Marvin Miller and Curt Flood

Marvin Miller was the longtime director of the Major League Baseball
Players Association, a labor he helped found and turn into THE most
powerful labor union in all of sports and one of the most powerful labor
unions in the country, period.

Miller was director for 20 years and he helped establish free agency for
players and to take away the reserve clause, which basically stripped the
players of any rights until it was abolished.

The reason it was abolished was because of Curt Flood, a very good player
in the 1960's and 70's. He was the player to take a stand against the
reserve clause when he refused to accept a trade to the Philadelphia
Phillies and is a main reason baseball players and other athletes have the
rights they do today.

This letter came in my email and shows why Flood, and Miller for that
matter though he is not named, should be eventually put into baseball's
Hall of Fame.


An Open Letter to the Major League Baseball Player's Association

April, 13 2008

By *Bill Fletcher Jr.*
Executive Director, The Black Commentator

Dear Executive Director Donald M. Fehr:

It has now been more than ten years since the death of Curt Flood. Many of
us, baseball fans and fans of Curt Flood in particular, were hoping that the
10th anniversary of his passing would bring with it a broader recognition of
his contributions to Major League Baseball as well as his entrance into the
Baseball Hall of Fame. While Flood's memory and contributions did garner
broader attention, he was no closer to entering the Hall of Fame than on the
day he passed away.

We, who honor the memory and contributions of Flood, recognize that his
brave struggle to end the notorious 'reserve clause' and bring about 'free
agency' could not have happened had it not been for the active support of
the Players' Association. For that we will always be in your debt.

Nevertheless we are at a moment when more is needed from your association.
We need the Players' Association to help lead a campaign to get Curt Flood
into the Hall of Fame. We need your association to stand up to the owners
and their media allies and insist that today's baseball might very well look
quite different had it not been for the stand of that player from the St.
Louis Cardinals, Curt Flood.

We realize that the Players' Association, for understandable reasons, does
not take positions on who should go into the Hall of Fame. While in general
this makes perfect sense, in the case of Curt Flood it entirely misses the
mark. Not only was Curt Flood an outstanding player, but more than anything
he was prepared to take a stand when others suggested silence, if not
complicity with the wretched system of the reserve clause.

Emerging out of the Black American experience with injustice, Curt Flood
took a stand on behalf of the players, be they Black, White, or Latino (and
now Asian). He did not have to take such a stand. He could have meekly
accepted the trade to the Philadelphia Phillies and, quite probably, have
lived a fairly comfortable life. Nevertheless, he decided that the time had
come to take a stand; and he did so with the support of your Association.
That stand cost him a great deal, including friends, family, his career, and
quite probably, years on his life.

We need you to step forward and insist that the time has come to right a
great wrong. Curt Flood must be honorably admitted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame and recognized not only for his outstanding abilities, but for his
contribution to the sport of baseball.

In solidarity,

Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor The Black Commentator