Tom Seaver won his third and final Cy Young Award this year. It was a
close vote; Seaver barely edged out Padres' hurler Randy Jones. It was the
last big year Seaver had for the Mets; a year later he was dealt to Cincinnati,
where he continued to pitch very well, on his way to over 300 career wins. Jones,
on the other hand, was only 25 years old, and was just getting his career on the
right track. The previous season, he had an 8-22 record with the hopeless
Padres. The Padres weren't much better this year, but Jones pitched great,
and turned his record around.
This may have been Andy Messersmith's best
season. He was 30 years old, and had been an outstanding pitcher for several
years. He was also on the verge of changing baseball forever. Baseball's Players
Union had already failed to strike down the hated reserve clause in court;
now they wanted to challenge the wording of the clause before an independent
arbitrator. The problem was, they needed a player to refuse to sign with
his team, and declare himself a free agent. Such a bold move could potentially
end the player's career, which is what happened to Curt Flood a few years earlier.
The reserve clause had been around since the
19th century; it made every player the property of his team for his entire
career. A player could not change teams unless he was traded; he also could
not bargain for a higher salary unless he was a star, and then could threaten to
hold out. But the reserve clause was vaguely worded, and did not specifically
say what should happen to a player when his contract ran out. Baseball had been
doing business the same way for almost 100 years, and had always assumed that
when a player's contract ended, his team had the right to automatically resign
him.
After the 1975 season, pitchers Andy Messersmith
and Dave McNally refused to sign with their teams. They tried to declare
themselves free agents, and the case was taken before an arbritrator, Peter
Seitz. Seitz made a historic ruling, that Messersmith and McNally did not
have to sign with their teams; they were now free agents, and could sign
with any team they wanted, for whatever salary. The free agency era was born,
as was the era of skyrocketing player salaries. Messersmith signed a nice
contract with the Atlanta Braves; he then hurt his arm, and his career quickly
ended. But he played a large role in changing the game, for better or for worse.
