|
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Shades Of Glory:
The Negro Leagues and the Story of
African-American Baseball
 WASHINGTON (Dec. 1, 2005)--A major work on
the Negro leagues and African-American
baseball, published in association with the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum,
will be released by National Geographic
Books in February 2006. It is timed to
coincide with a special series of Hall of
Fame events honoring Negro league players in
2006, commencing with the announcement of
any new Hall of Fame inductees from the
Negro leagues and the era before the Negro
leagues, in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 27.
SHADES OF GLORY: The Negro Leagues and the
Story of African-American Baseball (National
Geographic Books, ISBN 0-7922-5306-X,
February 2006, $26) tells the story of black
baseball, from slavery days when it was
played on plantations in the pre-Civil War
South to the first organized games of the
mid-19th century to the glory days of the
Negro leagues in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
This comprehensive, 432-page work,
illustrated with more than 50 vintage
photographs, details the game’s rich
cultural history and profiles the players,
owners and fans that made baseball come
alive for generations of African Americans.
The principal author is Lawrence D. Hogan,
with co-authors Adrian Burgos, Leslie Heaphy,
Neil Lanctot, Michael Lomax, James Overmyer,
Robert Peterson, Robert Ruck and Lyle
Wilson.
In his foreword, baseball historian Jules
Tygiel writes, "Once the flower of a
segregated African-American universe, the
celebration of black baseball has blossomed
into a national phenomenon. The realm of
black baseball was a vibrant and colorful
one. It offered a panorama of innovation and
enterprise, entertainment and excitement,
and unparalleled athletic achievement. Yet
this spectacle resulted from and was made
necessary by the nation’s worst impulses:
the cancer of segregation and discrimination
that plagued the United States in its Jim
Crow years. In recalling the Negro leagues,
we honor the resiliency and creativity of an
oppressed people. We also celebrate the
demise of that world and its replacement by
a national pastime more fully characterized
by equality of opportunity."
SHADES OF GLORY is a compelling and lively
history that combines vivid narrative,
interesting anecdotes, biographical essays
and scores of archival photographs of
players, teams and evocative artifacts to
recreate the excitement and passion of the
Negro leagues. It traces the story of black
baseball from its beginning on Southern
plantations to the first great teams, such
as the Cuban Giants, to the era of the
vibrant barnstorming teams from the East
Coast, Chicago and Cuba, to the glory days
of the American league play and the decline
of those leagues in the days of the Civil
Rights movement of the 1950s.
Drawing on years of research, SHADES OF
GLORY is the result of a comprehensive study
on the history of African Americans in
Baseball, from 1860-1960, commissioned by
the National Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum and funded by a $250,000 grant from
Major League Baseball. As part of this
landmark study, the Hall of Fame supervised
an effort to compile the most thorough and
accurate statistics on Negro league players
and games ever published, tracking down box
scores for league-sanctioned games from
thousands of entries from more than 120
period newspapers. Dick Clark of Ypsilanti,
Mich., Lawrence Hogan of Fanwood, N.J., and
Larry Lester of Kansas City, Mo., were
co-directors of the Hall of Fame Project and
the compilers of this groundbreaking
statistical record of black baseball. A
20-page statistical component is included in
SHADES OF GLORY.
The book heralds the achievements and
contributions of players, scouts, managers,
team owners and executives as well as
sportswriters and fans of the game. It
locates the baseball story in the context of
African-American history as a whole. Names
such as "Pop" Watkins, Moses Walker, Sol
White, Grant Johnson, Abel Linares, John
Henry "Pop" Lloyd, "Smokey" Joe Williams,
James "Cool Papa" Bell, Satchel Paige,
Jackie Robinson and many others emerge in
all their glory. The book is an important
contribution to sports history and a moving
tribute to the players and teams that wrote
a unique chapter in the annals of baseball
and American culture.
Lawrence D. Hogan, a senior professor of
history at Union County College in New
Jersey, will give a presentation on the
history of black baseball at National
Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
on Feb. 21 as part of the National
Geographic Live! program of lectures.
A seven-city book tour featuring Hogan,
Tygiel and several former Negro league
players, African-American Hall of Famers and
former African-American Major League
Baseball players begins on Feb. 21. The
cities are Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala;
Chicago; Cleveland; Detroit; Kansas City,
Kan.; and Washington, D.C.
Related Links
National Geographic
www.nationalgeographic.com/index.html
Contact Information:
Alison Reeves
National Geographic
(202) 857-7793
areeves@ngs.org
|
|
| |
|
About
"Pop" Lloyd
