Jim 'Catfish' Hunter was baseball's first free agent 50 years ago, and it was the Yankees who signed him

As thousands of revelers huddled against the chill in Times Square for New Year’s Eve festivities on Dec. 31, 1974, the first to be hosted by rock ‘n’ roll personality Dick Clark, Yankees fans in the throng had an extra-special reason to twist and shout. Just a few hours earlier, their team had signed baseball’s first modern-day free agent, star pitcher Jim “Catfish’’ Hunter. On that night, for one of the world’s most joyous countdowns, it was flamboyant Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley who dropped the ball.

Juan Soto has benefited most from Finley’s folly and Hunter’s history. The recent 15-year, $765 million free-agent deal Soto signed with the Mets has 50-year-old roots.

Finley had failed to honor some terms in Hunter’s A’s contract regarding the payment of deferred life insurance premiums, and after much haggling in court, labor arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled in favor of Hunter. Marvin Miller, the head of the Players Association, also was a key figure, declaring Hunter’s Oakland contract in default, which led to the fateful arbitration hearing on Dec. 16, 1974, that set Hunter free. Despite Finley’s protests and threats of a lawsuit, a frenetic bidding war broke out among nearly all of MLB’s 24 teams and resulted in the Yankees bagging Hunter for a then-staggering sum of $3.75 million over five years. Various amounts have been reported, none lower than $3.2 million.

Hunting Catfish

“For a couple of weeks, all eyes were on where Catfish Hunter would wind up. It was big news every day as different teams went to North Carolina [where Hunter lived on a farm in the small town of Ahoskie] to visit with him and his lawyers,” Marty Appel recalled in a recent phone interview with Newsday.

Appel, a noted baseball historian who was the Yankees’ director of media relations at the time, added wryly, “The Yankees, in the years leading up to that, had not shown a propensity to do whatever it took to reel in such a big catfish.”

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner still was under suspension from baseball for illegal campaign contributions he’d made to President Richard Nixon, so he had to operate behind the scenes while president Gabe Paul ran the team. Steinbrenner reportedly told Paul, “You do what you feel you have to do. We have to get this guy.”

The Yankees got their man, but it was hardly a New Year’s Eve party for the media. “Gabe called me and said you should organize a press conference for this evening, but it’s not a sure thing he’ll sign. We’re bringing him up here, but it could still fall apart,” Appel said. “I had to call around to all the media and tell them we have the possibility of a big signing. If he does sign, we’re going to have an immediate press conference. They were pretty unhappy because it was New Year’s Eve and it was also a snowy day in New York. So even Hunter’s flight from North Carolina was in question. But it did work out.”

Because the Yankees were sharing Shea Stadium with the Mets in that 1975 season due to the ongoing renovation of Yankee Stadium (it reopened in 1976), the news conference was held in what had been Robert Moses’ office during the 1964 World’s Fair, in the Parks Administration Building, not far from Shea and LaGuardia Airport, where Hunter’s plane landed. Appel noted, “At about 8 o’clock that night, Catfish picks up a 19-cent Bic pen and signs the contract.”

‘Historic’ signing

Fifty years later, the aftershocks from that watershed court decision and that first free-agent contract are still being felt throughout the sports world.

“The meaning of that signing was so historic,” Appel said. “Look at the major sports today. They all have a system of free agency and it all began that night. So did the use of the word millions in sports contracts. The employment of agents to represent players was very unusual for back then, and so was the multiyear contract.”

Some baseball executives believed the huge — for its time — salary would diminish Hunter’s motivation. At the New Year’s Eve news conference, Hunter made it clear that would not be the case. “In the last World Series,” he said of the A’s 1974 championship, “I had a card in my locker that said, ‘Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to is.’ I always want to win.”

He won his freedom, too, something that players did not have in that era because of baseball’s reserve clause. “I was probably the first player who broke it open for other players to be paid what they’re worth,” said Hunter, who died in 1999.

While Hunter’s contract didn’t directly eliminate the reserve clause, it did shine a light on arbitration and mediation and set the stage for the reserve clause to be successfully challenged. On Dec. 23, 1975, the reserve system was shattered when Seitz handed pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally their unqualified free agency. By 1976, free agency was the law of the land, with the first class featuring Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers, Hunter’s former Oakland teammates.

