Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East; he was the organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame--one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.

 Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East; he was the organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame--one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.

The enthralling true story of the greatest baseball team ever forgotten In a time when the country was divided into black and white, our soldier boys battled against the evils in Europe, and war-weary Americans gathered around green fields to forget their troubles in the joys of our national pastime, the greatest baseball dynasty you've probably never heard of electrified the game and set an unstoppable revolution in motion. So begins the fascinating and often surprising story of the Homestead Grays, the Negro League's most successful franchise, and how the fight to integrate baseball began not in Brooklyn with Jackie Robinson but in our nation's capital. During the first half of the twentieth century, Washington, D.C., was a segregated Southern town. Black and white Washingtonians lived in separate worlds--until those worlds collided at Griffith Stadium. Standing in the heart of a thriving black district, the park played host to the white Washington Senators and, when the Senators were out of town, the Homestead Grays. There, the best team in the Negro Leagues reigned victorious on the same field where one of the worst teams in the all-white majors struck out again and again. Although white fans never caught on, tens of thousands of loyal black fans flocked to watch the great Grays. On those sun-bright stadium afternoons, the wall of segregation fell away; the fans sat wherever they wanted--and, together with their number-one team and a host of heroes, they transformed our nation's capital into the front lines of the campaign to integrate major-league baseball. In this transcendent account, the author gracefully unfolds the true story behind this bold adventure, taking you back to those front lines, where intriguing characters such as journalists Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith fought doggedly for integration; the Negro Leagues' most celebrated sluggers, Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, gave the major-league superstars a run for their money; and club owner Clark Griffith, mired in prejudice and greed, thwarted integration at every turn. Through numerous interviews with key players (many now deceased), a treasure trove of archival material, and dozens of unpublished historical photos, the author masterfully pieces together the lost legend of how the fight to integrate baseball really began, bearing witness at last to the greatest legends of black baseball and opening the book on a forgotten chapter in American history. "This is the story of the lost era between the Babe and Jackie, of a crusading journalist named Sam Lacy, an immensely talented black ballplayer named Buck Leonard, and a stubborn major league owner named Clark Griffith. It's the story of why the fight to integrate major league baseball began in Washington and not in Brooklyn, why black Washington ultimately lost the fight, and why the Senators were not the first team to integrate. And it's the story of the greatest baseball dynasty that most people have never heard of, the Homestead Grays, whose wartime popularity at Griffith Stadium moved them beyond the shadow of the Senators." --from the Introduction So begins this powerful and passionate account of how the fight to integrate baseball really began. Moving seamlessly between the heroic exploits of the ballfield and the exploitation of the boardroom, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators reveals all the magic and madness that surrounded the legendary Homestead Grays and their lesser--but more recognized--stadium-mates, the Washington Senators. Drawing on extensive interviews with key players, long-lost archives, and dozens of dazzling historical photos, the author meticulously chronicles the true story behind this forgotten chapter in the annals of baseball, painting a portrait of larger-than-life characters and lazy, golden afternoons you'll wish you could remember--when the Homestead Grays dominated Griffith Stadium and gave baseball's white superstars a run for their money.

A new preface updates this richly detailed look at the major role sport played in shaping Pittsburgh's black community from the Roaring Twenties through the Korean War. Rob Ruck reveals how sandlot, amateur, and professional athletics helped black Pittsburgh realize its potential for self-organization, expression, and creativity.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues, this bookhonors the life of Effa Manley, the trailblazing female co-owner of baseball’s Newark Eagles. The first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there was no one like Effa Manley in the sports world of the 1930s and 1940s. She was a sophisticated woman who owned a baseball team. She never shrank from going head to head with men, who dominated the ranks of sports executives. That her life story remained unchronicled for so long can only be attributed to one thing: her team, the Newark Eagles, belonged to the Negro Leagues. In Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles, Negro Leagues Centennial Edition, James Overmyer brings to light new details regarding Effa Manley’s fascinating story, including previously-unknown information about her childhood and family. Overmyer wonderfully portrays Effa Manley’s trailblazing life, her championship baseball team, and a thriving black community in Newark that took the Eagles into their hearts. In addition, this book contains updates regarding the Negro Leagues, its talented rank of players, and Manley’s induction into the Hall of Fame. This important work shines the spotlight on a previously unsung segment of baseball history. Drawing extensively from Eagle team records and Manley’s scrapbook, Queen of the Negro Leagues is the definitive biography of a groundbreaking female sports executive.

