From the Times:

“The Curious Case of Curt Flood,” a new HBO Sports documentary (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), raises a tantalizing question: what if Flood’s legal challenge to baseball’s reserve clause had had a better advocate before the United States Supreme Court than Arthur J. Goldberg, a former associate justice?

Flood lost the case by a 5-to-3 vote. Would a better argument have swayed two justices to rule against Major League Baseball?

Goldberg had one of the worst days of his career on that March day in 1972. He did not deliver pointed, persuasive arguments. He lost his place. He did not answer justices’ questions directly. He clumsily listed Flood’s season-by-season batting averages. He went past his allotted time. He repeated himself.

Listen here. It is tough to listen to.

And no, I am not picking on Justice Breyer, who clerked for Justice Goldberg.