A Well-Paid Slave

by Brad Snyder

  45 “What had started”: Flood, The Way It Is, 38.

  45 “We were Jackie’s”: Ed Charles interview. See also Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, 16-17.

  46 “considerable amount”: HPE, 7/20/56, 6B.

  46 “There’s a goddamned”: Flood, The Way It Is, 37-38.

  46 yelled “Run, nigger”: John Ivory Smith interview.

  46 until he was transferred: HPE, 5/12/56, 7.

  46 A month later: HPE, 6/11/56, 4B.

  46 White teammates saw: Amiel Solomon interview.

  46 He once ate: Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 79.

  46 Flood had to ask: Flood, The Way It Is, 38.

  46 His manager: Karl Kuehl interview; Ibid., 38.

  47 “attitude”; “courage”; “They keep”: DS, 8/1/56, D1.

  47 “The manager”: Carl Long interview. On July 27, Flood homered in the ninth off Paepke. He also doubled twice, tripled, and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. There is no record of any stolen bases. HPE, 7/28/56, 7; KDFP, 7/28/56, 2. The Carolina League box scores did not record hit batsmen, but Paepke “walked” four.

  47 singer Nat King Cole: NYT, 4/11/56, 1; LAT, 4/12/56, 2.

  47 “[A] guy was hiding”: TSN, 4/20/68, 8.

  47 128 RBIs: TSN, 1/9/57, 8. There is some confusion over Flood’s RBI total. Unofficial records immediately after the season credited him with 123. TSN, 9/12/56, 38; RNO, 9/9/56, II-3. Other sources said 120. TSN, 9/19/56, 7; GDN, 9/4/56, sec. 2, 4 (just over 120). That number, however, was eventually updated to 128.

  47 He dazzled teammates: Nelvin Cooper interview; Haven Schmidt interview; Amiel Solomon interview.

  47 Pesky proclaimed: DS, 8/1/56, D1.

  47 The Carolina League named: RNO, 9/6/56, 18.

  47 “I lit up”: Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 79.

  48 “Pride was my”: Flood, The Way It Is, 39.

  48 Flood was excluded: Sam Bercovich interview.

  48 135 pounds: Flood, The Way It Is, 39.

  48 “I believe”: Ibid., 40.

  48 He had never been: Burns/Flood interview, 3.

  48 On the plane: TSN, 9/19/56, 7.

  48 number 27: The Baseball Almanac lists Flood as wearing number 27 in 1956. See www.baseballalmanac.com/players/player.php?p=floodcu01. So does the 1956 Reds yearbook. E-mail, May 13, 2004, with Greg Rhodes, curator of the Reds Museum. Outfielder Al Silvera wore number 27 in 1955 and 1956 until the Reds released him on May 15, 1956. NYT, 5/16/56, 41. Reds pitcher Hal Jeffcoat already had number 42. The following year, Flood wore number 21 at spring training and in September. CE, 4/4/57, 46; SMN, 4/13/57, 46. Flood was not listed in the 1957 Reds yearbook. He wore number 21 for his entire career with the Cardinals except his rookie season in 1958, when he wore Robinson’s number 42.

  48 A week after joining: NYT, 9/17/56, 30; WP, 9/17/56, 15, 19; CE, 9/17/56, 1.

  49 After the season: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 303-9; TT, 195:12-196:9 (Robinson).

  49 The Reds, who regarded: Undated article, Curt Flood file, Reds Museum; CE, 9/10/56, 39; CE, 9/12/56, 34; TSN, 10/17/56, 32; Flood, The Way It Is, 42.

  49 “wasn’t prepared”: Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, 88. See Aaron with Wheeler, I Had a Hammer, 55-76; Aaron with Bisher, Aaron, 30-38.

  49 the Georgia Senate: CE, 2/15/57, 36; Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, 202-7.

  49 “I think it’s”: Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, 206.

  49 That same year: Branch, Parting the Waters, 220.

  49 Arkansas governor Orval Faubus: Ibid., 222-25.

  50 Savannah Morning News: SMN, 9/4/57, 1; SMN, 9/5/57, 1; SMN, 9/6/57, 1.

  50 “The Georgia city”: Flood, The Way It Is, 42.

  50 in between games: Burns/Flood interview, 6; Lee, “The Curt Flood Story,” Real Sports, 3/10/97.

