Author: Rocco Constantino
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538149095
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
A fascinating history celebrating Black players in Major League Baseball from the 1800s through today, with special insight into what the future may hold. In Beyond Baseball's Color Barrier: The Story of African Americans in Major League Baseball, Past, Present, and Future, Rocco Constantino chronicles the history of generations of ballplayers, showing how African Americans have influenced baseball from the 1800s to the present. He details how the color line was drawn, efforts made to erode it, and the progress towards Jackie Robinson’s debut—including a pre-integration survey in which players unanimously promoted integration years before it actually happened. Personal accounts and colorful stories trace the exponential growth of diversity in the sport since integration, from a boom in participation in the 1970s to peak participation in the early 1990s, but also reveal the current downward trend in the number of African American players to percentages not seen since the 1960s. Beyond Baseball's Color Barrier not only explores the stories of icons like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige but also considers contributions made by players like Vida Blue, Mudcat Grant and Dwight Gooden. Exclusive interviews with former players and individuals involved in the game, including the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, add first-hand expert insight into the history of the topic and what the future holds.
Author: Ted Reinstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493051229
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
In the April of 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947. This book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. It also reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, and that for a time integrated teams were not that unusual. And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.
Author: Michael G. Long
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815652186
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
Jackie Robinson is one of the most revered public figures of the twentieth century. He is remembered for both his athletic prowess and his strong personal character. The world knows him as the man who crossed baseball’s color line, but there is much more to his legacy. At the conclusion of his baseball career, Robinson continued in his pursuit of social progress through his work as a writer. Beyond Home Plate, an anthology of Jackie Robinson’s columns in the New York Post and the New York Amsterdam News, offers fresh insight into the Hall of Famer’s life and work following his historic years on the baseball diamond. Robinson’s syndicated newspaper columns afforded him the opportunity to provide rich social commentary while simultaneously exploring his own life and experiences. He was free to write about any subject of his choosing, and he took full advantage of this license, speaking his mind about everything from playing Santa to confronting racism in the Red Sox nation, from loving his wife Rachel to despising Barry Goldwater, from complaining about Cassius Clay’s verbosity to teaching Little Leaguers how to lose well. Robinson wrote to prod and provoke, inflame and infuriate, and sway and persuade. With their pointed opinions, his columns reveal that the mature Robinson was a truly American prophet, a civil rights leader in his own right, furious with racial injustice and committed to securing first class citizenship for all. These fascinating columns also depict Robinson as an indebted son, a devoted husband, a tenderhearted father, and a hardworking community leader. Robinson believed that his life after his baseball career was far more important than all of his baseball exploits. Beyond Home Plate shows why he believed this so fervently.
Author: Doreen Rappaport
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 076369715X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 129
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Book Description
An eye-opening look at the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and became an American hero. Baseball, basketball, football — no matter the game, Jackie Robinson excelled. His talents would have easily landed another man a career in pro sports, but in America in the 1930s and ’40s, such opportunities were closed to athletes like Jackie for one reason: his skin was the wrong color. Settling for playing baseball in the Negro Leagues, Jackie chafed at the inability to prove himself where it mattered most: the major leagues. Then in 1946, Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided he was going to break the “rules” of segregation: he recruited Jackie Robinson. Fiercely determined, Jackie faced cruel and sometimes violent hatred and discrimination, but he proved himself again and again, exhibiting courage, restraint, and a phenomenal ability to play the game. In this compelling biography, award-winning author Doreen Rappaport chronicles the extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson and how his achievements won over — and changed — a segregated nation.
Author: Michael G. Long
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611648017
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond. Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and drove him to get involved in the civil rights movement. Marked by sacrifice and service, inclusiveness and hope, Robinson's faith shaped not only his character but also baseball and America itself.
Author: Jules Tygiel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195106206
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452
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Book Description
Offers a history of African American exclusion from baseball, and assesses the changing racial attitudes that led up to Jackie Robinson's acceptance by the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Author: Gail Herman
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101476559
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113
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Book Description
As a kid, Jackie Robinson loved sports. And why not? He was a natural at football, basketball, and, of course, baseball. But beyond athletic skill, it was his strength of character that secured his place in sports history. In 1947 Jackie joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the long-time color barrier in major league baseball. It was tough being first- not only did "fans" send hate mail but some of his own teammates refused to accept him. Here is an inspiring sports biography, with black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Author: Sharon Robinson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545804531
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 124
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Book Description
The bestselling novel based on the true story of a boy in Brooklyn who became neighbors and friends with his hero, Jackie Robinson. Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he only cares about one thing-the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, life is pretty simple for Steve. But then Steve hears a rumor that an African American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It's 1948 and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before. Then it happens--Steve's new neighbor is none other than Jackie Robinson! Steve is beyond excited about living two doors down from the Robinson family. He can't wait to meet Jackie. This is going to be the best baseball season yet! How many kids ever get to become friends with their hero?
Author: George Gmelch
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496201035
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 493
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Book Description
Baseball Beyond Our Borders celebrates the globalization of the game while highlighting the different histories and cultures of the nations in which the sport is played. This collection of essays tells the story of America's national pastime as it has spread across the world and undergone instructive, entertaining, and sometimes quirky changes in the process. Covering nineteen countries and a U.S. territory, the contributors show how each country imported baseball, how baseball took hold and developed, how it is organized, played, and followed, and what local and regional traits tell us about the sport's place in each culture. But what lies in store as baseball's passport fills up with far-flung stamps? Will the international migration of players homogenize baseball? What role will the World Baseball Classic play? These are just a few of the questions the authors pose.
Author: Frank P. Jozsa
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810892464
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 263
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Book Description
In 1973, Roberto Clemente was honored as the first baseball player born outside the continental U.S. to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the former Pittsburgh Pirate amassed 3,000 career hits and 240 home runs. Since then, eight more international players of Major League Baseball have been voted into the Hall of Fame, including recent inductees Roberto Alomar (Puerto Rico) and Bert Blyleven (Netherlands). These Hall of Famers are but a few of the many non-native players who have contributed significantly to Major League Baseball, dating all the way back to 1876 and up to the present. Baseball beyond Borders: From Distant Lands to the Major Leagues not only examines the careers of foreign-born and Puerto Rican baseball players, but also goes beyond the players to look at managers, executives, coaches, and officials of Major League Baseball, as well. This book explores the impact and performances of these individuals on MLB and the minor leagues, and their contributions to the expansion and popularity of American baseball in the U.S. and around the world. Baseball beyond Borders offers a historical perspective of when, why, and how emigrants came to play professional baseball in the U.S. and also provides background information on baseball in foreign countries, baseball leagues outside the U.S., and the academies run by MLB on foreign soil. Featuring photographs, statistics, and bios, this unique book presents a comprehensive look at the impact players and staff born outside the U.S. have had on baseball—both in the U.S. and beyond. Baseball fans and sports historians will enjoy reading Baseball beyond Borders, as will anyone wishing to learn more about the influence of foreigners on America’s national pastime.
