What do you think?
Rate this book
Negro League Baseball
A visual history of the Negro Leagues documents both the years of its integration and the communities in which they were played, featuring duotone plates of such legends as Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron. 30,000 first printing.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published December 17, 2004
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 6, 2021
Would love to have seen some of the games and stadiums pictured in this book. While nostalgic, it's sad to see so many of the old pictures have players who are listed as "unidentified."
December 4, 2012
Daniel Wolff, Ernest Withers, and WIllie Mays all created a collection for a scrapbook based on the Negro Baseball League. Although this league did not last long I believe it was important for readers to get a taste of history, show the hardships they faced, and explain how integration of races on sports teams originated.
Daniel Wolff explains the history of the league and Ernest Withers’ relation to the team. Ernest Withers was the photographer for the baseball league and captured many moments those involved have never seen. This book was historical yet adds to Withers’ reputation.
The story that Daniel Wolff wrote is based mostly off of the team the Memphis Red Sox in the 1940’s. This was an African American team that was owned by 4 mixed-raced brothers, the Martin brothers. They owned many of the Negro League Teams. The segregation between races created two separate leagues; one for whites and one for blacks. The Negro League team was considered “shadow ball” because professional was too respectable for African Americans to be considered by Caucasians at the time (Wolff, page 24, 2004). Ernest Withers documented many of these games, getting paid around $150 a day which was more than the players themselves. Withers did not necessarily want to do this but it was a steady income for him.
When the “professional” league decided they wanted some of the players from the Negro League, they paid many of them for their talents. As this happened the Negro League Baseball Teams would decrease because owners, such as the Martins brothers were selling the best players to the highest bidders. By 1960 the Red Sox stadium was torn down along with many other stadiums and teams.
The book has around 200 pages total, 30 of those pages are text. The captions under the pictures only have the name of the people in the pictures. Many of these pictures are players that you see frequently throughout the book. The book does not prove to be “outsider friendly” because a lot of the people in the pictures were not in the text. I think readers who experienced this era, league, or had family relating to the league would be more interested in the book.
Throughout the text, Wolff would insert “turn to page...” for the reader. This could be a good or bad thing for the reader. The fact that he makes the essay align with the photos by Ernest Withers was interesting so the reader could connect the two. On the other hand, I became frustrated searching the book for these pages. Overall, I think it was beneficial for them to create the scrapbook this way because the pictures are referenced more than once.
I enjoyed reading this book because I was not aware of the Negro League Baseball Players and the way integrated baseball came to be. I had fun looking through all the pictures and understanding a little more about the time period.
Daniel Wolff explains the history of the league and Ernest Withers’ relation to the team. Ernest Withers was the photographer for the baseball league and captured many moments those involved have never seen. This book was historical yet adds to Withers’ reputation.
The story that Daniel Wolff wrote is based mostly off of the team the Memphis Red Sox in the 1940’s. This was an African American team that was owned by 4 mixed-raced brothers, the Martin brothers. They owned many of the Negro League Teams. The segregation between races created two separate leagues; one for whites and one for blacks. The Negro League team was considered “shadow ball” because professional was too respectable for African Americans to be considered by Caucasians at the time (Wolff, page 24, 2004). Ernest Withers documented many of these games, getting paid around $150 a day which was more than the players themselves. Withers did not necessarily want to do this but it was a steady income for him.
When the “professional” league decided they wanted some of the players from the Negro League, they paid many of them for their talents. As this happened the Negro League Baseball Teams would decrease because owners, such as the Martins brothers were selling the best players to the highest bidders. By 1960 the Red Sox stadium was torn down along with many other stadiums and teams.
The book has around 200 pages total, 30 of those pages are text. The captions under the pictures only have the name of the people in the pictures. Many of these pictures are players that you see frequently throughout the book. The book does not prove to be “outsider friendly” because a lot of the people in the pictures were not in the text. I think readers who experienced this era, league, or had family relating to the league would be more interested in the book.
Throughout the text, Wolff would insert “turn to page...” for the reader. This could be a good or bad thing for the reader. The fact that he makes the essay align with the photos by Ernest Withers was interesting so the reader could connect the two. On the other hand, I became frustrated searching the book for these pages. Overall, I think it was beneficial for them to create the scrapbook this way because the pictures are referenced more than once.
I enjoyed reading this book because I was not aware of the Negro League Baseball Players and the way integrated baseball came to be. I had fun looking through all the pictures and understanding a little more about the time period.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews