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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Baseball History,
By
This review is from: The way it is, (Hardcover)
The late Curt Flood was not some dumb jock. This book is part autobiography and part polemic. A great deal of what he writes about is now historical, yet it's interesting to see how things looked first hand then. Whenever today's highly paid athletes look in their wallet they should thank Curt Flood, all the more ironic as he died nearly penniless. A very interesting and entertaining read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful book of protest,
By K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The way it is, (Hardcover)
Curt Flood (1938-1997) wrote this passionate autobiography in the early 1970's as he challenged baseball's labor policies in federal court. The result is a nice mix of athletic memoirs and political protest. Flood describes his California upbringing, and then bitterly recalls playing minor league ball in the segregated South. There he usually had to stay in "colored" rooming houses and eat on the team bus (most restaurants were off limits). Readers learn of his lengthy career as a star centerfielder, first with Cincinnati (1956-1957), and then with the St. Louis Cardinals (1958-1969) of Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Lou Brock and Orlando Cepeda. Flood also describes the life of major leaguers and such once-hushed subjects as baseball groupies, the sport's hierarchy, salary negotiations and race relations.
Flood argues powerfully against baseball's reserve clause, which bound players to their team until the team sold, traded or released them - unfairly limiting each player's bargaining power. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled 5-3 against Flood in 1972, but his challenge helped bring future players free agency, salary arbitration, and large pay checks. Sadly, only a tiny number of future millionaire ballplayers ever thanked Flood before he passed away in 1997. This is not your typical athletic biography. This is an intelligent book by an intelligent (if slightly flawed) man, its pages aimed at urbane and thinking readers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Players' Supreme Advocate,
By
This review is from: The way it is, (Hardcover)
"The Way It Is" was published in 1971, as a watershed in baseball history was approaching. Author Curt Flood, a baseball star, was challenging baseball's reserve clause in a lower federal court. Under the reserve clause, an owner had perpetual contract rights over a player once he was signed unless the player was released, which would normally constitute a group boycott under the antitrust laws. In 1972, in Flood v. Kuhn, the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-3 vote upheld baseball's antitrust exemption even though it admitted baseball was in interstate commerce (Supreme Court precedent was that baseball was not in interstate commerce; go figure). It was up to Congress to repeal the exemption, the court stated, in one of its worst rulings ever. It is worth noting that Part I of Justice Harry Blackmun's majority opinion was a corny homage to baseball citing baseball lore and baseball heroes, and it was ridiculed in many legal circles and elsewhere.
"The Way It Is" is a declaration by Flood, now deceased, that baseball IS FOR SURE engaged in interstate commerce. Granted, it is also an attack on racism in baseball. Blacks suffered from segregation in spring training camps, mistreatment by managers and other people, and discrimination in pay, and they were often shut off from lucrative endorsements. Blacks may have been on the bottom more than whites, but Flood wrote: "I told the [MLB Players' Association] meeting that organized baseball's policies and practices affected all players equally." From the labor relations perspective, he embraced all. Flood wrote in this book that the owners' concern is not the "Good of the Game," but to make a profit. He pointed out that in 1969, the players, pension plan included, got only 20 percent of the industry's total income. This was much lower than in other industries, and in 1929 players got 35%. Flood weaved the long season, new stadiums, synthetic fields, TV and radio, and much else into his profit motive theme. He disputed the contention that major league clubs at that time were in financial straits. For me, the most interesting part is Chapter 10: Flood's history of baseball labor relations starting in 1946. He presented compelling arguments in his narrative about how things were stacked in the owners' favor. Regarding one occasion in which Commissioner Happy Chandler supported the players in a pension fund dispute, Flood wrote, "As far as I know, this was the only occasion on which any Commissioner of Baseball has ever permitted facts to undermine his relationship with owners." He forgot Chandler backed Branch Rickey when all other owners voted against integrating the sport. This book received a lot of criticism for its cynicism. I once read a baseball piece acknowledging it as being "bitter and uncompromising." Flood made no bones about not having a "golly gee" attitude just because a certain mindset suggested a person like him should. From Justice Blackmun on down, these were the people who were preventing necessary progress in the battle of the players against the owners. Flood looks pretty good in hindsight, for some of the occurrences he recounts ring of silliness 40 years later. Jim Bouton, author of the revealing book "Ball Four," was called into Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's office, Flood wrote, and "[i]t was made clear to Bouton that when truth challenged mythology a wise ballplayer keeps his mouth shut." Certainly Flood said many good as well as bad things about people, white and black, in this book, and he backed his labor points with reasoned arguments. It matters little that many bad things can be said about baseball players of the 21st century and that an argument can be made that free agency hurts team identity. It was still wrong for baseball teams to have exclusive contractual rights to players. Three years after Flood v. Kuhn, the reserve clause began to be shredded outside the court system (but baseball's antitrust exemption exists to this day). I would only say to Flood that he should remember the positives too. The profit motive existed with many abuses and still does, but it has not been the ONLY thing that made baseball, including owners, tick. Baseball's positive contribution to American society is not a myth, but a reality. Competition, drama, role models, charity, and actions on behalf of fans and, yes, players, have marked the game too. Perhaps Flood would respond that he loved baseball too, and that is why he wanted to see wrongs righted.
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