Electing Curt Flood to the Hall of Fame May Be the Only Thing Republicans and Democrats Can Agree on

When it comes to pretty much any issue under the sun, it's hard to get members of America's two major political parties to agree. Until now.

Democratic US Representatives David Trone of Maryland and William Lacy Clay of Missouri, alongside Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner and Senator Roy Blunt, both also of Missouri, scheduled a news conference in Washington, DC on Thursday to implore the Golden Age Committee to induct Curt Flood into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This initiative was put together by Trone, who was looking to find a cause that both parties can work together on in light of tensions between left and right running so high. He and his colleagues chose to push for Flood to receive his rightful Hall of Fame induction at long last.

Flood is regarded as one of the greatest center fielders in baseball's history, and has seven consecutive Gold Glove awards to show for it. He made a true name for himself, however, by becoming the first player in Major League Baseball to refuse a trade when the St. Louis Cardinals attempted to ship him to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969 despite his contract with the Redbirds having expired. He wrote a ltter to MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn taking issue the league's reserve clause that existed in place of any notion of free agency, and ended up filing a lawsuit against Kuhn in 1970.

He would sit out the whole 1970 and eventually lost his suit before the US Supreme Court. But his actions started a process in motion that eventually led to free agency for MLB players when an arbitrator struck down the reserve clause in 1975.

Given that 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark suit, Congressman Trone and his colleagues are putting party aside to ensure that Flood is enshrined in the hallowed halls of Cooperstown as he's long deserved. And that's truly encouraging sight against the backdrop of such bitter partisanship in Washington.