155: Danny Gardella - MLB
A name so few know ... Danny Gardella. Gardella played for the New York (baseball) Giants (now the #SFGiants) in 1944 and 1945. Then he battled management about his salary. Instead of accepting what the Giants offered, he challenged the reserve clause and lost. Rather than accept the terms, he opted to play elsewhere, in the Mexican League. It cost Danny his career. Banned from the Majors, Gardella did get one more opportunity to play in the Majors, with the St. Louis #Cardinals in 1950. But he only appeared in one game, and that was it. The Cardinals didn't see a future for Danny on their roster, demoted him to AA, and Danny never saw the light of day in Major League Baseball game again. Of course, those that followed and who challenged the reserve met with much more success, such as Curt Flood and Andy Messersmith. The free agents of today do not have to work within the confines of the reserve clause. But Danny did, and while he won a small sum of money in a lawsuit against #MLB, he lost his entire career. On this episode of Sports' Forgotten Heroes, we take a look back at the brief career of Danny Gardella and his fight with MLB and the New York Giants about the reserve clause with my guest Robert Elias who authored the book, "Dangerous Danny Gardella."
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