Black Writers/Black Baseball: An Anthology of Articles from Black Sportswriters Who Covered the Negro Leagues »

Jim Reisler is also the author of Before They Were the Bombers: The New York Yankees' Early Years, 1903(2005) and Voices of the Oral Deaf: Fourteen Role Models Speak Out (2002). He lives in Irvington, New York.

This revised edition is an anthology of 10 African American sportswriters who covered baseball's Negro Leagues in the first part of the 20th century. The writers include Sam Lacy, Wendell Smith, Frank A. Young, Joe Bostic, Chester L. Washington, W. Rollo Wilson, Dan Burley, Ed Harris, A.S. "Doc" Young and Romeo Dougherty. The men represented here were pioneers in their own right. Writing for black weekly newspapers, they faced the same conditions as the leagues' players, from discrimination to endless travel. Yet it was through their writings that the public, both black and white were given an up-close, inside look at the day-to-day happenings of Negro League baseball.

Foreword   Don Newcombe     1
Preface     3
Introduction: Forgotten Voices     5
A Legend     13
June 10, 1939 ("Looking 'em Over")     17
August 12, 1939 ("Sepia Stars Only Lukewarm Toward Campaign to Break Down Baseball Barriers")     19
August 6, 1947 ("Looking 'em Over")     22
April 10, 1948     24
August 28, 1948     25
April 2, 1949     26
April 9, 1949     28
April 23, 1949 ("Indians' Tan Trio Compelled to Walk to Ballpark by Bigoted Texas Taxis")     30
April 1, 1950 ("Campy, Jackie as Dodgers: Integration in Dixie Halts When Players Leave Field")     31
June 17, 1950     35
The Best of His Generation     37
May 11, 1938 ("A Strange Tribe")     41
June 11, 1938 ("The New Gas House Gang")     42
July 23, 1938 ("With the '.400'")     44
August 24, 1940     46
April 10, 1943 ("When Is a Bus Not a Bus? ODT and Baseball Moguls Start Figuring")     47
May 6, 1944 ("Introducing 'El Diablo' Wells of Mexico")     49
May 27, 1944 ("A Rookie and a Vet Lead Hitters")     51
August 19, 1944 ("East-West Star Dust...")     52
June 23, 1945 ("Rain,Rain, Go Away, Little Alex Wants to Play")     55
April 19, 1947 ("Fans Plead for Jackie's Autograph")     57
Chicago's Boss of the Sports World     61
September 9, 1939     63
August 2, 1941     64
September 6, 1941     68
May 23, 1942     69
July 24, 1943     71
June 9, 1945     72
April 13, 1946     74
April 13, 1947     76
August 21, 1948     77
A Crusader of His Time     80
March 21, 1942 ("Dreamin"')     82
July 11, 1942 ("In Re Negroes in Big Leagues")     84
August 14, 1943 ("The East-West Classic, Top Sports Event")     86
May 6, 1944 ("Whither the Black Yankees?")     88
August 12, 1944 ("Satchel Paige Bucks the Wheel-and Not Too Smartly")     89
April 14, 1945 ("Dodger Tryouts Blow at Jim Crow Baseball")     91
September 16, 1947 ("It Seems Rickey, Alone, Was on the Level")     93
From Writer to Millionaire     97
July 30, 1927 ("Y're Out")     100
August 20, 1927 ("The Grays Captured Manhattan")     100
April 6, 1930 ("Oscar an Asset at First")     101
June 1, 1935 ("Watching the Cubans-Grays Open in New York")      101
July 17, 1935     102
March 7, 1936 ("Who Could Be More Colorful Than...")     104
May 9, 1936 ("Satchel's Back in Town")     106
April 24, 1937     108
April 12, 1941 ("Grays' Baseball Skies Aren't So Blue Because Jolting Joshua Is Missing")     111
May 30, 1942 ("An Open Letter to Judge Landis")     113
The Red Smith of His Day     115
July 14, 1923 ("Eastern Snapshots")     117
June 17, 1924     118
October 9, 1926     119
June 25, 1927     120
April 6, 1930     121
June 14, 1930     123
September 27, 1930     124
February 26, 1944     125
May 10, 1944     127
May 16, 1945     128
The Most Versatile Black Journalist of His Generation     130
May 16, 1942 ("This Is About Our Boy, James [Soldier Boy] Semler")     132
August 15, 1942 ("Purely Baseball and Satchel Paige")     134
September 9, 1944 ("Chicken-Feed Pay for Negro Umpires")     136
August 4, 1945 ("To Rickey, Stoneham, MacPhail: 'Straighten Up and Fly Right!'")     138
August 10, 1946 ("The Senors Get in Mrs. Manley's Hair")     141
June 25, 1947 ("Major League 'Dozens' Playing")      142
May 29, 1948 ("The Local Story in Baseball")     145
June 5, 1948 ("Watching the Sports Parade")     146
A Brief Star     148
April 11, 1935 ("Satchel Can Do No Wrong")     150
August 29, 1935 ("At It Again")     151
August 6, 1936 ("Abstract Reasoning")     152
September 24, 1936 ("The Passing Show")     154
April 22, 1937 ("An Amazing Parallel")     156
August 4, 1938 ("Judge Landis Gives a Lesson in Decency and Good Sense")     157
August 18, 1938 ("Our Jud")     158
May 16, 1940 ("Mr. Fan Is Ready-But Is Baseball?")     159
August 7, 1941 ("Nine Years Old, 50,000 Big")     160
Poet of Press Row     162
July 13, 1932 ("Let 'em Come")     164
March 2, 1933 ("Baseball's High Commissioner Should Mix Philter to Bring Good Out of Chaos in Game")     165
August 2, 1933 ("A Tempting Proposal")     166
October 4, 1933 ("Diamond Game Goes Into the Discard with October")     167
September 15, 1934 ("Jupiter Pluvius Kind to Baseball Sunday")     168
October 6, 1934 ("Baseball Season Not Definitely Closed Yet")     172
"Always Thinking of Something"     175
May 28, 1949 ("Diamond Fireball")      177
June 18, 1949 ("Really Big League")     179
August 13, 1949 ("Another with the Stuff")     180
May 13, 1950 ("Pro Negro Baseball")     182
August 21, 1954 ("They Came for a Short Visit and Couldn't Stay for Dinner")84
Suggested Reading     191
Index     203