Baseball Negro League African American Artist Ernist Withers Photo Fantastic

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176290343473 BASEBALL NEGRO LEAGUE AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST ERNIST WITHERS PHOTO FANTASTIC. A PHOTOGRAPH THAT I OBTAINED FROM ERNEST C. WITHERS , AFRICAN AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, MEASURING 8X10 INCHES  THE PHOTOGRAPH IS OF A INDIANAPOLIS CLOWNS NEGRO LEAGUE PLAYER AND IS A RARE IMAGE BY HIM.  Ernest C. Withers KING TUT OF THE INDIANAPOLIS CLOWNS WITH A FAN EARLY 1950S GELATIN SILVER PRINT Printed later by Ernest C. Withers.
Withers, Ernest C. (Memphis, TN, 1922-Memphis, TN, 2007))    

Bibliography and Exhibitions

MONOGRAPHS AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

Anstead, Alicia. ERNEST WITHERS: A Second Look. 2011. In: Art New England 32, no. 4, July/August 2011. Folio, wraps.

Boston (MA). Massachusetts College of Art. Let Us March On!: Selected Civil Rights Photographs of ERNEST C. WITHERS 1955-1968. 1992. 86 pp. exhib. cat., b&w illus. Foreword by poet Margaret Walker; text by Michele Furst, et al. Important work by a photographer also known for his photographs of the Memphis Blues scene during the same period. Unlike many photojournalists who covered the Civil Rights Movement, Ernest Withers was an active participant in the cause and his work often went unpaid and without credit. Widely published in Time, Life, and Newsweek magazines, Withers's photographs record the more quiet, personal moments within the larger, historic events. [Traveled to: Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, through Dec. 10, 1994, and other venues; exhibition of same title at Harriet Tubman House, Macon, GA, 2000.] 4to, wraps. First ed.

Boston (MA). Panopticon Gallery of Photography. Signs of Social Change: Photographs by ERNEST C. WITHERS. June 8-August 19, 2008. Solo exhibition. A selection of works from Withers's archive of Civil Rights movement photographs.

Jackson (MS). Museum of Art, University of Mississippi. ERNEST C. WITHERS Photography. June 4-June 19, 2005. Solo exhibition.

Little Rock (AR). Hearne Fine Art. ERNEST C. WITHERS: Negro League Baseball.. April 14-May 6, 2006. Solo exhibition.

Memphis (TN). Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. ERNEST C. WITHERS. 2001. Solo exhibition.

Nashville (TN). Pink Palace. One Day is Not Enough: Memphis Desegregation Through the Lens of ERNEST WITHERS. January, 2006. Solo exhibition.

Norfolk (VA). Chrysler Museum of Art. Pictures Tell the Story: ERNEST C. WITHERS Reflections in History. January 28-May 7, 2000. 191 pp., b&w illus. Texts by F. Jack Hurley and Daniel J. Wolff. The first major monograph on the Memphis photographer who, more than any other, documented the Southern chapter of the Civil Rights Movement as well as the lively music scene in Memphis and the Negro League. [Traveling exhibition: High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, 2001-2002; and other venues.) 8vo (24 cm.).

OSHKOSH (WI). Gail Floether Steinhilber Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. I Was There: Photographs by Civil Rights Photographer ERNEST C. WITHERS. February 7-March 11, 2005. Solo exhibition.

Philadelphia (PA). Philadelphia Art Alliance. Pictures Tell the Story: Photographs by ERNEST C. WITHERS Documenting the Civil Rights Movement. Thru May 4, 2003. Solo exhibition.

WITHERS, ERNEST C. Complete Photo Story of Till Murder Case. 1955. Self-published booklet by Ernest C. Withers. Wraps.

Wolff, Daniel. Negro League Baseball: Photographs by ERNEST C. WITHERS. New York: Abrams, 2004. 192 pp., 142 illus. Sq. 4to (26 x 25 cm.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

