The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 637 - Curt Flood

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Comedians Gareth Reynolds and Dave Anthony examine Rubert Murdoch. Part One of Two.  Tour Dates Redbubble Merch Sources   Nutrafol - code DOLLOP.   

Alright everybody, so listen as you probably know I travel a lot a ton always on the road always staying in places and If I ever get to choose for myself, I always choose Airbnb over a hotel. It's just better. It's more like a home Anyway, so look I also recently started thinking like while I'm gone Can I turn my place into an Airbnb and the the answer is yes, it can be as easy as putting your place up, then you make a little more money on the side, just generate it from someone staying at my place while I'm on the road.

So whether you can use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something more fun, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to the Dullup on the All Things Comedy Network. This is an American History podcast where each week I, Daveed Anthony, read a story from American history to a clod. That's a good one. These are getting a little, I wouldn't even say passive aggressive.

These are directly aggressive. Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. And I just stick to the copy. I thought you were like a- And I just stick to the copy. I thought you were like an improv guy, like a shake it up a little bit. Yeah, but it's all about the crowd. But yeah, you look for like good initiations to like-

You got it. Nope, did not. When someone just walks in and is like, I hate you. You're like, okay. I didn't say I hated you. I just said you're a clod. That's not at all saying I hate you. Dave, listen, we have taken down the fake Dallup YouTube and we want to thank everybody

who helped report it because we just wanted to have our own YouTube. It's 10 years in, it's time to get it together. So if you want to see Dallup-related content where we're in charge of it, go follow or subscribe to the Dallop podcast on YouTube. And it'll say official in parentheses. And we should thank Preston Tompkins, who's our editor who really spearheaded a lot of that stuff. So go follow that. Subscribe to it.

Was that the improv? What are you doing? So, you're the improv guy who just sits there and talks about the improv? That's cool. That's a good role for you. That's helpful and good. Though, why not be the judge of the improv in the show? That's a good role.

You have inadvertently done the worst thing you could do, which is to give me a suggestion. Well, I... Which will now play out on the podcast. I believe it has been. So, you're now... Good night everybody. Dave, we're brought to you by... We also have a Patreon if you want to enjoy our Patreon content.

A lot of content. And then tons of other content. Our Patreon people are very happy with our Patreon. People have said it's more content than they've seen on any other Patreon. Yeah. A lot of people ask us to stop doing as much and we ignore that. We will keep doing some because, we'll be honest, a lot of it is bad, but we have volume.

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There's about 74 videos, about three seconds each of me winking. Yeah. Yeah. And that's pretty much everything. But again, we have more stuff than you can handle. But join the club, go to the Patreon and be a part of the revolution. Be part of the revolution. Click click, bang bang, bang.

No. No, I agree. We're off the rails. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. January 18th, 1938. Year of our Lord, J-Town. Is this an ad? No. Oh. This is. This is the show. This is the show. Okay, all right. Here we go.

Curtis Charles, why would you think I would, for an ad say J-Town? I don't know. Just getting into some new marketing strategies. I don't know. I don't know how it works. We are an ad for Jaytown. No, don't agree.

He is a sponsor. No, he's not. Yeah, he is. No. Gareth, I don't want you to go to hell. Dave, I want to go wherever you're not. January 18th, 1938, Curtis Charles Flood was born in Houston, Texas to parents Herman

and Laura Flood. Curtis Flood? Curtis Flood. Okay. Is this one where I should be like, oh yeah? No. Okay. Should I be like, oh yeah?

Oh, I know. I don't know. Okay, okay. I don't think either one, no. Yeah, not. Okay don't know. Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't think you they won't know. Yeah, okay not okay, maybe quiet. Okay They moved to Oakland when he was a toddler He was the youngest of six kids Herman taught the kids to love art and music Okay, so so far. It's like your upbringing

Kind of is Kurt and his brother Carl were both athletic and artistic The family's not poor, but they also didn't have anything, is what he said. It's interesting. I get that. Yeah, I can get that. Quote, we ate at regular intervals, but not much. Okay. I told you recently on the show when my mother said that they would eat bread from the frying

pan. They would cook the lamb, then they would work the lamb for a few days. And then one of the meals they had growing up was just, there would be a piece of bread that they would put in the frying pan with the grease and that was the meal, like lamb flavored bread. Oh yeah, you did tell me that. That seems so like- Anyway, loaf of lamb. She was she

Raised in the Great Depression. That's just sort of Really? It's not great. No, it's really not great. But uh, we're going you know, it could be called lamb of Claude My family lamb, that's a callback and an allusion to Randy Bly. Anyway, go ahead They landed in a white Oakland neighborhood now there I should say they're a black family Allusion to Randy Bly. Anyway, go ahead. They landed in a white Oakland neighborhood. Now there, I should say they're a black family. Uh-huh, okay. It's very interesting because Curtis Flood, I feel like I know who this is, but I don't remember.

You might know. Okay. So they were there for a little bit, but then they moved to a less affluent neighborhood because of the increasing hostility from whites after World War II. I'm a little sick and tired of you kind of like giving the side eye to the white. Yeah, I'm not big on a lot of stuff. If white's so wrong, why does it rhyme with right?

Well, because they're just similar words. Oh. Yeah. Herman worked in the defense industries and Laura ran a cafe and mended parachutes on the side, but after the war they got jobs. We'll just move on from her job as a parachute mender. You're right. I feel like this is not the first person on the podcast that has been a parachute mender.

I might be wrong. Sure. I feel like during the war, a lot of people were mending parachutes. Sure. Absolutely. I hope that they did it well. By the way, yeah, I was just going to say, if I'm in the war, give me a freshie. If you're mending a parachute, that means somebody died, right?

High stakes job. Someone's parachute was definitely shot. Yeah. Okay. They couldn't lose. I mean, can you imagine that sensation of like, it really, when you do talk about like those wars, like, I mean, dudes parachuting, knowing that they're just going to be shot at, that takes a level of like, can you imagine that?

You just be like, I hope they shoot my friends. I sure hope they shoot my friends. I say that wherever I go though. I know, but it's so different. It's like you'll be at breakfast. It's just like a weird thing to say. Yeah, it is a weird thing to say, but I say it. I share it a lot.

Jerry's deli just to be sitting at the counter like, sure, I have to shoot my friends. Can I get a refresh on the coffee? Thanks, Gladys. If there are parachute menders, that means that there was a guy's job to go out and collect parachutes, right? Yeah. Off the battlefield or whatever. Listen, this is before the Defense Department had a limitless credit card.

So this was back when they were like, look, we got to hustle it. They were like, who's got a boat? Can we borrow it for war? It's back in those times. Anyone have a car we can use for war? And now they're just like, we got a pick from 25 cars. Yeah. And we're making a jet that we don't use. Lots of them too.

So after the war, they got jobs at Fairmont Hospital. At nine, Kurt joined the Junior's Sweet Shop baseball team. Okay. Kurt joined the juniors sweet shop baseball team Okay managed by George Powell's who we've talked about before he was a white guy who coached in local amateur leagues in Oakland sure Powell's had developed many a talented baseball players who then would go on to Major League Baseball David we doing a baseball episode. He treated the players very well. Devil. Because of that, Carl started seeing for the first time, Curtis, sorry, Curtis started seeing white people as human beings instead of just stereotypes.

