THOUGHTS FROM A SEPTUAGENARIAN. Over the course of my 72 trips around the sun on this rock one thing that has changed is the free movement of players from one team to another. Back in the 50s and 60s you could take it to the bank that if a player began his career with one club he would finish with that same franchise unless the team released or traded that specific individual. Today that’s completely been revamped and it all started with baseball.

In 1969 St Louis OF Curt Flood was traded to Philadelphia. The Cardinals center fielder refused to go to the Phillies challenging the reserve clause that Major League Baseball had in place for decades which bound a player to a team prevented any negotiations with other teams and that violated his rights.

The basis of the lawsuit was that MLB had an antitrust exemption. Eventually the case reached the Supreme Court where the highest court in the land upheld the antitrust exemption granted to Major League Baseball.

End of story right Buddy? No because there was a caveat. The Court recognized the complexity of this issue and recommended that Congress address it.

Finally the Curt Flood Act of 1998 revoked the antitrust exemption given to MLB. It addressed specifically trades and contracts as well as the restrictions on player movement due to the reserve clause.

Free agency had already been established earlier through collective bargaining agreements between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the MLB owners. This legislation just dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s.

What it did do was opened the floodgates for all professional sports players to have a legal avenue to move from one team to another which exists today. Nice play on words there if I do say so myself.

BOOK IT DANO!