Abraham Iqbal Khan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031380
- eISBN:
- 9781621032564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031380.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This book examines the public discourse surrounding Curt Flood (1938–1997), the star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals throughout the 1960s. In 1969, Flood was traded to the Philadelphia ...
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This book examines the public discourse surrounding Curt Flood (1938–1997), the star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals throughout the 1960s. In 1969, Flood was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. At the time, all Major League Baseball players were subject to the reserve clause, which essentially bound a player to work in perpetuity for his original team, unless traded for another player or sold for cash, in which case he worked under the same reserve conditions for the next team. Flood refused the trade on a matter of principle, arguing that Major League Baseball had violated both U.S. antitrust laws and the 13th Amendment’s prohibition of involuntary servitude. In a defiant letter to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn asking for his contractual release, Flood infamously wrote, “after twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.” Most significantly, Flood appeared on national television with Howard Cosell and described himself as a “well-paid slave.” Explosive controversy ensued. The book examines the ways in which the media constructed the case and Flood’s persona. By examining the mainstream press, the black press, and primary sources, including Flood’s autobiography, it exposes the complexities of what it means to be a prominent black American athlete—in 1969 and today.Less
This book examines the public discourse surrounding Curt Flood (1938–1997), the star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals throughout the 1960s. In 1969, Flood was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. At the time, all Major League Baseball players were subject to the reserve clause, which essentially bound a player to work in perpetuity for his original team, unless traded for another player or sold for cash, in which case he worked under the same reserve conditions for the next team. Flood refused the trade on a matter of principle, arguing that Major League Baseball had violated both U.S. antitrust laws and the 13th Amendment’s prohibition of involuntary servitude. In a defiant letter to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn asking for his contractual release, Flood infamously wrote, “after twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.” Most significantly, Flood appeared on national television with Howard Cosell and described himself as a “well-paid slave.” Explosive controversy ensued. The book examines the ways in which the media constructed the case and Flood’s persona. By examining the mainstream press, the black press, and primary sources, including Flood’s autobiography, it exposes the complexities of what it means to be a prominent black American athlete—in 1969 and today.
Abraham Iqbal Khan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031380
- eISBN:
- 9781621032564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031380.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter fits Flood into the sport’s current public memory and explains the ways in which he is trapped within the contradictions of black activist-athletes’ purported demise. It argues that the ...
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This chapter fits Flood into the sport’s current public memory and explains the ways in which he is trapped within the contradictions of black activist-athletes’ purported demise. It argues that the relationship of co-optation that doomed Flood in the early 1970s manifests now in an anxiety that struggles to discover and reanimate the black activist-athlete as a subject of public address and agent of history.Less
This chapter fits Flood into the sport’s current public memory and explains the ways in which he is trapped within the contradictions of black activist-athletes’ purported demise. It argues that the relationship of co-optation that doomed Flood in the early 1970s manifests now in an anxiety that struggles to discover and reanimate the black activist-athlete as a subject of public address and agent of history.
Abraham Iqbal Khan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031380
- eISBN:
- 9781621032564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031380.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter examines the ways in which Flood’s case might have resonated within a social and political imagination that was deeply racialized and unapologetically committed to a world-making project ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which Flood’s case might have resonated within a social and political imagination that was deeply racialized and unapologetically committed to a world-making project informed by black experience. First, it analyzes the rhetoric of revolt. Second, it shows how Flood’s “argument from blackness,” as opposed to being confined to his consciousness or spread thinly over the amorphous “mood” of the 1960s, consisted in discernible rhetorical consonances to the radicalism of Harry Edwards’ Revolt of the Black Athlete. Third, it explains how black newspapers appropriated Flood and domesticated the threat he posed by fitting him into the political rationality of liberalism.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which Flood’s case might have resonated within a social and political imagination that was deeply racialized and unapologetically committed to a world-making project informed by black experience. First, it analyzes the rhetoric of revolt. Second, it shows how Flood’s “argument from blackness,” as opposed to being confined to his consciousness or spread thinly over the amorphous “mood” of the 1960s, consisted in discernible rhetorical consonances to the radicalism of Harry Edwards’ Revolt of the Black Athlete. Third, it explains how black newspapers appropriated Flood and domesticated the threat he posed by fitting him into the political rationality of liberalism.
