Shades of Glory

Shades of Glory
Author: Lawrence D. Hogan
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780792253068

The result of a study commissioned by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and funded by a grant from Major League Baseball(, this richly illustrated, comprehensive history combines vivid narrative, visual impact, and a unique statistical component to re-create the excitement and passion of the Negro Leagues. 75 photos.

Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball, with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886-1936

Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball, with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886-1936
Author: Sol White
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1996-08-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780803297838

America and baseball are rediscovering the game played by African Americans before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. We now know a great deal about the Negro Leagues of 1920 on, and their great stars-Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and their contemporaries. But what of the pre-1920 black game? From the onset in the 1880s of the "gentleman's agreement" that barred blacks from playing in white leagues, that game is nearly invisible. Financially shaky, with sporadic media coverage even in black newspapers and completely overlooked by the mainstream, Negro teams of this era played on for love of the game and in hopes that their skills would receive their due. In 1907, Sol White, a remarkable African-American ballplayer, successful manager, and baseball loyalist, wrote a small volume on the history of the black game. Part fund-raising effort, advertising brochure, team hype, celebration of black baseball, and throughout an implicit and explicit challenge to racism, Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball is the source of much of what we know of the events in the organized black game of that time. The original was poorly printed, and copies are exceedingly rare (known and rumored copies number only four). This edition republishes the full 1907 edition (with the even rarer supplement), completely reset for legibility, and reproduces all the original's illustrations, including the advertisements that speak volumes on the social world of the day. Fifteen additional documents from 1886 to 1936 augment the picture of the black game and our record of Sol White himself. The work is introduced by Jerry Malloy, a recognized expert on the history of Negro leagues who has spent years inpainstaking research into this vanished world.

Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame

Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame
Author: Steven R. Greenes
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-09-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476641110

Since 1971, 35 Negro League baseball players and executives have been admitted to the Hall of Fame. The Negro League Hall of Fame admissions process, which has now been conducted in four phases over a 50-year period, can be characterized as idiosyncratic at best. Drawing on baseball analytics and surveys of both Negro League historians and veterans, this book presents an historical overview of NLHOF voting, with an evaluation of whether the 35 NL players selected were the best choices. Using modern metrics such as Wins Above Replacement (WAR), 24 additional Negro Leaguers are identified who have Hall of Fame qualifications. Brief biographies are included for HOF-quality players and executives who have been passed over, along with reasons why they may have been excluded. A proposal is set forth for a consistent and orderly HOF voting process for the Negro Leagues.

Only the Ball was White

Only the Ball was White
Author: Robert Peterson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1992
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195076370

Tells the forgotten story of Black star-quality athletes excluded from professional baseball because of the big league's color line.

What Were the Negro Leagues?

What Were the Negro Leagues?
Author: Varian Johnson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2019-12-24
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1524790001

This baseball league that was made up of African American players and run by African American owners ushered in the biggest change in the history of baseball. In America during the early twentieth century, no part was safe from segregation, not even the country's national pastime, baseball. Despite their exodus from the Major Leagues because of the color of their skin, African American men still found a way to participate in the sport they loved. Author Varian Johnson shines a spotlight on the players, coaches, owners, and teams that dominated the Negro Leagues during the 1930s and 40s. Readers will learn about how phenomenal players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and of course, Jackie Robinson greatly changed the sport of baseball.

Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues

Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues
Author: John B. Holway
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2012-05-29
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0486136477

The foremost historian of the "blackball" era spent nearly 10 years researching this acclaimed oral history, interviewing 17 outstanding players including Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, and Willie Wells. Over 80 vintage photographs.

Catching Dreams

Catching Dreams
Author: Frazier Robinson
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2000-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780815606581

In a rare memoir about the Negro Leagues and its celebrated players, Frazier "Slow" Robinson offers an inspiring and often entertaining view of the black baseball diamond through a catcher's mask. In 1939, at the age of 29—after playing professional baseball for twelve years—Frazier Robinson caught the legendary Satchel Paige in barnstorming games from New Orleans to Walla Walla. Robinson played several more seasons in the Negro Leagues before finishing his career in Canada. While his career was a solid one, it was less spectacular than that of his friend and Hall-of-Famer, Satchel Paige, and so more typical of the experience of most Negro Leaguers. Richly embroidered with the threads of black society and of life as a black athlete in a racially divided nation, Robinson recounts his long career with the skill and ease of a natural storyteller. He covers, in remarkable detail, the personal perspective of the men, the teams, and the times that shaped this uniquely American subculture. From playing catcher for obscure industrial teams to barnstorming with Satchel Paige, he chronologically traces his nationwide path through the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and early '50s. The Foreword by John "Buck" O'Neil and Introduction by Gerald Early place Robinson squarely in the world of sports, African American culture, and American history.

The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960

The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960
Author: Leslie A. Heaphy
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2003
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780786413805

Presents a history of the Negro Leagues, from their inception to the integration of black players into Major League Baseball to the eventual demise of the league.

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues
Author: Bob Kendrick
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2021-12-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781970159639

SABR and MLB recently concluded that the Negro Leagues were "major leagues." This volume tells how the lost history and statistical record of the Negro Leagues were rebuilt and serves as an introduction to Negro League history as a whole.

Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays

Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays
Author: James E. Overmyer
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2020-01-22
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476663947

 Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East; he was the organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame--one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.