[Posted Monday]
Atlanta Falcons Quiz: 1) Receptions, career? 2) Interceptions,
career? [Hint: Played from 1973-80] 3) Touchdowns, career? 4)
Passing yards, career? 5) Who is the only Falcons coach with a
winning record? Answers below.
A Baseball Pioneer
Dave McNally passed away last week at the age of 60. In the
late 60s / early 70s he was one of the best, compiling a sterling
184-119 won-loss record for his career, including a stretch
between 1968 and 1971 where he had 4-straight 20-win seasons,
going 87-31 during that time. As Johnny Mac reminded me, this
was as good a run as any.
But McNally’s story is about far more than his pitching ability,
because he was also a key figure in the battle over free agency.
It’s also an excuse to resurrect a piece I did for “Wall Street
History” on the business of baseball back in February 2000, so
allow me to rewind the article and add a few new tidbits.
—
How did we get from the days when a $30,000 contract was the
norm for many baseball starters in the 60s and 70s to today’s
levels, where a mediocre pitcher like Steve Trachsel can
command a two-year deal worth $8 million from the New York
Mets? Former St. Louis Cardinals star Curt Flood springs to
mind, as do pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally.
I covered the Curt Flood story at length in my August 9, 1999
edition of “Bar Chat” so I won’t repeat every thing here. Suffice
it to say that each and every ballplayer today owes a debt of
gratitude to him, though I’m sure we’d all be distressed at how
few of the current stars would have any clue who Flood was.
It was back in 1970 that Curt Flood challenged Major League
Baseball’s exemption from the federal antitrust laws, first
established by a Supreme Court decision in 1922 and later
affirmed in 1953. Flood, a longtime player with the St. Louis
Cardinals, had a contract dispute with them after the 1968 World
Series. He wanted a raise from $70,000 to $100,000 but settled
for $90,000. [Flood was an All-Star and finished his career with
a .293 batting average.]
Following the 1969 season he was traded to Philadelphia after 12
seasons in St. Louis. Flood said at the time, “There’s no way I’m
going to pack up and move twelve years of my life away from
here. No way at all.” On Christmas Eve he sent a letter to
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. “After twelve 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.”
Flood was fighting a provision in the standard baseball players
contract, the “reserve clause,” which tied a player to their team.
The club had the right to renew the contract for the following
season and as far as the teams were concerned that meant they
could keep a player forever. It also allowed the owners to keep
compensation down. Flood filed and lost a lawsuit against Major
League Baseball and then proceeded to appeal his case to the
Supreme Court.
On June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 against Flood.
Justice Harry Blackmun acknowledged baseball’s special status
was an “aberration” and an “anomaly,” but he re-affirmed the
position taken in prior cases, that it was up to Congress to
remedy the situation with legislation. A 1922 ruling had stated
that baseball was not the sort of business that the antitrust laws
were intended to cover. In 1953 the Court had ruled that the
exemption should be continued, even though legal philosophy
had changed, because the industry had been allowed to develop
for 30 years on the assumption of its immunity.
Blackmun added, “We continued to loathe to overturn these
cases judicially when Congress, by its positive inaction, has
allowed those decisions to stand for so long.”
Justice William O. Douglas dissented. “While I joined the
Court’s opinion in (1953), I have lived to regret it, and I would
now correct what I believe to be its fundamental error.”
Douglas commented further, “If Congressional inaction is our
guide, we should rely upon the fact that Congress has refused to
enact bills broadly exempting professional sports from antitrust
regulation…There can be no doubt that were we considering the
question of baseball for the first time upon a clean slate, we
would hold it to be subject to Federal antitrust regulation. The
unbroken silence of Congress should not prevent us from
correcting our own mistakes.”
But in concurring with the majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger
wrote, “Like Mr. Justice Douglas, I have grave reservations as to
the correctness of Toolson (the 1953 case); as he notes in his
dissent, he joined in that holding but has ‘lived to regret it.’ The
error, if such it be, is one on which the affairs of a great many
people have rested for a long time. Courts are not the forum in
which this tangled web ought to be unsnarled. I agree with
(Douglas) that Congressional inaction is not a solid base, but the
least undesirable course now is to let the matter rest with
Congress; it is time the Congress acted to solve the problem.”
Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented. “(Antitrust laws) are as
important to baseball players as they are to football players,
lawyers, doctors, or members of any other class of workers.”
[I don’t mean to bore you, dear readers, with some of the legal
opinions, but I figure there are a few lawyers out there who
might enjoy it.]
Now we fast forward to 1975. Pitchers Andy Messersmith and
Dave McNally had refused to sign contracts for the 1975 season
and planned to pitch without them and then demand their
freedom in the open market the following one. McNally, a
longtime Baltimore Oriole, had been traded to the Montreal
Expos, where he proceeded to go just 3-6 before retiring at mid-
season. Messersmith, though, had a great year for the Los
Angeles Dodgers, going 19-14.