As baseball’s first newly minted multi-millionaire, Hunter became the hunted for the media, beginning in spring training with a surprising Yank prank. “Even Howard Cosell from ABC had a crew come down,” Appel recalled of the outspoken sportscaster, who was part of ABC’s popular “Monday Night Football” telecast. “The network rented a Brinks truck and they had Hunter arriving at spring training camp in it, which was pretty funny. He and Catfish went along with the stunt.’’ (It was an ABC producer’s idea.)

Money well spent

Hunter initially caused some critics to wonder if the Yankees had gotten robbed when he got off to a shaky 0-3 start. He went on to have a terrific year, posting a 23-14 record (his fifth straight 20-win season) and a 2.58 ERA while leading the American League in complete games (30, an MLB total not reached since) and innings pitched (a career-high 328),

Though injured sporadically thereafter, Hunter made key contributions to the Yankees’ return to glory with three straight World Series appearances in 1976-78, winning championships in 1977 and ‘78.

In fact, upon Hunter’s induction into the Hall of Fame in 1987, Steinbrenner said, “You started our success. You were the first to teach us how to win.”

Added Appel, “Catfish was clearly the leader, not only of the pitching staff but of the entire team. Somebody with a presence. I admired the guy from Day One and was so happy he was a Yankee and so happy he was such a quality guy.’’

Hunter won seven of his last nine decisions in 1975, including his 20th victory and seventh shutout, 2-0, over the Orioles on Sept. 7. He finished a close second to Baltimore’s Jim Palmer in the Cy Young Award voting but might have pushed his golden arm past its limits.

“There clearly was a plan in place to get their money’s worth,” said Appel, who diplomatically added, “On that subject, I would say, don’t you want five years worth of him? But they were determined to make it work in Year One.”

It worked out well for Hunter, of course, but not so much for the Yankees. They struggled to stay above .500 under manager Bill Virdon. On Aug. 1, after a night-game victory left them with a 53-51 record, Virdon was fired and replaced by Billy Martin, who took over the next day, coincidentally Old-Timers' Day at the Stadium. The Yankees went 30-26 under Martin and finished third in the AL East, but he was just beginning his controversial career as Yankees manager.

“One of my best memories of that Old-Timers’ Day was meeting Joe DiMaggio at the press entrance. I was walking him to the Yankee clubhouse because we didn’t assume anybody knew their way [at Shea],” Appel said. “I said, ‘Have you heard our news? Billy Martin is being hired today as manager.’ I’ll never forget his reaction. Joe rolled his eyes and said, ‘Good luck with that.’ Joe DiMaggio was prophetic that day.”

Shea Stadium’s primary tenant, the Mets, generated some similarly noteworthy storylines in the ’75 season, also finishing a disappointing third in the NL East at 82-80. Their manager, Yogi Berra, a popular former teammate of DiMaggio’s and Martin’s, was fired with a 56-53 record and replaced by Roy McMillan, who went 26-27.

The Mets’ own Hall of Fame-bound righthanded pitcher, Tom Seaver, in sharp contrast to Hunter, willingly accepted a pay cut for the 1975 season. He had become baseball’s highest-paid pitcher when he signed for $173,000 after his Cy Young Award-winning 1973 season. But he struggled in 1974 and agreed — without debate — to $136,000 for 1975, just three weeks after Hunter’s historic deal.

“My primary motive in pitching this year is not to outdo Catfish Hunter,” said Seaver, who died in 2020. “I’m all for him. Any time you have somebody who gets money like that, he raises the salaries for everyone.”

Seaver raised his own game, going 22-9 with a 2.38 ERA and collecting his third Cy Young Award. There have never been two Cy Young winners from the same city in the same year, but New York, New York came very close in 1975.

Statistics and awards aside, 1975 stands as a landmark season that ultimately led to an overhaul of baseball’s financial landscape. A half-century later, it’s a different money ballgame. Every player has a chance to earn his freedom and a multiyear salary that dwarfs those of Hunter and the 1976 pioneers. Sports agents, a rare breed 50 years ago, are omnipresent and omnipotent. The average annual salary for MLB players in 2024 was more than $4.6 million. The minimum salary exceeded $700,000.

If baseball had its own currency, Catfish Hunter’s likeness surely would be on one of its bills. Free agency, like rock ‘n’ roll, is here to stay.