actually, Flood (a .293 lifetime hitter with 3 all-star appearances, 7 Golden Glove awards, 2 series championships, and potential hall of famer with the St. Louis Cardinals) lost his case in the Supreme Court. ..Harry Blackmun's 1972 majority opinion relied upon 'stare decisis' (three previous legal challenges to the reserved clause - 1922/1946/1953 - had been rejected) and the 'integrity of the game' (mythological baseball bullshit)...but HB, in noting baseball's unique anti-trust exception, urged congress to eliminate it and, in effect, opened the door to future reversal of his own opinion...
in 1975, a labor arbitrator ruled in favor of Andy Messersmith & Dave McNally (Baltimore Orioles pitchers) and in 1976 Minnesota Twins pitcher Bill Campbell became the first player to negotiate a post- reserve clause contract when he signed with the Boston Red Sox... probably not a coincidence that AM, DM & BC were white (nor is it likely a coincidence that the social and political movements of the 1960s and early 1970s that Curt Flood flood cites in his book _The Way It Is_ as being important influences on him were on the wane)...I don't recall any of the three thanking Curt Flood for his martyrdom..
Flood's suit stemmed from his opposition to being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1970 *and* to his previously being told that a white player on the Cardinals had received a larger raise than he did because it 'costs more for whites to live in America'... he sat out the 1970 season after filing his suit and returned for a few games in 1971 as a Washington Senator before leaving the game for good (except for a brief stint as a radio announcer for the Oakland A's in the late 1970s)... Michael Hoover