A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports

Curt Flood fought Major League Baseball's "reserve clause", forcing players to accept contracts (and even salaries, within limits) from the one team they played for - and accept trades to other teams.

A Well-Paid Slave follows Flood's fight through the court system. Snyder gives a lot of background on Flood and the lawyers, judges, and justices who are involved with the lawsuit. The book is tough to read at times - Flood knew the stakes of suing, but his life during the suit seemed to be a long litany of debts and alcoholism.

It was fascinating to read about the behavior of judges and justices, many of whom were baseball fans who were deciding a case that would have huge impacts on the sport. Makes me wonder how other Supreme Court cases show more are decided. show less

Learning the history of free agency was fascinating, but Curt obviously had an ax to grind.

Snyder, a lawyer, adds much-needed insight into the Supreme Court battle which defines Flood's significance in baseball history.