We remember Mike Fornieles (1932-1998)

 

We remember Mike Fornieles who was born Jose Miguel (Torres) Fornieles  in Havana on this day in 1932.   Mike, as he was known, broke into the majors in 1952 with the then Washington Senators now Minnesota Twins.  He played for Chicago, Baltimore and Boston.   He was an effective bullpen pitcher saving 40 games for Boston in 1959-61.  

Mike died in Tampa in 1998.  He was a closer before we called them that.

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We remember Curt Flood (1938-97)

We remember Curt Flood who was born on this day in 1938.  

Curt was a pretty good baseball player.  He was a career .293 hitter and an important piece of the St Louis power team that won 3 National League pennants in 1964, 1967 and 1968.   

Flood played on a team that included Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Orlando Cepeda, Tim Mc Carver and quite a few others.

Back in 1970, Curt Flood filed a lawsuit against major league baseball.

However, he lost the case in 1972 when the Supreme Court favored baseball:

“On June 19, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court rules against Curt Flood in Flood v. Kuhn, denying Flood free agency as a baseball player. Flood was trying to break the reserve clause that had tied baseball players to one franchise since the establishment of professional baseball.”

Eventually, the players’ union won the “free agency” fight in 1976 after 2 strikes and several court appeals.  The net result is that “Free agency” changed the game and blew up the owners’ monopoly.  

Flood never got to make the big bucks but he had a lot to do with the benefits that the players enjoy today.  He was the one who challenged the system and took a bullet for the union.

Flood died in 1997.

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