Black Ball and the Boardwalk: The Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, 1916-1929

by James Overmyer

The Giants' accomplishments took place against an historical backdrop of a change in the African-American experience. The original players from Jacksonville, Florida, joined the northward black migration during World War I. The team was named after Harry Bacharach--an Atlantic City politician running for mayor--as a way to keep his name before the city's black community. The Giants were immediately successful, and soon played the best semi-professional teams in their region, as well as the top black teams from the East and Midwest. They entered the first Negro league on the East Coast in 1923, and won the league championship twice before the decade ended. This book chronicles the Giants' pivotal role in the development of black baseball in Prohibition Era Atlantic City, and the careers of the men who made it possible.

284 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2014

About the author

James E. Overmyer is a former crime beat reporter n Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before becoming an administrator in the District Attorney’s Office there, and eventually a staff member of the New York State Office of Court Administration in nearby Albany, New York. His experiences in those jobs led him to write his current book, “The Electrocution of Baby Lawrence.”

He has also written three books and several articles in his other field of interest, sports history. His major work is Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles, the biography of the woman owner of a major league baseball team in the pre-integration Negro Leagues who is the only female member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.