I like that. I like hearing that. I still don't though. It's hard. It's hard. It's a hard, it's a hard,ites are in the midst of a pretty hard run. Yeah, they're having a bad, they're having a bad go right now. Having a tough run. Tough. I mean, it is like if they're a team, it's just like, boy,

the whites cannot get out of their own way this season. They are really just own goal again left and right. They're way over the cap, by the way. Way over the. The whites go over the cap and boy, they cannot put a winning squad together. This is a bumbling bunch of losers So Carl's junior high art teacher pushed him to get further into art which buddy Now we're I keep saying now we're in the ads Kurt. You're just setting it up to do a Carl's jr. Commercial Yeah, I am. This is a car. This is the

original story of Carl's Jr. I can't wait to find out. Why is it Hardee's someplace? But it's about a guy named Kurt. I should not have put his first, his brother's thing up there at the top. Anyway, in high school, Kurt created the backgrounds for proms and plays. He made extra cash designing star front window displays and ads for a furniture store. So he's a, he's a little art guy.

Yeah. I'm sure that's not how he wanted to be referred to as a little art guy, but that's, is the little art guy. That's what I went with. Okay. Um, he went to McClements High School in West Oakland and they transferred to Oakland Technical High School and he did that so he could keep playing on this American Legion team. He went to Wemmits High School in West Oakland and they transferred to Oakland Technical High School and he did that so he could keep playing on this American Legion team. He went to Oath?

Yes. Oath. Oakland Technical High. Oath High School. Oaths, sure. Oaths. Sure. He played third and he hit 440 for that team and And in 1955 he became captain, moved to center field,

hit 620 in 27 games. That's crazy. If you don't know baseball, that's insane. I don't know baseball and I know that's wild. Yeah. They won the state championship. Kurt also played on semi-pro teams in the Alameda Winter League.

So he's a ball player. He's a very good ball player. Right. Pals was a freelance scout for the Cincinnati Red Legs, who are now known as the Cincinnati Reds. But why did they change that? That's the red legs. Now, racist.

I think dumb. Okay. Dumb or racist. Just because they wore red. Welcome back to Dumb or Racist. Now why do they call the Cincinnati Reds? Is it because they're just really dumb or does it have a racist tie? They wore red socks.

Ah, so it's just stupid. Pull it right back. Welcome back to double racist. So Kurt signs a contract with them when he graduates. Okay. Fifty six four thousand dollars. track with them when he graduates. Okay. 56, $4,000. So that means he has to go to Florida for spring training or for Florida, which is in the south if you're not aware of that. And for our international listeners, that is where you want to be as a non-white. And

56, absolutely. A Different racial situation than California. California's not great, but yeah. It's the first time he had ever been on a plane. So he gets to Florida. He gets to the town. He is quickly- You know, if he was in this day and age, he'd film the landing. Oh, 100%.

Those people. He gets to the hotel, the team hotel, and they quickly usher him out a side door of the hotel and take him across town to Ma Felder's boarding house, because that's where the black players get to live. Why did they even bring him to the hotel? He went there. Oh, he went there like, this is where we're staying. And they were like, no.

Oh dear. No. Don't you know we've ignored the Civil Rights Act? I mean, it was probably that the guy in California said, yeah, go to the team hotel when you get there, not realizing. Right. So yeah, quote, until it happens,

you literally cannot believe it. After it happens, you need time to absorb it. I was at Mafelder's because white law, white custom and white sensibilities required me to remain offstage until needed. It's like you. Boy, the whites are having a hell of a season. Whites are having a run. But the starting pitchers for the whites this year,

over 80 years old, not a great call for the whites. Not a great call. Pitcher Joe Biden lost right now, accidentally threw feces out of his glove towards first base, not sure what he's doing. So they're going to bring in relief pitcher Donald Trump who trots out there and is also crapping his pants. Well, I'll tell you, how are the whites so far over the cap with these two guys as the leaders of this squad?

I don't get it. Why you? These are two. They've served their country. They are. I don't agree. The whites are not sure what they're doing. Love to know who the manager is of the whites, but unfortunately he's hidden behind a black

sheet. Wow. Who is this person? What? Who is it? I think it might be the Bilderberg group, Dave. All right. We'll be right back.

Carl's Jr. brought to you by this one. So spring training for the team is held at an old army base and the players live in barracks. There's like 400 players. You woke up at 7 a.m. every day. They put... Is this just a ploy to put them in the army? They put numbered placards on his back. They might just be in the army.

They're like, when do we start hitting balls? Like, shut up, go stab that dummy. There's separate white, black barracks. So after that, he is sent to Cincinnati's Class B team in Thomasville, North Carolina, where he also can't stay in hotels with his white teammates or eat in restaurants with them. He has to go to the back door to get food,

or he'd wait on the bus till a team would bring it to him. Just good stuff. Okay. I'm not trying to get away from the fact that that as a societal decision is horrendous. But if you were in charge of a team, so much of the like team chemistry and stuff is built by the team hanging out. Like as a coach, you would be like, hey, we would love to have you like eat with us. Here's a problem with your.

I get your theory. I totally understand. It makes complete sense. But right. The coach is a fucking racist. That would. OK, thank you, sir. Also, there's laws that they can't.

Yeah, I know. But I would think that you'd be like, you know, you'd be like, let's eat on the bus. I don't know what the solution is. No, you're right. You're totally right. Yeah. Yeah. So, he couldn't use gas station bathrooms. So, they would have to stop on the side of the road where he'd go to the bathroom. Dave, can you imagine someone stopping on the side of the road to go to the bathroom? Like if you're traveling with someone who's on your team and just pulling over and they're the bathroom. Dave, can you imagine someone stopping on the side of the road to go to the bathroom? Like if you're traveling with someone who's on your team and just pulling over and they're just peeing on the side of the road rather than using a bathroom.

Can you imagine that? You know this is a sore spot with me. What? What are you talking about? You know I don't care for this. What? You know I don't care for it. Dave has major problems with my favorite move, which is the old sneak and piss so that

the ways time doesn't go up 15 minutes for stopping at a 76 or something. There's no, there's no, I love it. It's a sneak. There's no sneak. I do the thing where I always pretend like I'm looking at the tires. That's exactly what I'm looking at. If there's, if it always go pee on the tire. Yeah.

Yeah. See, I go, I think it's a little low on air and I'm just pissing. No. Okay. Go ahead. Either way. You want to do the story? Go.

You want to, you've got to gripe, go. Either way. Now at games, fans let them know they did not like seeing a black player on the field. Nice. That's awesome. One of my first and most enduring memories is of a large loud cracker who installed himself and his four little boys in a front row box and started yelling black bastard at me. Jesus Christ. I noticed that he side-eyed the boys narrowly

as if to make sure they were learning the correct intonation. And I see how I'm affected the black bastard by my talk. That's pretty good. That's what you want. You can tell I'm searing this memory into his head. And it's very important you wait for the eye contact to hit him with a hard black bastard.

You see, boy? Black bastard! That's pretty good, Phil. Phil's got a good black bastard. You see boy? Black bastard! That's pretty good Phil. Phil's got a good set. Way to go boy. Black the thing! There you go. Alright settle down. No no reusing. I love you black bastard! No no no you don't love him. Don't say you love him. I love you!

No you don't love him. No no no no no. We're trying to hurt. So we're saying that in a negative way. He's on our team. He's on our team. He's on our team. I understand. It's a bit of a hard line to toe sometimes. But we want him to win, but we want to win without him. Okay?

So don't be saying things like, you love him because you don't love him. We hate him. We love the team, but we don't like him. And I know it's a bit hard to understand. We like the whites. I like the team. You are going to be living in the car real soon. Daddy?

Yeah, little boy? What's a white devil? This is the hardest conversation you ever have to have with your kid. His teammates and managers weren't much better than the fans. They were offended he was there. They wouldn't talk to him off the field. Sure. The few who were okay with him didn't want to antagonize the others.

