Messersmith was born in New Jersey but at the age of 5 his family moved to Orange County, California. After graduating from Western High School in Anaheim, Messersmith received a baseball scholarship from the University of California, Berkeley. Following his junior year of college, the California Angels drafted Messersmith with the 12th overall pick in the June 1966 amateur draft. He pitched five seasons with the Angels, highlighted by his 20-13 record in 1971, even though the Angels finished 25.5 games behind the Western Division champion Oakland A\'s. After finishing with a record of 8-11 in \n', '1972, attributed primarily to a finger injury that required surgery, the Angels traded Messersmith and infielder Ken McMullen to the Los Angeles Dodgers for five players - Frank Robinson, Bill Singer, Billy Grabarkewitz, Bobby Valentine, and Mike Strahler. \n', '

Messersmith joined a strong Dodger rotation in 1973, finishing the season with a 14-10 record. He shined in 1974, finishing with 20 wins and 6 losses and a 2.59 ERA. He was the starting pitcher in the 1974 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and was one of the main factors in the Dodgers\' return to the World Series for the first time since 1966, and finished second in balloting for the Cy Young Award, which was won by his Dodger teammate Mike Marshall.\n', '

Messersmith is most famous for his role in the historic 1975 Seitz decision which led to the downfall of Major League Baseball\'s reserve clause and ushered in the current era of free agency. It began when Messersmith went to spring training in 1975 and began negotiating his 1975 contract. He asked for a no-trade clause which the Dodgers refused. According to author John Helyar, in The Lords of the Realm, Messersmith was also deeply offended by general manager Al Campanis "inject(ing) a personal issue" into the talks (it "cut so deeply with him", Helyar has written, that Messersmith since has never disclosed it), and the pitcher refused to deal with anyone lower than team president Peter O\'Malley.\n', '

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