Opinion
Baseball Strikes Out with Curt Flood
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
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I
t’s April and the 2012 baseball
season has begun. Time to
remember something discon-
nected from batting averages and a
pitcher’s ERA: the continuous
failure—actually refusal—of the
Major League Baseball Hall of
Fame to recognize the contribu-
tions of the late St. Louis Cardi-
nals outfielder, Curt Flood and the
retired Executive Director of the
Major League Baseball Player
Association, Marvin Miller. This
refusal has taken the explicit
form of rejecting their nomina-
tions to the Hall of Fame itself.
Flood and Miller, both together
and separately, were involved in
ending the indentured servant-
like system of the “reserve
clause” in baseball, a system that
tied an individual player to a spe-
cific team for as long as the team
owner wanted him. At a tremen-
dous sacrifice, Flood (with the
support of Miller and the Major
League Baseball Players Associa-
tion) sued Major League baseball
over the matter, with the case
going the U.S. Supreme Court.
Although Flood lost at the highest
level, the publicity of the case and
the arrogance of the team owners
set in motion a process that result-
ed in unraveling of the system.
The Major League Baseball Play-
ers Association, under Miller’s
leadership, brought an end to the
reserve clause through their strug-
gle with the owners of the teams.
Their victory resulted in the intro-
duction of free agency, a system
from which players have benefit-
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
or Miller. The fact that Flood and
Miller dared to challenge the
absolute domination of the sport
by the owners was a crime for the
owners, and one for which Flood
and Miller would never be forgiv-
en.
There are tremendous ironies in
the refusal of the Hall of Fame to
admit Flood and Miller. One such
The fact that Flood and Miller dared to
challenge the absolute domination of
the sport by the owners was a crime for
the owners, and one for which Flood and
Miller would never be forgiven
ted immensely.
Despite the fact that Major
League Baseball grew and thrived
under free agency—contrary to
the dire predictions of the team
irony is summarized by the name
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis,
the first commissioner of Major
League Baseball. He was widely
The fact that they challenged the
employer class and suggested that
the players should have the freedom
to bargain—a right for which all
workers should be guaranteed—has
resulted in a systematic attempt to
cast them into oblivion
owners—the team owners and
many sympathetic sports writers
have never forgiven either Flood
known for his role in addressing
the 1919 Chicago White Sox scan-
dal in which eight players were
banned from baseball for life
(including the famous player
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson) for their
alleged participation in throwing
the 1919 World Series. Landis
was applauded by many for sup-
posedly cleaning up baseball, but
this was also the same Landis who
tolerated the exclusion of Black
players from Major League Base-
ball and, according to many
observers of the period, under-
mined efforts at desegregation.
Yet, Landis, who never played
baseball, was admitted into the
Hall of Fame a year after his
death.
Curt Flood died in 1997 and
Marvin Miller—God bless
him—is very much alive at the
age of 95. Both of them con-
tributed, in very fundamental
ways, to reshaping the sport of
baseball. Yet, the fact that they
challenged the employer class and
suggested that the players should
have the freedom to bargain—a
right for which all workers should
be guaranteed—has resulted in a
systematic attempt to cast them
into oblivion.
We should not let that happen.
Maybe this baseball season we
need a few million tee-shirts pro-
claiming that Flood and Miller
must get into the Hall of Fame.
What do you think?
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
Scholar with the Institute for Poli-
cy Studies
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
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The Greek Economy’s ‘Austerity Budget’
D
imitris Christoulas was a
retired pharmacist whose
neighbors said he had
enormous dignity. At 77 years old,
he looked forward to a life. He had
saved during his 35-year career
and did not expect government to
be involved in his pension. But
the austerity budget that Greece
has imposed on its citizens
reduced Christoulas’ pension. So
he killed himself after writing in a
suicide note that he would rather
have “a decent end” than forage
thorough garbage to find enough
“rubbage to feed myself.” Neigh-
bors say he wanted to send a polit-
ical message. They say the
law-abiding man was a committed
leftist who was so meticulous that
he paid his condo fees ahead
before taking his life.
The Christoulas suicide has
mobilized many in Greece, some
of whom describe his act as one of
fortitude, not simply despair.
Some describe it as a “political
act” because it took place in a pub-
lic square during the morning rush
hour. Generally, Greece has a
lower level of suicide than the rest
of the countries in the European
Union, but last year suicides rose
by 45 percent, giving it one of
Europe’s highest rates. Many
attribute the increase in suicides to
the economic crisis. Anecdotal
cases are reported: of the anchor-
man who killed himself when his
contract was not renewed, and of a
man who set himself on fire when
a bank foreclosed on his home.
The United States is threatening
an austerity budget. We are threat-
ening, like Greece, to balance the
Page 4 The Portland and Seattle Skanner April 11, 2012
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
budget on the backs of the least
and the left out, of the poor and the
needy. We have maintained the
Bush tax cuts for the wealthy even
though we don not need to, largely
right when he railed against
Republican values. The most
recent statistics show that poverty
is on the rise. And even those liv-
ing above the poverty line are
struggling. Too many Americans
live in hardship. The unemploy-
ment rate in Greece is 21 percent.
The actual unemployment rate in
Black America exceeds 25 per-
cent.
Yet we Americans are docile
recipients of our poverty and
unemployment. Except for the
Occupy movement, there has been
We have maintained the Bush tax cuts
for the wealthy even though we do
not need to, largely because
Republicans want to respond to their
donors, not to working people
because Republicans want to
respond to their donors, not to
working people. And as I read that
the Newt Gingrich health think
tank has gone bankrupt, I wonder
why this man would dare run for
extreme silence about our current
conditions. Still, the Christoulas
suicide makes me wonder what
silent acts of desperation Ameri-
cans are experiencing because of
economic austerity. How many
Many attribute the increase in suicides
to the economic crisis
President of the United States
when has set up a fiscal flim flam
house (one of his creditors is his
wife).
President Obama had it exactly
robberies or suicides are economi-
cally motivated? How many are
unreported because they don’t take
place in the public square? How
many seniors are actually foraging
for food, or lining up at soup
kitchens because they don’t have
enough to eat? How many young
brothers feel that they improve
their lives by going to jail where
they at least get “three hots and a
squat?” How many folks care
enough to explore these questions
and find answers?
Dimitris Christoulas has a bevy
of friends who say he didn’t really
commit suicide, that killing him-
self was a message and an act of
protest against the ways that
Greece’s financial crisis has an
unequal impact on the wealthy and
the poor. While killing oneself is
an extreme way to protest eco-
nomic inequities, it has also been a
way to rivet Greece’s attention on
the hardships that too many in that
country are facing. What does it
take to mobilize people in the
United States, with unemployment
still unacceptably high, with fore-
closures still out of control, with
too many people managing
“underwater” mortgages? What
would happen if the economically
aggrieved showed up in a public
square? Would Mitt Romney or
Rick Santorum even pay atten-
tion?
The Christoulas suicide shines
light on the human effects of aus-
terity budgets, not just in Greece
but also in the rest of the world.
We should take heed on his public
action, as it is repeated, though
silently, behind closed doors.
Julianne Malveaux is president
of Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, North Carolina.