"After 12 years in the major leagues I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system that produces that result violates my basic right as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States."

Curt Flood, centerfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, sacrificed his career for his principles to fight a losing battle with no support from his peers. While every modern ballplayer is greatly indebted to him, few know his name or his story.

Curt Flood, an outstanding defensive player who played 226 consecutive errorless games and recieved seven consecutive Gold Gloves, ended his baseball career after the 1969 season at age 32. He had 1,852 hits, and would have reached 3000 with seven more seasons of his average production, and he had a career BA of .293. He could have had a Hall of Fame career. But after the 1969 season concluded, Flood was told that he was being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Along with being one of the worst teams in baseball at the time, the atmosphere of the Phillies was very inhospitable towards African-American baseball players. In addition, the prospect of living in Philadelphia was not one Flood looked forward to.

Curt Flood wrote a greatly moving letter to the commissioner of baseball in December 1969. He told the commissioner that he had been offered a contract by the Philadelphia Phillies, but that he felt it was his right to consider contracts from other teams. Flood asked the commissioner to be let free from the reserve clause-- the clause in every player's contract since the beginning of the century which stated they were bound to the club that they played for, for life, and therefore completely under the control of that team.

But the commisioner said no. He ruled that Flood was the property of the Cardinals' organization. They could do whatever they pleased with him, and if they wanted to send him to the Phillies, Curt Flood had no control over that.

Curt Flood refused to report to the Phillies' spring training camp in 1970. He then sued Major League Baseball for the right to bargain with all teams and choose where he would play. Flood was defeated in district court and state court, and finally he brought his case to the Supreme Court. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 against him, to uphold the reserve clause, and the status of baseball players as property of their owners.

No active baseball player testified on Curt Flood's behalf. He was forced to stand alone for the right to be treated as a human being, and was vilified for it. The public was shocked and disgusted that Flood challenged the traditions of the institution of baseball. "I was telling my story to deaf ears," he said once, "because I was telling my story to a person who would give his first-born child to be doing what I was doing, and he just could not understand how anything could possibly be wrong with baseball."

Curt Flood retired from baseball and from what would probably have been a Hall of Fame career, rather than be treated as a piece of property. In 1975, an arbitor finally ruled that the reserve clause was illegal, and the owners and the Players Association worked out the system of free agency.

Curt Flood died in January 1997 of throat cancer.