Top 50 Cal Pros: No. 25 -- Andy Messersmith, Pitcher & Pioneer

We are counting down Cal’s top 50 athletes based on their careers as post-collegiate professionals. Their performance as Golden Bears is not factored into the rankings.

25. ANDY MESSERSMITH

Years at Cal: 1964 to 1966

Sport: Baseball

Pro teams: California Angeles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees

Age: 79

Hometown: Toms River, NJ

Why we ranked him here: Messersmith was a very good major league pitcher — 130-99 with a 2.86 earned run average and 27 shutouts in 12 seasons. But he was an even more important one, which we’ll get to in a moment. Selected 12th in the first round of the 1966 June draft - secondary phase by the California Angeles, Messersmith played portions of three seasons in the minors before making his MLB debut in 1968. The 6-foot-1 right-hander was 4-2 with a 2.26 ERA that season, then went 16-11 with a 2.52 ERA in 1969. Two years later, he assembled the first of his two 20-win seasons, going 20-13 with a 2.99 ERA to earn the first of his four All-Star Game invites and finish fifth in the Cy Young Award voting. Traded to the Dodgers before the 1973 season, Messersmith was 20-6 with a 2.59 ERA in ’74, finishing second in the Cy Young balloting. During spring training prior to the ’75 season, while negotiating for a new contract, Messersmith asked the Dodgers for a no-trade clause. These these types of demands were unheard at the time, when ownership had complete control of a player’s fortunes. Messersmith went on to play the 1975 season without a contact, posting a 19-14 record with a 2.29 ERA, and leading the National League with 40 games started, 19 complete games, seven shutouts and 321.2 innings pitched. He was an All-Star and also won a Gold Glove for his fielding. After the season, Messersmith won a landmark arbitration case, was declared a free agent and signed a three-year, $1 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. That means he was earning almost $100,000 more in 1976 than new teammate Hank Aaron, who had just broken Babe Ruth's career home run record. More importantly, it marked the downfall of baseball’s reserve clause, which tied players to their teams indefinitely, and led to the modern era of free agency.