An illustrated study of the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the top teams in the Negro National League, which served as a training ground for Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and over twenty other players who were eventually sent to the major leagues.
Though Satchel Paige lived into the early 1980s, much of our information about his life and especially his career is the stuff of anecdote. He is nevertheless a central figure--arguably the central figure--in our reconstructions of Negro Leagues history. This collection of papers from the 9th Annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference focuses on the celebrity of Satchel Paige and the team he is most closely associated with, the Kansas City Monarchs. Accounts of Paige's exploits are scrutinized and the effects of his fame, on both the contemporary perception of black baseball and its depiction in the years since, are discussed.
For more than a decade, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for the Negro Baseball League, earning the opportunity to work with such legends as Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. "Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars" is his revealing, humorous memoir.
Some say that Kansas City has the best black baseball, blues, and "Q" in the nation. It has been called the heart of America, a cultural melting pot, and the breadbasket of the Midwest. It was also home to the famous Kansas City Monarchs. Black baseball began in Kansas City with the Maroons in 1890. However, it wasn't until 1921, when the black Kansas City Monarchs triumphed over the white Kansas City Blues, that black players started receiving national attention. The Monarchs produced several championship teams and major league players, and became black baseball's longest running and most stable franchise.
The Negro baseball leagues were a thriving sporting and cultural institution for African Americans from their founding in 1920 until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Rogosin's narrative pulls the veil off these "invisible men" and gives us a glorious chapter in American history.
The New York Times bestseller—“a rollicking account” (The Kansas City Star) of the infamous baseball game between the Yankees and Royals in which a game-winning home run was overturned and set off one of sports history’s most absurd and entertaining controversies. On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar—the sticky substance used for a better grip—on Royals third baseman George Brett’s bat. Brett wildly charged out of the dugout and chaos ensued. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria. The game was a watershed moment, marking a change in the sport, where benign cheating tactics like spitballs, Superball bats, and a couple extra inches of tar on an ash bat, gave way to era of soaring salaries, labor strikes, and rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. In The Pine Tar Game acclaimed sports writer Filip Bondy paints a portrait of the Yankees and Royals of that era, replete with bad actors, phenomenal athletes, and plenty of yelling. Players and club officials, like Brett, Goose Gossage, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, David Cone, and John Schuerholz, offer fresh commentary on the events and their take on the subsequent postseason rivalry. “A sticky moment milked for all its nutty, head-shaking glory” (Sports Illustrated), The Pine Tar Game examines a more innocent time in professional sports, and the shifting tide that resulted in today’s modern iteration of baseball. Some watchers of the Royals’ 2015 World Series win over New York’s “other baseball team,” the Mets, may see it as sweet revenge for a bygone era of talent flow and umpire calls favoring New York.
This book follows Dizzy and Daffy Dean's All-Stars as they barnstormed across the country in 1934, taking the field against the greatest teams in the Negro Leagues. It shows the glory of the games as well as the disingenuous journalistic tactics that proliferated during the tour with an introspective look at its impact on race relations. In 1934, brothers Dizzy and Daffy Dean were stars of Major League Baseball's regular season and World Series. Following their St. Louis Cardinals' victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game Seven, Dizzy and Daffy went on a fourteen game barnstorming tour against the best African-American baseball players in the country. The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour: Race, Media, and America's National Pastime examines for the first time the full barnstorming series in its original and uncensored splendor. Phil S. Dixon profiles not only the men who were part of the Deans' All-Star teams but also the men who played against them, including some of baseball's most monumental African-American players. Dixon highlights how the contributions during the tour of Negro League stars such as Satchel Paige, Chet Brewer, Charlie Beverly, and Andy Cooper were glossed over by sports writers of the day and grants them their rightful due in this significant slice of sports history. The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour gives careful consideration to the social implications of the tour and the media's biased coverage of the games, providing a unique window for viewing racism in American sports history. It is more than a baseball story--it is an American story.
When the Negro National League was formed in Kansas City in 1920, a new chapter in sports history began. The city of Chicago played no small part in the creation and content of this historic chapter. Black Baseball in Chicago chronicles the history of the teams and players that spent time in the "Windy City." In 1911, the Chicago American Giants were born. This team drew some of the best players from the league, including such legendary stars as Bruce Petway, Pete Hill, Grant "Home Run" Johnson, and future hall-of-famer John Henry "Pop" Lloyd. On any given Sunday afternoon, the Chicago American Giants games often outdrew those of the cross-town rivals, the White Sox and the Cubs.
Although Andrew "Rube" Foster (1879-1930) stands among the best African American pitchers of the 1900s, this baseball pioneer made his name as the founder and president of the Negro National League, the first all-black league to survive a full season. In addition to founding this groundbreaking black-owned and -operated business, Foster also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. This definitive biography combines period editorials and correspondence with insightful narrative to provide a comprehensive portrait of this innovative Hall of Famer. From the unstructured early days of black baseball, when Foster gained glory as a hard-throwing pitcher, through his struggles to establish the NNL and the Giants, to his tragic death from complications of syphilis, this work pays overdue tribute to an authentic American baseball icon.