Quote, I was completely on my own. Is there a better comp for our society than there are those people who are like, this is wrong, but they're like, I don't want to feel weird. I'm not going to rock the boat. That'll feel kind of weird. I'll just let him be racist at him so that I it doesn't feel weird. Yeah Wasn't uncommon for him to go back to his room and cry after game It's good. It's just how you end a game. He knew quitting would make them think that they were right

So he welcome back to sweater tears sweater tears that they were right. So he welcome back to sweater tears, sweater tears. He also knew that it would ruin his life if he quit. So he he he bored out and was like, I'm going to get through this. He played harder. He wore Jackie Robinson's number. Kirk called it the Peckerwood League. Nice. It should be the name it was given. That should have been the official. They should have changed the name. Sure. They should be referred to in all his history books. The peckerwood like

picker woods one game. He was having such a good game at the plate that the opposing manager put himself in the game as pitcher and hit Kurt Kurt in the head with a pitch. He put himself in the game to throw the ball at his head. Is that? That's baseball. Is that okay? Yeah, I mean, yeah. You can put yourself in?

Yeah, you can do that. Not that that's my only issue with what you just said. Boy, that sounds a bit strange. You can put yourself in. If you did it today, they would be like, you're fined and suspended. But back then they're like, okay. Interesting move right here. He's putting himself in it. Boy, he's really hit Kurt hard. It is the Beckerwood League.

He's a little too old to be doing this. It's the Beckerwood League. Yeah. Right. What do you expect? Yeah. So after Kurt Gotti went to first base, he stole second, he stole third, next to Batty at home run. Okay. Good. So that's the kind of player he's good. Right.

Despite their treatment, the league's best players were black and Latino. So weird. How? Really must have hurt. Strange. All right, look, now we gotta, this is tough, because most of the good players are non-whites,

but I think, okay, we are rooting for the, I don't even, I don, okay, we are rooting for the, I don't even, I don't know. I'm pretty sure we need to, yeah, Christ. They shouldn't even be letting them play on the same diamond, God damn it. I don't know. Oh boy, this is, I love the team, but I hate the color of the best parts of the team.

Oh, God damn it. I don't even know anymore. Oh, God, look, can some of the whites get a little bit better place? Jesus Christ. Uh, so he's named player of the year. OK, he's named player of the year. He still hates it. For the first time ever, he's not having fun playing baseball. He hated his own pitcher so much that he sometimes thought about making errors on purpose. But he plays so well that he gets a late season call up to the Reds.

So at the end of the season they expand the roster so they can bring up young guys. So he goes up for a month. His first game was on September 9th, 1956. The highlight of his time there was being on the field with Jackie Robinson in New York. Yeah. The next season he starts with the red legs, but, but pretty soon he's sent down to Savannah class 18 now Savannah is in Georgia. Right. Uh, same. Yeah.

Uh, concern. Why? Um, Georgia, very south. Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Uh, don't love it. Have you ever heard the song Georgia on my mind? Yes. So it's fine.

It's not about a state. No shit. I always thought it was about the state. And that'd be, it'd be strange for Ray Charles to be like, what a place. Is that Ray Charles song? Who's Ray Charles? Let's do this offline. Okay.

Right. So Georgia, he gets the same, he gets the same terrible treatment, probably worse treatment than he did at the previous place. In Georgia, they wouldn't even wash his uniform with the white players' uniforms. Well, to be fair, we're still not mixing colors and whites when we do laundry. They are, no. That's always been a thing. I've always found that.

I, personally, ally. When you said separate the whites and darks, I thought you meant the clothes. I did. I don't think we're allowed to have this conversation. They would do the laundry in the clubhouse, but since they couldn't wash his with the other people, they would send his out to get washed and then everyone else would be dressed and ready on the field and he would be waiting for his uniform. At what point is someone like, hey, this is like insane?

Completely insane. Completely fucked. Well, I mean, you know, not long, I mean. But it's just like that idea, you had to just be like, this is more like, look, our racism is really amounting in a lot more work. Like, we can go home, if we were not, I'm not saying we can be racist, but like being laundry racist, we're all going home an hour later.

Yeah, but what you're telling me is that you want to put the black laundry mat out of business. So you're saying you don't want people to have jobs. I don't even know what I want anymore. Yeah, I know. They've really... Yep. It's bad.

So the laws in Georgia forced him to change a loan in a sectioned off area by the dugout that was made of corrugated tin. That's just crazy. It's insane. They gave him a tin at like. A tin shack to a changing shack, a little tin changing shack. The only place he could find to live was. It's just like, it's, it's almost like they're like. It's a woman. The only place he could find to live was a... It's almost like they're like, it's a woman.

The only place he could find to live was a nearby local black college. He tears it up though. He is called up to... I have a matter of time until the whites are changing. I think it's a magic shed. Yeah, that's something special about it. Nah, he's using the locker room and the rest of us will use the shed.

I wanna wear a black person's uniform, is that- Now, hold on. Weird to say. Well, we're trying to figure out how we can maintain our racism. And also, yes, we should probably be wearing his clothes. He's got look it's pretty obvious he's wearing magic clothes. So what we're going to do from now on is we're going to wash his uniform here at the facility and the rest of our uniforms are going to

go off to wherever they were washing his uniform so we can glean a little bit of his magic. We should also change in that little shack he's got. Yes. And we're also all changing in the shack and he gets the locker room to himself. And we're all staying at the black college and he gets our mansion. Yep. Figured it out. Done. We made it happen. That was close.

So, end of 57, he gets called up. He only got three at bats, but one of them, he got one hit and that happened to be a home run first hits a home run in the winter he was traded though to the st. Louis Cardinals because The other outfielders in Cincinnati were black and Cincinnati was not ready for an all-black outfield Wow for an all black outfield. Wow. You know, it's again, you're, you're the chess game between your racism and your winning is really hard, really hard. I mean, if you're in the business of, it's just amazing when like capitalism and race are like at loggerheads. Yeah. They really have a hard time. That's just the crazy. So there was actually an unspoken quote of Frank Robinson, who was a great black player,

said, quote, if you saw a few blacks at spring training at a major league camp and there were more than four, you said, uh-oh, someone's got to go. Four. Four. He plays 13 games for the Cardinals minor league team before he gets called up He was the starting center fielder for two months and then his average dropped He played really well and then start dropping he finished season with a 261 average and 50 records 50 runs scored. That's pretty good Not great, but good

Defensively, he's amazing though in 1959. He gets married to Beverly Collins She has two kids who he adopts and then they would go on to have three more kids He's amazing though. In 1959, he gets married to Beverly Collins. She has two kids who he adopts and then they would go on to have three more kids. Even though they have three kids, it's not a great marriage. He was constantly stressed by his relationship and then providing for a family of seven. Seven or five? Well, he had five kids and then he and his wife. Oh, right, right.

They had five. Three kids plus two came into the... Yeah. So the Cardinals fire their manager whom he likes and they hire a new one who's a racist. What are the odds that they fired him because he was getting along with the black players? I don't know. Instead of having a meeting where you're doing the strategy talk, you're like,

how do you feel about a non-whites? I do not like them. We're looking for someone like that. So, what's his name, Bush? Anheuser Bush? The people who owned Budweiser owned this team at the time. Okay. So Bush is the owner, and he seems pretty fucking clueless about how the black players are treated

based on what Kurt said. So it's, I don't know if that's what it would be. Boy, the Bushes have been scooting by on not really understanding their nightmarish behavior for quite a while in this country. Yeah, but different Bush. Still. B-U-S-C-H. You know, because you drank so much of the beer. I used to, until I found out it was Nazi water.

What just happened? Hi. Hi? Oh wait, that's chorus. I won't drink either. I wait, which one am I drinking? Which one's the one for the people who so confused as to what beer I can drink? I drink Budweiser because Kid Rock hates it, but I won't drink Coors because it's Nazi water.

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And if I ever get to choose for myself, I always choose Airbnb over a hotel. It's just better. It's more like a home. A lot of times I will book Airbnb even if like a club will book me a home or whatever. But recently I was at a hotel and someone walked into my room because they'd been given the key to my room as well. And I was like, yeah, it's not a great idea. So I ended up leaving that hotel and got an Airbnb for the night because there's also a little bit of security in it.

