December 23, 1975

[Sanantonioram]

A date that will live in infamy. That is the date that Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally ruined professional sports forever when they successfully challenged the reserve clause and brought about the mess we have witnessed for the last 30 years. Free agency with all the agents and money-grubbing and the inability to build and keep a team. Man, how I yearn for the good old days when you drafted a player and built a team around him...those were the days.:sad:

[Rambi]

I have to agree. I don't like free agency. Words like team and loyalty don't mix with free agency.

[HUbison]

I'm torn.

The football purist in me longs for the days of 1 team for 1 career.

However, it almost seems un-American to prevent a free market environment in the workplace.

[Goldenfleece]

While I'm all about team loyalty, 'loyalty' isn't really the word when the player has no choice in the matter. Considering I wasn't even alive in '75, I haven't really seen a lot of pro sports without free agency. World soccer has a different system where teams basically buy and sell players off each other, but then you get that problem of competitive imbalance. Of course, if long-term contracts were more binding that might keep teams together longer, too.