How to Use reserve clause in a Sentence

reserve clause

noun
  • Miller ended the reserve clause and brought the owners to their knees in winning the right to free agency through the courts.
    — Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 4 Dec. 2021
  • But each court decision chipped away at the reserve clause baseball’s owners were clinging to.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Dec. 2019
  • The reserve clause ended, free agency began and the players’ union found its voice, setting the table for the high salaries of today.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Feb. 2021
  • Flood will refuse to report to the Phillies and will take baseball to court over the reserve clause that binds a player perpetually to one team.
    — Paul Montella, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Oct. 2019
  • In the era before free agency, the league’s reserve clause bound Robertson to the Royals for the entirety of his career.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Minor league player George Toolson wanted to play in the major leagues but was bound to the Yankees and their farm teams by a reserve clause in his contract.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Baseball also was operating under the reserve clause, which bound a player to his current team indefinitely.
    — Staff Writer follow, Los Angeles Times, 7 Dec. 2022
  • The upstart league resulted from a bitter and unsuccessful struggle against professional baseball’s reserve clause, which would bind a player to a team for life.
    — Ron Grossman, chicagotribune.com, 7 Apr. 2022
  • The class begins with a history of athletes’ rights, going as far back as Curt Flood’s fight against the reserve clause in baseball, which eventually led to free agency.
    — Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 17 May 2023
  • The National League adopted a reserve clause binding a player to his team in December 1879.
    — Ronald Blum, The Denver Post, 24 Dec. 2019
  • When the reserve clause was removed from players’ contracts across various sports leagues which gave rise to free agency (nod to Marvin Miller and Curt Flood here), players’ salaries exploded.
    — Patrick Rishe, Forbes, 9 June 2022
  • When a federal court ordered a jury trial to investigate baseball’s labor practices, the owners quickly realized the reserve clause likely would be overturned, potentially costing them millions in salary.
    — Staff Writer follow, Los Angeles Times, 7 Dec. 2022
  • The reserve clause was sharply curtailed during union negotiations in the years following the court’s decision, eventually leading to professional baseball’s modern free-agency system.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Kurt Flood refused to be traded to another team and challenged Major League Baseball's entrenched reserve clause in the courts, paving the way for free-agency and access to big money that successful pro athletes enjoy today.
    — Byron McCauley, Cincinnati.com, 26 Sep. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'reserve clause.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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