Anyway, so look, I also recently started thinking like while I'm gone, can I turn my place into an Airbnb? And the answer is yes, it can be as easy as putting your place up. Then you make a little more money on the side, just generate it from someone staying at my place while I'm on the road. So whether you can use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something more fun,

your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Back to the story. So, it's like he has a decent year, right? He has the kids, he Back to the story. So, he has a decent year, right? He has the kids, he's got the family. He's trying, he's doing his best. They fire their manager, they bring in a racist manager. One evening, they knew he was racist

because he yells at a player during a game that you're a black bastard, then talks to the team, his own team afterwards about the how that guy's a black bastard. Look, you might've heard me say something during the game that I did. Yeah. Yeah. We all heard it. Chase said black bastard.

And I just want to say that my actions were right. He is a black bastard and I just want to validate myself. All right, hit the showers. Coach, that I was expecting more of an apology or like I didn't mean to... I'm a bad guy so I thought maybe you would say something along lines of... but I just came out and I didn't mean that. And, um, cause it's super racist. So coach, I think I left the room. I'm not sure. Oh, that's how it's going to be.

The showers. I'll tell you the bet. You know what the white guys can always hit the showers. Hmm. Hmm. Come on. Hmm. Hmm. Come on. Okay. They're uncomfortable.

I'm going to go hang out in the showers while the white boys shower a little bit. I'm going to go to the car. You should look at us. A lot of wild team. Why shower in? I'm in my clothes. You boys aren't. We're the happiest guys in the world. We're the white guys.

Come here, boys. Who needs me to drive? Let me wipe you off. I do. No, that's disgusting. So Kurt said he, the new coach didn't think he was a good center fielder, even though he was maybe the best or second best. Quote, he sat me on the bench and acted as if I smelled bad. He avoided my presence and when he could not do that, he avoided my eye.

What was he giving him? Excuse me? Well, if he was avoiding his presence, what were the presents? No. Like, I wonder if you're trying to bribe him with presents. No, this is a different meaning of the word. There's only one meaning of presents, and it's the meaning of Christmas every year for each of us.

P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S. S-E-N-T-S. Yeah. C-E. Presence. Yeah. I see. Sure. So he doesn't play as much is what happens. New centerfielders were always auditioning for the job. He gets so stressed. He gets insomnia. He but then that coach gets fired after a year.

He's out. He's just not racist enough for what we're trying to do. The new coach is a guy named Johnny Keene who had almost joined the priesthood and he really likes Kurt. He treats him really well. Kurt plays better. Kurt starts getting involved in the civil rights movement, which is really taken off. He starts making trips to the South as a part of that. In 1962, he meets Johnny and Marion Jorgensen.

They're an older white couple who live in Oakland. Jorgensen's white? Okay, go ahead. If you can believe that. Interesting. They become really close. Okay. Uh, Johnny owned an industrial engraving plant and he, cause Kurt's an artist, he teaches Kurt the trade and he's really good at engraving.

And they plan for Kurt to join the company as a partner after he retires from baseball. Right. He even moves in with them for a little while. And they talk politics and social issues. And Kurt said the first time he met them, it bordered on spiritual. Whoa, there we go. Quote, what it boiled down to was that the Jorgensen and Flood loved each other on sight. The Jorgensen's wide interests arouse an intellectual hunger in me. There you go.

Some good whites. I mean, it's weird. It's all weird. It's all weird. It's good. It doesn't matter to me if you're white, black, or whatever it is. if you're just a young dude hanging out with an old couple, I just think it's weird.

Oh, stop it. I do. You've never spent a summer learning engraving from an old Swedish couple? Stop it. You put it like that, now I feel dumb. Stop it. Now I feel dumb. So, Kurt played very well for Kane.

He had a 322 average from 1962 to 1968. He was a great player. He hit 302. They won World Series in 64 and 67. Kurt is a huge part of that. He was on three All-Star teams. He won six gold gloves. In 1968 Sports Illustrated called him

baseball's best center fielder. And this is what Willie Mays is around, so. Oh wow. High price. He was co-captain of the team in 1965. So he's having huge success on the field. Family situation, not as good. Sure.

He had at home, he had a 217 average. A lot of errors. A lot of errors, unforced. So Beverly sues him for divorce after the 1963 season, but by the spring, they start getting back together. She gets pregnant again. She tried to trade him, but then that trade fell through. Yeah, it falls through, they work it out.

Back there. He's hitting okay. They remarry in 64. Okay. But then she sues for divorce again in 66. Oh, good Lord. And she gets custody of the kids and 1,400 a month in alimony and child support,

and she gets half their property. Wow. So he gets pretty, yeah, that's pretty, yeah, that's a lot for him. So to make things worse on top of that year, Johnny Jorgensen is stabbed and killed by a mentally ill intruder at the engraving shop. Shit.

Now the cops at first are like, wait, there's a black guy hanging out with a white couple and they think it's him. Oh, God. He's like, I wasn't even in the state. He wasn't. You're not out of the woods just yet. He was in Los Angeles when it happened, so he wasn't even in Los Angeles. He could pull it off.

Yeah, he could do it. It's possible. So he gets out of that. They never actually arrest anybody for it, but they're fairly certain it's a mentally ill teen. So Kurt is now worried about Marion because Marion's all alone. So he asks her to move to St. Louis and handle his business affairs and help him out because he's a kind of a mess.

He needs help. So she moves to St. Louis and moves in with him to help him out because he's a kind of a mess. He needs help. So she moves to St. Louis and moves in with him to help him out. Okay. Kurt moves to a very fashionable area in St. Louis. The fans in St. Louis, they love, they love his playing. But also if you ever go to St. Louis, the first thing you notice is his fashion. That's all you think of. I mean think about the Sklars. They're from St. Louis. The fashion. Yeah.

It's their fashion. It's their style. It's the fashion. Yes, it's all St. Louis. The fashion. Yeah. It's their fashion. It's their styles, the fashion. Yes, it's all their style. They're not even funny, it's just their style. Oh, they're just known for being funny. I don't think they're doing comedy, they're just trying to do fashion. They walk around on the stage. They just do great fashion.

Show outfits. Absolutely. So, fans of St. Louis love his playing. They like his painting, they like his fancy clothes. There's a lot of gossip about him on the town. He's gone through a lot of relationships and affairs. One was with actress Judy Pace, who's like one of the few black actors on TV at the time. He's definitely womanizing and boozing all the time. Sure.

He always seemed to have a martini in one hand and a woman on the arm when he was out in St. Louis. So it's a lot like you. That's so much like me in St. Louis. I was just gonna say. Yeah, that's how you do St. Louis. It's always a martini and a lady. That's what you say when we pull into St. Louis.

You're like, I'm gonna do St. Louis. Well, you know where I'll be, at the bar with a martini and a lady. The worst is when I steal someone's martini and then I just put my arm around a lady that's like dating someone or there with someone. I'm like, please, please, I have a reputation to uphold. I mean, you have a thing. Is anyone here a lady?

Please. And by the way, I call them Gartinis. Take it back. And I like them extra. In 1967. When they ask how I like my martini made, I go, have the bartender shittin' it. I want it to be a sewer. That's absolutely not what a dirty martini is.

The grossest, I want, they're like, how dirty it? I go, gross. They're like, what do you mean? I go, have the bartender barf in it. That's how dirty I want it. Two olives and a little bit of diarrhea. What is... I'm just telling you how...

That's the way... That's how you get the real one. That's how you order a martini. No, I just know... Sloppy. I like my martini disgusting. Like a toilet in a building that's been condemned. Oh, God.

