Playing in Shadows: Texas and Negro League Baseball

Playing in Shadows: Texas and Negro League BaseballWhile baseball may have long been considered an all American sport in which a melting pot could celebrate ethnic heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Connie Mack, and Stan Musial, racial segregation excluded blacks from an otherwise democratic picture. Such was certainly the case in Texas, where, in the state's first professional matchup soon after the Civil War, the R. E. Lees faced the Stonewalls and African Americans, not

While baseball may have long been considered an all-American sport in which a melting pot could celebrate ethnic heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Connie Mack, and Stan Musial, racial segregation excluded blacks from an otherwise democratic picture. Such was certainly the case in Texas, where, in the state's first professional matchup soon after the Civil War, the R. E. Lees faced the Stonewalls--and African Americans, not surprisingly, played no part. Drawing upon oral histories and mining such rare sources as rosters and box scores from black newspapers, Rob Fink situates the semiprofessional West Texas Colored League against the rise and decline of professional Negro Leagues. From the 1880s Galveston Flyaways through Dallas shortstop Ernie Banks's signing with the Chicago Cubs in 1953, Playing in Shadows brings to light an important but little-studied inning in American sport.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Published: 02/26/2010
ISBN: 9780896727014
Pages: 165
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.20w x 0.80d

Review Citations: Library Journal 02/01/2010 pg. 74
Choice 08/01/2010
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2010 pg. 91