The Integration of the Pacific Coast League

The Integration of the Pacific Coast League
Author: Amy Essington
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2018-06-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0803285736

"An account of the desegregation of baseball's Pacific Coast League, the first American League of any sport to desegregate all of its teams"--

Baseball's Great Experiment

Baseball's Great Experiment
Author: Jules Tygiel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780195106206

Offers a history of African American exclusion from baseball, and assesses the changing racial attitudes that led up to Jackie Robinson's acceptance by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The American Indian Integration of Baseball

The American Indian Integration of Baseball
Author: Jeffrey P. Powers-Beck
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-03
Genre: Baseball
ISBN: 9780803225091

For many the entry of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947 marked the beginning of integration in professional baseball, but the entry of American Indians into the game during the previous half-century and the persistent racism directed toward them is not as well known. From the time that Louis Sockalexis stepped onto a Major League Baseball field in 1897, American Indians have had a presence in professional baseball. Unfortunately, it has not always been welcomed or respected, and Native athletes have faced racist stereotypes, foul epithets, and abuse from fans and players throughout their careers. The American Indian Integration of Baseball describes the experiences and contributions of American Indians as they courageously tried to make their place in America's national game during the first half of the twentieth century. Jeffrey Powers-Beck provides biographical profiles of forgotten Native players such as Elijah Pinnance, George Johnson, Louis Leroy, and Moses Yellow Horse, along with profiles of better-known athletes such as Jim Thorpe, Charles Albert Bender, and John Tortes Meyers. Combining analysis of popular-press accounts with records from boarding schools for Native youth, where baseball was used as a tool of assimilation, Powers-Beck shows how American Indians battled discrimination and racism to integrate American baseball. Jeffrey Powers-Beck is a professor of English and assistant dean of Graduate Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is the author of Writing the Flesh: The Herbert Family Dialogue. Joseph B. Oxendine is the author of American Indian Sports Heritage (Nebraska 1995).

Brushing Back Jim Crow

Brushing Back Jim Crow
Author: Bruce Adelson
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780813918846

Adelson interviews dozens of athletes, managers, and sportswriters to chronicle the social plight of the presence of African-American ballplayers in the minor leagues. 20 illustrations.

Raceball

Raceball
Author: Rob Ruck
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2012-02-21
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0807048070

From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League Baseball After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Award-winning historian Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across society. Integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind. By looking at this history from the vantage point of black America and the Caribbean, a more complex story comes into focus, one largely missing from traditional narratives of baseball's history. Raceball unveils a fresh and stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.

The Integration of Baseball in Philadelphia

The Integration of Baseball in Philadelphia
Author: Christopher Threston
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2003-01-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780786414239

The release of Ken Burns' documentary Baseball in 1994 and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues in 1997 once again brought attention to the integration of baseball. Integration did not guarantee equality or even begin to solve baseball's race-related struggles. In some instances, integration caused even more problems for the African American players and their white teammates. This was the case in Philadelphia, where, among other discriminatory actions, Phillies manager Ben Chapman instructed his players to verbally abuse Jackie Robinson. This work examines how Philadelphia acquired a reputation as a tough place for African American players. It follows the very slow and difficult progress of integration of the Philadelphia Phillies and Athletics. Attempts to integrate Philadelphia baseball began being made as early as the 1860s, and all of them proved futile until 1953. Those attempts and the reasons that they failed are discussed. The book provides biographical and statistical information on some of the African American players who were confronted with discrimination, and also looks at the white players, managers, coaches, and front office personnel who were having a difficult time accepting African American players on their teams.

Forty Years a Giant

Forty Years a Giant
Author: Steven Treder
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 613
Release: 2021-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1496227239

2022 SABR Seymour Medal Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year When New York Giants owner Charles A. Stoneham came home one night in 1918 and told his teenage son, Horace, "Horrie, I bought you a ballclub," he set in motion a family legacy. Horace Stoneham would become one of baseball's greatest figures, an owner who played an essential role in integrating the game, and who was a major force in making our pastime truly national by bringing Major League Baseball to the West Coast. Horace Stoneham began his tenure with the Giants in 1924, learning all sides of the operation until he moved into the front office. In 1936, when his father died of kidney disease, Horace assumed control of the Giants at age thirty-two, becoming one of the youngest owners in baseball history. Stoneham played a pivotal role in not just his team's history but the game itself. In the mid-1940s when the Pacific Coast League sought to gain Major League status, few but Stoneham and Branch Rickey took it seriously, and twelve years later the Giants and Dodgers were the first two teams to relocate west. Stoneham signed former Negro Leaguers Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson, making the Giants the second National League franchise to racially integrate. In the late 1940s, the Giants hired their first Spanish-speaking scout and soon became the leading team in developing Latin American players. Stoneham was shy and self-effacing and avoided the spotlight. His relationships with players were almost always strong, yet for all his leadership skills and baseball acumen, sustained success eluded most of his teams. In forty seasons his Giants won just five National League pennants and only one World Series. The Stoneham family business struggled, and the team was forced to sell off its beloved stars, first Willie Mays, then Willie McCovey, and finally Juan Marichal. Then Stoneham had no choice but to sell the club in 1975. While his tenure came to an unfortunate end, he is heralded as a pioneer and leader whose story tells much of baseball history from the 1930s through the 1970s.

In Pursuit of Pennants

In Pursuit of Pennants
Author: Mark Armour
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2018-04-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1496206010

The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage. Purchase the audio edition.

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.

The Integration of Major League Baseball

The Integration of Major League Baseball
Author: Rick Swaine
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2009-06-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786453346

This book is a record of the men and events, team by team, during Major League Baseball's integration. It focuses especially on the owners, executives and managers who were the heroes, villains or spectators of integration, and it sheds new light on the unheralded champions of integration and on those whose culpability has so far been overlooked. Individual chapters cover each of baseball's integration-era teams, and a final chapter covers expansion teams of the 1960s. Each team's responsible individuals are examined, its acquisition, deployment and treatment of black players documented, and the effect of its integration actions on team performance analyzed. Appendices provide populations of integration-era Major League cities, first black players by team, first black players in various minor leagues, rosters of black players by team, a timeline of black player milestones, and a list of black All-Star selections through 1969.