In 1967, he started a company, Kurt Flood Associates, for all those little business pursuits. Okay. It was run by a guy named Bill Jones, who was a business promoter that he kind of knew. Curt Flood Photography Studio opened which was focused on getting a piece of the local school picture business. That's a big business. Yeah, it is a big business. Also selling studio franchises and getting portrait commissions for Curt because Curt was a painter. Oh, interesting. He basically, he was basically the celebrity face

of the company and then that guy did all the business stuff. So in 1968 he hit 301 and they go to the World Series. Okay. And in game seven, he makes a terrible error, ball flies over his head, Cardinals lose. He takes the blame, he's like, that was my fault. The fans blame him. And after the season, the club offers him a $5,000 raise.

Okay. And he's like, no. He demands a $27,500 raise. Quote, if you don't pay me 100,000 to play baseball, then I'm going to retire. Now the fact that he demanded it and how it was said was leaked to the press. And then he tells the St. Louis Globe Democrat, quote, at this moment, I wouldn't consider even taking $99,999. That's good negotiating though,

because if I'm the team, I'm like, try it. What do you mean he took it? He took it? Oh, fuck. What? We got fucking screwed. That's basically $100,000. No, he's not really a dude who goes off, right?

He's quiet and contemplative. He spent a lot of time reading books. He listened to classical music. He spoke in a very soft, soothing voice. He was said to sound like a college professor. He liked to draw. He played classical piano. He taught his best friend, pitcher Bob Gibson,

how to play the ukulele. He also enjoyed, he read a lot of James Baldwin. So he's a fucking intellectual and an artist, right? During spring training, his brother Carl, who had done prison time for robbing a bank, was out on parole and living with Carl. With Curtis. Sorry, Kurt. Carl was living with Carl. With Curtis. Sorry, Kurt.

Carl's living with Kurt. When in prison, Carl had won two chess championships. He taught himself how to speak several languages. So they're smart. Yeah. It's a smart family. So he'd also once saved the life of a guard who was being beaten and Marion actually

campaigned for his parole. That's tough when you're inside. But we had him. Yeah, we had him. We were about to what? What side are you on? I didn't know he was a guard. Sorry.

He has a uniform on. I thought that, I didn't know. I thought they were giving us, I don't know. I thought one of us was in his unit. I thought it was a Scooby Doo. I thought we Scooby Doo'd it. What does that even mean? I thought he was maybe the guy. I don't know I thought it one of us was in his unit I thought it was a scooby-doo I thought we scooby-dooed it. What does that even mean? I thought he was maybe the guy I don't know I thought he was one of us and then we were gonna I don't know I'm just saying I just listen if we get a chance again we should

really beat him but I agree I you're no no no I didn't know no I didn't know no I didn't know I just I was snitch guy no no no I didn't I didn't know. You're a snitch. No, I didn't know. You're a snitch guy. No, I didn't know. You're a snitch guy. No, no, no. I didn't know. So I just, no. You grabbed Jeff, who was beating up the guard, and you pulled him off. I thought Jeff was a guard.

Am I the only one who thought those two did a body swap? That's what I think. Jeff has a striped- I think they did a body swap. That's what I think. I think that they peed into the same prison toilet at the same time and looked at each other in the eyes and said, geez, I wish I had your job. And then they swapped. So I think Jeff's the guard. Whoa. Hey, I think we should listen to this guy.

No, that's you. You're saying that. Hey, let's listen to what Carl's saying. I think he's got a pretty good point Your carl so we are all on the same page with this you're looking around and talking to yourself and making different voices Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl Yeah, you're the only guy here so Am I really in the running for MVP of all prisoners?

What does that even mean? Wow. So many people to thank. Well, I guess we should just go to ourselves. Good to see it. That's a good exit. That's a good exit. So Marion actually campaigns for his parole and gets it. He's been living with Kurt for a little while, and now he has a $300 heroin addiction a day.

$300 a day. This is a lot of money. In March 1969, he and a friend tried to rob a jewelry store, and they took hostages, and then they took a cop car, and then at a high speed, chased through downtown until they were caught. This is all on television. Now, the Cardinals don't really like the negative publicity. Well, that's also amazing to be like, hey, you brother, stop your brother from being a criminal.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a bad look. Two days later, owner of the team August Bush Goes to spring training gives the players a lecture front office personnel Anheuser Bush directors and the press are all invited And he tells his players not to be so greedy, focus on their performance on the field and have positive relationships with the fans and the press.

Hey, this beer magnates right. He says they're not being grateful. I don't know. Sorry, Kurt takes this as a threat to his future with the team. Right. He's like, this isn't good. But a lot of other players do too. Everyone's like, what the fuck? I said, you got to love when the rich tell you to not focus on money. Yeah, it's really, you know, it's like by the eye to me. Now I would look into the camera and go, now that's rich. So, so Kurt almost went overnight from being Bush's favorite player to his least

liked. Jesus. Kurt later said they lost the championship on that day. Quote, I feared that if I so much as hinted at the truth about that meeting, Iote, I feared that if I so much as hinted at the truth about that meeting, I would be gone from the team. The speech demoralized the team we became a morose and touchy team. Soon after Kurt was removed as co captain. Okay. And then things became worse between Kurt and the club. He misses an important public function he's supposed to do in May, and he pisses them off and he's fined $250.

And Kurt is now pissed because he had been spiked the day before and he has a 10 inch gash on his leg. He's in so much pain he can't sleep. And then he missed the thing. So it's not great near the end of the season, the press reports players are now upset that the front office ordered the manager to play a bunch of rookies. And the front office is like, that's got to be Kurt. He's going to the press. So someone also starts taking his parking spot under the stadium and he's like, obviously shit.

Is that not a solvable issue? I know, but I think it's more like so disrespectful that he's just like, they just don't fucking care. It's so bad. My name's also Kurt Flood. I thought it was weird. I mixed the Gatorade. Wow, these guys really appreciate me.

I put in the wrong thing, so that, he didn't demand the money yet, did I say that? I said he demanded, so I fucked up and I put that earlier. So this is when he demands money. So he hits 285 and he has 80 runs scored that year and he gets another Golden Glove award. And now he's demanding the money. Now he's like, I want the $100,000. Do you get an actual Golden Glove if you win that?

I think you get a little statue like a little, you know, like an Oscar type thing. Is it a Golden Glove? Yeah, it's a little Golden Glove. It's not an actual Golden golden glove you put on your hand and wear the next season. So, okay, so for those of us who are imagining that you get a magic glove, that's not what it is. Made of gold.

No, but now that you say that, they should. You don't get like a wizard's mitten. You should get a wizard's mitten. Why wouldn't you get a wizard's mitten? I agree. It's just another way that they don't treat the baseball players well. If you are the best defensive player at your position, you should get a Wizards Mitten. Dave, there are some times where I'll say things on this show and I think, eh, maybe that's not a winner.

And you've just lifted me in this one because you're right. They should get a wizard's mitten. Without question. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the best batter should get a wizard shaft. Hmm. It's just about nine inches. No, no, no. Let's really takes care of business. Hits all the right spots. How long is an average bat?

Oh, 32 inches. Are we talking about, I thought we were talking about shafts. Let's just, let's keep going and we'll sidebar on some of the stuff you're saying. Okay. Maybe in a couple minutes. But really hits the spots. Sure. Good. Go ahead.

So then on October 8th, 1969, he is traded to the Phillies. Fine. He mad? Yeah, well he's pissed. Okay. He is pissed. Even more so that the team had a quote, mid-level front office coffee drinker tell him

instead of a higher up on the team. They basically set the guy that everyone likes the least to tell him the news. You know, most sports have never gotten that right for the most part. There's still like so many times players find out via Twitter and shit like that. It's just like everyone's such a weakling when it comes to that. They're all like, we're like sports is like war. It's really blah blah blah.