Messersmih had initially refused to sign a new contract because
the Dodgers wouldn’t give him a no-trade clause. McNally was
added to the case as a backup. Major League Players
Association union head Marvin Miller would later say of
McNally, “His role was crucial. If he had not lent his name to
the grievance, there’s not much question that when the chips
were down they would have met Messersmith’s demand for a no-
trade provision – they had already met his salary demands – and
there would have been no case.”
But one thing I didn’t know until McNally’s death was the story
(as told by Murray Chass) that Joe Torre or Jim Bouton could
have replaced Messersmith.
Back in 1969, when Torre was with the Atlanta Braves, they
renewed his contract at the maximum 20 percent cut and Torre
responded “by saying he would not play for them until they
offered him the same salary he earned the previous season.
Instead of calling Torre’s bluff or giving in to him, the Braves
traded him to St. Louis, where he signed a new contract and
played for the Cardinals.” [Chass]
Had Torre not been traded, he could have provided the players
association with its test case six years earlier. On the other hand,
Peter Seitz wasn’t baseball’s arbiter back then and the owners
may have steamrolled a case involving Torre.
After the 1975 season, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that both
Messersmith and McNally were free agents. It was a truly
historic ruling. What Seitz had discovered was that paragraph
10(a) of the players’ contract, the renewal clause, stipulated that
it lasted for only one year, and when it expired, so did the
players’ links to their teams. Messersmith had played 1975
under this renewal provision, but now he was free. McNally also
had played under this renewal clause until he retired, though the
Expos did offer him a $125,000 contract for the 1976 season,
which he turned down.
So now Messersmith could sell his services to the highest bidder.
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn responded. “If this interpretation
prevails, baseball’s reserve system will be eliminated by the
stroke of the pen.” Meanwhile, Seitz was handed a notice after
his ruling that baseball’s owners had just thrown him out of his
job.
A year earlier, Seitz had declared Catfish Hunter free of his
contract with the Oakland A’s, whereby Hunter auctioned
himself to the highest bidder, with the Yankees stepping forward
to pay about $3.75 million in a multi-year deal. But Hunter’s
dispute was more the result of a “breach of contract” by Oakland
as opposed to a challenge of baseball in general.
In his new ruling Seitz said:
“It was represented to me that any decision sustaining
Messersmith and McNally would have dire results, (bring) great
harm to the reserve system and do serious damage to the sport of
baseball (and) would encourage many other players to elect to
become free agents.
“The panel’s sole duty is to interpret and apply the agreements
and understandings of the parties. If any of the expressed
apprehensions and fears are soundly based, I am confident that
the dislocations and damage to the reserve system can be avoided
or minimized through the good-faith collective bargaining
between the parties.”
Later, Seitz added, “I am not an Abraham Lincoln signing the
Emancipation Proclamation. Involuntary servitude has nothing
to do with this case. I decided it as a lawyer and an arbitrator.
This decision does not destroy baseball. But if the club owners
think it will ruin baseball, they have it in their power to prevent
the damage.”
Kuhn replied, “It is just inconceivable that after nearly 100 years
of developing this system for the overall good of the game, it
should be obliterated in this way.”
Well, you may recall that at the start of the 1976 season the
players found themselves locked out of spring training by the
owners. It’s safe to say the game has never been the same since,
as labor strife became a dominant theme. The 1976 season,
though, eventually got underway without interruption and during
the course of it the owners and players reached an agreement
whereby the players received the right to become free agents
after 6 seasons, thus ending the court battles that began with the
Seitz decision. Andy Messersmith signed a 3-year, $1 million
contract with Atlanta and went 11-11 in 1976, but won only
another 7 games his last three years. McNally, as noted earlier,
retired.
In 1977, 23 players tested the free agent market. Yankee owner
George Steinbrenner capitalized by signing Reggie Jackson and
pitching star Don Gullett. The Yankees won the Series that fall,
4-2 over the Dodgers. But signing free agents didn’t always
guarantee success, as we’ll explore in more detail on Thursday.
Lastly, back to Curt Flood and the debt of gratitude all players
owe him today, as well as to Messersmith and McNally. Curt
quoted Frederick Douglas in explaining why he chose to fight the
system. “If there is not struggle, there is not progress. Those
who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are
men who want crops without plowing up the ground…Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never
will.”
Back in 1975 the average baseball salary was $44,000. In 2002
it was $2.4 million.
Sources: Joseph Durso, Leonard Koppett, Murray Chass / New
York Times; “The New York Times Century of Business” Floyd
Norris and Christine Bocklemann; “Crossing the Line” Larry
Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt.
Stuff
–The most entertaining duo in all of basketball, college or pro, is
Oregon’s Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson. I just love the way
they play, even if they burned my school, Wake Forest, in the
NCAA’s last year.
–Congratulations to Navy’s Craig Candeto and Miami’s Willis
McGahee, both of whom scored 6(!) touchdowns on Saturday.
–We’ve always known the New York Times is more often than
not a disgrace, but the recent treatment of sports reporters Dave
Anderson and Harvey Araton was despicable. Both had columns
pulled because they were making comments on the Augusta
National debate that didn’t follow the paper’s editorial board, the
latter having taken it upon itself to be the sole arbiter of whether
or not Augusta should admit women. We’re talking the Times
has run something like 40 pieces on this! Well, on Sunday,
facing intense criticism the paper relented and published
Anderson and Araton, but the editors noted that the pieces were
censored. What kind of crap is that? Why you would never find
that at StocksandNews, no sirree. Where is that editor, anyway?
