As most fans know, when Curt Flood was traded to the Phillies after the 1969 season, he refused to report and thus began a years-long legal battle which - though Flood would ultimately lose his case - would pave the way for free agency.
Dick Allen is often just a footnote in that story - the player who came back to the Cardinals in that deal. But Allen - who died Monday at the age of 78 - was a significant part of the labor struggle in his own right, and his one year in St. Louis was a momentous one.