  50 He could not even wait: Flood, The Way It Is, 43; “Curt Flood,” ESPN SportsCentury (Pace); Ed Charles interview. Flood’s white Savannah teammates did not remember his dressing in a separate area. Buddy Gilbert interview; Haven Schmidt interview; Glenn Isringhaus interview. Neither did his black teammate, John Ivory Smith. John Ivory Smith interview.

  50 He could not find: Flood, The Way It Is, 42-43; Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 79.

  50 Savannah center fielder Buddy Gilbert: Buddy Gilbert interview; Halberstam, October 1964, 113-14.

  50 “Poor Gilbert’s”: Flood, The Way It Is, 44.

  50 “He took a lot”: Buddy Gilbert interview.

  50 In August, he injured: SMN, 8/25/57, sec. 3, 22.

  51 His .299 average: AC, 9/15/57, 9-B. Fourth among hitters with more than 400 at-bats.

  51 He finished: Including 24 doubles (third), 8 triples, 14 home runs, 82 RBIs (fourth), 97 runs (first), 170 hits (tied second), 252 total bases (tied second), 80 walks, and 53 strikeouts. AC, 9/15/57, 9-B; SMN, 9/15/57, 23.

  51 He made two: SMN, 7/14/57, sec. 3, 25; SMN, 8/18/57, 26; AC, 8/18/57, 3-B.

  51 His first major league: CE, 9/26/57, 37; SPD, 4/10/68, 4C.

  51 He was sent: CE, 3/3/58, 34; Flood, The Way It Is, 45; TSN, 10/9/57, 33.

  51 “a flock of nobodies”: LAT, 7/5/68, D1.

  51 Cincinnati was not ready: Flood, The Way It Is, 47.

  51 After tearing up: CE, 3/4/58, 27; CE, 3/24/58, 25; CE, 3/30/58, 30. Pinson’s numbers in Visalia: .367, 20 HR, 97 RBI, 165 runs, 209 hits, 349 total bases, 40 doubles, 20 triples, and 53 stolen bases.

  52 Mattick pointed out; too small: Bobby Mattick interview.

  52 Tebbetts denied: Pepe, “How Flood Finally Made It,” Sport, 11/62, 45; Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 78; Flood, The Way It Is, 62.

  52 including Frank Robinson: Bobby Mattick interview; Robinson, Baseball Is My Life, 49-50.

  52 “There was a quota”: “Curt Flood,” ESPN SportsCentury (Robinson). In addition to Robinson, Pinson, Crowe, and Thurman, the 1958 Reds also opened the season with black pitchers Brooks Lawrence and Joe Black.

  52 In 1947, several southern: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 174-75; Tygiel, Base-ball’s Great Experiment, 185-88; Allen, Jackie Robinson, 135-44 (interviews Cardinals players dismissing the story); Kahn, The Era, 341-42 (characterizing the denials of the Cardinals players as weak); Red Smith interview, Chandler Collection (explaining how the New York Herald Tribune’s Stanley Woodward broke the story and why the denials are wrong).

  52 On the Garagiola incident: TSN, 9/24/47, 6; CT, 9/12/47, 32; NYT, 9/12/47, 39; Robinson, My Own Story, 129, 158-59; Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment , 204; Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 184-85.

  52 On the Slaughter incident: CT, 8/21/47, 27; NYT, 8/21/47, 21; RAA, 8/30/47, 12; RAA, 9/20/47, 15; TSN, 8/27/47, 4; Robinson, My Own Story, 158; Roeder, Jackie Robinson, 136-37; Robinson, “A Kentucky Colonel kept me in baseball,” Look, 2/8/55, 84. Cardinals outfielder Joe Medwick also collided with Robinson and spiked him at first base. RAA, 8/30/47, 12. But that appears to have been accidental. Robinson credited Medwick as one of the players who, like Greenberg, tried to help him out. Robinson, “A Kentucky Colonel kept me in baseball,” Look, 2/8/55, 87.

  52 A few years later: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 246-47; Golenbock, Bums, 428-29 (Roger Kahn recalling Cardinals bench jockeying in 1953 that included epithets such as “nigger” and “black bastard”).

  52 The Chase Hotel: PC, 5/8/54, 14; Robinson, “A Kentucky Colonel kept me in baseball,” Look, 2/8/55, 87; Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive, 193-94; Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 312-13. For sportswriter Wendell Smith’s recollections about the Chase Hotel, see CA, 1/23/61, 18; PC, 2/4/61, sec. 2, 27. Dick Gregory was denied service there as late as 1961. SA, 5/12/61, 1A.

