Why The Reserve Clause?

Written by: Zach Hammer, The Reserve Clause

     In 1968, Curt Flood made perhaps the biggest blunder in World Series history when he slipped and couldn’t catch up to an eventual deciding fly ball in Game 7 against the Detroit Tigers. With that hit, Jim Northrup, Al Kaline, Willie Horton and the rest of the Tigers would go on to complete the series victory and literally set the City of Detroit on fire. Following that blunder, a man who was once regarded as perhaps the premier outfielder on perhaps the best team in baseball – the St. Louis Cardinals – was expendable. Flood gained disdain from the Busch family and the St. Louis fateful so fast that you would have thought he was found guilty of throwing the World Series. Not long after the series was over, Flood and now famous broadcaster Tim McCarver were shipped off to Philadelphia for Dick Allen and a couple of other players. But Flood knew that he was a better player than what the guys in Philadelphia were; he was a 7-time Gold Glove winner. Rather than report and play out his contract, Flood matters into his own hands. He refused to play.

     Curt Flood was a great player, but he was made famous by challenging the moratorium known as baseball’s reserve clause. The reserve clause was, at the time, the only thing standing between a man and his own choice of where he wanted to work. Flood fought for years for his personal right to choose his employer, to allow businesses (teams) to jockey for his services. He was only chasing the American dream and for his efforts he was basically black-listed from the game of baseball. Only after years of struggle was the reserve clause lifted. The funny thing is that it took two people—not named Curt Flood—to bring the reserve clause down. Regardless, Flood was the man who ultimately beat the game of baseball and brought an archaic rule crumbling down. It was through perseverance, understanding and resolve that this feat was possible.

     So with no more backstory, I want to welcome fans of anything (well, mostly sports, gambling, music and film) to The Reserve Clause. We, much like Curt Flood, are chasing our own personal freedom. In this case, that freedom is to write about anything that we want. Why does a sports site have to be all about sports? Similarly, why does a music or gambling or film blog have to be all about those topics? The answer…they don’t—especially in what we do. We will bring you special contributors over the case of however long this blog runs. Our contributors will write pieces which fans and just regular people want to read. We’ll give you some advice on how to win a few bucks if you want to bet a game. We can tell you why you should probably leave Billy Butler in your fantasy utility spot. We may also tell you why we think Brian Eno music is completely mind numbing and unlistenable.

Without further ado, welcome to The Reserve Clause; we hope it’s everything that all of the other blogs try to be!