Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues

by Andrea Williams

For fans of Hidden Figures and Steve Sheinkin's Undefeated, this is the powerful true story of Effa Manley, the first and only woman in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Negro Leagues Baseball was the only game in town for black athletes. And those leagues owed their existence and success to savvy businesspeople like Effa Manley, the black female co-owner of the Newark Eagles. Effa was the team's business manager, leading her team to win the Negro World Series in 1946. But this victory was bittersweet: Integration was on its way, and the demise of the Negro Leagues would soon follow.

In this riveting nonfiction account, author Andrea Williams weaves the parallel stories of the segregated leagues with the tale of an inspiring woman who was at the center of it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Baseball, Sports, History, Biography, Middle Grade, Biography Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2021

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrea Williams does an outstanding job with the biography of Effa Manley in Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues. I listened to it on audiobook which was excellently narrated by Deanna Anthony with fabulous intonation and inspiration.

Effa Manley and her husband, Abe, owned the Newark Eagles which won the Negro World Series in 1946. Effa was a strong, courageous, outspoken business manager for the team. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 which was terrific for the integration of Major League Baseball but it spelled the beginning of the end of Negro baseball teams.

This book does a terrific job sharing the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues, along with stories about Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and others. The epilogue provides details about Ted William's acceptance speech when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and the role that Negro Baseball Leagues played in the advancement of baseball.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baseball's Leading Lady is a fantastic nonfiction title, if not entirely what I was expecting. While the eponymous Effa Manly is a central thread in the narrative, this is less a biography than a broader exploration of the history of Black baseball, leading to the early stages of integration with the Major Leagues.

It touches on structural racism and microaggressions, as well as outright discrimination and hate speech faced by the Black community during this time, and by people involved in Black baseball specifically. We learn about the less glowing side of racial integration in baseball beginning with Jackie Robinson and how it hurt and took advantage of Black baseball leagues. It's a really interesting perspective to add to the typical narrative.

And at the center of this is Effa Manley, an outspoken, unladylike advocate for the Black community writ large, and specifically for Black Baseball. She sounds like an amazing woman who wasn't afraid to make waves. This is written for a Middle Grade audience, but the language and concepts are pretty sophisticated and I would recommend this to anyone. I learned quite a bit. Thank you to Macmillan Kids for sending a copy for review. All opinions are my own.

[Kellyanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. It provides a great history of the Negro Leagues. My one issue is that Effa felt like an ancillary person in her own story.

[Sugarpuss O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first love has always been baseball. It's a sport that epitomizes how one person can make a difference: on offense, you're 1 player against 9; on defense, your teammates cannot help you -- if the ball is hit to you, only you can make the play. It's an individualistic endeavor encapsulated in a team game, and I absolutely love it.

I was first introduced to Effa when I visited the Negro League Museum in Kansas City back in 2005. I wished I had paid more attention to her story, but it's hard for someone like her to stand out in a museum filled with so many trailblazing people. Thankfully, Andrea Williams wrote this book.

While I learned new things about the game I love, this book is so much more than a history of baseball. It's a story of America, both good & bad. The good: once baseball consented to their so-called "gentleman's agreement," Blacks created a new system for themselves. While not perfect, Black men not only got to play the game they loved, but the ownership & management of the teams were Black too -- something that's severely lacking in the game today. Then there's the bad. Branch Rickey has always been heralded as this benevolent figure in baseball, when in reality he is nothing more than a thief out for his own gain. I'm ashamed this hasn't dawned on me before.

All in all, this is a fantastic book that I cannot say enough about. I am very grateful for Ms Williams for shining the spotlight on Effa Manley. She never did belong in the shadows.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's everything I love in a non-fiction. Underdogs, women breaking the glass ceiling and, shockingly, lesser known sports history.

This was beautifully written and entirely engaging. It covers the history of Black baseball; the struggles, the triumphs, and Effa Manley's important role in it all.

I highly recommend this book. It was a terrific read and incredibly informational.

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Lots of good information, but the title is complete misnomer. Many chapters contain nothing more than a passing reference to the title subject.

