“There you are, going through Cooperstown and you start at Abner (Doubleday), and you’re walking through the history,” said Shelly Flood, one of Curt’s five children. But where is Steinbrenner as it relates to Cooperstown without Flood leading the way to break down a key door for him so he could sign people such as Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson and dozens of other top stars in subsequent years? Why’d he do it? Simply because he thought it was right.īut how’s this for a paradox? Only moments after Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died last week, people were declaring him a logical candidate for the Hall of Fame. Everybody is richer today because of Flood - players and owners in all sports - even though he sacrificed his career and his own future financial security by playing only 13 more games after age 31.
#Curt flood free agency pro athletes professional
Within five years of his landmark challenge, in which he sacrificed a career that probably would have been Hall of Fame-caliber simply on baseball merits, the reserve clause was abolished and free agency for professional athletes was born.įlood not only was a pioneer who changed baseball in a major way, he changed the entire landscape of sports. This is the 40th anniversary of the year that Flood, the Oakland Technical High graduate and a longtime Oakland resident, challenged baseball’s reserve clause all the way to the Supreme Court in 1970.įlood lost the battle - barely - but 40 years later he is credited with casting the first important stone against a feudal system of sports ownership that he equated to slavery. That’s particularly noteworthy this year for a lot of reasons. The latest baseball Hall of Fame induction will take place Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y., adding yet another year of injustice to the fact that Curt Flood hasn’t been enshrined.
0 kommentar(er)