Wolff, Daniel and ERNEST C. WITHERS (photos). ERNEST C. WITHERS: The Memphis Blues Again. New York: Viking Studio, 2001. 160 pp., b&w illus. (Same title as the 2005 exhibition of the High Museum's recently acquired collection of over 75 of Withers' photographs from the 1950s-1970s depicting the rise of the Memphis and Tennessee music scene, covering many different musical genres (blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, early rock and roll, soul and funk.) Sq. 4to (12.3 x 10.9 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art. Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968. Thru October 5, 2008. Group exhibition of nearly 170 historic photographs. Curated by Julian Cox, Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art. Includes work by Doris Derby, Leroy Henderson, and Ernest ithers, dozens of well-known white activist photographers, photojournalists, and also important photos taken by amateurs and press corps photographers which are not often displayed in a museum context. [Traveled to: kirball Cultural Center, -March 7, 2010 where The Skirball added a new section to the exhibition that documents the struggle for civil rights in Los Angeles; among the local events portrayed are the picketing of the Kress Store in Pasadena (1960) and the Watts Riots (1965). This expanded exhibition also included a documentary film, specially produced for the Skirball's presentation of Road to Freedom, that illuminates the unified efforts of the Jewish and African American communities to achieve justice for all during the Civil Rights movement; also exhibited Bronx Museum of the Arts, March 28-August 11, 2010.]

BERGER, MARTIN A. Seeing Through Race: A Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 264 pp., 65 b&w illus. (only two images are by a black photographer - Ernest C. Withers.) A study of how white journalists and their audiences selected, framed, and responded to images of the Civil Rights era, with selective comparisons to coverage of the same events by the black media.

BERGER, MAURICE, ed. Constructing Masculinity (Discussion in Contemporary Culture, No. 11). Routledge, 1995. 320 pp. Maurice Berger, Simon Watson. Adrian Piper, Marlon Riggs, Ernest C. Withers, Carrie Mae Weems. Extensive discussion of race stereotypes of black males in popular culture, the media and the arts. 8vo, wraps. First ed.

BOSTON (MA). Panopticon Gallery of Photography. Baseball Faces. July 1-September 14, 2009. Group exhibition of work by three photographers. Included: Ernest C. Withers.

BOSTON (MA). Panopticon Gallery of Photography. Our Lives Begin to End the Day We Become Silent About Things That Matter” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. January 14-May 9, 2010. Group exhibition. Included: Ernest Withers, Tanya Murphy Dodd, Frank Stewart, Leroy Henderson and Robert Sengstacke.

BOSTON (MA). Panopticon Gallery of Photography. Sight of Sound: Photographs by Ryan Mastro, Ron Pownall, Charlie Sawyer, Frank Stewart, and Ernest C. Withers. March 10-May 18, 2010. Group exhibition of music-related photographs.

BROOKLYN (NY). Brooklyn Museum of Art. Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties. March 7-July 6, 2014. 176 pp. exhib. cat., color and b&w illus., notes, bibliog., index. Texts by Kellie Jones, Connie H. Choi, Teresa A Carbone, Cynthia A. Young; chronol. by Dalila Scruggs. Includes: Chalres Alston, Benny Andrews, Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Frank Bowling, Elizabeth Catlett, Barbara Chase-Riboud, LeRoy P. Clarke, Roy DeCarava, Jeff Donaldson, Emory Douglas, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Ben Hazard, Barkeley Hendricks, Jae Jarrell, Daniel Larue Johnson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Tom Lloyd, Ademola Olugebefola, John Outterbridge, Joe Overstreet, Gordon Parks, Ben Patterson, Noah Purifoy, Faith Ringgold, John T. Riddle, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Robert A. Sengstacke, Merton D. Simpson, Moneta J. Sleet, Jr., Bob Thompson, Charles White, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, Ernest C. Withers. Dozens of others mentioned in passing. [Traveled to: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, August 30-December 14, 2014.] 4to (11.2 x 9.7 in.), boards. First ed.

BROOKLYN (NY). MoCADA Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art. I AM A MAN. September 25, 2008-January 18, 2009. Group exhibition. Curated by Kevin Powell. Included: Hank Willis Thomas, Russell Frederick, Rah Crawford, Radcliffe Bailey, Charly Palmer, LeRoy Henderson, Fahamu Pecou, Jefferson Pinder, Jamel Shabazz, Lorenzo Steele, Jr., Juan Sanchez and Ernest C Withers.

