meant that a team controlled a player’s rights in perpetuity-violated antitrust laws and enforced involuntary servitude.Īlthough Flood lost his case in the Supreme Court in 1972, his decision to challenge Major League Baseball changed the sport, and created a wave of momentum for professional athletes to control their career. “A well-paid slave is nonetheless a slave,” Flood told Cosell. In a January 1970 interview, the sports broadcaster Howard Cosell asked Flood how he could compare his rift with professional baseball to slavery when he was making $90,000 a year. It also became the foundation on which generational wealth for Black athletes was built.įlood’s reasoning was logical: He was extraordinarily good at his job, and he deserved to have a say in his career. His fight for worth and choice was hugely controversial at the time. Flood, however, was unwilling to accept financial success in exchange for his silence. All that was needed to tame a revolution was to give enslaved people just enough occasional privileges. He was creating an important narrative: If Black athletes were distracted by sports, then fighting for equal treatment, liberation from bondage, dignity, and respect would become less of a priority. Douglass was keenly aware that if enslaved people were rewarded with “holidays” to play ball, wrestle, and run, they would be discouraged from rebelling against their inhumane conditions. Frederick Douglass wrote in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, that enslavers often used sports to manipulate enslaved people. Flood wasted no time in registering his objection with MLB’s commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, writing, “I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.”Īs uncomfortable as Flood’s allusion to slavery may have made some people feel, the comparison was apt. ![]() Louis Cardinals, balked when he learned that he’d been traded to Philly. So it was no wonder that Curt Flood, a superstar center fielder for the St. The team’s fan base also had a reputation for being hostile and racist. The year was 1969, and not only were the Phillies next-level terrible, but they had signed their first African American player only 12 years ago, in 1957. One of the most consequential episodes in the history of American sports began with an All-Star Major Leaguer’s simple wish to avoid the Philadelphia Phillies.
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