[SelzShoes]

The First True Free Agents

"In January of 1942, faced with the uncertainty of the status of Major League Baseball and, more importantly, the uncertainty of their contractual obligations to their players; the Saint Louis Cardinals released Johnny Mize. It would be almost four years before Mize realized this was the best thing to happen to him."

I wrote that over a year ago. When I was in the waning days of 3rd&4th League, I started the planning of what would become CIE. Integration, expansion, great personalities, the late 40's was perfect for an alternative time line. So, I started taking notes and reading more about the era. And I now have these notebooks filled with bits about players and persons involved with baseball. Some of our key players-Ruth and DiMaggio for instance-I've got several pages and places in books indexed for reference. Other players like a Bobo Newsom, have a line or two; just in case. Then there is Johnny Mize, HOFer, All-Star, key part of the early Stengel Yankees. Maybe I was looking in the wrong places, but it seemed I was able to find more out about lesser players and Lou Perini than a player of Mize's caliber. I did know that his trade from the Cardinals was financially motivated (conflicting stories: either to cut the budget, or Branch Rickey, who received 20% of the Cards' profits was trying to paid his pocket), so I chose Mize to be the player I to be my first "true" free agent. As I found out, not have a decent image of who Mize was made the story difficult to tell. From there it was all downhill.

Summary of the story

True, Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg have jumped leagues, but a team in the other league owned their rights. Mize had no attachment to any club. He was free to auction his services to the highest bidder. As alluded to in a couple post, he would set his asking price at $100,000 and listen from them. This would actually backfire on Mize since it would limit who could get into a bidding war. The Yanks had Greenberg (though Mize would actually be a better fit), Boston still has the ghost of Jimmie Foxx; basically only the Lancers, Cubs and Giants-all NAL squads-would be able to bid on him. As a show of league support, the Lancers and Cubs drop out and the Giants get him $85,000.

Arky Vaughan and Schoolboy Rowe would follow Mize's model, signing for more than they normally would, but not as much as they wanted, Hooks Wyse would usher in a new era: Overpaying mid-level pitchers. Hooks, in this storyline, had a brilliant career pitching in the military circuit. Truthfully, the talent level of the military circuit is somewhere between what we now call AA and AAA, but the numbers against Major Leaguers seems to indicate success. By setting his starting price relatively low, he watches the three leagues bid up the price for a pitcher with no major league experience to almost $50,000.

Why didn't I do it?

So, other than showing that the Yanks will overpay in any era, what would have been the purpose of this storyline. Well, I was trying to set down the "rules" of free agency without telling you "These are the rules of Free Agency," which I've ended up doing anyway. I've tried hard, to this point, not to address you from the perspective of Seth. I really wanted to stay in "in the era" as much as possible. Unfortunately, some things are too boring to do this with. And try as I might, this was just too boring of a story (at least how I was trying to tell it) to inflict upon you, loyal reader.

I mean, this is important for the long-term life of the league. Hooks Wyse would be his era's Curt Flood by opening the door wider than the previous Free Agents. But each story was so similar, and there was too much dialogue (I don't think I do good dialogue), I just couldn't keep my interest level in the story up. DiMaggio leaving the Yankees is exciting; Schoolboy Rowe going to Cleveland isn't. Now, in June when Hooks Wyse is getting booed like Ed Whitson, I might have some regret about not doing a little more with his story, but I don't think we'll miss it.


So what does this mean?

Free agency will work like this:

The PCL and CL will respect each other's contracts and reserve option; they will respect the NAL's contracts, but not their reserve option. NAL has the same attitude. So, leagues will not steal a contracted player, but a player without a contract is fair game-players who have been released are the only ones who can go to any league. In this era of the 1-year contract, everyone has limited free agency. A Red Sox can either resign with the Red Sox, or with any interested CL/PCL team. A Red can resign with Cincy or see if a NAL club has a better offer. The owners don't want to push the issue, since they'd rather have limited control and massive free agency (to keep cost down, they used the war as an excuse to curb many salaries) than 100% free agency and no control at all.