[Allison McCague · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essential reading for any baseball fan. I learned so, so much from it.

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This true story of Effa Manley, the first and only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, also reveals the intersection of business, sports, and race in early 20th century America.

[Jessica Kruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

As many other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not really a biography on Effa so much as an overall history of Black baseball. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as interesting as it is special. I went into this book expecting a biography of the phenom Effa Manley, a female powerhouse in American baseball and especially in the Negro Leagues, where she found and fostered some of the best Black players of the generation. But what I found was not only insight into Effa, but a nuanced and wide view of the rise of baseball, the issues that plagued not only the sport but American society, and the ways in which Black Americans made their place in spaces that fought to deny them. Every page is filled with history I had never learned, from the rise of Jackie Robinson, to Effa Manley's boycotting efforts, to the messy ways in which white baseball was integrated. Not only does this book teach, but it inspires--inspires you to think critically and inspires you to dig deeper, introducing a myriad of topics related to Effa, baseball, and integration that could keep you busy and excited by Black history for decades! The history of Black baseball provides context to Effa's life and the expediency and passion with which she managed her team and her players. While I would have loved to learn more about Effa's introduction to baseball or what she did after Black baseball had met its demise, I was thoroughly excited by what this book does provide. And like all good nonfiction, the questions it left me with inspired me to dig deeper on my own.

But not only is this an expansive nonfiction, Williams writes with poignancy and charm. From the opening scene, the atmospheric tone assures you that not only are you in for good history, but also a good book. From the scenic descriptions down to the very last snapshot of Ms. Manley's mink cape, this book draws a vivid picture. Black history nonfiction for young children and teens is on the rise and I think this book has solidified its place in the field.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Carin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the special exhibit on the women who played during the period made famous by the movie A League of Their Own, Effa Manley is the only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame in New York.

She (and her husband, but she was the driving force), bought and owned a couple of Negro League baseball teams during the heyday of the Negro Leagues, and up through the end of their existence. Most of the time she owned the Newark Eagles, moving from New York to New Jersey to manage them. Most of the Negro League teams at the time only used verbal contracts (which, to be clear, are real and enforceable contracts) which the white baseball teams knew, used themselves occasionally, and flagrantly violated to steal the stunning players that came to their attention after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Both before that and afterwards, the Negro League teams tried various arrangements to make their teams profitable and to be able to play white teams and stay viable. They didn't work. In the end, Major League Baseball's white teams drained their best talent, while still refusing to play them in anything but exhibition games, and the League finally folded. But leading up to that time, Mrs. Manley was a force both working to keep the League afloat and to make her team a winning one.

This is a very cool introduction both to the Negro League as a whole, and to a woman who loved baseball and wanted to be a part of it. Great for kids even remotely interested in the sport, but also for kids who like American history and pop culture and who are interested in race relations and the history there.

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

In December 2020, Major League Baseball made a decision that, far from salvaging 2020, rendered the year a little less ruinous: they classified seven "Negro League Baseball" teams as official major league teams. According to CBS's R. J. Anderson, this decision validates the statistics (batting and pitching stastics or "counting stats" have historically measured a player's worth, value, and prestige) of 3,400 players from 1920-1948. Before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, baseball was segregated by race, like so much of American society. However, in baseball's early days, several Black ballplayers shared the field with White ballplayers, but not without consternation (i.e., bigotry and racism) from Cap Anson, arguably one of his generation's best players. Thanks in part to Anson's protestations (i.e., bigotry and racism), the International League decided in 1887 not to extend contracts to any Black players. As Andrea Williams writes in her excellent book on Negro League team owner Effa Manley, "Anson's stance became the crux of a so-called gentleman's agreement—so-called not because there was anything 'gentlemanly' about it, but because it was never decreed by written rule. Yet even as the agreement remained unwritten, it became all-powerful, the hidden force that would guide the evolution of professional baseball for generations to come" (31). As Williams suggests, this "all-powerful" and "hidden force" created the conditions for owners like Manley to build "a vehicle to transport the Black community to a position of equality in American society, to provide jobs and financial stability where they were sorely lacking, and to give Black boys and girls regular opportunities to witness victory when so much of their lives was mired in defeat" (5-6).

