Mar 28, 2019 - Sale 2503

Sale 2503 - Lot 386

Price Realized: $ 281
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(SPORTS--BASEBALL.) Flood, Curt. Pair of letters to his fellow ex-ballplayers, one of them discussing the Rodney King riots. Letters Signed "Curt", each one page, 11 x 8 1/2 inches; folds, minimal wear, punch holes in margins of the Joe Black letter. Np, circa 1992
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Curt Flood (1938-1997) was a talented outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals whose importance transcended the playing field when he refused to accept the trade of his contract to Philadelphia for the 1970 season. In a famous letter to the Commissioner of Baseball, he wrote "After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen." Though his legal challenge failed, he is often credited with a major role in gaining free agency for the players of today.
Offered here are letters from Flood to two other African-American ballplayers, Joe Black and Tommy Davis, both old Dodgers stars. His brief undated note to Black (then retired in Phoenix, AZ) notes that "after all these years, you should know that I am a survivor." His longer note to Davis circa 1992 solicits funds for the Curt Flood Youth Foundation, and cites the noteworthy civil rights disturbances of that year: "The gang take-overs, the muggings, the drive by shootings, the chaos that has become Los Angeles, Oakland, St. Louis, New York, would lead me to somehow try to make a difference. The plight following the Rodney King tragedy here in Los Angeles . . . is a symptom of a wider affliction." Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Bob Gibson are cc'd on the message. with--3 photographs of Flood as a young player, one of them a period print of him with 1930s Cardinals center fielder Terry Moore dated 1959.