National League in complete games and shutouts, finishing second in earned run average with 2.29, and winning a Gold Glove (his second) as the league's best-fielding pitcher. Messersmith and Dave McNally were the only two players in 1975 playing on the one year reserve clause in effect at the time. McNally's season ended early due to injuries and he returned home, intending to retire, but agreeing to players' union director Marvin Miller's request that he sign onto the Messersmith grievance in case Messersmith ended up signing a new deal with the Dodgers before the season ended. "It was less of an economic issue at the time than a fight for the right to have control over your own destiny", Messersmith told The Sporting News, looking back on his decision a decade later. "It was a matter of being tired of going in to negotiate a contract and hearing the owners say, 'OK, here's what you're getting. Tough luck'." Messersmith and McNally won their case before arbitrator Peter Seitz, who was fired by the owners the day afterward. McNally followed through on his intention to retire but Messersmith signed a three-year, $1 million deal with the Atlanta Braves. Among other things, then-Braves owner Ted Turner suggested the nickname "Channel" for Messersmith and jersey number 17, in order to promote the television station that aired Braves games. Major League Baseball quickly nixed the idea. Messersmith struggled trying to live up to his new contract which was sold to the New York Yankees for $100,000 at the Winter Meetings on December 8, 1977, having gone 16–15 in two seasons with the Braves, the second marred by injuries. The Yankees released him after an injury plagued 1978 season and he signed with the Dodgers, who gave him the very thing their first refusal drove him toward testing and defeating the old reserve system: a no-trade clause. But the injuries and stress had taken too much toll; Messersmith pitched in only 11 games for the Dodgers in 1979, going 2–4 with a 4.90 ERA, and retired after the Dodgers released him. He served two stints as a baseball coach at Cabrillo College, from 1986 to 1991 and from 2005 to 2007, when he retired at age 63. Messersmith's earned run average of 2.861 is the sixth lowest among starting pitchers whose careers began after the advent of the live-ball era in 1920, behind only Clayton