In 1969, the St. Louis Cardinals traded Curt Flood,Tim McCarver, Byron Browne, and Joe Hoerner to the Philadelphia Phillies for Dick Allen, Cookie Rojas, and Jerry Johnson in what would become perhaps the most famous and important trade in baseball history. No, this trade is not famous for any sort of curse, or lop-sidedness, but because it led to establishing a system still in place to this day - free agency. Until 1975 the system baseball had employed was ruled by the reserve clause. This clause stated that upon a contract's expiration, the rights to the player still belonged to the team.
Looking back on Curt Flood on Labor Day - A Hunt and Peck
