It’s a good portrait, too:
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There’s a reason they call it ‘The Farm’.
Full disclosure: I am not a baseball fan. Fun to play, deathly boring to watch.
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Especially since the big reason the analytics say he isn’t on that level is that he was blacklisted and lost probably 4-6 more years of solid numbers.
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“In 1970 [Flood] sued baseball to end the reserve clause,”
When I was in college in the 70s, we used the term “Curt Flood” to reserve your seat if you got up to get a beer, go the bathroom, etc. If you forgot, a person could announce “Bowie Kuhn” and grab your seat. Beat studying.
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Baseball’s a great sport to have on in the background while you’re being social. Exciting stuff will happen on replay, and no single game really makes a huge difference over a 162-game season.
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Let me guess. A bunch of old, rich, white dudes keeping Black, union-activist Curt Flood out of the Hall of Fame.
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Those who grew up in the left-field bleachers at Wrigley:
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Money corrupts everything including our government.
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Obviously his skin color has nothing to do with this. It’s business, not personal–or racial.
blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager” for these positions…blacks are often poor swimmers “because they don’t have the buoyancy.”
–White former baseball scouting legend Al Campanis
To his credit, he later renounced his words, and had recruited some of the greatest non-white/Christian baseball players in history. But, this way of thinking still pervades.
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In the five years since the last collective bargaining agreement was signed, players have received a declining proportion of their teams’ revenues, which come not only from ticket sales but also from local and national television deals, real estate development, publicly-funded stadiums, and, most recently, gambling.
Bit of a tangent here - why, again, is Pete Rose not in the Hall (full disclosure, I am a Bosox fan, and pretty much hate Pete’s guts)?
It’s not always just about race. There are other factors as well. In Flood’s case, I think the money angle mattered.
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The true American pastime, wealthy business owners screwing the employees.
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I never said JUST about race. But nearly everything’s at least partly about race.
Why was Andy Messersmith nominated–twice–for induction (but never voted in), but not Flood?
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I know, you’re right, I should have winked.
I barely remember Messersmith, so I don’t have an answer for you.
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Not corrupted, so much as mired 50-80 years behind the time, in a very, very conservative sport. Which means Curt Flood will eventually be admitted, but likely about 30 years from now.
Slightly OT: I think the Hall should open a rogues’ gallery branch, and place the uglier famous personages in there. Steinbrenner, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, etc.
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As I tell my kid all the time, “Isn’t it great we don’t all have to like the same things? Otherwise the lines would be ridiculous.”
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How many years did we say that about my hero, Ron Santo? Thing is, Ron had the stats to get in. He also achieved that while dealing with Type 1 diabetes. But Ronnie was a Cubbie and they never even made the playoffs during his years there, so it was easy to dismiss him. It pretty much took his death to get enough attention to get him in.
HOF selection and entry sucks.
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Because he placed bets on games his own team was playing when he was manager. Also, his offensive counting stats were padded by his years as a player-manager where he would write in his own name at first base, giving the team the worst hitting first baseman in the league.
Until the hall of fame embraces its role as a hall of baseball history, they do not know what to do with messes like Pete Rose.
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Also screwing the local cities. Stadium subsidies are just a free money shakedown.
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The Lawyers for Messersmith and Dave McNally won their case (McNally had already retired) Messersmith became the first unrestricted free agent. They couldn’t have done it w/o Flood’s example, but still-first unrestricted free agent is a big fucking deal
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I intuited @theod meant hero worship of athletes, ascribing high character to them whether they deserve it or not. But that’s just my take–might be completely off.
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