Essentially, this was a "my headache for your headache" trade. Flood and McCarver had been complaining about how they were being treated by Cardinal owner Gussie Busch. And Allen was a lightning rod, who stayed out late, arrived to games late, drank too much, bet on horse races, and (however unintentionally) stirred up the racial resentments of "the City of Brotherly Love."
As could be expected, Allen, who so badly wanted out of Philadelphia, is involved in a trade that also becomes controversial -- except, ironically, his part in it isn't the controversial part. He reports to St. Louis without complaint; is received warmly by teammates, management and fans; has a good 1970 season for the Cards; and, on his return to Philadelphia with his new team, is cheered by the Philly fans, and hits a home run.
The controversial part involves Flood: Like Allen, he believes (with some reason) that Philadelphia is a racist city, and refuses to report to the Phillies. He writes to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, telling him he has the right to ply his trade wherever he likes under American labor laws, and that the reserve clause, which binds a player to a single team in perpetuity unless he is released, or traded (in which case, he becomes the property of the new team, as was the case here), is unconstitutional.
Since Kuhn is a lawyer, he should respect that. Since he is essentially employed by the 24 MLB team owners, he doesn't respect it. Flood sues, and the case will go all the way to the Supreme Court, where Flood will lose in 1972. A later case gets the reserve clause struck down, but that comes too late to help Flood, or any other previous challenger, none of whom even got as close as Flood did. Still, this trade, which Flood did not ask for, ended up changing everything in baseball.
The Cardinals sent Willie Montañez and a minor leaguer to complete the trade, but Flood's courageous challenge to the reserve clause had a dramatic impact on the game. Flood died in 1997, just past his 59th birthday, his health compromised by years of drinking.
The Phillies eventually got Dick Allen back, and, having been transplanted across town to Veterans Stadium, faced cheers as in 1964 instead of boos as in 1965 to 1969, and helped the Phils win the National League Eastern Division title in 1976. He later beat his own drinking problem, was hired in the Phils' front office, and was thoroughly cheered whenever he was introduced at Citizens Bank Park. He died in 2020, at age 78.
Montañez is another interesting story. One of the first players to be called a "hot dog," he was one of those players whom teams kept trying to acquire, and eventually kept trying to dump. From 1966 to 1982, he batted .275 with 139 home runs, was a fine fielder at 1st base, and was an All-Star in 1977, as an Atlanta Brave. He was a New York Met in 1978 and '79. He never reached the postseason, though.
He's now 74. I once saw an entire starting lineup, complete with designated hitter, of players who were traded for him. And it was a decent lineup:
1B John Milner
2B Tony Phillips
SS Marty Perez
3B Darrell Evans
LF Al Oliver
CF Garry Maddox
RF Ken Henderson
C Tim McCarver
DH Dick Allen
P Gaylord Perry or Bert Blyleven
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October 7, 1969 was a Tuesday. Baseball's Pennants were won the day before, by the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles. The World Series started 4 days later. So did the NHL season. The NBA and the ABA both started their seasons 3 days after that. And football was in midweek. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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