They're like, who wants to tell him that he can't come here anymore? Who should we do? Who wants to tell him that he can't come here anymore? Who should we do? Let's put a note on a puppy and then punch, make it go talk to him. And also he was upset he was being sent to Philly, right? Quote, rivaled only by the Pirates as the least cheerful organization in the league.

Yeah. Kirk called it the- You've got a golden glove, Have you? Okay. Yeah. Okay. We've got his glove and it's cold. From sea water. Well, you're in Pittsburgh. That's we're close to the ocean. By the way, can I ask you a question? No. If you're pirates, why are you in Pittsburgh? Which is totally landlocked.

There's like a river, but it's totally landlocked. We've got on the map. So on the treasure map directions we're following, it said take 14,000 paces from the shore here and start a franchise of baseball for a couple hundred years. Then after that 10 pace is right.

So better be good. It doesn't make any sense at all. We're a little lost as an organization. If I'm being honest, yeah. Lost our way. Okay. Okay. A lot.

A lot. Lost our way. Okay. Okay. A lot. A lot. A Kurt called Philadelphia the northernmost southern city. Okay, fair. That's a good dig.

Yeah. The owner threatened to pull his team from the field that Jackie Robinson played there, but they had to play the games or forfeit them, so the players instead just yelled racist shit at Jackie. I love a good playing seed. The Phillies were the last National League team to integrate. Man.

Their current black player was treated so horribly that it was well known. And then he's one of the players they traded for Kurt. And it was just so is Kurt the only black player on the team? I think he would be, yeah. I think he would be. Now the Cardinals took, treated well. They took nice charter jets while the Phillies took like bad propeller planes, which take far longer to get

wherever they're going. Then there's the fans. Quote, I did not want to succeed Richie Allen in the affections of that organization. It's press and it's catcalling missile hurling audience. We've covered the Philly fans on this podcast. No, they threw batteries at Santa. It's a very difficult position because it's like, okay, well, your livelihood is to be

good but you're going to be good for the worst. Yeah. Especially at the end of your career, right? Yeah. because it's like, okay, well, your livelihood is to be good, but you're going to be good for the worst. Yeah. Especially at the end of your career, right? Yeah. You're like, yeah. Yeah. No one, so he publicly said he's not going to, he's going to retire instead and focus on his photography business and his painting, but no one believes him. No, no one. They just think it's a ploy to get more money.

Right. The Cardinals GM said he's not gonna retire, quote, unless he's better than Rembrandt. What's your favorite Rembrandt? This press conference is over. Shut it down! Yeah. He's not good enough.

I can't remember-ant. Sorry. He's not good enough to make a living as an artist. Oh, he isn't, okay. He had given Bush a portrait of Bush in his sailing outfit and Bush put it up on his yacht and then Bush was like, his yacht was called Miss Budweiser. And then he had Kurt Payne as kids

and then teammates were asking for paintings and it kind of went out from there. But so it's like mostly baseball people. And he did give paintings to the governor, and he gave one to the Pope, and then he gave one to MLKs, of MLK to his widow credit king. That's now hanging in the White House, actually.

Wow. It actually, it's hanging in the White House, and has someone else's signature on it. I think Joe Biden accidentally signed it. Ah! That's me. And that's someone else's signature is Kurt didn't paint it.

He would make sketches and then send them to a Burbank artist who would then do the oil paintings. Wow. And then he'd sign his name and give them to people. Wow. That's quite a racket. But then I don't think he expected it to become a thing because commissions are like rolling in from all these baseball people.

So the Phillies offer him $100,000 for the season. Okay. And he can't go to a team he wants because there's something called the reserve clause. And the reserve clause gives a club the right to renew a player's contract for a period of one year in perpetuity. Okay. So that's it. If they want you forever, they get you. You're locked into a team. You cannot get off that team unless they want to get rid of you. In 1890, Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act to prevent collusion and monopolistic business practices.

Oh my God. What a funny, funny idea. That is a bit goofballs. Thank you. That restrained trade or commas between states. So the reserve clause meant players could not sell their talents to the highest bidder. And this keeps labor costs low and it keeps profits up. Kurt quote, unless I have misread history, we have passed the stage where indentured servitude was justifiable

on grounds that the employer could not afford the cost of normal labor. You did miss on behalf of everything that this country said. You have greatly misread something. Not at all what it says. You skipped a bunch of paragraphs or words. I'm not sure what the hell you're talking about. You're just, would you go play? Would you, will you go play?

Shut up. We love money. Here's a ball. Shut up. We love money. Here's a ball. Shut up. We need all the money. Now baseball has been sued before over this and the Supreme Court ruled baseball was exempt from the Sherman Act because it was not engaged in interstate commerce. Although football, basketball, hockey, and other sports don't have the same protection.

Very interesting. Marion tells Kurt to challenge the reserve clause. This is a Jorgensen. Yeah, a Jorgensen, the York. So Kurt goes to Marvin Miller, who is the players union director. And he's like, the odds are against you, very against you. It's going to be expensive. It's gonna be expensive. It's gonna take years.

If you win, you're gonna be so old that you can't play anymore. So it's gonna benefit other people, not you. And the owners are just not gonna sign you anyway at that point. And he's also, in also, in the time of the lawsuit, he wouldn't be getting paid as a baseball player because he would be suing them. They wouldn't hire him. And after that, he'd never be, he'd never be able to coach. He'd just be

blacklisted from baseball. And also on top of that, they're going to dig up all the dirt they can. Any downsides? Is there anything that I should worry about if I pursue this? I can't think of anything. No. I think it's a go. Yeah. So Kurt was like, I mean, if it helps other players, cause he's at the end, he's basically close to the end of his career, right? Um, it's, there's Chris winding down. He's probably got a few years left. You probably three or four, but he's got the portrait stuff. He's got the pay. He's got other stuff. He's probably got a few years left. You probably threw sure but he's got the portrait stuff He's got the pay. He's got on diversify, yeah

Miller thinks Kurt's a very principled man Then they all meet with the Players Association Executive Committee, so that's a bunch of players from each team and they bat Kurt team and they back Kirk unanimously at that meeting. Roberto Clemente explained how the reserve clause made him play his entire 18 year career in Pittsburgh. Yeah. But he was, we, why is he being such a prick? We traded him pretty good.

Just love that a guy stood up and was like, I had to play my whole current Pittsburgh. Everyone gasps. Oh God. So the union picks. Do what you can to not be me. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh.

So the union picks Kurtz lawyer form, Arthur Goldberg, who was a former secretary of labor under Kennedy and a former associate justice of the US Supreme court, he's a huge lawyer. Like it is a massive score to get him. Kurt sends a lawyer to the baseball commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, on December 24th, 1969, stating he had the right to take offers from any team. And the commissioner responded, no, you don't. Then they made that letter public because that was always the plan. And Kurt says, I'm going to sue Major League Baseball. Now most players and reporters cannot even fathom the idea that a guy making $90,000

a year, particularly let's put it out there,, a black guy obviously, that's 100% part of this, could even be unhappy or refer to himself as an indentured servitude slave, right? That's what he said. On TV, he said he was, quote, a well-paid slave is nonetheless a slave. Okay. That didn't help. That didn't slave. Okay. That didn't help.

That didn't help. Sure. Yeah, people were like, uh, baseball, you're a baseball player. Who might I point out to being a bad, well-paid slave? It's crazy. Yeah, you're a slave who takes trips to Copenhagen in the off season.

So. So there's a lot of that. They, he just seemed like a rich, ungrateful whiner So there's a lot of that. He just seemed like a rich, ungrateful whiner who they painted as this was going to ruin baseball. You genuinely can like, when you think of the sensationalism of today's media, you can just still feel how they would be like highlighting and the fact that he is black would be a large subtle component in all of the hemming and hawing.