COOKS, BRIDGET R. Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. 240 pp., color illus., notes, index. The narrative begins in 1927 with the Chicago "Negro in Art Week" exhibition, and in the 1930s with the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of "William Edmondson" (1937) and "Contemporary Negro Art" (1939) at the Baltimore Museum of Art; the focus, however, is on exhibitions held from the 1960s to present with chapters on "Harlem on My Mind" (1969), "Two Centuries of Black American Art" (1976); "Black Male" (1994-95); and "The Quilts of Gee's Bend" (2202). Numerous artists, but most mentioned only in passing: Cedric Adams, Charles Alston, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Edward M. Bannister, Richmond Barthé, Romare Bearden, numerous Bendolphs (Annie, Jacob, Mary Ann, Mary Lee, Louisiana) and Loretta Bennett, Ed Bereal, Donald Bernard, Nayland Blake, Gloria Bohanon, Leslie Bolling, St. Clair Bourne, Cloyd Boykin, Kay Brown, Selma Burke, Bernie Casey, Roland Charles, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Claude Clark, Linda Day Clark, Robert Colescott, Dan Concholar, Emilio Cruz, Ernest Crichlow (footnote only), Alonzo Davis, Selma Day (footnote only), Roy DeCarava, Aaron Douglas, Emory Douglas, Robert M. Douglass, Jr., David Driskell, Robert S. Duncanson, William Edmondson, Elton Fax (footnote only), Cecil L. Fergerson, Roland Freeman, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Reginald Gammon (footnote only), K.D. Ganaway, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, William A. Harper, Palmer Hayden, Vertis C. Hayes, Barkley L. Hendricks, James V. Herring, Richard Hunt, Rudy Irwin, May Howard Jackson, Suzanne Jackson, Joshua Johnson, William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Gwendolyn Knight, Wifredo Lam, Artis Lane, Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Norman Lewis, Samella Lewis, Alvin Loving (footnote only), William Majors (footnote only), Richard Mayhew, Reginald McGhee, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Richard Mayhew, Willie Middlebrook, Ron Moody, Lottie and Lucy Mooney, Flora Moore, Scipio Moorhead, Norma Morgan, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Sara Murrell (footnote only), Otto Neals (footnote only), Odili Donald Odita, Noni Olubisi, Ademola Olugebefola, John Outterbridge, Gordon Parks, six Pettways (Annie E., Arlonzia, Bertha, Clinton, Jr., Jesse T., Letisha), James Phillips, Howardena Pindell, Horace Pippin, Carl Pope, James A. Porter, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Noah Purifoy, Martin Puryear, Okoe Pyatt (footnote only), Robert Reid (footnote only), John Rhoden, John Riddle, Faith Ringgold (footnote only), Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders (footnote only), Augusta Savage, William E. Scott, Georgette Seabrook, James Sepyo (footnote only), Taiwo Shabazz (footnote only), Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Merton Simpson (footnote only), Albert Alexander Smith, Arenzo Smith, Frank Stewart, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Thomas, Danny Tisdale, Melvin Van Peebles, James Vanderzee, Annie Walker, Kara Walker, Augustus Washington, Timothy Washington, Carrie Mae Weems, James Lesesne Wells, Charles White, Pat Ward Williams, William T. Williams, Deborah Willis, Fred Wilson, Ernest C. Withers, Beulah Ecton Woodard, Hale Woodruff, Lloyd Yearwood, Annie Mae and Nettie Pettway Young. 8vo (9 x 6 in.), wraps.

Durham (NC). Doubletake. Doubletake Vol. 5, no. 1 (Winter 1999). Durham (NC). Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, 1999. This issue contains an article on the photographs of Ernest C. Withers and photojournalism on Tupelo, Mississippi. 4to, wraps.

