Flood V. Kuhn - Legacy

Legacy

The decision is often remembered today as paving the way for free agency in baseball. However, it did so, according to Bill James, only by showing them they could not rely on the Courts to strike down the antitrust exemption and the reserve clause along with it. But the effort by a player of Flood's stature did galvanize the players, and according to Marvin Miller it made the general public aware of the reserve clause. Labor law proved a more fruitful opportunity for the invalidating of the reserve clause. The next year the National Labor Relations Board voted that baseball came under its jurisdiction, and that led to the Seitz decision three years later that Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were free agents after they had played out a year without signing new contracts. That event is considered the true beginning of baseball free agency.

Neither Congress nor any court has completely overturned baseball's antitrust exemption. Some bills that would do so were named the Curt Flood Act in his honor and later, memory. In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed one into law making baseball's employment practices subject to antitrust law, a largely moot point since by then free agency was well established (minor league players, however, remain bound to their parent clubs). Flood himself was remembered as much for this case as for his playing career when he died in 1997. He has not been inducted into the Hall of Fame despite his accomplished career and effect on the game.