Playing Career
Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Oakland, California, Flood played in the same outfield in West Oakland's McClymonds High School as Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson. Flood signed with the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1956 and made a handful of appearances for the team in 1956-57 before being traded to the Cardinals in December 1957. For the next twelve seasons, he became a fixture in center field for St. Louis; although he struggled at the plate from 1958 to 1960, his defensive skill was apparent. He had his breakthrough year after Johnny Keane took over as manager in 1961: He batted .322 and followed by hitting .296 in 1962 with 12 home runs. He continued to improve offensively in 1963, hitting .302 and scoring a career-high 112 runs, third most in the NL; he also had career bests in doubles (34), triples (9) and stolen bases (17) and collected 200 hits in an NL-leading 662 at bats. In that year he received the first of his seven consecutive Gold Gloves.
He earned his first All-Star selection in 1964 while leading the NL in hits and batting .311. His 679 at bats led the NL again and were the fifth highest total in league history to that point, setting a team record by surpassing Taylor Douthit's 1930 total of 664; Lou Brock broke the team record three years later with 689. He also had a league-leading 211 hits. Batting leadoff in the 1964 World Series against the New York Yankees, he hit only .200 but scored in three of the Cardinal victories as the team won in seven games for its first championship since 1946. In 1965 Flood had his greatest power output with 11 home runs and 83 runs batted in while hitting .310. He made the All-Star team again in 1966, a season in which he did not commit a single error in the outfield; his record errorless streaks of 226 games (NL record) and 568 total chances (major league record) ran from September 3, 1965, to June 4, 1967.
In 1967 he had his highest batting mark with a .335 average (though his other batting totals fell off from previous years), helping the Cardinals to another championship. In the 1967 World Series against the Boston Red Sox he hit a woeful .179 but made some crucial contributions. In game 1, he advanced Brock to third base twice, putting him in position to score both runs in a 2-1 victory; in game 3, he drove Brock in with the first run of a 5-2 win. As team co-captain (with Tim McCarver) in 1968 he had perhaps his best year, earning his third All-Star selection and finishing fourth in the MVP balloting (won by teammate Bob Gibson) on the strength of a .301 batting average and 186 base hits. Against the San Francisco Giants that year, Flood was involved in the final outs of the first back-to-back no-hitters in major league history. On September 17, he struck out for the final out of Gaylord Perry's 1-0 gem. The next day, he caught Willie McCovey's fly ball for the final out of Ray Washburn's 2-0 no-hitter. Had he not notably misjudged a Jim Northrup fly ball (ruled a triple) with two out in the seventh inning of game 7 of the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Cardinals might have won their third championship of the decade; Detroit scored twice on the play, with Northrup later coming in for a 3-0 lead, and won the game 4-1. Up to that point, Flood had been enjoying the best series of his career despite dealing with personal problems at home, hitting .286 with three steals.
In 1969, despite the lower pitching mound instituted that season, which saw a general rise in batting average league-wide, Flood's batting average slipped to .285. His brother was arrested during the season, and he participated in a couple of public confrontations with Cardinals management. Early in the season, his conflict with the Cardinals involved his desire for a $100,000 salary. Late in the season, he publicly criticized the team for reorganizing the team before they were officially eliminated. He received his seventh Gold Glove that season just as other events in his career began to affect the entire sport.
Flood collected the first hit in a major league regular season game in Canada. He doubled off Montreal Expos pitcher Larry Jaster in the first inning of the Expos' inaugural home game, on April 14, 1969, at Jarry Park. (Jaster, a Cardinal teammate of Flood's just the year before, had been selected by the Expos in the expansion draft.)
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