Featuring lively verse, fascinating facts, and archival photographs, here is a celebration of the Negro Leagues and the great players who went unrecognized in their time. Imagine that you are an outstanding baseball player but banned from the major leagues. Imagine that you are breaking records but the world ignores your achievements. Imagine having a dream but no chance to make that dream come true. This is what life was like for African American baseball players before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier. Meet Josh Gibson, called "the black Babe Ruth," who hit seventy-five home runs in 1931; James "Cool Papa" Bell, the fastest man in baseball; legendary Satchel Paige, who once struck out twenty-four batters in a single game; and, of course, Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball, and one of the greatest players of all time. Written by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford with a foreword by Buck O'Neil, a Negro leagues legend whose baseball contributions spanned eight decades, this book is a home run for baseball and history lovers, and makes a great gift for both boys and girls.

Featuring lively verse, fascinating facts, and archival photographs, here is a celebration of the Negro Leagues and the great players who went unrecognized in their time. Imagine that you are an outstanding baseball player but banned from the major leagues. Imagine that you are breaking records but the world ignores your achievements. Imagine having a dream but no chance to make that dream come true. This is what life was like for African American baseball players before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier. Meet Josh Gibson, called "the black Babe Ruth," who hit seventy-five home runs in 1931; James "Cool Papa" Bell, the fastest man in baseball; legendary Satchel Paige, who once struck out twenty-four batters in a single game; and, of course, Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball, and one of the greatest players of all time. Written by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford with a foreword by Buck O'Neil, a Negro leagues legend whose baseball contributions spanned eight decades, this book is a home run for baseball and history lovers, and makes a great gift for both boys and girls.

Henry Kimbro was one of Negro League's best on the baseball field, and one of the so-called worst off the field. During his career, he was described as the bad boy of the Negro League, evil, a loner, and was even dubbed the Black Ty Cobb of the League. These perceptions followed him to his death. Afterwards, his daughter was given a tattered sixty-year-old scrapbook that he kept during his life and directed by her mother to do something with it. She did, she wrote Daddy's Scrapbook, Henry Kimbro of the Negro Baseball League, A Daughter's Perspective. This book is a journey through Henry Kimbro's life as a baseball player, a successful African-American businessman, and a father who sent four of his five children through college. Stories are shared about how cruel discrimination during his youth influenced the temperament he was known for as an adult, and how playing in the Cuban League changed his life when he met his Cuban-born wife of 48 years. It also details his post-League years as a father, grandfather, and an inductee into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. This book travels full circle to give insight to who Henry Kimbro was as seen by his daughter who loved and respected him.

SABR and MLB recently concluded that the Negro Leagues were "major leagues." This volume tells how the lost history and statistical record of the Negro Leagues were rebuilt and serves as an introduction to Negro League history as a whole.

“We are the ship; all else the sea.”—Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball. Using an “Everyman” player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. The voice is so authentic, you will feel as if you are sitting on dusty bleachers listening intently to the memories of a man who has known the great ballplayers of that time and shared their experiences. But what makes this book so outstanding are the dozens of full-page and double-page oil paintings—breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in emotion, and created with understanding and affection for these lost heroes of our national game. We Are the Ship is a tour de force for baseball lovers of all ages.

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.

In 2007, at the age of twelve, Perron bought a set of Topps baseball cards featuring several players from the Negro Leagues. He started writing letters to former Negro League players asking for their autographs and a few words about their careers. The players responded with detailed stories about their glory days on the field, and the racism they faced, including run-ins with the KKK. The letters turned into phone calls, and in these conversations many of the players revealed that they had fallen out of touch with their former teammates. Perron and a small group of fellow researchers organized the first annual Negro League Players Reunion in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010. This is the story of his mission to help many players get pension money that they were owed from Major League Baseball-- and to get a Negro League museum opened in Birmingham, stocked with memorabilia. -- adapted from jacket

In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year's World Series, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. They and other past and future stars formed one of the greatest baseball teams of all time. They were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a child, Anne Keene's father, Jim Raugh, suited up as the team batboy and mascot. He got to know his baseball heroes personally, watching players hit the road on cramped, tin-can buses, dazzling factory workers, kids, and service members at dozens of games, including a war-bond exhibition with Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium. Jimmy followed his baseball dreams as a college All-American but was crushed later in life by a failed major-league bid with the Detroit Tigers. He would have carried this story to his grave had Anne not discovered his scrapbook from a Navy school that shaped America's greatest heroes including George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, and Paul "Bear" Bryant. With the help of rare images and insights from World War II baseball veterans such as Dr. Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson, the story of this remarkable team is brought to life for the first time in The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II.

The Story of the Negro Leagues covers the history of the Negro Leagues, their great pitchers and hitters, and the era of integration with Major League Baseball. Readers will learn the history of the Negro leagues beginning with baseball's beginnings with Abner Doubleday, to the first Negro League game between the Henson Base Ball Club and the Weeksville Unknowns. Follow the discrimination that led to the Great Migration that brought Southern blacks north, and visionaries such as Rube Foster and William Greenlee and their creation of the Negro Leagues including the Negro National League, Eastern Colored League, and the Negro American League. Enjoy vivid descriptions of legendary players including the first black player in organized baseball, John Fowler, and Moses Walker, the first black major leaguer. Players such as John O'Neil, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Junior Gilliam, Minnie Minoso, James Bell, Josh Gibson, George Suttles Martin Dihigo, Connie Johnson, Charlie Grant are also included. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Baseball, the sport that helped reunify the country in the years after the Civil War, remains the national pastime. The Library of Congress houses the world's largest baseball collection, documenting the history of the game and providing a unique look at America since the late 1700s. Now Baseball Americana presents the best of the best from that treasure trove. From baseball's biggest stars to its street urchins, from its most newsworthy stories to sandlot and Little League games, the book examines baseball's hardscrabble origins, rich cultural heritage, and uniquely American character. The more than three hundred and fifty fabulous illustrations feature first-generation photographic and chromolithographic baseball cards; photographs of famous players and ballparks; and newspaper clippings, cartoons, New Deal photographs, and baseball advertisements. Packed with images that will surprise and thrill even the most expert collector, Baseball Americana is a gift for every baseball fan.