HBO's "The Curious Case of Curt Flood" Debuts Tonight

HBO is premiering a new documentary, “The Curious Case of Curt Flood.” Flood was an outfielder for the Cardinals from 1958 to 1969, winning two World Series and seven-straight Gold Gloves. St. Louis traded him to the Philadelphia after the 1969 season. Flood decided to sue MLB and receive an injunction to free him from the reserve clause in his contract, which allowed his club to renew it in perpetuity.

Flood vs. Kuhn went to the Supreme Court, where the Court, controversially, ruled 5-3 in favor of MLB. The majority opinion, prefaced with a lengthy paean to the game, agreed with Flood that MLB was engaged in interstate commerce as defined by the Sherman Antitrust Act (which would have made the reserve clause an unfair restraint on trade), but declined to remove baseball’s unique exemption, passing the decision to Congress.

Historically, the case brought the reserve clause into a greater public consciousness and, tangentially, led to eventual free agency later in the 1970s.

Personally, Flood’s decision ended up a disaster. The pressure of the case combined with already brewing alcoholism, sending him down a spiral that ended his baseball career. After sitting out the 1970 season, Flood attempted a comeback with the Senators in 1971 before inexplicably quitting after 13 games and disappearing to Spain. Already faced with crushing debt, he cost himself a yearly salary of $90,000 (more than $500,000 per year in today’s dollars). He began a fight that led to free agency, but never reaped any of its benefits.

The film itself is more of a traditional, less ambitious narrative than we saw from 30 for 30. Depending on the film offered from comparison, that could be a good or bad thing. Flood’s personal story is interesting, but also makes him hard to capture on film. He’s a walking dichotomy. On one side he was a well-spoken, renaissance man and a noble proponent of Civil Rights. On the other, he was a drunk, a fraud and a deadbeat father. He wasn’t a great man, he didn’t do especially great things and only belatedly did he receive any gratification.

This was no “Two Escobars,” but worth a view if you have some time.