Desperado: The Jerry Terrell Story

967-1.

That was the vote.

On April 1st, 1980, players across the major leagues voted on whether or not to strike that season. Of the 968 votes cast, there was but one dissenter.

As spring training wound down, one issue loomed above all others: The threat of a players’ strike. Ever since Peter Seitz’s ruling in December of 1975 which struck down the reserve clause, MLB owners had been trying to turn back time. The collective bargaining agreement was set to expire and the owners’ proposal of Free-Agent Compensation was the major sticking point. Owners wanted a system in which a team signing a free agent would be able to protect up to 15 players and the team losing the free agent could select any unprotected player as compensation for the loss.

Player’s Association head Marvin Miller advised the players not to accept the proposal because he felt it would keep teams from aggressively bidding on free agents, which it certainly would have done. On April 1^st, the players voted to walk out of the final week of spring training and to go on strike on May 22^nd if an agreement was not reached. The strike would deprive the owners revenue from 92 spring training games and put the regular season in doubt. The final vote was 967-1 in favor of a strike. The single no vote came from Royals infielder Jerry Terrell who objected on religious grounds. Terrell didn’t admit to casting the lone dissenting vote, but there was no doubt as to where he stood.

Terrell was the Royals player representative and addressed his teammates before the vote. He told them he would vote against a strike and he told them why. He also offered to step aside as player rep. His teammates turned him down.

“I’m just 1-39th of a team’s opinion and the majority feels the other way,” he said. “It is not hard to cast the vote. The players know my views and there is mutual respect,”