Musings - on the editor's mind

OK old-timers. Here is the most inside of insider baseball. What’s the question to this answer: Curt Flood.

Give up? Here’s the question: What pioneering, heroic, personally sacrificing-his-career sports star does Colin Kaepernick take after?

I was crazy about sports as a kid and came of age as the 1970s emerged from the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. When I first followed sports, players wore narrow ties and said “Sir’ and “Ma’am” There was no irony and almost no nodding and winking when players, professional and college, were termed All Americans. A much more innocent time, it was.

All of a sudden, in 1970, Curt Flood, three time All Star member of the two-time St. Louis Cardinal World Series winners, is sitting out the 1970 season. Remember that? A labor dispute. In baseball. The American pastime. Completely out of the blue.

Flood was 32 in 1970 and still playing well. He liked St. Louis and refused to be traded to Philadelphia. Not only that, Flood sued Major League Baseball. His case went to the Supreme Court. He lost, but in 1976 the reserve clause, which made a player the team’s property, was shredded. Salaries soared in every sport.

Flood? He was toast. Traded to the Senators, he played 13 games and batted .200. He retired.

Flood sued Major League Baseball. He took the initiative. He put his head in the lion’s mouth, knowing that he would be chewed up, and he was.

How brave is Colin Kaepernick? Very brave. How principled is he? Very principled.

Will he change the world? Maybe he will.

I hope so, in the image and model of Curt Flood.