–Former football great Howie Long is the subject of a Q&A in
Sports Illustrated this week, with SI asking, “You retired in 1993
after playing 13 seasons. How much pain are you in on a daily
basis?” Long replied, “I don’t ever have a good day.”
I mention this because the great defensive end Michael McCrary
is being forced to retire from the Baltimore Ravens due to severe
knee problems. A Wake Forest grad, McCrary was one of the
most underrated players in all of football, when he was healthy.
I’ve thought of him because I imagine he’ll have to deal with
tremendous pain the rest of his days. It’s sad, especially when
you see the stories about some of our heroes from yesteryear,
like the Raiders’ Jim Otto, who today is a cripple.
–On a lighter note, Nomar Garciaparra and soccer star Mia
Hamm are engaged, so girls, you’re too late. Then again the two
could easily split up in a year and then you’re all back in the
game!
–Former New York Knicks forward Charles Oakley has always
been a piece of work and never been afraid to speak his mind,
in his own distinctive way. So this weekend his new club, the
Wizards, was playing the Knicks and the “Oak Man” was asked
about the sad state of affairs in New York.
“They’ve got some garbage in there, point blank. They need to
take four or five of their players out with the trash and dump
them out there.”
You’re the man, Charles. And no one ever played the game
harder than you.
–Some of you probably saw the wire report from Bandera,
Texas, a tale of a 42-year-old, Steven Brasher, and his receiving
a life sentence for killing lifetime friend Willie Lawson last year
after Willie took Brasher’s last frosty.
“There (were) only two beers left, so I took one, and I told Willie
not to take my last beer,” Brasher said during the trial.
Brasher shot Lawson in the head after the two began arguing
over the missing lager. I really don’t think this requires further
comment.
–December 9 is the 25th anniversary of one of the NBA’s truly
ugly moments, when the Lakers’ Kermit Washington, a 6’8”
power forward, brutally smashed the Houston Rockets’ Rudy
Tomjanovich in the face during a scuffle between the two teams
involving other players. John Feinstein recently wrote a book on
the subject, “The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight
That Changed Basketball Forever.”
Tomjanovich did return the following season to average 19
points a game, but his following two seasons were mediocre at
best before he retired from the game. Washington managed to
average about 12 points and 10 rebounds his next three years,
before his play deteriorated badly.
[Feinstein also had a piece in Saturday’s Washington Post,
blasting the New York Times for its treatment of Dave Anderson
and Harvey Araton.]
–On December 12, ESPN is going to be airing a high school
basketball game for the first time ever, a match between St.
Vincent-St. Mary of Akron, Ohio versus Oak Hill Academy of
Virginia. The reason? It’s a chance for the nation to see high
school sensation Lebron James, a 6’8”, 17-year-old manchild at
St. Vincent who is going to be the first pick in the NBA draft.
Bill Walton and Dick Vitale are doing the telecast, that’s how big
an event it is.
James had a rough time growing up and his transition to the pros
may not be as easy as some believe. Just take a look at how high
school grads Tyson Chandler and Eddie Curry are struggling on
the Chicago Bulls, let alone the disaster that is Kwame Brown on
Washington.
But in a recent piece in the Times by Murray Chass (uncensored,
I presume), there is a little anecdote that is typical of this day and
age.
The high school senior class president at St. Vincent commented,
“Last year (James) was driving a Navigator, he had a two-way
pager and a cellphone on his belt. I was starting to get worried.
But he’s back to himself a little more now.”
Now you all know how much a Navigator costs, and you should
know his mother is on welfare. It’s really pitiful.
But then Johnny Mac had a good idea, comparing the handling of
James to the treatment of racehorses. “The old axiom in the
business was that horses weren’t bred to run anymore, they were
run in order to breed. So Lebron could play a few years and then
have his breeding rights sold off. Off to the barn he’d go, and
Adidas, Nike, et al could be present at birth to bid on the infant’s
baby booty contract.”
–Holy cow…I can’t believe Wake Forest got a bowl bid.
December 30 vs. Oregon in Seattle. Hey, it’s good for
recruiting!
–Actually, I’m glad the Mets signed Steve Trachsel.
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/11/76: #1 “Tonight’s The Night
(Gonna Be Alright)” Rod Stewart #2 “The Rubberband Man”
(Spinners) #3 “Love So Right” (Bee Gees)
Atlanta Falcons Quiz Answers: 1) Receptions, career: Terance
Mathis, 573 (1994-2001). 2) Interceptions, career: Rolland
Lawrence, 39 (’73-’80). 3) TDs, career: Terance Mathis, 57. 4)
Passing yards, career: Steve Bartkowski…23,468 (’75-’85). 5)
Leeman Bennett is the only Falcons coach with a winning record
…47-44-0 (1977-82).
J-E-T-S…Jets Jets Jets!
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
