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Danny Gardella played 168 games for the New York Giants in 1944 and ’45. They were lean years in baseball with many of the game’s stars away for the war effort.

As players returned it was a buyer’s market. For 1946, the Giants offered Gardella $4,500. The Mexican League’s team Veracruz proposed a $10,000 contract.

The outfielder jumped at the chance to double his money. Other players followed. Soon baseball commissioner Happy Chandler went on the attack.

Feeling the reserve clause was under attack, the baseball chief slapped a five-year ban on all those who jumped to the Mexican League.

Gardella sued Major League Baseball and the Giants. The suit said baseball’s reserve clause is “monopolistic and restrains trade.”

The case was heard in multiple courts. After more than a year of legal wrangling, the case was ordered for trial in 1949. Fearful of a negative outcome, Chandler offered amnesty to the players involved.

Faced with the prospects of a long and expensive court battle, Gardella dropped the lawsuit.

In this letter Gardella writes in part, “Cheap and monopolistic Happy Chandler banished all players (who) went to Mexico and I asked Fred Johnson to represent me in court and the reserve clause became infamous and the great American game tried to make proper changes like unions to shape the modern player.”

The second page of the letter is shown in the next image.

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One of the earliest players to train with weights, Danny Gadella was also known for his ability to walk on his hands and perform acrobatic stunts. In three Major League seasons, Gardella played 169 games and hit .267 with 24 home runs and 85 runs batted in.

Shown here is the second page of the letter. A reflective Gardella continues, “I hope I have been good for baseball…”

 

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In 1946, Major League players Danny Gardella, Sal Maglie, Alex Carrasquel, Max Lanier, and Mickey Owen accepted $10,000 each to play in the Mexican League. In response Commissioner Chandler banned them for five years on grounds that they violated baseball’s reserve clause. Gardella sued Major League Baseball and the New York Giants charging that the reserve clause was invalid.

By 1949 the case was still mired in the courts when Chadlner offered amnesty to Gardella as well as a rumored settlement of $60,000. Late in the year, Gardella dropped his lawsuit.

In this letter, Chandler writes to Dodger owner Walter O’Malley about the case. “I want to thank you…for the very important part you played in helping to bring about the satisfactory settlement in the Gardella case.”