ABSTRACT
On 8 October 1969, the St Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies completed a seven- player trade. The Cardinals traded Tim McCarver, Joe Hoerner, Byron Browne and Curt Flood to the Phillies for Richie Allen, Cookie Rojas and Jerry Johnson. When he heard that he would be traded to the Phillies, Curt Flood said that he would retire from baseball. He felt that after 12 years in the big leagues, he deserved something more dignified than an impersonal phone call and a little card in the mail telling him that he was traded. But instead of retiring, Flood stayed on to challenge Organized Baseball’s perpetual reserve clause, which gave the owners a virtual hegemony over their players for 90 years. 1