GATES, HENRY LOUIS and EVELYN BROOKS HIGGINBOTHAM, eds. African American National Biography. 2009. Originally published in 8 volumes, the set has grown to 12 vollumes with the addition of 1000 new entries. Also available as online database of biographies, accessible only to paid subscribers (well-endowed institutions and research libraries.) As per update of February 2, 2009, the following artists were included in the 8-volume set, plus addenda. A very poor showing for such an important reference work. Hopefully there are many more artists in the new entries: Jesse Aaron, Julien Abele (architect), John H. Adams, Jr., Ron Adams, Salimah Ali, James Latimer Allen, Charles H. Alston, Amalia Amaki, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, William E. Artis, Herman "Kofi" Bailey, Walter T. Bailey (architect), James Presley Ball, Edward M. Bannister, Anthony Barboza, Ernie Barnes, Richmond Barthé, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cornelius Marion Battey, Romare Bearden, Phoebe Beasley, Arthur Bedou, Mary A. Bell, Cuesta Ray Benberry, John Biggers, Camille Billops, Howard Bingham, Alpha Blackburn, Robert H. Blackburn, Walter Scott Blackburn, Melvin R. Bolden, David Bustill Bowser, Wallace Branch, Barbara Brandon, Grafton Tyler Brown, Richard Lonsdale Brown, Barbara Bullock, Selma Hortense Burke, Calvin Burnett, Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, John Bush, Elmer Simms Campbell, Elizabeth Catlett, David C. Chandler, Jr., Raven Chanticleer, Ed Clark, Allen Eugene Cole, Robert H. Colescott, Eldzier Cortor, Ernest T. Crichlow, Michael Cummings, Dave the Potter [David Drake], Griffith J. Davis, Thomas Day, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Thornton Dial, Sr., Joseph Eldridge Dodd, Jeff Donaldson, Aaron Douglas, Sam Doyle, David Clyde Driskell, Robert S. Duncanson, Ed Dwight (listed as military, not as artist); Mel Edwards, Minnie Jones Evans, William McNight Farrow, Elton Fax, Daniel Freeman, Meta Warrick Fuller, Reginald Gammon, King Daniel Ganaway, the Goodridge Brothers, Rex Goreleigh, Tyree Guyton, James Hampton, Della Brown Taylor (Hardman), Edwin Augustus Harleston, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Lyle Ashton Harris, Bessie Harvey, Isaac Scott Hathaway, Palmer Hayden, Nestor Hernandez, George Joseph Herriman, Varnette Honeywood, Walter Hood, Richard L. Hunster, Richard Hunt, Clementine Hunter, Bill Hutson, Joshua Johnson, Sargent Claude Johnson, William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Ann Keesee, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Edmonia Lewis, Samella Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Jules Lion, Edward Love, Estella Conwill Majozo, Ellen Littlejohn, Kerry James Marshall, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Richard Mayhew, Carolyn Mazloomi, Aaron Vincent McGruder, Robert H. McNeill, Scipio Moorhead, Archibald H. Motley, Jr., Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack), Lorraine O'Grady, Jackie Ormes, Joe Overstreet, Carl Owens, Gordon Parks, Sr., Gordon Parks, Jr., C. Edgar Patience, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Margaret Smith Piper, Rose Piper, Horace Pippin, William Sidney Pittman, Stephanie Pogue, Prentiss Herman Polk (as Prentice), James Amos Porter, Harriet Powers, Elizabeth Prophet, Martin Puryear, Patrick Henry Reason, Michael Richards, Arthur Rose, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Augusta Savage, Joyce J. Scott, Addison Scurlock, George Scurlock, Willie Brown Seals, Charles Sebree, Joe Selby, Lorna Simpson, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Clarissa Sligh, Albert Alexander Smith, Damballah Smith, Marvin and Morgan Smith, Maurice B. Sorrell, Simon Sparrow, Rozzell Sykes, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Thomas, J.J. Thomas, Robert Louis (Bob) Thompson, Mildred Jean Thompson, Dox Thrash, William Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Leo F. Twiggs, James Augustus Joseph Vanderzee, Kara Walker, William Onikwa Wallace, Laura Wheeler Waring, Augustus Washington, James W. Washington, Jr., Carrie Mae Weems, James Lesesne Wells, Charles White, John H. White, Jack Whitten, Carla Williams, Daniel S. Williams, Paul Revere Williams (architect), Deborah Willis, Ed Wilson, Ellis Wilson, Fred Wilson, John Woodrow Wilson, Ernest C. Withers, Beulah Ecton Woodard, Hale Aspacio Woodruff.

GOLDBERG, VICKI and ROBERT SILBERMAN, eds. American Photography: A Century of Images. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999. 228 pp., 50 color and 110 b&w illus. Includes: Bernie Boston, Albert Chong, Chester Higgins, Jr., Gordon Parks, Eli Reed, Lorna Simpson, James Vanderzee, Carrie Mae Weems, Ernest C. Withers. 4to, cloth, d.j.