  52 Flood’s first apartment: Flood, The Way It Is, 78; Burns/Flood interview, 6.

  52 replaced manager Fred Hutchinson: Devine, The Memoirs of Bing Devine, 88-90.

  53 A diminutive: SPD, 9/15/58, 4-B; Devine, The Memoirs of Bing Devine, 89-90; Bingham, “Frolic in the Sp
ring,” SI, 3/9/59, 58-59.

  53 White nearly killed: SGD, 9/22/59, 19; SPD, 4/13/60, 1E.

  53 Hemus also refused: Gibson, From Ghetto to Glory, 47-49; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 53-55; SPD, 6/17/60, 4C (describing Gibson as “bouncing like a ‘yo-yo’ between Rochester and St. Louis”).

  53 Hemus believed: Gibson, From Ghetto to Glory, 49; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 52-53; Flood, The Way It Is, 69; Tim McCarver interview.

  53 Flood and Gibson believed: Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 54; Flood, The Way It Is, 67-68; Halberstam, October 1964, 108; Golenbock, The Spirit of St. Louis, 434. Bill White, however, thought that Hemus was just bad at managing people. Halberstam, October 1964, 108; Golenbock, The Spirit of St. Louis, 434. This is supported by Hemus’s benching of Stan Musial (see Golenbock, The Spirit of St. Louis, 432-33), moving slugging third baseman Ken Boyer to center field and ordering him to hit behind base runners (Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 52), and alienating pitcher Jim Brosnan (Golenbock, The Spirit of St. Louis, 427-28; Brosnan, The Long Season, 206-7, 224). Devine believed that Hemus came into the job with too many preconceived ideas about his players for a first-time manager. Hemus saw taking anyone’s advice as a sign of weakness. Bing Devine interview; Devine, The Memoirs of Bing Devine, 91.

  53 “Hemus acted”: Flood, The Way It Is, 67-68. 53 “Midnight League”: Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 33.

  53 He had already been smoking: Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 78.

  53 Now insomnia and indigestion: Flood, The Way It Is, 68.

  53 1962 expansion draft: SGD, 7/30/61, 1C.

  53 Hemus revealed: SPD, 5/4/59, 4B; PPG, 5/4/59, 22, 24; PP, 5/4/59, 24; PP, 5/5/59, 31; TSN, 5/13/59, 23; NYT, 5/4/59, 40; LAT, 5/4/59, C1.

  53 “You black bastard!”: Pitcher Jim Brosnan wrote in 1960 that Hemus called Daniels a “black bastard.” Brosnan, The Long Season, 115. Gibson wrote in his autobiography that Hemus confessed in the locker room to calling Daniels a “black bastard.” Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 53 (also claiming that Hemus referred to Daniels as a “nigger” in the team meeting). Gibson, however, was not even there. The previous week, he had been sent down to Triple-A Omaha. SPD, 4/28/59, 1C; TSN, 5/6/59, 17, 36. Two other subsequent accounts claimed that Hemus said “black bastard.” Boyle, “The Private World of the Negro Ballplayer,” SI, 3/21/60, 78; Halberstam, October 1964, 109-10. Flood said Hemus called Daniels a “black son-of-a-bitch.” Flood, The Way It Is, 70. Daniels, for his part, cannot remember exactly what Hemus called him. “I know it wasn’t the n-word,” Daniels said. “It was black-something.” Bennie Daniels interview.

  53 Hemus held a closed-door: SPD, 5/4/59, 4B (Hemus locked the clubhouse door after the game, indicating a team meeting free from the press); PP, 5/4/59, 24 (claiming that Hemus closed the locker room to dress down his players about their “sloppy play”). Flood said Hemus revealed to the players what was said. Flood, The Way It Is, 70. Hemus later went out of his way to compliment Daniels, who supposedly said: “Thank you, little Faubus”—a reference to the segregationist Arkansas governor. Boyle, “The Private World of the Negro Ballplayer,” SI, 3/21/60, 78; Halberstam, October 1964, 110.

  54 “Until then”: Flood, The Way It Is, 70.

