Curt Flood Marquee

St. Louis traded him to Philadelphia in October 1969 and he would not go. He wrote to the commissioner that he did not feel he was a piece of property to be bought and sold, sat out the 1970 season and sued, and the Supreme Court ruled against him in 1972 by five votes to three. Free agency arrived three years later by arbitration, and every player since has been paid on the ground he lost.

The playing record is nearly buried under it: 1,861 hits, a .293 average, seven consecutive Gold Gloves in center field, three All-Star selections, and 211 hits to lead the National League in 1964. He was the center fielder for the Cardinals clubs that won the World Series in 1964 and 1967.

He was thirty-one when he sued and thirty-three when he stopped, and he never earned another dollar in the game. Fifteen writers' ballots got him to 71 votes of 470, and three committees have looked at him since. He died of throat cancer in 1997, at fifty-nine.