HALL, STUART and MARK SEALY, eds. Different: Historical Context Contemporary Photographers and Black Identity. London and New York: Phaidon, 2001. 207 pp., b&w and color illus. (most full-page), index of artists. Major text by Stuart Hall. Work by black artists from the U.S., Britain, Caribbean, and Africa, exploring images of their identity. Includes: Ajamu, Faisal Abdu'allah, Vincent Allen, David A. Bailey, Oladélé Bamgboyé, Dawoud Bey, Zarina Bhimji, Vanley Burke, Mama Casset, Albert V. Chong, Clement Cooper, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Samuel Fosso, Armet Francis, Remy Gastambide, Bob Gosani, Joy Gregory, George Hallett, Lyle Ashton Harris, Seydou Keita, Roshini Kempadoo, Peter Max Khondola, Alf Kumalo, Anthony Lam, Eric Lesdema, Dave Lewis, Peter Magubane, Ricky Maynard, Eustaguio Neves, Horace Ove, Gordon Parks, Eileen Perrier, Ingrid Pollard, Richard Samuel Roberts, Franklyn Rodgers, Faizal Sheikh, Yinka Shonibare, Malick Sidibé, Lorna Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, Robert Taylor, Iké Udé, James VanDerZee, Maxine Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Deborah Willis, Ernest Withers. Small 4to (25 cm.), red papered boards. First ed.

JOHNSON, CHARLES R. and BOB ADELMAN, eds. KING: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.. New York: Viking, 2000. 288 pp., b&w photos. Includes photographs by Frank Dandrige, Benedict J. Fernandez, Robert Sengstacke, Ernest Withers, as well as dozens of white photographers. 4to (12 x 9 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

KALAMAZOO (MI). Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. Embracing Diverse Voices: African-American Art in the Collection. October 3-November 29, 2009. Group exhibition of over sixty works of art. Artists included: Al Harris, Murphy Darden, James M. Watkins, Maria Scott and James Palmore along with nationally known artists Robert S. Duncanson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Lorna Simpson, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles White, photographs by James Van Der Zee and Ernest C. Withers. [Traveled to: Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, September 19-November 16, 2014.]

KALAMAZOO (MI). Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. Energy and Inspiration: African-American Art from the Permanent Collection. January 14-April 9, 2008. Group exhibition. Included: Ron Adams, Romare Bearden, Robert G. Carter, Reginald Gammon, Sam Gilliam, Earlie Hudnall Jr., Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Mayhew, Kara Walker, Ernest C. Withers.

KASHER, STEVEN, intro. The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-1968. New York: Abbeville, 1996. 256 pp., 150 b&w illus. Intro. by Steven Kasher; foreword by Myrlie Evers-Williams. Black photographers of the movement included Gordon Parks and Frank Dandridge working for Life; Robert Sengstacke of the Chicago Defender; Joffre Clark, Fred de Van, Bob Fletcher, Rufus Hinton, Julius Lester, Francis Mitchell, and Clifford Vaughs of SNCC; and freelancers Ernest Withers, Beuford Smith, and Robert Houston. Johnson Publishing Co., the owners of Jet and Ebony, employed a large staff of black photographers including Moneta Sleet, Jr. Sq. 4to (9 x 9 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

KNOXVILLE (TN). Knoxville Museum of Art. Streetwise: Masters of 60s Photography. May 4-August 5, 2012. Group exhibition. Included: Ernest Withers.

LITTLE ROCK (AR). Hearne Fine Art. The Power of Art: Generational Wealth. September, 2012. Group exhibition. Included: Benny Andrews, Richmond Barthé, John T. Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert S. Duncanson, LaToya Hobbs, Clementine Hunter, Dean Mitchell, Charles Ethan Porter, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Ernest C. Withers.

LITTLE ROCK (AR). Pyramid / Hearne Fine Art. Collaborations: Two Decades of African American Art: Hearne Fine Art 1988-2008. Thru January 17, 2009. Note: Exhibition title was slightly different: "Two Decades of Excellence." 130 pp. exhib. cat., color and b&w illus. Foreword by Halima Taha; texts by Archie Hearne, III, Garbo Watson Hearne; afterword by Dianne Smith. Includes new work by 57 artists: Gabriel Ajayi. Leroy Allen, Benny Andrews, Phoebe Beasley, Alix Beaujour, John Biggers, Bisa Butler, Elizabeth Catlett, Chukes, William Clarke, Kevin Cole, Adger Cowans, Charles Criner, Earnest Davidson, Rex Deloney, Ed Dwight, Marion Epting, Lawrence Finney, Frank Frazier, Paul Goodnight, Jonathan Green, Larry Hampton, Chester Higgins, Jr., Kennith Humphrey, George Hunt, Ariston Jacks, Laura James, Leroy Johnson, Brenda Joysmith, Artis Lane, Anthony D. Lee, Samella Lewis, Sylvester McKissick, Dean Mitchell, Tonia Mitchell, Euneda Otis, Charly Palmer, Johnice Parker, Morris Richardson, II, Mario Robinson, W. Earl Robinson, Alvin Roy, AJ Smith, Albert Smith, Dianne Smith, Phyllis Stephens, TAFA, Twins (Jerry & Terry Lynn), Evita Tezeno, William Tolliver, Ed Wade, Dale Washington, Basil Watson, Kiersten Williams, Susan Williams, Marjorie Williams-Smith, Ernest C. Withers. [Traveled to: Chattanooga African American Museum.] [Review: Michael Crumb, "African American Art History: Collaborating With You," The Chattanooga Pulse, September 16, 2009.] Sq. 4to (29 x 30 cm.; 11.75 x 11.25 in.), cloth, d.j.