Williams's Baseball's Leading Lady is a wonderful primer for anyone interested in learning more about what the Negro Leagues were and how they converged with more significant questions about race, racism, sexism, workers rights, and equality in the United States. As Williams suggests, the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues symbolize much of the Black experience in the United States: success was limited to few Black people, that success was fleeting and often precarious, and "success" under no circumstances meant equality of treatment or opportunity.

Take, for example, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. Rickey is often lionized for "breaking baseball's color barrier" by signing Jackie Robinson in 1945. Williams complicates his legacy by detailing how Rickey's decision to sign Robinson and integrate baseball excluded Negro League team owners, both financially and structurally. Rickey declined to compensate the Kansas City Monarchs (Robinson's Negro League team) once he signed Robinson. While there are inherent ethical problems with treating players (which is to say, people) like commodities, compensating teams for players' services is a practice that occurs even today. The Korea Baseball Organization or KBO has a posting system that compensates KBO teams when players sign with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Even within the MLB, teams trade players for other players, and in some circumstances, receive compensation when a former player signs with a new team. But as Williams suggests, failing to compensate Negro League teams for their players once they signed with MLB teams ensured the eventual extinction of Negro League baseball. Williams writes, "Effa felt it would be in the best interest of the Negro Leagues, then, to form a partnership with Major League Baseball, to perhaps have Black teams become official farm clubs of the white ones. This plan would keep Black baseball in operation, and it would also support integration by providing a steady stream of Black talent for the Majors. But Major League Baseball didn't get behind Effa's suggestions. Instead, it left the Negro Leagues to fend for themselves" (194). Specifically, regarding Rickey, Williams writes, "Rickey clearly had plans for the integration of the Majors, but those plans did not include Effa or the other owners" (199). These poaching and predatory practices by MLB teams guaranteed that racial progress and equality would move as slowly as possible. When Jackie Robinson wore a Dodger uniform in 1947, it was a momentous step forward for not just Black ballplayers but all Black people in the United States. But as Williams writes, "the lens of integration became focused on opportunities for individual Black players, not for entire Black teams or leagues" (220). Therefore, "what was great for the Majors proved fatal for the Negro Leagues" (261).

As Williams chronicles, Effa Manley's fight for Negro League baseball was a fight for racial equality, but it was also a fight against the racist, bigoted forces the operate in society today. For men like Branch Rickey, Black players were an opportunity for "Major League owners and executives [to] take what they wanted—the best Black athletes available—and leave behind what they didn't—the Black owners, executives, and coaches, and even the Black players who were past their playing prime or just not good enough to make the jump" (275). This is why Effa Manley's story matters; her story is a story of our present, not just our past.

[Anika Orrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Effa book we needed. Now is the time to learn about historical heroes like Effa Manley in the right way. There are a couple of biographies about Effa, but this is the first written by a woman––more importantly, because Effa dedicated herself to Civil Rights and building Black baseball and the Black community––it is written by a Black woman. For this reason, this is not the biography many will expect, and that is a good thing.