Yeah. I mean, let's look at what happened to Colin Kaepernick versus the guy, the kicker who just said all that shit. Yeah. I almost called him Josh Hawley. It's fine. You can. So.

Buckner, butner, butner, but. Major League Baseball says the reserve clause, they've convinced not only fans, but they've convinced a lot of players that the reserve clause is what makes baseball work, and that's why you have a job, because if we didn't have the reserve clause, baseball would die.

We couldn't have a business. They love that. So a lot of players believe that. A lot of fans believe that. And they're like, without it, rich teams are gonna rule baseball and nobody else is gonna ever win. And then the other teams in small markets

will go out of business. And they also said, and also on top of that, the players are gonna become corrupt. They might throw games just so they could sign a big contract with the team the next year that they helped win by throwing a game. Like it's just, it's, you know, it's made up bullshit. But it's also like, it's the unknown.

They're really, you're always able to argue the unknown. Yeah, always, 100%. They do it with, I mean, but that is the dissuasion tactic used today, again, it's the unknown, they're really, you're always able to argue the unknown. Yeah, always. 100%. Great. They do it with every, I mean, but that is the dissuasion tactic used today. Again, it's like, look, if you pass Medicare for all, it's going to be, if we do agree a new deal, it's going to, if you do, you're just like, yeah, I know, it sounds like, okay. Yeah. Let's go for it. Yeah. So, he sued for a million dollars in damages. But the goal is to kill the reserve clause.

When asked about walking away from a $90,000 a year salary, he told the St. Louis Globe Democrat, quote, sometimes money's not that important. I know it sounds corny, but that's the way I feel. The back page of the New York Daily News, quote, Kurt Winn kills baseball. The Philadelphia Daily News, quote, flood may become the first petitioning slave in the history of the US of the Republic with a Swiss bank account. Oh my God. So it's just a lot of that shit.

There's a lot of like, there's a lot of dudes who write for baseball, who are old white rider guys who are just totally in with management. They're like management management. If you can believe that. That's so shocking. Shocking how someone in that era would just sacrifice their principles for access.

Can you imagine? So the Phillies sent him a contract for $90,000 and he doesn't sign because they own the rights to him because he got traded some players like Karl Yeah, yes, Rimsky. How do you say his name? Yes, Stremski. Yes, Stremski. Yeah, it's spelled wrong here Sorry, you Stremski and Harmon Killebrew do not agree and they sigh with the owners. They would later say they were wrong Oh, well, or at least the guy who was live was. A lot of those players just signed or were about to sign big contracts. So a lot of the guys who were like, I don't know, they're making a lot of money.

Then the lower guys don't understand why it matters. Most players don't get it. And then when this happens, most black players are totally quiet. They don't say anything because they had succeeded by not rocking the boat. So they're not going to keep rocking the boat. It's like people in Hollywood. Yeah. Oh, come on. Oh, sorry. Sorry. So the owners and players, they have an agreement that they make every

couple of years and it's coming up at the end of the 1967 season. And so negotiations happen while the trial is looming. And the public has now been more aware how one-sided the system is, because the word is out. And players, like I said, players hadn't really thought about it, but now they were. And so the pressure is on the owners to do something for this unfair system. So the owners agree to let the players take grievances to independent arbitration, which

is a huge concession. Right. So, Kirk doesn't show up to spring training. And because of that, he's banned from baseball. So he's for the first time in 13 years, he's looking at not playing baseball in the spring and he's freaking out. He can't keep food down. Wow.

And Marian gets so stressed, she has nosebleeds and has to be hospitalized. Jesus, sympathy nosebleeds is- Yeah, have you ever had that? I get sympathy nosebleeds. I get sympathy nosebleeds for you all the time. Do you? Yeah. You do not seem the type that would be getting sympathy nosebleeds.

No, that's the only way I show it. It's the only way I show empathy. That is- is how on brand for you would it be that your version of empathy is you don't say anything. There's no hugging. There's nothing but your nose. Just, oh Dave, thank you. Just glaring and bleeding. Just like your head back with like tissues in it. Like, man, he feels really bad for me. Look at him. Both nostrils. So, yeah. So she, uh, she gets sympathy nosebleeds. Wow. I wrote that. I didn't really think about it, but yeah. Um, so Kurt, Kurt would cry a lot because of all the stress it was putting on both.

But if I were her, I'd be like, yeah, you're crying. I look at, I'm like hemorrhaging from my nose. But without baseball, there is no reason for Kurt not to drink. The commissioner tries to meet with Kurt and Kurt's like, I have nothing to say to him. Why would I meet with him? And then MLB offers to let him go to the team of his choice and a higher salary if he dropped the lawsuit. And he tells the press he can't be bought. Boy, that is real principle too, because that is basically saying like, all right.

Look, I mean, it's like our government. You get into government and they're just like, all right, look, access for you, but stop trying to get access for everyone. Okay. Right. Exactly. The trial happens on in May 1970. It's about three weeks. No active player came to watch the trial and the court rules for the owners.

Fuckers. Now, Kurtz is in serious financial trouble. He has stopped paying child support. He's in arrears with his ex-wife. His businesses are failing. Marion's head exploded. Marion's head exploded. Bills are not being paid. There's a lot of lawsuits now against the Curtis Flood Association for not paying bills. The IRS takes the cameras from the photography business and threatens to take an apartment building in Oakland that he bought for his mom.

Kurt is so out of it, he doesn't even know what's happening with his businesses. Miriam leaves and eventually she went back to California. She eventually would cut ties with him. Without her though, he has no support system whatsoever except vodka, booze. So Kurt spends most of 1970, quote, bedding and boozing instead of like handling any business stuff. He's in serious debt. He flies to Copenhagen to get away from the stress and the media.

That's actually where he always planned to retire. He loves Denmark, which I hate city. Yeah. I mean, it's an amazing. We've talked about our time in that city. Oh, yeah, it's fucking incredible. The only bad part is that you can smoke in bars, but the other than that, it's an amazing. We've talked about our time in that city. Oh yeah, it's fucking incredible. The only bad part is that you can smoke in bars, but other than that, it's fantastic. Can you still?

Yeah. Don't you remember we went in that bar and it was just like a smoke festival? I'll be honest, the end of that first night gets a little foggy and not because of the smoke. He also felt very comfortable in a black guy there. It's not like the states. No one knows who he is on top of all that. So anyway, he appeals the lawsuit.

And in October 1970, the Washington senators get the rights to Kurt from the Phillies. And he agrees on a $110,000 contract for the 71 season. The court of appeals during this time rules for the owners. And Kurt now, I mean, it's been a couple of years. He has not been working out at all. Yeah. I was going to say he's like, he's been drinking vodka, Denmark body. Yeah.

He's been partying. Um, so he goes to the senators facility in Florida to start light workouts And you imagine being too fat to be a senator It's not okay He's very out of shape like incredibly out of shape at the beginning of spring training his book comes out which is called the way it is and At the beginning of spring training, his book comes out, which is called The Way It Is, and his baseball skills have seriously deteriorated in the time. A lot of guys had this, like, boozing was the thing of choice, and so it really fucks

up your body. So a lot of these guys at this time fell off pretty quick. I noticed a connection between your body falling apart and drinking. Oh, look at me. You yeah. Well you and your nose. He also kept himself a lot and he just drank in the hotel at night. Done that.

His teammates liked him and they admired him, but they also hated him at this point. Right. But still he's the opening day center fielder. And that day he got a bunt single and he walked twice and he scored two runs. But then after that day, it's all downhill. He can't really throw hard anymore. He looks really bad in the outfield on defense. And after five games, he's benched.

So now an alcoholic, uh, and the spotlights year on the bench. Yeah. Uh, two years. And then, so now, um, he's in the spotlight. He's an alcoholic. He can't take it. It's just, it's just too much. And, uh, he leaves the team after 13 games, no warning.

