1. 1969 (the first year the Expos existed by way)...That great guy Dick Allen is playing for the Philadelphia Phillies and he hates it there. He hates the fans who boo him despite putting up insane numbers, and tells management to trade him right effing now. They make a deal which sends Dick and Cookie Rojas to St. Louis for former Expo catcher and TERRIBLE broadcaster Tim McCarver and more importantly a guy named Curt Flood.
2. Curt Flood is there thinking, "hey wait a minute, I don't want to play in that Philly crap hole either don't send me there."
3. On Christmas eve of 1969 Flood writes a letter to the commissioner and he says some pretty poignant stuff in that letter as follows...great quote...
"After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States."
(credit for the language used to convey his wishes are attributed to union lawyer Marvin Miller and Justice Goldberg.)
4. Bowie Kuhn denies the request but this does not in any way stop Curt Flood he takes Bowie through all the judicial system all the up to supreme court.
Sadly he lost in the end and sat out the 1970 season instead of playing for the Phillies. He apparently stayed home and painted pictures and then fled to Denmark to run a bar and make love to women.
5. Five years in 1975 the players union gets the rid of the reserve clause sort of on lucky loop hole...but Curt Flood surrendering his salary and sitting out the 1970 season is really what got the ball rolling for the players union.
Flood has a place to Expos history too...he was the first player to get a hit in Canada when he doubled off of Expos left hander Larry Jaster on April the 14th of 1969.
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Later years
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Then basically the players union makes gains and gains culminating in the 1981 strike which almost kills the season, until 1987 when the owners try and gain some ground back through collusion which slows it down...then of course the 1994 strike which of course we as Expos fans know about quite well.
You cannot compare the spoiled strike of 1994 which took a world series away from us to the legitamate strength of character tactics of Curt Flood in 1969. The 1994 players strike is a smorgasbord of spoiled nonsense...I remember Lou Whitaker showing up the the union meeting in a limo and that was very iconic image of the 94 strike. Compare just for the sake of the mental image...
The 1969 image of Curt Flood giving up his lucrative salary for the 3-5 years he would have still been a prime player to paint pictures at home on one end of the spectrum and then the image of Lou Whitaker rolling up in a limo to vote for a players strike in 1994....it's iconic to say the least.