MEMPHIS (TN). Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Photographs from the Memphis World, 1949-1964. August 23, 2008-January 5, 2009. 135 pp. exhib. cat., 58 b&w illus., bibliog. Curated from the Brooks Museum of Art Memphis World Collection. Intro. by Marina Pacini; texts by Russell Wigginton (on the history of the Memphis World newspaper) and by Deborah Willis (emphasis on black press photographers generally, most of whom were not included in the exhibition: Allan Edward Cole, Gordon Parks, and Teenie Harris.) Includes: 12 photos by Ernest C. Withers, 11 by the Hooks Brothers, several by R. Earl Williams, P. Cuff, Clarence Blakely, E.H. Jaffe, Henry Ford, Reese Studios, Mark Stansbury, Tisby. The selection includes photographs of groups and numerous photographs of individuals with brier biographies and other information on each by fifteen contributors. [19 of the photographs also exhibited at: Clough Hanson Gallery, Rhodes College, September 5-October 4, 2008.] Sq. 8vo, pictorial wraps.

MEMPHIS (TN). Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African American Art. June 9-September 2, 2013. Group exhibition of 130 works. Included: Romare Bearden, Radcliffe Bailey, Chakaia Booker, Elizabeth Catlett, Sonya Clark, Thornton Dial, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Sam Gilliam, Clementine Hunter, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Whitfield Lovell, Wangechi Mutu, Demetrius Oliver, Elijah Pierce, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Lorna Simpson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Thomas, Bill Traylor, James Vanderzee, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Kehinde Wiley, Ernest C. Withers, Purvis Young, and Memphis artists George Hunt, Brenda Joysmith, TWINS (Jerry & Terry Lynn), Jared Small, Danny Broadway, Anthony Lee, Michael Rodgers, Dewitt Jordan, Kiersten Williams, Hattie Childress, Luther Hampton, Edwin Jeffrey, and Hawkins Bolden.

MILLSTEIN, BARBARA HEAD, ed. Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers. Brooklyn: Museum of Art in association with London: Merrell, 2001. 240 pp., excellent quality b&w and color illus., brief biogs. of artists, bibliog. Texts by Clyde Taylor and Deba P. Patnaik. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Includes 94 contemporary African American photographers who live and work in the United State, each represented by several images. Excellent reference. Artists included: Salimah Ali, Jules Allen, Anthony Barboza, Ronald Barboza, Hugh Bell, Donald L. Bernard, Kwame Brathwaite, Nathaniel Burkins, Keith Calhoun, Don Camp, Ron Campbell, Howard T. Cash, Albert Chong, Barron Claiborne, Carl Clark, Linda Day Clark, Wayne Clarke, Jim Collier, Kerry Stuart Coppin, Adger W. Cowans, Renée Cox, Gerald Cyrus, Martin Dixon, Sulaiman Ellison, Mfon (Mmekutmfon) Essien, Delphine A. Fawundu, Albert R. Fennar, Collette Fournier, Omar Francis, Roland L. Freeman, Gerard H. Gaskin, Bill Gaskins, Tony Gleaton, Faith Goodin, Lonnie Graham, Todd Gray, Bob Greene, C.W. Griffin, Inge Hardison, Joe Harris, Art Harrison, Leroy W. Henderson, Jr., Raymond W. Holman, Jr., Imari (DuSauzay), Reginald L. Jackson, Leslie Jean-Bart, Jason Miccolo Johnson, Omar Kharem, Gary Jackson Kirksey, Andrea Davis Kronlund, Fern Logan, Lauri Lyons, Stephen Marc, Charles Martin, Steve J. Martin, Chandra McCormick, Willie Middlebrook, Cheryl Miller, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Ozier Muhammad, Marilyn Nance, Oggi Ogburn, Gordon Parks, Toni Parks, John Pinderhughes, Carl Pope, Jr., Herbert Randall, Eli Reed, Vernon Reid, Orville Robertson, Herb Robinson, Richard Howard Rose, Jeffery A. Salter, Juma Santos, Jeffrey Henson Scales, Keisha Scarville, Accra Shepp, Coreen Simpson, Beuford Smith, Jamyl Oboong Smith, Chuck Stewart, Frank Stewart, Gerald Straw, Bruce W. Talamon, Ron Tarver, Shawn W. Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Edward West, Cynthia Wiggins, Budd Williams, Ernest C. Withers, Suné Woods, Mel Wright, Gene Young. 4to, cloth, d.j. First ed.

