The Negro Leagues: Celebrating Baseball's Unsung Heroes
CONTENTS Introduction Baseball’s Untold Story 1 The Segregation of Professional Baseball 2 Play Ball 3 Countdown to Integration 4 Legendary Players of the Negro Leagues 5 The Legacy of the Negro Leagues Source Notes Glossary Further Reading Index 5 7 19 32 39 54 60 61 62 63
Many great players of the Negro Leagues such as Buck Leonard left of the Homestead Grays are not well known to modern fans because they were not allowed to play Major League Baseball
BASEBALL’S UNTOLD STORY BASEBALL’S UNTOLD STORY BASEBALL’S UNTOLD STORY INTRODUCTION Imagine Major League Baseball MLB without home run champion Hank Aaron No over-the-shoulder game-saving catches from the great Willie Mays No towering home runs off the bats of Ken Griffey Jr or Reggie Jackson No diving stops by Frank Robinson No blazing Bob Gibson fastballs No Rickey Henderson racing around the base paths To a baseball fan it’s almost unthinkable Baseball more than any other major American sport treasures its history The modern game was built on the shoulders of these legendary players and others Imagining baseball without them feels a little like imagining the game without third base And yet just 70 years ago less than a lifetime you wouldn’t have had to imagine Then many of the game’s greatest players those who didn’t have white skin weren’t allowed to play in the big leagues But that doesn’t mean they didn’t play For decades baseball’s Negro Leagues offered fans a thrilling alternative to Major League Baseball The history of black baseball is steeped in tall tales and legend The lines between fact and fiction are often blurred the truth lost to history Most Negro League stars remain unrecognizable to all but die-hard baseball history buffs Yet for students of America’s pastime the true story of baseball can never be complete without the tales of these heroes 5