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.

Never one to mince words, Effa Manley once wrote a letter to sportswriter Art Carter, saying that she hoped they could meet soon because "I would like to tell you a lot of things you should know about baseball.” From 1936 to 1948, Manley ran the Negro league Newark Eagles that her husband, Abe, owned for roughly a decade. Because of her business acumen, commitment to her players, and larger-than-life personality, she would leave an indelible mark not only on baseball but also on American history. Attending her first owners’ meeting in 1937, Manley delivered an unflattering assessment of the league, prompting Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee to tell Abe, "Keep your wife at home.” Abe, however, was not convinced, nor was Manley deterred. Like Greenlee, some players thought her too aggressive and inflexible. Others adored her. Regardless of their opinions, she dedicated herself to empowering them on and off the field. She meted out discipline, advice, and support in the form of raises, loans, job recommendations, and Christmas packages, and she even knocked heads with Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, and Jackie Robinson. Not only a story of Manley’s influence on the baseball world, The Most Famous Woman in Baseball vividly documents her social activism. Her life played out against the backdrop of the Jim Crow years, when discrimination forced most of Newark’s blacks to live in the Third Ward, where prostitution flourished, housing was among the nation’s worst, and only menial jobs were available. Manley and the Eagles gave African Americans a haven, Ruppert Stadium. She also proposed reforms at the Negro leagues’ team owners’ meetings, marched on picket lines, sponsored charity balls and benefit games, and collected money for the NAACP. With vision, beauty, intelligence, discipline, and an acerbic wit, Manley was a force of nature--and, as Bob Luke shows, one to be reckoned with.

This work examines the historical significance of the state of New Jersey in the Negro League legacy, especially the black baseball players, teams, owners and managers, and their struggles against not just segregation, and their accomplishments. The book includes photographs, appendices (records of New Jersey Negro League teams, 1923-1948, and a chronology), notes, a bibliography of research sources, an annotated list of suggested further readings, and an index.

The "Greatest Baseball team of all-time" easily describes the 1931 Homestead Grays. They remain a team never to be forgotten—a team that rates with the greatest teams in all of baseball history. Organized in 1910, baseball’s Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—an exclusively African-American team—held claim to a regional championship and also a legitimate claim to baseball’s World Championship. The Grays’ well-known leader was Hall of Famer Cumberland “Cum” Posey. His 1931 Grays featured among others; Hall of Fame third baseman Jud Wilson, Hall of Fame infielder Oscar Charleston, a Hall of Fame catcher in Josh Gibson and two Hall of Fame pitchers in Willie Foster and Joseph “Smokey Joe” Williams—a total of five legendary players. Paced by young Josh Gibson, age 18 and the most powerful home run hitter in baseball, Posey’s 1931 Homestead Grays finished with a magnificent 143-29-2 record. This is their story told here for the first time. Included within the text are written accounts for every game from the Homestead Grays’ entire 1931 schedule of nearly 175 contest, with scores, attendance figures and player biographies. The work includes score and locations on more than 300 additional games played by the Kansas City Monarchs, Hilldale, Baltimore’s Black Sox, the Cuban House of David, New York’s Harlem Stars and other African-American teams in operation during that same 1931 season. The comparative scores and their related histories are a resourceful and entertaining aid for further analysis and assessment on the participation of African-American athletes in baseball as best represented from the perspective of a single championship season.

From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League Baseball After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Award-winning historian Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across society. Integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind. By looking at this history from the vantage point of black America and the Caribbean, a more complex story comes into focus, one largely missing from traditional narratives of baseball's history. Raceball unveils a fresh and stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.