Baseball is continuous, like no other American tradition, an endless game of repeated summers, which brought together all generations of fathers and sons. Baseball has survived The Great Depression, World War I, and World War II. The game has stood tall and proud though the toughest trying times in history, and this is why baseball will always be an important place in American culture.

Baseball used to be made up of one division until in 1901 when it dropped its twelve teams down to eight, and started the American League. Through the first decade of the twentieth century, baseball remained a game of strategy. The so-called dead ball provided few homeruns. The game relied on the contact hitters, bunting, and base stealing for its offense. Then in 1911 the cork center baseball changed the game dramatically. All kinds of records started to fall because the ball could be hit farther and harder than ever before and the popularity of the game started to grow. Then again in 1914 another rival league started to form. This League was called the Federal League, which only lasted two seasons due to the lack of presence

Baseball prospered economically as attendance continued to grow and national television and radio contracts brought in huge amounts of money. But, what the players finally realized was that the owners were the ones making all the money and not them. The players had a union but they never really used it an they all decided to put it to work to make more money for themselves. They hired a guy named Marvin Miller who had fought for the United Steelworkers union for years to help them out. He knew there was more prosperity for the players to gain because the minimum salary for a ball player was $6,000 just a thousand more than in 1947. After he started to collect all this data the players went to the commissioners and had there first bargaining agreement in 1968. This agreement opened up players to allow to bargain their contracts instead of the owners setting only one price and that's it. The owners hated this because it took more money out of their pockets to pay for the player's salaries. One of the first cases of a player holding out was Curt Flood in 1969. He played centerfield for the Cardinals and refused to report to training camp unless they gave up a $5,000 raise. They finally gave in and gave him his raise but they traded him to the Phillies right after the season was over. Flood did not want to leave because he lived in the community and filed a suit against the Commissioner. Flood argued that the Reserve Clause was illegal and he should be allowed to negotiate freely with other teams. The Reserve Clause granted teams the rights to unilaterally renew a player's contract preventing him from entertaining other offers. H

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Approximate Word count = 1119
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)