Let the bidding begin

After a one-season stopover in Baltimore, free-swinging and hard-hitting outfielder Reggie Jackson finds himself as the headliner for the first class of free agents 48 years ago today.

Back then, a draft is held for teams to select free agents whom they want to sign.

The New York Yankees are among those vying for Jackson and eventually sign the future Hall of Famer for five years at $525,000 in each of the first four years of the deal and then $588,000 in the final year.

Other marquee names in the first free agent feeding frenzy include pitchers Rollie Fingers and Don Gullett, outfielder Don Baylor and first baseman Willie McCovey.

Willie McCovey with the Giants

Free agency is as much of an iffy proposition then as it remains today with no team selecting the 38-year-old McCovey, who plays with San Diego and Oakland in 1976 before waiting two months to sign in January 1977 with longtime team, the San Francisco Giants.

McCovey then has the last big year of his Hall of Fame career with 28 homers and 86 RBIs.

Historians note that Bill Campbell, the erstwhile closer of the Minnesota Twins, becomes the first free agent to sign a contract, joining the Boston Red Sox just two days after the inaugural draft.

Campbell – coming off a $23,000 contract with the Twins – receives a five-year deal, $1 million deal from Boston. Campbell promptly leads the American League in 1977 with 31 saves, but badly tapers off with a total of only 20 saves over the final five years of his contract. 

“It’s horse manure,” Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley tells The Associated Press of the arrival of modern free agency. “It’s the worst thing that could ever happen to baseball. I don’t blame the players. It’s the owners who are stupid.”