Major League player Vince Coleman offended many baseball fans, and specifically many African Americans (yours truly included), in 1985 when he declared: "I don’t know nothin’ about him. Why are you asking me about Jackie Robinson?”

Responding to Coleman, Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's widow, said, "I hope somehow he'll learn and be embarrassed by his own ignorance."

I hope LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh know something about the late Curt Flood, another former Major Leaguer. I also hope they have some inkling of the economic, historical and racial significance of their National Basketball Association free agency.

If you are like me, you were glued to the television throughout the NBA playoffs. You stayed up late to watch West Coast games, you predicted which teams would emerge from their respective series, and you rooted for your favorite players and teams. You argued with your spouse, you watched ESPN to see what Chris Broussard and Rich Bucher would say, you chuckled with -- and mostly at -- the Chuckster and Kenny Smith, you watched intently to see which coach would make appropriate adjustments, and which players would shine when times got tough. When one team bit the dust, you listened intently to learn which coaches and team executives were held accountable/made the scapegoats for their teams’ defeat.

And... you braced your ears for endless jabbering about where LBJ, DWade, and CB4 would play next season.

I started off not listening. After all, the Celtics had knocked James and Wade out of the playoffs, not knowing they weren’t supposed to, and Bosh’s Raptors weren’t in the postseason at all. My attitude was this: Let me watch the rest of the playoffs, and just notify me when they sign.

Well, to my surprise, I have been almost as enthralled by the free agent discussion as I was with the postseason. I’ve been checking in with Broussard, Bucher, et al, striking up casual conversation with strangers in line at the Bi-Lo checkout counter (as long as they were wearing James jerseys), and chatting it up with my son (the Heat fan). And, of course, I am patting myself on the back for announcing more than a month ago that Wade would stay in Miami and Bosh would join him there.

It has been an unprecedented spectacle – the preening, the posturing, and the paparazzi. Team owners and executives making presentations. Players tweeting. The public knowing way too much about how personal matters impact career decisions – are you wondering if Gabrielle Union is standing by waiting to help DWade take care of the kids if he stays in Miami and gets custody?

The most compelling aspect, for me, has been that three young African American men have captivated much of America and exercised economic muscle that was unheard of a decade or so before their births.

From 1956 to 1971, Flood was a rebellious center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. Wade was born in 1982; Bosh and James in ’84. Flood was 5’9”, 165 pounds, much smaller than the free agent trio at 6’4”, 220; 6’8”, 260; and 6”10”, 250, respectively. However, in my book, they should be looking up to him, perhaps establishing a foundation named for him that would assist the legions of retired players who have landed upon hard economic times.

In an era dominated by great pitching and a flashier center fielder named Mays, Flood made a name for himself by batting around .300 and winning seven gold gloves. He also made salary demands and referred to himself as a “$90,000 slave.”

Flood blew the lid off in 1969 when the Cardinals arranged a trade to the Phillies that he didn’t want. The team was losing, and he believed the Philadelphia fans would not be hospitable to an outspoken black man like himself. He asked to have some role in where he played.

He appealed to former Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and fought the matter on up to the Supreme Court. He lost the legal battle, his All-Star career and his shot at the Hall of Fame, but he won a victory for thousands of professional athletes.

In 1970, baseball owners agreed to have an arbitrator settle player/team disputes rather than forcing such matters into the courts. In 1975, Andy Messersmith and Dave NcNally filed grievances that led to free agency as we know it today.

Now we have LBJ, DWade, CB4 and others making their own demands and decisions, and owners catering to them for the honor of having them bring victory, money and prestige to their franchises.

To some owners and older fans, it must seem as if the world has been turned on its ear in the last 40 years, that the pendulum has swung too far in favor of the players. I must admit, there have been moments when this all does appear over the top, lacking in loyalty and class -- especially ESPN’s decision to comply with James’ request for a one-hour show called “The Decision.”

But, I also have to admit, I like the attention that the athletes have commanded; rearranging the universe is sometimes a good thing, especially when you consider that professional sports would not exist without the talent of professional athletes.

I don’t know if these three guys and the rest of the NBA, Major League Baseball, and the National Football League know much about Curt Flood, but they should. Let’s hope their agents, their parents, their mentors, their “people,” – SOMEBODY -- is making sure they don’t share Vince Coleman’s ignorance and ingratitude.
***
Janice is principal of Janice Allen Jackson and Associates, a Charlotte-based management consulting firm, and a free lance writer.Visit her website at www.janiceallenjackson.com."
 

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