English
Lecture 6:
Westward Ho and Free Agency
Expansion, Westward Ho and Free Agency
From the inception of the modern game at the start of the 20th century, the major leagues consisted of the same sixteen teams divided into two leagues of eight teams each with multiple teams in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis. The changing American landscape, and in particular the flight to the suburbs, in the post-WWII years changed call that. Helping was the development of airline travel which made westward expansion possible.
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The Braves Move to Milwaukee
In 1953, the financially strapped Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee where with outstanding pitchers like Warren Spahn, Bob Buhl, and Lew Burdette, and hitters like Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, they won the 1957 World Series over the hated Yankees. Ironically, for all their fan support, they abandoned Milwaukee for Atlanta in 1965.
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The Dodgers and Giants
The flight from Brooklyn to Long Island and the changing demographics of the Bronx along with the failure of NY City to provide new ballparks sealed the fate of the Dodgers who went to Los Angeles and the Giants who moved to Candlestick Park just south of San Francisco. This completed a veritable avalanche of moves and was followed by the expansion of the game into new cities.
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The Dodgers Leave Brooklyn
Of all the franchise moves that took place during the 50’sw and 60’s, none rocked the game more than when the Dodgers left Brooklyn. To this day, residents of Brooklyn lament the passing of their great team and the loss of famed Ebbets field.
More Moves
But while the Dodgers and Giants moves to the West Coast were the most heralded and, for Brooklynites, reviled, they (and the Braves moves to Milwaukee and Atlanta) were hardly the only ones. The Washington Senators have moved twice – once to Minnesota and then to Dallas. The Philadelphia Athletics – after Connie Mack’s departure – moved to Kansas City and then to Oakland. The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore. The Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee. The Los Angeles Angels seem to move back and forth every year or so from Los Angeles to Anaheim.
And Then
And for those cities that have lost their only team to a higher bidder elsewhere, it seems that within a short time they are awarded with an expansion franchise. Consider Milwaukee after the Braves left – enter the Pilots who become the Brewers. And Seattle, having lost the Pilots are awarded a new franchise to be called the Mariners. Or how about Tampa/St. Pete? It seemed that the Chicago White Sox were on their way – and then? An expansion franchise – the Devil Rays now minus the Devil. And of course Brooklyn-Queens sans the Dodgers: an expansion franchise called the New York Mets.
And Then
So, from the end of the first half of the 20th century until today, the number of major league teams has in fact nearly doubled – from 16 to 30. And from a time when all of the teams were in the East and Midwest, the game today is truly national, with five teams on the West, one in the Rocky Mountains, three in Texas and the Southwest, and three more in the Southeast. Now then, what does this all mean?
Well, above all it means that there is twice the need for real baseball talent. Baseball needs more quality players – and it is that need that has led to the internationalization of the game into Latin America and to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela specifically. From 1956 when Ozzie Virgil became the first Dominican player to play in the major leagues (with the NY Giants), the number of Dominican major leaguers grew to 83 on opening day in 2014.
And Then
With the incredible influx of Latin players into professional baseball (they make up about 27% of major leaguers and upwards of 35% of minor leaguers) ahs come a whole new set of issues that may not be as visible as those that faced the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson when the American racial color line was crossed in 1947, but they are even more complex. We’ll talk about them in the last sections of the course. See Ozzie Virgil at the right.
Free Agency and the Reserve Clause
Since the inception of the modern game, players were bound to the teams with which they signed so long as those teams wanted them on their rosters. As a result, players’ salaries were depressed since they were, for all intents and purposes, indentured servants. On the positive side, fans could really identify with players since most remained with the teams that signed them for their entire careers. Then, in 1969, Curt Flood, a St. Louis Cardinal outfielder challenged the reserve clause when he reused to accept a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Curt Flood
Years later, Flood explained, "I guess you really have to understand who that person, who that Curt Flood was. I’m a child of the sixties, I’m a man of the sixties. During that period of time this country was coming apart at the seams. We were in Southeast Asia. Good men were dying for America and for the Constitution. In the southern part of the United States we were marching for civil rights and Dr. King had been assassinated, and we lost the Kennedys. And to think that merely because I was a professional baseball player, I could ignore what was going on outside the walls of Busch Stadium was truly hypocrisy and now I found that all of those rights that these great Americans were dying for, I didn’t have in my own profession."
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The Origins of Free Agency
Though Curt Flood’s actions began the irreversible movement toward free agency, its genesis can be traced back to when Dodger pitching greats Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale refused to sign their 1966 contracts. In fact they even hired a lawyer to fight for their demands. They were only partially successful.
The Legacy of Marvin Miller
Recruited by a handful of players to start a strong players union, Marvin Miller who had made his mark as a lawyer for the United Steelworkers, changed the game forever.
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Messersmith and McNally
Three years after Flood, pitchers Messersmith and McNally challenged the reserve clause, and with Miller arguing the case on behalf of his Major League Baseball Players Association, in December of 1975 arbitrator Peter Seitz shocked baseball’s owners by ruling that a player who played without a contract for one year was in fact a free agent.
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Catfish
Jim “Catfish” Hunter was one of the earliest beneficiaries of free agency and became the highest paid player in the game when he signed with the Yankees in 1975. He was also one of the finest pitchers of his time.
The Game Was Changed Forever
In 2015, the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton signed a thirteen-year contract for a staggering $325 million. That’s over $150,000 a game. Baseball will never be the same.
For more information on this issue, see Andrew Zimbalist’s Baseball and Billions.
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