The passing of a pioneer
While every top-tier free agent pitcher these days seemingly is searching for a contract well into nine figures – that’s more than $100 million for those into really long numbers – it probably is safe to say they know little, if anything, about the long-ago career of Dave McNally.
McNally, the onetime Baltimore Orioles’ ace who passes away 22 years ago today from lung cancer at the age of 60, is traded from Baltimore to Montreal in December 1974 and sees the Expos renew his $115,000 salary.
McNally, though, never formally signs the contract.
By doing so, the former All-Star in time — with the help of the players’ union — successfully challenges the major leagues’ slavish reserve clause, which forever ties a player to a team so long as that player previously signs a contract.
Dave McNally with Montreal
While McNally eventually wins his arbitration case and is declared a free agent in the spring of 1976, he never pitches again after the ’75 season.
Actually, McNally is done by early June 1975, announcing his retirement after losing six straight decisions to see his record fall to 3-6 with an unMcNally-like earned run average of 5.24 after 12 starts for the Expos.
Far different than McNally’s previous 13 seasons in Baltimore, where he is a three-time American League All-Star with four straight 20-win seasons from 1968-71.
“It got to the point,” McNally tells the Montreal Gazette in early June 1975, “where I was stealing money (from the Expos).”
The problem for McNally turns about to be declining ability rather than debilitating injury.
“I was trying to tell myself that it would come around,” McNally tells the Gazette in 1975. “If I had arm trouble or any kind of arm injury, then I could say that I had an excuse. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my arm.”
Rather than take the money from Montreal for a subpar performance, McNally opts for retirement – more than a year before the start of modern free agency, a financial game changer for players and a system McNally helps create but never enjoys.