  54 Johnny Keane: SPD, 7/6/61, 1E; SPD, 7/7/61, 4B; SPD, 4/24/62, 4B.

  54 A month later, Keane: It is often asserted that Keane immediately made Flood his starting center fielder. Flood, The Way It Is, 72; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 65-66; Rains, The St. Louis Cardinals, 174; Golenbock, The Spirit of St. Louis, 446; Halberstam, October 1964, 113; Craft and Owens, Redbirds Revisited , 76; Pepe, “How Flood Finally Made It,” Sport, 11/62, 45; Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 78; Leggett, “Not Just a Flood, but a Deluge,” SI, 8/19/68, 20; Vecsey, “How Curt Flood Inspires the Cardinals,” Sport, 10/68, 68. Keane, however, used several other players there; Flood did not take over the position until nearly a month after Keane became manager. SPD, 8/5/61, 6A; SGD, 8/5/61, 9.

  54 He could read: Stump, “Curt Flood in the Midnight League,” Sport, 3/65, 78.

  54 Flood first met Bob Gibson: SMN, 9/2/57, 12.

  54 The segregation and discrimination: Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 44-46.

  54 One of seven: Gibson, From Ghetto to Glory, 5-14, 25, 39-40; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 10-17; SGD, 2/16/58, 4E; SPD, 6/15/61, 1E.

  55 Gibson arrived in St. Petersburg: Gibson, From Ghetto to Glory, 41-42.

  55 Bill White: Smith, “Baseball’s Angry Man,” NYTM, 10/13/91, 53, 56; SPD, 6/7/59, 2C; NYT, 3/30/60, 45; TSN, 12/18/65, 3-4. 55 One weekend: Only Flood and White attended the Nation of Islam meeting, driving down from Homestead, according to White’s 1965 account. TSN, 12/18/65, 4. But Flood later said it was he and Gibson. Flood, The Way It Is, 28-29. Beginning in mid-February, Flood and White were in Homestead getting extra hitting instruction from coach Harry “the Hat” Walker. SGD, 2/12/61, 1E; SPD, 2/14/61, 5C. Gibson, however, was not there. SPD, 2/24/61, 4B; SGD, 2/24/61, 1C; SPD, 2/25/61, 4B (reporting that Gibson was due to join the team in St. Petersburg at the start of spring training and he was not in Homestead). Gibson was pitching his team to the Venezuelan league championship until the middle of February. SPD, 2/15/61, 4D (the Cardinals received Gibson’s signed contract in the mail from Venezuela); TSN, 2/15/61, 23; TSN, 2/22/61, 27. He then went home to Omaha. Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 63-64. Flood was wrong; Gibson was not there.

  55 The Louisville Lip: Flood, The Way It Is, 28-29.

  55 During a two-week: NYT, 2/8/61, 39 (Jim Robinson); LAT, 2/8/61, C1 (same); NYT, 2/22/61, 32 (Donnie Fleeman).

  56 “I’ll go dancin’ ”: Remnick, King of the World, 118; WP, 2/5/61, C3 (sparring session); NYT, 2/7/61, 44 (sparring session).

  56 Clay invited: TSN, 12/18/65, 4. Clay’s education about the Nation of Islam began in the spring of 1961 in Miami. Remnick, King of the World, 127-29.

  56 “Sounds as if”: Flood, The Way It Is, 29.

  56 That year, an incident: SPT, 3/9/61, C1; Smith, “Baseball’s Angry Man,” NYTM, 10/13/91, 56; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 57-58.

  56 At 5:20 p.m.: SPT, 3/9/61, 1-C.

  56 “When will we be”: SPT, 3/9/61, 1-C. Also quoted in PC, 3/18/61, 30.

  56 Cardinals public relations director: NYT, 3/9/61, 34; SPD, 3/9/61, 2E; SGD, 3/9/61, 1D; CA, 3/10/61, 13.

  57 “The rookie”: PC, 2/11/61, sec. 2, 28.

  57 At spring training; “Do you mean”; “Mr. Busch”: Burns, Baseball, vol. 8; Burns/Flood interview transcript, 5.

  57 Devine called Flood: Flood, The Way It Is, 78-79.

  57 Wendell Smith: CA, 1/23/61, 1, 18. Smith’s articles ran in the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago American. Carroll, “Wendell Smith’s Last Crusade,” 123; Snyder, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators, 186-89 (Smith biographical info).