Author Andrea Williams honors and abides by the historical records available (Negro Leagues record keeping was not consistent); she does not speculate or inject opinion. She does, however, offer us the story of Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues from a valuable and important perspective we rarely get. It is the perspective––the untold side of the larger story––I strongly suspect Effa herself would have shared now if she could.
This is why this book is valuable to young readers AND adults; the language and the story are compatible for young readers, but not catered to them.
We often celebrate individual achievement and individual trailblazers in literature and beyond; when we dive into a biography, we expect to learn every personal detail about its subject. You will learn a lot about Effa Manley the woman in this book, but preconceived expectations won't likely be met; here's why you should let them go:
Every marginalized community has its own internal divisions––different ideas of how to overcome adversity and achieve equality. The greatest successes and advancements of marginalized Americans has always come when there is a strong degree of unity. Black Americans have repeatedly been denied and stripped of opportunity at every turn. They have continued to create their own opportunities by thinking, organizing, working for and considering the health of their communities as a whole. This is not a traditional concept at the forefront of white American culture.
To tell Effa's story comprehensively is to tell it wholly, to provide social, cultural, historical context and to offer the reader an understanding of what was happening in Effa's world and what she cared about. Effa Manley was ahead of her time in so many ways! We can't know just how smart and bold she was without understanding who and what she was working with. The author paints a historical portrait of the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues––the whys, whos and hows––so we can understand what Effa fought for and what she fought against. I learned through Williams' book that Effa always saw the bigger picture and took action. She continually fought to build something that would lift Black communities and Black people and foster the health of the WHOLE of baseball and Black baseball. In all her business dealings and negotiations, Effa Manley's primary concern and motivation was equity and fairness. Having learned this, I can't imagine her biography being written any other way. Andrea Williams does Effa Manley justice and provides a great service to anyone interested in history, women's history and baseball history by offering us this engaging perspective.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as much focused on the second half of its subtitle ("..the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues") as it is on its main subject -- it's as much a history of Black baseball (and Black history in the '20s, '30s, and '40s) through the lens of perhaps the Negro Leagues' most prominent woman. Rather than a straight biographical sketch of Effa Manley, it weaves between anecdotes about her life a straight history of the milestones leading up to her and during her ownership of the Newark Eagles -- the origins of the Gentlemen's Agreement, Rube Foster and the founding of the first professional Negro Leagues, Harlem in the 1920s, territorial wars between Cum Posey and Gus Greenlee that led Black baseball out of the Depression, and the contentious practices of White owners that integrated the Major Leagues while bankrupting their counterpart. However, Ms. Williams' great strength -- putting events into historical context simply in ways that a tween or teen could understand -- is also the book's weakness, in that sometimes it strays too far off its main character, and the reader has to remember that this is really Effa's story and where she was when we return to her. It also ends right after the Eagles close up shop in 1949, and I would've liked to know a little more about what Effa did post-baseball (she lived for another 30+ years), and what she might've thought about some of the developments both in professional sports and in the world at large (someone that outspoken probably had a lot to say about the Civil Rights movement in the '60s!). Still, a young reader (or an adult) wouldn't go wrong in picking up this book--I read it rather slowly, but it goes fast--as it tells stories that need to be more regularly told and educates readers on pieces of history that should be common knowledge. I look forward to more by this author.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fascinating biography tells the story of a woman with whom even the most avid baseball fans will be unfamiliar--unless they know the history of the Negro World Series and baseball's Negro Leagues. If they've visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, they might have heard of Effa Manley, who was the business manager and co-owner of the Newark Eagles. After reading this book, they will surely be impressed with Effa's determination to support Black players in baseball and to provide proper settings for its fans. While I would like to have known more about Effa and her formative years, the author chooses to focus most of the book on her involvement with baseball, which led to her being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and in many respects this is more a story of the Negro Leagues than it is a story about Effa. Still, the author captures the personality and forthright nature of Effa while describing how the removal of some of the color barriers to Major League Baseball resulted in white team owners poaching players from the Negro Leagues without paying the owners what was due in the contracts. And while there is much to applaud in the integration of the sport, that also spelled doom for the Negro Leagues teams, players, and owners like Effa, an interesting perspective to consider. The text, which is conversational in tone and deeply engaging, is accompanied by several archival photographs from that period.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly well researched and an excellent and necessary resource that every high school and college library should have on its shelves. We all know the aphorism that ‘history is written by the victors’ and it is no surprise that the long and complex history of African American athletes and their managers and coaches would have been lost or suppressed. Our past is shaped just as much by what we wish to forget as by what we wish to remember. Thank heavens Andrea Williams has done the work to ensure that the amazing, encouraging and heartbreaking story of Effa Manley will endure.
As much as I enjoyed all the details of Effa’s strong management and battles against disregard by African-American team owners, sports reporters and white baseball leaders, I loved getting a more nuanced and truthful understanding of just what went on as white Major League Baseball finally decided signing African American players would be to its advantage. How did numbers running play an essential role in financing sports teams? Why was the African American enthusiasm for seeing their athletes playing integrated pro-ball such a devastating blow to Black sports professionals? (Including the African-American sports writers who were championing the switch.) I loved getting Williams perspective on all the conflicting motivations, personal, professional, financial, that determined when, who and how Major League Baseball finally integrated.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of the Negro Leagues for many years. One thought I have had, but not dwelled on was “I think we lost something amazing with integration, but integration was the right thing to do.” Like the author, I first heard of Effa Manley while visiting the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City in 2018. I also never really thought much about the leadership and the abilities of the ones who built the leagues and ran them. When I saw this book I knew I needed to read it. In the words of the author, “it’s a story of heartbreak and broken promises. But more than that it’s a story of grit and ingenuity.” As I read, I began to feel that the death of the Negro Leagues left baseball weaker in a way. So many greats didn’t play in MLB or get leadership jobs, so people like Effa were left without a job in the field they loved. Although this is a young adult book, everyone interested in baseball should read it. It will raise questions and it made me wish I could sit down with some of my heroes who played In the Negro Leagues and get some answers or at least be able to discuss them. All in all, I was amazed at the research that went into this book and appreciated learning more about this trail blazing, courageous woman.

