ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The next five months will be a very important time for the many people pushing for former St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A campaign in support of the seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, "civil rights icon," and co-creator of the free agency system is growing.
This December, the Baseball Hall of Fame's Golden Era Committee will meet to consider new inductees. Flood, who played from 1956 to 1971 with the Cincinnati Reds, Cardinals and Washington Senators, won't be eligible for another five years if he isn't selected this year.
That's why U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), along with U.S. Representatives David Trone (Md.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ann Wagner (Mo.), and Emanuel Cleaver, II (Mo.), sent a letter to the Chair of the Board of the National Baseball Hall of Fame urging Flood be added to the ballot – and hopefully voted in – this year. It comes along with a new social media campaign: #FloodTheHall
A bipartisan and bicameral coalition of lawmakers made a similar push last year, but the Golden Era Committee meeting was postponed due to the pandemic. Click here to read the letter the group is sending.
Flood, who died in 1997 at 59-years-old, was the first player in MLB history to reject a trade. He demanded to be declared a free agent in 1969, ultimately losing a lawsuit against MLB as the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. But his fight with the help of Players Association Executive Director Marvin Miller eventually created the free agent system known in all major US sports leagues today.
Miller was deservingly inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame for his work on behalf of players and the League recently, but Flood still lacks the same recognition.
Thanks to a t-shirt from 108 Stitches and the support of baseball fans around the country, Flood may finally get his place in Cooperstown.
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