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A Well-Paid Slave

Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports

Brad Snyder - Author

Paperback | $16.00 | add to cart | view cart
ISBN 9780452288911 | 480 pages | 25 Sep 2007 | Plume | 8.26 x 5.23in | 18 - AND UP
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After the 1969 season, the St. Louis Cardinals traded their star center fielder, Curt Flood, to the Philadelphia Phillies, setting off a chain of events that would change professional sports forever. At the time there were no free agents, no no-trade clauses. When a player was traded, he had to report to his new team or retire. Unwilling to leave St. Louis and influenced by the civil rights movement, Flood chose to sue Major League Baseball for his freedom. His case reached the Supreme Court, where Flood ultimately lost. But by challenging the system, he created an atmosphere in which, just three years later, free agency became a reality. Flood’s decision cost him his career, but as this dramatic chronicle makes clear, his influence on sports history puts him in a league with Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali.


“Captivating . . . places Flood’s challenge to baseball squarely where it belongs, as the final radical act of the 1960s civil rights movement.”
The Washington Post

“An absorbing—and long overdue—look at Curt Flood’s life and influence.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Robust and poignant.”
The Boston Globe

“Generations of ballplayers—Curt Flood’s children—have never honored him properly. . . . But with this fine book, Brad Snyder surely has.”
The New York Times Book Review


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