Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players' Rights

by Alex Belth

A biography of the all-star baseball player who stood up to injustice. Curt Flood was a dazzling center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals when, in 1969, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. But instead of accepting his fate, Flood shocked baseball by suing the sport over its Reserve Clause, an age-old rule that bound players to their teams in perpetuity. His extraordinary case went all the way to the Supreme Court and helped pave the way for major advancements in the rights of professional athletes.

Stepping Up is Flood's astonishing story. Accessible to teens but of interest to baseball fans of all ages, it begins with Flood as a an artistic black kid in Oakland, and continues with his eye-opening experience as a minor leaguer in the racist South. It describes Flood's years with the exciting Cardinals teams of the 1960s (with teammates like Stan Musial, Joe Torre, and Bob Gibson), and his increasing frustrations with baseball's mistreatment of players―especially blacks. The book culminates with his historic suit, which changed his life and the sports world forever.

In lively, conversational prose, Alex Belth provides fascinating details and anecdotes about Flood's Cardinals, the Negro Leagues, and many of the dramatic differences in baseball―and America―between Flood's era and today. Including a foreword by acclaimed broadcaster Tim McCarver (who, as a player, was traded with Flood to the Phillies), Stepping Up is the compelling tale of a ballplayer's desire to make a difference.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction, Biography, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2006

Reviews

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always know a little about Curt Flood but this book allowed me to learn more about him as a ballplayer and his fight against the reserve clause. I think the book was quick and to the point, coming in at a little over 200 pages.

I would recommend the book to fans of baseball. Flood's court case cracked open the door towards free agency and ended baseball owners' monopoly over the players' careers. Curt Flood lost his case but the players of today have reaped the benefits from his sacrifice.

[Chris Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately for me, I read this book many years after it's publication and after the release of "A Well Paid Slave," which made this book uneventful, but no less enjoyable.

I'm certain that had I not read the other books about Flood or knew little about his story it would have been an amazing and outstanding book. This is no fault of the author as the book is a solid work and a nice concise account of Floods life and career.

[Ice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curt Flood was an outstanding center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s. His baseball career was cut short by conscience, not injury. When he was traded after the 1969 season, he refused to report to his new team and mounted a legal challenge to baseball's reserve clause, which bound a player to a team forever, unless the team chose to trade or release him. Flood sat out the 1970 season while the case wound its way to the Supreme Court, where he lost. But Flood's challenge eventually paved the way for what is now known as free agency, the vehicle that has made millionaires of even journeyman major leaguers.

Belth's biography recounts Flood's modest youth, his minor-league stops in the Jim Crow south, and his stellar major-league career, homing in on the circumstances and personal characteristics that would lead him to the role of trailblazer. He retired from the game at the young age of 32, deeply hurt by the animosity he encountered, even among some of his shortsighted peers. An incisive portrait of an underappreciated baseball icon.