FEBRUARY 2023 – Jarrod Denman, Granbury, TX

Question

Get your popcorn ready – it’s movie time…and you are the producer! 

What baseball story deserves to be told? Why should we see it on the big screen, and what is the title? Let us know the main characters and supporting roles, the actors you’ll cast, and any other details. …We can’t wait to see your creativity! Good luck!

Winner

February Contest Winner….Jarrod Denman of Granbury, TX! A student at Tarleton State University, Jarrod plays pitcher and outfield, and roots for the LA Dodgers. Congratulations!

Winning Answer

“The Great Flood: One Man’s Fight Against Baseball’s Reserve Clause.”

If I could pick one baseball story to be told on the big screen, I would pick the story of Curt Flood and his battle against the reserve clause. When I was in middle school, I used to listen to the story of Willie Mays on CD every single night. Because I grew up listening to my dad talk about baseball, most of the names and stories were familiar to me. But, I had never heard of Curt Flood except that he seemed like some sort of hero that people didn’t recognize.

Curt Flood was a professional baseball player who was an all-star and a sort of big name. At that time, baseball had something called the reserve clause which meant that the teams could control if their players got traded or not. This had existed in baseball for a long time, but it never seemed super fair for the players. Anyways, Curt Flood tried to get baseball to get rid of the reserve clause so that he didn’t have to play for a team he didn’t want to play for. When his team, the Cardinals, traded him to the Phillies, he said that he wouldn’t go. They wouldn’t let him get out of the deal, but he refused to play for an entire season before Philadelphia traded him to another team. 

During this time, he kept fighting for his right to have a say in the teams being able to trade him. He fought against the reserve clause and lots of years of baseball tradition for what he thought was fair. In the end, he made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. Unfortunately, he lost his case. The court told him that it didn’t have the power to make the change but that Congress could if they wanted to. Originally, they did not want to, but Curt Flood did not give up. He helped fight for player rights for another twenty years without a lot of success. 

In 1997, Curt Flood died after a long battle against unjust treatment. The next year, finally, Congress passed a bill, named after Curt Flood, that overturned the reserve clause and let players have a say in who they played for. It took well over twenty years which is sad, but the saddest part is that Curt Flood never got to see the results. 

I still don’t know everything about the story, but it is definitely a story that deserves to be told.

Why should we see it on the big screen, and what is the title?
I think that this story is super encouraging and really shows the difference that one person can make. Some stories might be a little flashier or have a happier ending, but I don’t think that any baseball story has had such an impact on the game today. The baseball that I grew up watching might be different than the baseball that I enjoy today, but I cannot even imagine how it would have been back then. Without Curt Flood, the world might never have known or cared enough to let baseball players have power over their trades and their free agency.

Especially with all of the problems that the world has today, we could use a real-life hero. Curt Flood was a man who sacrificed for what he believed in, despite what other people thought and encouraged him to do. He is an example of strength and standing up for your beliefs and he has impacted the game of baseball more than he will ever know.

I think the title could play off of the Biblical story of Noah because of the flood. The title of the movie could be something like…
“The Great Flood: One Man’s Fight Against Baseball’s Reserve Clause.”
Another one that I think might be cool is…
“Curt’s Ark: Out of the Flood and into Baseball’s New Age”
Both of them show how he had a very powerful but individual effect on the game of baseball and on professional sports in general.

Main actors and supporting roles, actors I’ll cast, and any other details.

The main actors in the movie would be
Curt Flood
Chief Justice Warren Burger – Supreme Court judge over the case
Bowie Kuhn – the MLB Commissioner
Red Schoendienst – the Cardinal’s Manager
Bob Skinner – the Phillies’ Manager

The other justices – Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist
It would also be cool to include some of the big name players from the time – Willie McCovey, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, etc.

Flood also had some Hall of Fame teammates in 1969 – Steve Carlton, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and a few others

I think the lead role, Curt Flood should be played by Anthony Mackie. He’s a pretty recognizable name and I think he could do a good job of portraying Flood. I would try to get Robert De Niro to play CJ Burger and maybe Christian Bale to play Kuhn, mostly for the slicked back hair. J.K. Simmons would play Skinner and Anthony Hopkins to play Schoendienst.

I think that it would be really awesome to show some interviews with older players who are still alive, like Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, and Joe Torre to end the movie talking about the story and the changes that they’ve seen. I’m sure there are a full list of them who would have some awesome insights.