|
Product Description
In 1947 Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and became a hero for black and white Americans, yet Robinson was a Negro League player before he integrated Major League baseball. Negro League ballplayers had been thrilling black fans since 1920. Among them were the legendary pitchers Smoky Joe Williams, whose fastball seemed to “come off a mountain top,” Satchel Paige, the ageless wonder who pitched for five decades, and such hitters as Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, “the Ruth and Gehrig of the Negro Leagues.”
Although their games were ignored by white-owned newspapers and radio stations, black ballplayers became folk heroes in cities such as Chicago, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC, where the teams drew large crowds and became major contributors to the local community life. This memorable narrative, filled with the memories of many surviving Negro League players, pulls the veil off these “invisible men” who were forced into the segregated leagues. What emerges is a glorious chapter in African American history and an often overlooked aspect of our American past.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- Baseball and American Culture
- National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball (American Ways)
- Ambassadors in Pinstripes: The Spalding World Baseball Tour and the Birth of the American Empire
- Wait Till Next Year - A Memoir
- Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History
- October 1964
- Growing the Game: The Globalization of Major League Baseball
- Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
- Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams
- Baseball: A History of America's Game (Sport and Society)
*If this is not the "Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Dec 12, 2024 02:58 +08.