Stuart Banner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199930296
- eISBN:
- 9780190254575
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199930296.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Flood v. Kuhn, a case that presented a futile challenge to baseball's antitrust exemption. The antitrust suit was filed by Curt Flood, a ...
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This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Flood v. Kuhn, a case that presented a futile challenge to baseball's antitrust exemption. The antitrust suit was filed by Curt Flood, a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, against Major League Baseball and its commissioner Bowie Kuhn after he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The chapter analyzes the Supreme Court's decision, which reaffirmed baseball's immunity from federal antitrust law, along with some of its indirect longer-term effects on the legal climate surrounding professional sports. It also considers issues of race, labor relations, and the generation gap of the 1960s that were brought to the fore by Flood v. Kuhn.Less
This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Flood v. Kuhn, a case that presented a futile challenge to baseball's antitrust exemption. The antitrust suit was filed by Curt Flood, a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, against Major League Baseball and its commissioner Bowie Kuhn after he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The chapter analyzes the Supreme Court's decision, which reaffirmed baseball's immunity from federal antitrust law, along with some of its indirect longer-term effects on the legal climate surrounding professional sports. It also considers issues of race, labor relations, and the generation gap of the 1960s that were brought to the fore by Flood v. Kuhn.
Abraham Iqbal Khan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031380
- eISBN:
- 9781621032564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031380.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter views the black press as a primary context of Flood advocacy fundamentally shaped by Robinson in the 1940s. Black newspapers had become accustomed to fighting the inclusionist fight in ...
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This chapter views the black press as a primary context of Flood advocacy fundamentally shaped by Robinson in the 1940s. Black newspapers had become accustomed to fighting the inclusionist fight in baseball, and the sport represented the social arena in which black newspapers possessed greatest influence. Through a rhetoric of self-abstraction, black newspapers simply denied the importance of Flood’s blackness in advocating careful labor reforms in pro baseball. By considering the proposition that the black press constituted a “counterpublic,” the chapter concludes with an examination of the disincorporated rhetoric through which speakers in the black press advocated Flood’s case.Less
This chapter views the black press as a primary context of Flood advocacy fundamentally shaped by Robinson in the 1940s. Black newspapers had become accustomed to fighting the inclusionist fight in baseball, and the sport represented the social arena in which black newspapers possessed greatest influence. Through a rhetoric of self-abstraction, black newspapers simply denied the importance of Flood’s blackness in advocating careful labor reforms in pro baseball. By considering the proposition that the black press constituted a “counterpublic,” the chapter concludes with an examination of the disincorporated rhetoric through which speakers in the black press advocated Flood’s case.
David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604730913
- eISBN:
- 9781617030444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604730913.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This book includes chapters on Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Curt Flood, Paul Robeson, Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. The chapters here talk about twentieth-century ...
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This book includes chapters on Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Curt Flood, Paul Robeson, Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. The chapters here talk about twentieth-century athletes whose careers were affected by racism and whose post-career reputations have improved as society’s understanding of race changed. The chapters attempt to clarify the stories of these sports stars and their places as twentieth-century icons by analyzing the various myths that surround them. When media, fans, sports leagues, and the athletes themselves commemorate sports legends, shifts in popular perceptions often serve to obscure an athlete’s role in history. Such revisions can lack coherence and trivialize the efforts of some legendary competitors and those associated with them. Adding racial tensions to this process further complicates the task of preserving the valuable achievements of key players.Less
This book includes chapters on Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Curt Flood, Paul Robeson, Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. The chapters here talk about twentieth-century athletes whose careers were affected by racism and whose post-career reputations have improved as society’s understanding of race changed. The chapters attempt to clarify the stories of these sports stars and their places as twentieth-century icons by analyzing the various myths that surround them. When media, fans, sports leagues, and the athletes themselves commemorate sports legends, shifts in popular perceptions often serve to obscure an athlete’s role in history. Such revisions can lack coherence and trivialize the efforts of some legendary competitors and those associated with them. Adding racial tensions to this process further complicates the task of preserving the valuable achievements of key players.
