Later Years
In 1950 Gardella signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, but was sent to the minors after one at bat and never again played major league baseball. After leaving the game, he worked in a warehouse, as a hospital orderly and as a gym trainer.
Many years after Gardella faded from the baseball scene, the Supreme Court rejected two challenges to the reserve clause, most notably the case brought by outfielder Curt Flood. But the players did win free agency in 1976 after a baseball arbitrator, ruling in a case brought by pitchers Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith, found that players could leave their teams after playing out their contracts.
Reflecting on his lawsuit and his possible consequences in an interview with the Los Angeles Times (c. 1990), Gardella took pride in having brought his court challenge. "I feel I let the whole world know that the reserve clause was unfair," he said. "It had the odor of peonage, even slavery."
Gardella died at age 85 from congestive heart failure in Yonkers, New York.
Read more about this topic: Danny Gardella
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“After years of vain familiarity, some distant gesture or unconscious behavior, which we remember, speaks to us with more emphasis than the wisest or kindest words. We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our Friends’ thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be.”
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