NEW ORLEANS (LA). Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans. Visualizing the Blues: Images of the American South, 1862-1999. February 6-May 16, 2004. Group photography exhibition including over 50 photographers. Curated by Wendy McDaris. Included: Gordon Parks and Ernest C. Withers. [Traveled to: Krannert Art Museum, September 5-November 2, 2003, and other venues.]

OTFINOSKI, STEVEN. African Americans in the Visual Arts. New York: Facts on File, 2003. x, 262 pp., 50 b&w photos of some artists, brief 2-page bibliog., index. Part of the A to Z of African Americans series. Lists over 170 visual artists (including 18 photographers) and 22 filmmakers with brief biographies and token bibliog. for each. An erratic selection, far less complete than the St. James Guide to Black Artists, and inexplicably leaving out over 250 artists of obvious historic importance (for ex.: Edwin A. Harleston, Grafton Tyler Brown, Charles Ethan Porter, Wadsworth Jarrell, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, William Majors, Camille Billops, Whitfield Lovell, Al Loving, Ed Clark, John T. Scott, Maren Hassinger, Lorraine O'Grady, Winnie Owens-Hart, Adrienne Hoard, Oliver Jackson, Frederick Eversley, Glenn Ligon, Sam Middleton, Ed Hamilton, Pat Ward Williams, etc. and omitting a generation of well-established contemporary artists who emerged during the late 70s-90s. [Note: a newly revised edition of 2012 (ten pages longer) has not rendered it a worthy reference work on this topic.] 8vo (25 com), laminated papered boards.

OXFORD (MS). Southside Gallery. Ernest C. Withers / Wim Zurne. May-June 9, 2002. Two-person exhibition.

POWELL, RICHARD J. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. 256 pp., 176 illus. (including 31 in color), biog. notes, list of illus., bibliog. 8vo, cloth, d.j. First ed.

POWELL, RICHARD J. Black Art: A Cultural History. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. 272 pp., 192 illus. including 39 in color, biog. notes, list of illus., index. Revised and slightly enlarged from 1997 edition. 8vo, wraps. Second Revised ed.

POWELL, RICHARD J. Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 292 pp., 116 illus. (43 in color), notes, bibliog., index. Substantial chapter devoted to Barkley L. Hendricks; discussion of the self-portrait photographs of Lyle Ashton Harris and Renée Cox; extensive discussion of African American fashion model Donyale Luna, and brief mention of nearly 70 other African and African American artists. 8vo (25 x 23 cm.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

SYRACUSE (NY). Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse University. Appeal to this Age: Photography of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968. November 1-December 20, 1995. Unpag. exhib. cat., b&w illus. Curated by Steven Kasher. Includes: Gordon Parks and Ernest Withers. [Traveling exhibition.]

WASHINGTON (DC). Howard University Gallery of Art. Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art. August 14-December 17, 2010. Exhib. cat., illus. Group traveling exhibition. Curated by Deborah Willis - a selection from the Bank of America collection. 94 photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and mixed media executed by 37 artists ranging from range from photographers Ernest C. Withers, Robert Sengstacke, Jamel Shabazz, Lorna Simpson, Chuck Stewart, Gordon Parks, Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems, and James VanDerZee to Henry Clay Anderson, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Willie Birch, Beverly Buchanan, Walter Cade, Kevin E. Cole, Robert Colescott, Allan Rohan Crite, Allan Edmunds, Lawrence Finney, Sam Gilliam, Earlie Hudnall, Margo Humphrey, Jacob Lawrence. Willie Little, Juan Logan, Whitfield Lovell, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Mario A. Robinson, Raymond Saunders, Leo Twiggs, James W. Washington, William T. Williams, and Fred Wilson. [Traveled to: The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, Atlanta, GA, March 19-July 31, 2011.]