A final word: if you love baseball and baseball history you need to go to the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, MO. You will not be disappointed.

[Beth Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free review copy from the publisher. A long time baseball fan and player, I’ve read a large number of baseball history books over the years. This book was incredibly well-researched, informative, shed light on parts of baseball history that have not often been told. I loved adding more depth to my Negro League understanding, and I appreciated how this story was told with obvious love of the game and the history surrounding it.

Even as an avid baseball fan, there were some elements that were a little dry for me at times. T never lasted long though, I just think for someone who is not as in to baseball history that may be a draw back of this book. I’m also a little unsure of the intended audience. The book is marketed as upper middle grade (ages 10-14) but I felt like it would have been most engaging and interesting for an older teen, high school age. This isn’t because of any content issues, more that this book is long (nearly 300 pages) and would make an excellent resource for someone wanting to dive deep into Black baseball history. I think some middle schoolers might be there, but more likely high schoolers.

[Kris Dersch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several biographies of Effa Manley as well as her autobiography. They are all good. This is better. Impeccably researched and written by Andrea Williams, who knows the history of black baseball inside and out, this goes deeper and reaches further than books have done in the past. The whole Negro Leagues history is here, written in a way that is totally accessible to kids (and adults! would recommend this for anyone!) but is also full of detail. Centering Effa Manley and reminding us of the world she lived in and came from and how she did everything she did without ever having a title because although she functioned as general manager it was her husband whose name was on everything. This book celebrates the achievements of players like Robinson and Doby while still pointing out the story that so often doesn't get told, which is the darker side of integration and whose voices were never invited to the table. A great read for not only people interested in baseball history but also in women's history, black history, and the history of the early civil rights movement.

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important and inspiring account of Effa Manley's groundbreaking and gender-role-defying place in American baseball. She is an impressive and admirable character, and her contributions are anchored in a very detailed history of baseball itself, specifically in the evolution and eventual dissolution of the Negro League. Her savvy and business acumen make a compelling read, and those adult accomplishments are firmly rooted in her love of the game of baseball since her youth.
I'd love to see adults read this powerful and informative documentation, and it is accessible for teens and motivated readers who are younger than that. The complexity of American history (spanning a full century) could make appreciation of the details challenging for younger readers, but an eager baseball fan/player may devour it.

[Andrea Ellington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! I knew very little about baseball history in general and even less about black baseball leagues. This book shined the spotlight on a black woman trailblazer who was a baseball club executive in the 20s-40s, during a time women were often told their job was in the kitchen. The story I thought I knew about integrating baseball had way more curveballs than what the history books taught. Don’t worry, the book isn’t riddled with baseball dad jokes. While the author doesn’t shy away from the facts, this is written for a younger audience (meaning the facts are not written in a way that traumatizes the reader). In my opinion, this is a great book for middle schoolers, people who enjoy baseball, or people like me who enjoy learning about people the history books don’t tell you about.

