"When I saw that ball bounce away from Sanguillen, I said, 'No, this can't be happening.'" -- STEVE BLASS

In 1972, for the first time in major league history, the players set a general strike in motion. Before the start of the season, it momentarily turned the attention of players as well as baseball owners, fans, and writers away from the game itself and the forthcoming pennant races.

The strike involved a dispute over the expansion of the players' pension benefits. Through the persuasion of executive director Marvin Miller, the Baseball Players Association voted overwhelmingly to strike against club owners. The action delayed the opening of the season by eight days, until April 15, and resulted in the cancellation of 86 games. In the process, the players won their fight for greater pension benefits but lost public favor for their militant stance. Owners August Busch of the Cardinals and Gene Autry of the Angels were especially vehement in criticizing the action by the players' union.

Two highly regarded baseball writers held opposite views of the strike. Dick Young of the New York Daily News described Miller as a "Svengali" and accused him of mesmerizing the players. "Ball players," wrote Young, "are no match for him. He runs them through a high-pressure spray the way an auto goes through a car wash, and that's how they come out, brainwashed. With few exceptions, they follow him blindly, like Zombies."

Red Smith of the New York Times sided with the players. "From time to time," he wrote, "owners and mouthpieces of the establishment have pictured Marvin Miller as a master pitchman who hypnotizes the players. The 663-10 vote in favor of a strike suggests that if the players aren't in earnest Miller has to be the glibbest con man this side of Soapy Smith."

While the players sought a larger slice of baseball's financial pie, it might be noted the highest-paid major leaguer in 1972 was Hank Aaron, who held a $200,000 annual contract with the Atlanta Braves. Next in line were Carl Yastrzemski, who was paid $167,000; Willie Mays, $165,000; and Roberto Clemente and Bob Gibson, $150,000 each.

General manager John Holland of the Cubs, who had the biggest payroll in the majors in 1972, warned that salaries had reached their limits. "I know we have reached a saturation point," said Holland. "If our payroll goes any higher, we just can't make it." In view of what happened to the big league pay scale in later years, Holland's lament proved to be ill founded.

In other baseball news, the San Francisco Giants said farewell to Willie Mays, dealing him to the New York Mets. The return of Mays, 41, to New York helped boost the Mets' attendance to 2,134,185 paid admissions, most in the majors.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June 19 delivered its decision in the Curt Flood case, and by a 5-3 majority upheld baseball's unique exemption from anti-trust laws that bound a player to the team that held his contract. Flood had sued baseball in 1970 in protest of his being traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies, preventing him from bargaining with other clubs interested in his services.

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