  57 “Fat Cats” and “Uncle Toms”: PC, 1/28/61, sec. 2, 27.

  57 A week after: SPT, 2/1/61, 1-C; CA, 2/1/61, 26; NYT, 2/2/61, 33; NYT, 2/3/61, 186-90; NYT, 2/4/61, 11; NYT, 2/19/61, 179; PC, 3/18/61, sec. 2, 28; Howard with Wimbish, Elston and Me, 99-103; Davis, “Baseball’s Reluctant Challenge,” 148.

  58 Wimbish’s wife: Ralph Wimbish Jr. interview.

  58 “After dinner”: SPT, 3/9/98, 1D.

  58 White received: NYP, 1/28/97, 64.

  58 “Curt thought it”: Ibid.

  58 48 Cardinals and Yankees players: SPT, 3/10/61, 1-C.

  58 “help to break down”: PC, 3/18/61, sec. 2, 30; Howard with Wimbish, Elston and Me, 102 (claiming that someone from the Yankees front office “insisted” that Howard attend).

  58 White, Flood, and the other: PC, 3/18/61, sec. 2, 30; NYP, 1/28/97, 72, 64; Smith, “Baseball’s Angry Man,” NYTM, 10/13/91, 56. For White’s slightly flawed account, see Aaron, I Had a Hammer, 153-54. For Gibson’s account, including comments from White, see Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 57-59.

  58 “It was our own”: Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 59.

  58 The sit-
ins swept: NYT, 5/7/61, E10.

  58 Integrated groups: NYT, 6/15/61, 38; NYT, 6/17/61, 12; Branch, Parting the Waters, 412-91; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 154-57, 159-61, 171-72.

  59 On July 31; “first class citizens”: CA, 8/1/61, 18.

  59 When the owners: CA, 11/9/61, 23.

  59 The White Sox: PC, 3/3/62, sec. 2, 30; CA, 11/9/61, 23; CA, 7/31/61, 13; CA, 2/4/61, 13; CA, 12/1/61, 23.

  59 The Cardinals reacted: SA, 4/7/61, 1A, 4A; SA, 3/16/62, 5A; Smith, “Base-ball’s Angry Man,” NYTM, 10/13/91, 56.

  59 Rumors surfaced: SPT, 4/12/61; Aaron, I Had a Hammer, 154.

  59 During spring training in 1961: SPT, 4/12/61; SPT, 5/18/61.

  59 A businessman: SPD, 2/25/62, 3B; Bing Devine interview.

  59 Twenty-nine of the 32: SPD, 2/25/62, 3B; SPD, 3/15/62, 1E; SA, 3/16/62, 5A.

  59 The motel’s food: Tim McCarver interview.

  59 Cardinals players: Smith, “Baseball’s Angry Man,” NYTM, 10/13/91, 56; Gibson, Stranger to the Game, 58.

  59 Players, front-office: SPD, 2/25/62, 3B; SPD, 3/15/62, 1E; BAA, 3/24/62, 19.

  60 In February 1962: 3/23/62 letter from Roy Wilkins to Jackie Robinson, NAACP Collection, B:III C173; Robinson, Baseball Has Done It, 13 (incorrectly placing the NAACP rally in January 1963). Several athletes and entertainers, including Bill White, Elston Howard, Roy Campanella, Jim Brown, Dick Gregory, and Harry Belafonte, were unable to attend. Gregory and Howard were listed on the program. Souvenir Program, Tenth Anniversary Southeast Region Conference NAACP, Sovereignty Commission Online, SCR ID # 10-35-2-17-1-1-1. Belafonte and Campanella declined Robinson’s invitation. 2/14/62 telegram from Jackie Robinson to Gloster Current, NAACP Collection, B:III C173. White could not rearrange his schedule, and Brown had a “job commitment.” 1/25/62 letter from Ruby Hurley to Gloster Current, NAACP Collection, B:III C273, F “Southeast Regional Office Correspondence 1962.”

  60 “to let you know”: JCL, 2/26/62, 1. All of the national and local news accounts were based upon wire reports. See also NYT, 2/26/62, 21; WP, 2/26/62, A2; CT, 2/26/62, C8.

  60 swelled with pride: CDEF, 3/10/62, 2; AN, 3/10/62, 11; CDEF, 8/24/63, 8.

  60 “Our admiration”: CDEF, 3/10/62, 2; AN, 3/10/62, 11.