[Tammy Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the tails of reading Buck O’Neill’s “I Was Right on Time,” this book found its way to the top of my to-read stack.

It’s been on my list for nearly three years. I found it in the juvenile section of the library. I thought I could sit and read it right there at the library. The length of the book said otherwise. So, I checked it out and took it home to read.

I had never heard of Mrs Manley until she was mentioned in Buck O’Neill’s book. I hadn’t considered how integration of the MLB would so negatively impact the Negro Leagues. This was an interesting story not just of Mrs Manley’s unprecedented role as co-owner of a team but, also, of the struggles that the Negro Leagues had with finding a place to play games, the role of the press in reporting box scores and internal issues of owners and players, and the draw of Black and white fans to the games.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't have much Negro League Knowledge other than the stars and this filled in a lot of gaps on the league side. Interesting and not surprising that Veeck wanted to start using the Negro League stars in the early 40's but was blocked. Branch Rickey did not compensate the teams that had developed the players he took from the league which is disappointing. Also I wish I had gotten an explanation on why the teams didn't use contracts, leaving the door open for Rickey and others to poach them.
Effa Manley was more of a co-star in this but she does show up often enough to justify the title. We see the world through her letters.

[Larisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Effa Manley was ahead of her time in so many ways! As the co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles…. “Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues - on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners.”

We can't know just how smart and bold Edda Manley was without understanding who and what she was working with. The author paints a historical portrait of the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues––the whys, whos and hows––so we can understand what Effa fought for and what she fought against.

[Alexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. This is a non-fiction middle grade book, but I think it's great for anyone interested in learning more about Black people you haven't heard about who made a great impact.
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Some of my main highlights from this book:
⚾️ People were able to succeed partly because of colorism and light skinned privilege as they could pass as white and get into spaces that weren't accessible to darker Black people
⚾️ The historical context we got helped better understand how baseball was being affected by certain historical events
⚾️ Black players went to play in countries like the DR because they got paid more and weren't seen or treated as a minority.
⚾️ Really makes you think about the positives and negatives of integration in not just baseball but society
⚾️ Effa Manley was a force to be reckoned with
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“Truly, if Effa’s story—of forging her path in a male-dominated industry while tirelessly advocating for both Black baseball and Black people—reveals nothing else, it teaches us this: We are more powerful than we know.”

*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy! All opinions are my own*

[Anna St. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Baseballs Leading Lady” was a great informational book, my only problem was there was too much information in one chapter. We would be talking about the different govern of baseball, next the book talking about the dates of different baseball players deaths. The change into these two very different topics seemed instant. Even though that’s a quick changes are problem in the book, I learned many things that I didn’t know before. the book gave a great perspective of what black baseball players faced during this time, and what they did about it.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caused me to reexamine the lens in which I view MLB baseball and the way it was integrated in 1947. Jackie Robinson was a great player and an admirable man, and I never thought about the effect that his joining white baseball had on the people who built up the Negro Leagues and the Black players who were left behind.

If I have one complaint about this book, it's that I wanted more information about Effa Manley since it appears to be a biography of her, but what it provides instead is an in depth look at the creation, management, and key players of the Negro Leagues.

[Katelynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent nonfiction title with plenty of rich detail. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, with lots of Negro League history, but Effa Manley is the common threat tying it all together. I expected this to be a middle grade read but I do think it might be better for YA, or a child with lots of baseball (and perhaps historical) knowledge. As an adult who is a baseball fan and history geek, I had the context and loved this one.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - this is a YA non fiction, written in double space formatting. It’s got a lot of great black and white photos of players and events of the time. It’s a bit dry for a really interesting story about the an amazing woman and the Negro Leagues. The rise and fall are heartbreaking and emotional, but I didn’t feel any emotion in the story. I’m glad to have learned about this amazing woman I knew little about and this part of the history of baseball.

[Bookworm_Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book and learning more about the history of baseball, including - as the title so puts it - the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues. Effa Manley is not a name I had heard before, but she was quite the woman! The way she navigated a world that actively wanted to push her out with a tenacious poise is truly inspiring. I have added her memoir to my TBR and am looking forward to learning more about this leading lady.