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Additional resources for this issue of History Now
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Further Reading on Satchel Paige
Larry Tye, the author of the essay you just read, is the author
of a wonderful biography of Satchel Paige:
Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend. New York: Random House, 2009.
There are two versions of Paige’s memoirs, one published in 1948 and another, fuller version, published fourteen years later. Luckily both have been reprinted:
Pitchin' Man: Satchel Paige's Own Story. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1992 (Reprint of the 1948 memoir).
Maybe I'll Pitch Forever: A Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story Behind the Legend. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993 (Reprint of the 1962 edition).
Another useful book is:
Ribowsky, Mark. Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. First attempt at a well researched biography of Paige.
For books on Jackie Robinson, look at:
Eig, Jonathan. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Interesting books that focuses on Robinson’s first year in the major leagues.
Frommer, Harvey. Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Barrier. New York: MacMillan, 1982. Reprinted in 2003 with a foreward by Robinson’s teammate, Monte Irvin; draws heavily on interviews with Robinson’s family and teammates.
Lowenfish, Lee. Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman. Bison: 2009. Good, well-researched biography.
Polner, Murray. Branch Rickey: A Biography. McFarland: 2007. Revised edition of a biography first published in 1982. Polner updated his work considerably with resources made available in the intervening decades.
Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1997. An excellent study.
Tygiel, Jules. Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy. New York: Oxford, 2008. Reprint of Tygiel’s renowned 1983 study.
The Monarchs:
These books focus on the Kansas City Monarchs, Paige’s last team in the Negro Leagues, and one of the most famous:
Bruce, Janet. The Kansas City Monarchs: Champions of Black Baseball. Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas, 1985. First book-length study of a team in the Negro Leagues and still worth your attention.
Heaphy, Leslie A. ed. Satchel Paige and Company: Essays on the Kansas City Monarchs, Their Greatest Star and the Negro Leagues. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2007. Collection of papers presented at a scholarly conference.
Chadwick, Bruce. When the Game Was Black and White: The Illustrated History of the Negro Leagues. New York: Abbeville Press, 1992. Excellent source for all sorts of images.
Gardner, Robert, and Dennis Shortelle. The Forgotten Players: The Story of Black Baseball in America. New York: Walker and Co, 1993. Good “young adult” level book for students.
Heaphy, Leslie A. The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 2002. Dependable survey.
Hogan, Lawrence B. Shades of Glory : the Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2006. Hogan’s book is based in part on the research produced for a Baseball Hall of Fame grant.
Holway, John. Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues. New York: Dover, 2010. Revised edition of this volume of oral history memoirs of famous players in the leagues, first published in 1989 .
Brent P. Kelley has compiled three different volumes of oral history memoirs with players for the Negro Leagues, all published by McFarland, Jefferson, N.C.: "I Will Never Forget": Interviews with 39 Former Negro League Players (2003), Voices from the Negro Leagues: 27 Selected Interviews with Baseball Standouts of the Period 1924-1960 (2009), The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations with 66 More Baseball Heroes. (2000).
Kirwin, Bill, ed. Out of the Shadows: African American Baseball from the Cuban Giants to Jackie Robinson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Interesting collection of articles from past issues of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture.
Lanctot, Neil. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Focuses on the League teams from 1933 to the 1950s.
Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Excellent path-breaking study. Available in reprints.
Rogosin, Donn. Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues. New York: Atheneum, 1983. Good books for general readers or students. Reprinted in 1995.
White, Sol, and Jerry Malloy. Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball, with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886-1936. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. This is a fascinating primary document: Sol White, a leading player and manager in the Negro Leagues, published his brief “History” in 1907. Baseball historian Jerry Malloy supplements the facsimile reprint with later writings by White.
Online Resources
The official Satchel Paige website is of modest help:
http://www.satchelpaige.com/index.php
You’ll find better material by using a website mounted by the Negro Leagues ’ Baseball Museum Website in Kansas City in collaboration with the College of Education at Kansas State University. The entire Teachers Resources section can only be described as “nifty”, essential for individual players like Paige and broader topics – have fun:
http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/resource/guide.html
Don’t miss the site’s “Teachers’ Toolkit” – it will serve you well for any classroom project in any area:
http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/resource/toolkit.html
The Negro Leagues’ Baseball Player’s Association site is also a winner. Explore every corner – the “Artifacts” section is fascinating:
http://www.nlbpa.com/index.html
Life magazine has a very good photo gallery of images of Robinson from the magazine’s files:
http://www.life.com/image/3234210/in-gallery/23148/jackie-robinson-american-pioneer
For Jackie Robinson, you can start with the biographical information at the Jackie Robinson Foundation site:
http://www.jackierobinson.org/about/jackie.php
Sporting News’ online archive on is also very good. Look at the links to old editorials and articles under “Chronicling Jackie” – fascinating records in the history of sports journalism – and prejudice:
http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/jackie/
American Memory’s “Baseball and Jackie Robinson” pages and links are disappointing. The “Related Resources” page has an exhaustive annotated bibliography of books on baseball in general, Negro Leagues’ baseball, and Robinson. Be warned, though – many of the links to other websites just don’t work:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/jraboutcol.html
Ken Burn’s documentary, “Baseball,” should be on anyone’s list. The following one will be hard to find, I fear. But try to get your hands on this public television program:
The Kansas City Monarchs: Ain't Seen Nothing Like It Since.
Kansas City [Mo.]: KCPT Public Television, 1994. Documentary featuring
experts like Janet Bruce, Chuck Haddix, Claude Page, Larry Lester,
Teddy Dibble, Scott O'Kelly, and Carla Seary.
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