He just, he just went to the airport. I'm cutting myself. He sent the senators owner a telegram from the airport saying he'd been away too long and had a lot of financial problems, and he was leaving. I've done this bit on the show before, but whenever I do hear telegram, I do imagine sync. Just, I apologize.

How would you not? Go ahead. No, no, I'm not. What are you talking about? You talking about me doing a singing telegram bit? Yeah. I have no interest in that not what are you talking about me doing a singing telegram yeah I have no interest in that what do you mean how would you lead the senators with what are you talking about telegram that you that you're done two three four hey there mr. GM I know that you gave me per DM, but I'm gonna cut myself.

You better put my contract on the shelf. That's right, I'm gone, I'm hitting the road. And I don't care if you feel that I've unloaded. Whoa, it took a turn back there. You might think my move is pretty unfair, but I am done and I am tired, which is why I was admired. But I am officially retired. My name is not Carl. That's my brother. Signed, Kurt.

Okay, I had a weird ending, but yeah. My name's not Carl, but that's my brother. Mm-hmm. All right. I'm just saying what he wrote, sir. Yeah, yeah, no, totally. I don't know anything. I'm not arguing with you, I think it's really.

Yeah. So he ends up settling on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Wow. He ends up settling on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Wow. And he invests in a bar there, the Rustic Inn. What? And, yep, you're just like, are Rustic Inn? Yep.

Wow. Shout out Rustic Inn. He has a new girlfriend, a European girlfriend. The place is baseball themed and it's very popular with American servicemen. He's friends with Howard Cosell and Howard Cosell would send videotapes of boxing matches for him to show at the bar. This is one you can play in your bar. In June 19th, 1972, the Supreme Court rules against Carl.

Damn. Justice Harry Blackmans said baseball's anti-trust exemption was an aberration, but Congress was the one, they had to change it, not the court. Right. It's not until 1974. What a time. Yeah. It's not until 1974 that Catfish Hunter won his freedom

from the Oakland A's when an arbitrator ruled their owner violated the terms of his contract. And the next year arbitration led to two players winning free agency. And then after that, so the owner player relationship has changed forever. Yeah. But this would be the first, this is, this kind of removed the beginning of that. This is the beginning of free agency. Yeah. In 1975, Kurt has to give up the rust again and leave Mallorca after Spanish authorities closed it down because American soldiers

were seen coming and going at all hours. So I don't know what that means. I don't know. Okay. So he's broke, he sells his two World Series rings, and he goes to Andorra with his girlfriend, which is the little tiny place between Spain and France. But then he breaks up with his girlfriend,

and that means he can't rent a place there because he's black. He also can't get a work permit, so he's doing odd jobs off the books, like installing carpet. He's drinking. He's living out of a duffel bag. He has a dog in a duffel bag. Yeah. He was small. It's crazy. He drank so much at a British pub that they put his picture up on the wall of regulars with the name Super

Hermit underneath. Boy, I'll tell you what, if you're getting your fucking picture put on a British bar for drinking, you are Hall of Fame material. Yeah. A Spanish reporter told Sports Illustrated he was known to say he regretted suing baseball. On October 1st, while wasted, he tried to rob a department store. Oh my God. And arresting him, the police broke his arm, but the charges were dropped because he was

drunk and didn't actually take anything. Pretty good. Not robbing? Yeah. It's pretty not robbing. Drunk with intent of stuff. Wanted to take the charge. So the charges dropped and then but they do deport him to Barcelona and Barcelona gets him and immediately puts him in a hospital for alcoholism to dry out. But then they release

him when a family member buys him a plane ticket back to Oakland. Okay. So he's now in Oakland. He's destitute. An old Oakland. So one of the old white guys who had helped the young kids in Oakland, the baseball players, he buys the broadcast rights for the A's games and talks the team into hiring Kurt as a commentator on radio. He's not very good at it. And then the guy doesn't renew the rights after the season,

and he's out of a job. Another old mentor gets him a job with the Oakland Parks Department as Commissioner of the Youth Baseball Program, which is mostly fundraising, but he sets up coaching clinics and gets current and former ballplayers to come. He's good at raising money. In 1980, he enters rehab again and becomes sober. And in 1985, after 15 years apart, he gets back together with Judy Pace, and they get married in 1986.

And in 1989, Kurt was named commissioner of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, which was a Florida league that they tried to start of retired players. He's making $65,000 a year, but then the league folded after two years. If you can believe old people didn't want to watch old people play baseball. They retired. Okay. He created the Curt Flood Youth Foundation to help foster

kids and those who suffered from HIV AIDS. In 1995 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and died in Los Angeles on January 20th, 1997. God damn. The next year, Congress passed the Kurt Flood Act, which eliminated baseball's antitrust exemption in regard to labor issues. He always said publicly he didn't regret it, and the players got what they deserved, but privately he told people he may have paid too high of a price. He was most upset that players didn't support him during the trial. Quote, I spent six weeks in New York during the trial and not one player who was playing at the time came to see what was going on because it involved them so dramatically.

No one came to just sit and say, hey, this is pretty important. Even his best friend in baseball, Bob Gibson, told Kurt, you're crazy and stayed away from the trial. So he sacrificed himself to get free agency, but not many know what he did because he actually didn't win the trial. But his trial is what led to free agency. So he is the guy that got free agency by suing, leading to negotiation, winning the day. So he is why all baseball players are rich, basically. And in turn, it would be a lot. I mean, that is a sport wide thing that like, because free agency wasn't introduced until the NFL until

You know around that time actually, you know, yeah this night like all all sports. Yeah, he was the crazy and he died Death destitute. Yeah, I could tell yeah, he he got his ass kicked and and destroyed over it, but and no one Like the players you should have been like we should take care of this guy yeah but well a lot of a lot of players I mean that you know that again like I I don't even know if I I don't know the name just rang a bell but I mean that is obviously someone who you know you should know that guy's name that you should know that guy's name you That should be someone. You should know that guy's name. You should know Kurt Flood's name. 100%.

100%. And then you got to love that like, when he dies and then our government's like, all right. Marion bled out at that time. She did bleed out. The sources are A Well-Paid Slave by Brad Snyder, which is a book, and then Citi for American Baseball Research, Terry Sloop did a biography on Kurt Flood. Hmm. Kurt Flood.

Very interesting. One of the guys. You know, the people who fight are often the people who lose and then everyone else wins. And then we don't even remember them. Why we don't remember them? And the owners were fucking wrong. The owners make more money now. That's the thing about fucking rich people

that drives me crazy is they keep everybody in these fucking boxes and then someone breaks out of the box and they're like, oh, it's better. And you're like, yeah, no shit, motherfucker. Yes. It's better. If we're all better, you make more money, you rich fuck. Like that's how it works.

I was wondering if we were gonna get this energy. No, you know, it's like, there's all that stuff. My nose is bleeding. There's, oh my God, Dave. He feels bad for himself. There's all that stuff on the four day work week. It's more productive. Workers are happier.

100%. The workers miss less time. It's just, and then- Everything about- Yeah, I want to be able to watch you five days a week. Four day work week, everyone, everything's better. UBI, all study show, everything's better. All this shit that helps people, everything's better.

They're just like, now I want my money. And it's like, you end up making more, you fuck. You're going to get it, you helps people everything's better. They're just like no I want my money I'm not making more you're gonna get it you idiot. Yeah, I'm worried that yet. It'll hurt my money. Yeah But maybe my wage is really going. Yeah, I'm really blowing it out. You're really you okay This is not that part of the pun, but you're flooding too much apathy All right, well that was Kurt Flood baseball episode. That's the end. Merry Christmas, Jesus. Turn podcast over. All right, everybody.

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