Curt Flood Trade
Johnson spent two years with Philadelphia, before moving to the St. Louis Cardinals in a controversial transaction. On October 7, 1969, he was sent by Philadelphia along with Dick Allen and Cookie Rojas to the St. Louis Cardinals in the same trade that brought Tim McCarver, Byron Browne, Joe Horner and Curt Flood to the Phillies. After Flood refused to report to his new team, St. Louis sent Willie Montañez and a minor leaguer to Philadelphia to complete the trade. Flood believed that Major League Baseball's reserve clause was unfair and appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it brought solidarity among ballplayers as they fought against reserve clause and sought free agency.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Johnson (baseball)
Famous quotes containing the words curt, flood and/or trade:
“The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)
“The great war that broke so suddenly upon the world two years ago, and which has swept up within its flame so great a part of the civilized world, has affected us very profoundly.... With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. The obscure fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst we are not interested to search for or explore.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It passes, and we stay:
A quality of loss
Affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a sacrament.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)