(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Billings native revolutionized Major League Baseball, but he couldn't have imagined Otani – Daily Montanan [1] ['More From Author', 'January', 'Dennis Gaub'] Date: 2024-01-06 People who’ve spent time in business, including me, know what an elevator pitch is. Essentially, you’ve gotten on an elevator in a metropolitan skyscraper that may take you dozens of stories up or down. And you’ve been joined by someone with a friendly face who engages you in conversation. Imagine that’s me. “What do you do for a living?” I’m asked. “I’m a book author with four published books, all dealing with aspects of Montana history, with a fifth book in the works.” “Really. What’s your newest book about?” “It’s called ‘Never Give an Inch,’ and it tells the story of Dave McNally. He was a Billings native and a star pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles who won 184 games in the major leagues. Dave helped revolutionize baseball by taking a lead role in a labor decision that ended the reserve clause. It made players the property of teams that signed them. Now, as free agents, they receive multimillion-dollar salaries.” I’ve always heard that an elevator pitch should be about 50-60 words long and something that you can speak in less than a minute, maybe 30 to 45 seconds. This might be a shade long, so I’ll work on it. Talk of free agency brings to mind two things. Everyone who pays even the slightest attention to major league baseball has heard the news: A few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to a $750 million, multiyear contract. Wow! We can only wonder what Dave, who died of cancer in Billings in 2002 at age 60, would think of that astronomical number. Dave was the first pitcher to get a $100,000 salary in the American League, and his top annual pay was the $135,000 he got from the Montreal Expos in 1975. That was his final year in the majors. He and the Expos couldn’t come to terms, so he played without a contract before retiring in June that year and returning to Billings. Dave’s status as an unsigned player made him ideal for the case against free agency that Marvin Miller, head of the Major League Players Association, was building. He asked Dave to join Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith, also involved in a contract dispute, in an arbritration case that was heard by labor arbitrator Peter Seitz in the fall of 1975. Seitz ruled in favor of McNally and Messersmith, whose case built on the struggle of Curt Flood who unsuccessfully took his challenge of the reserve clause to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970. Baseball team owners appealed the Seitz ruling, but a U.S. District Court judge upheld it in 1976. Katy, bar the doors! A bonanza lay ahead for major league baseball players, and other professional athletes who played under similar restrictions on their ability to freely choose their employers. Would it be too much for Shohei and others who’ve become wealthy beyond the imagination of average Americans to say a word of thanks to McNally, Messersmith and Flood? Here’s a story I’ve heard about Dave’s thoughts on the megasalaries before his death. In 2000, Alex Rodriquez signed a$252 million, 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers. Dave reportedly said, “I get the $250 million, but what’s the $2 million for?” Dave, we’re still puzzled. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/06/billings-native-revolutionized-major-league-baseball-but-he-couldnt-have-imagined-otani/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/