Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime

Page 158

#11- The Seventies- Freak Out in a Moon Age Daydream

 

Oh yeah. Please forgive the reference to the July 26, 1969

excursion of the Apollo 11 being placed here. The borders

between the two decades are rather porous. In fact the sixties

didn’t start until 1964 and ran until about 1977 when disco

sucked and loud mouth punk rockers rivalled their baseball

counterparts in raucous rhetoric, though not ability. The vastly

most entertaining part of the baseball decade can be summed up

as; “Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, Thurman Munson and Catfish

Hunter; all of the late seventies Yankees.”

 

Leading up to the crescendo was that baseball owners were

finally legally obliged to negotiate with free agents, who for

the first time in baseball history had the almost equal platform

of a certain degree of choice. After satisfying certain provisos

they could sell their services to the highest bidder, rather

than having the historic “choice” of signing what their owner

offered or not play. The advancement made was reminiscent of

“Roots” Chicken George’s purchase of his economic freedom.

Fearing that they’d fall behind if they didn’t spend on free

agents, the owners cracked open their checkbooks, while they

bitched to the media. Complicating matters, some fans sided with

the owners. This is another story which is rooted in the 1960’s,

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which did not come to fruition until the 1970”s, when many, but

not all, of the players were “allowed” to be paid their market

value. Here’s a history, as brief as possible.

 

The age of labor dissent in baseball roughly equals the

American inception of the sport. Owner insistence upon the

binding “reserve clause” is the center of the matter. In an

effort to escape it, in 1885 player-lawyer John Montgomery Ward

and eight other players formed the first players union in

baseball, as well as establishing a rival league. Subsequent

failed attempts to organize players and end the “reserve clause”

included the attempts of 1900, 1912, and 1946.

All-Star, Curt Flood unsuccessfully challenged the “reserve

clause” in late 1969. Funded by his fellow players, Flood sued

Major League Baseball privately. After winning preliminary court

decisions, Flood lost his battle in the U.S. Supreme Court,

during which time he sat out a few seasons, essentially ending

his career at the age of 31.

The laying of the groundwork for Flood’s bold move has been

attributed to Marvin Miller. In 1965 the players sought outside

help. They decided on this economist of the United Steelworkers

Union. In 1968, Miller helped players negotiate the first ever

collective bargaining agreement in professional sports, which

raised the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000.

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In 1975 Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally once again

challenged the reserve clause. This time an independent

arbitrator heard the case, and the players finally won the right

to free agency, when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that the

reserve clause bestowed the owners with only one additional year

of service, putting an end to the perpetual renewal rights.

Owners unsuccessfully tried to overturn the decision,

before they took matters more covertly into their own hands.

Despite constant growth they conspired not to pursue free agents

in 1985, 86, and 87. Only four of 35 available free agents were

signed in 1985.

Put those numbers in some perspective. The 26 team league

had approximately 650 players. Under the rules which still

restricted free agency, 5% were eligible and less than 1% got

contracts.

The Major League Baseball Players Association filed

grievances claiming collusion in 1986, 1987, and 1988. Interim

favorable decisions were compiled into a final 1990 verdict

which awarded the players $280 million in damages.

I think it pertinent to note that the owners always cry

poverty to justify their actions. At the same time they refuse

to open their books to substantiate their claims; and they have

escaped the legal obligation to do so.

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So, there was more strife in a 32 day lockout by owners in

the spring of 1990 and a 232 day strike in 1994-95, prompted by

the owner’s refusal to make their contractual pension payments,

while implementing unilaterally decided pay cuts. Owners even

tried hiring replacements.

While Major League labor difficulties have been stifled

since 1995, the action has turned to the Minor Leagues. A 2014

class action lawsuit which claims among other things that the

players receive less than the minimum US wage was recently dealt

a legal blow. On 7-24-16 a US Magistrate Judge ruled that the

individual circumstances of the players precluded the class

action approach, effectively ending the suit. Excluding the high

draft picks of the Major League, the players’ salaries are said

to range from $3,000 to $7,500 for a six month season.

And the beat goes on.

 

Backing up a few steps, the 1975 advent of free agency

destroyed one possible dynasty when Oakland A’s owner Charles

Finley refused to bid on anyone. Economic karma reared its head

when he lost his best players; four to the Yankees; three

through free agency, making the Yankees the next potential

dynasty.

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Baseball’s NL dynamo of the decade basically avoided the

issue, neither being helped nor hurt, by the hazards of free

agency, until the decade was coming to a close. The Cincinnati

Reds were with one exception, consistent winners throughout,

averaging 95 victories a year. They won six divisional titles,

four National League pennants and World Series championships in

1975 and 1976; and they did it all defiantly, right in your

face. No cutesy-cutesy stuff here. Perhaps the last bastion of

tradition, the Reds pounded the fences while under orders to

maintain the “military cut,” clean shaven look, while others

made inroads into the “hippy” appearance first adopted by

Finley’s Oakland Athletics.

The Reds’ throwback super offense, called the Big Red

Machine, was comprised of a bunch of major talents. They

virtually had the majority of the potential NL All-Star team

with Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Ken

Griffey Sr., Dave Concepcion, and George Foster. The Reds

commanded heavy duty respect from opponents. The Yankees of the

fifties were the real deal and the Reds reflected them in

synthetic apparel.

Below is their regular season performance for the decade.

“GB” is “Games Behind” the leader; a dash indicative of a first

place finish. “P” is “Place” finished. The year 1969 is included

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to show how much Red attendance increased in the seventies, as

1969 was typical of their sixties gate.

 

Year Won Loss PCT GB P Attendance

1979 90 71 .559 - 1 2,356,933

1978 92 69 .571 2.5 2 2,532,497

1977 88 74 .543 10.0 2 2,519,670

1976 102 60 .630 - 1 2,629,708

1975 108 54 .667 - 1 2,315,603

1974 98 64 .605 4.0 2 2,164,307

1973 99 63 .611 - 1 2,017,601

1972 95 59 .617 - 1 1,611,459

1971 79 83 .488 11.0 5 1,501,122

1970 102 60 .630 - 1 1,803,568

1969 89 73 .549 4.0 3 987,991

 

The visual basis, which in some cases also had their

effects on the actual manner in which baseball is played, went

through numerous adjustments in the seventies. Stadiums

apparently took some hints from Mount Palomar and saw

retractable roofs as a way to end the inconvenience of rainouts

and poor weather. The sun-blocked, climate controlled models of

modern efficiency lent itself to an abandonment of archaic grass

and made artificial turf more of a necessity than just another

cost-efficient monstrosity. By decade’s end, nearly half of the

games were being played on it. Fielders adjusted to the hundred

foot hops and infield scoot cheap hits; but speed merchant base

stealers had a bit of difficulty in handling the wicked carpet

burns gathered by going for the mere chance at one more lousy

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base. Hell; let the home run hitters do their jobs and allow us

trot home in dignity, without a red or purple ass.

The colorless, baggy old uniforms became an issue for the

stylists. The “new hip” generation was wearing bells, in every

color, tight up top, and only flared down below. It was high

time for baseball players to stop looking like they were in

those bargain basement floppies your mother made you wear to

grammar school. After a history of home teams wearing good-guy

whites and visitors wearing almost-bad-guy grays, baseball

underwent a revolution of color in the seventies. The Astrodome

housed Houston Astros took the fashion considerations to a

temporary extreme when in 1975; they wore uniforms which

included a horizontal rainbow of bright warm colors.

With the change to tight, double-knits, the bold, multi-

colored uniforms introduced in the seventies had baseball’s new

millionaires resembling something out of Tom Wolfe’s “Radical

Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.”