WILLIS, DEBORAH. Visualizing Political Struggle: Civil Rights Era Photography. London: Continuum, 2005. In: Holloway, David and John Beck, eds. American Visual Cultures:166-173, 4 b&w illus. A survey of how Civil Rights era photography aroused public opinion and informed social consciousness, that at least mentions in passing a small roster of black photographers: Roy DeCarava, Jonathan Eubanks, Benedict Fernandez, Bob Fletcher, Jack T. Franklin, Doug Harris, R. C. Hickman, Bert Miles, Gordon Parks, Richard Saunders, Moneta Sleet, Jr., Beuford Smith, Elaine Tomlin, Cecil Williams, and Ernest Withers. 8vo (9.7 x 6.7 in.), cloth, d.j.

WILLIS, DEBORAH, ed. Black Photographers: 1940-1988, An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1989. 483 pp., over 350 illus. The most comprehensive list of Black photographers to date, with brief biographical entries on many artists and a few bibliographical entries on approximately half of the hundreds of names. Photographers included in Willis's earlier book, Black Photographers 1840-1940, receive only a brief notation here. An indispensable reference work. Artists discussed include: Salimah Ali, Omobowale Ayorinde, J. Edward Bailey, III, Anthony Barboza, Donnamarie Barnes, Vanessa Barnes Hillian, Fay D. Bellamy, Lisa Bellamy, Dawoud Bey, Hart Leroy Bibbs, Bonnie Brisset, Barbara Brown, Lisa Brown, Millie Burns, Muriel Agatha Fortune Bush, Cynthia D. Cole, Juanita Cole, Cary Beth Cryor, Tere L. Cuesta, Fikisha Cumbo, Phyllis Cunningham, Pat Davis, Carmen DeJesus, Lydia Ann Douglas, Barbara Dumetz, Joan Eda, Sharon Farmer, Phoebe Farris, Valeria "Mikki" Ferrill, Collette V. Fournier, Roland L. Freeman, Rennie George, Bernadette F. B. Gibson, Anthony Gleaton, Dorothy Gloster, Lydia Hale-Hammond, Gail Adelle Hansberry, Inge Hardison, Teenie Harris, Madeleine Hill, Zebonia Hood, Vera Jackson, Louise Jefferson, Michelle M. Jeffries, Brent Jones, Brian V. Jones, Julia Jones, Kenneth G. Jones, Marvin T. Jones, Leah Jaynes Karp, Irene C. Kellogg, Lucius King, Romulo Lachatanere, Allie Sharon Larkin, George Larkins, Archy La Salle, Abe C. Lavalais, Joyce Lee, Sa'Longo J.R. Lee, Carl E. Lewis, Harvey James Lewis, Matthew Lewis, Roy Lewis, Fern Logan, Edie Lynch, Peter Magubane, Jimmie Mannas, Louise Martin, Mickey Mathis, Carroll T. Maynard, Rhashidah Elaine McNeill, Marlene Montoute, Michelle Morgan, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Marilyn Nance, Yvonne Payne, Patricia Phipps, Ellen Queen, Phillda Ragland, Arkili-Casundria Ramsess, Odetta Rogers, Veronica Saddler, Lloyd Saunders, Cheryl Shackelton, Victoria Simmons, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Clarissa T. Sligh, Ming Smith, Toni Smith, Charlynn Spencer Pyne, Jo Moore Stewart, Celeste P. Stokes, Elisabeth Sunday, Elaine Tomlin, Sandra Turner-Bond, Jacqueline La Vetta Van Sertima, Dixie Vereen, William Onikwa Wallace, Sharon Watson-Mauro, Carrie Mae Weems, Dolores West, Judith C. White, Elizabeth "Tex" Williams, Lucy Williams, Pat Ward Williams, Deborah Willis, Carol R. Wilson, Jonni Mae Wingard, Ernest Withers, and many, many others. Not all listed in this description, but all individual photographers are cross-listed. Large stout 4to, pictorial boards, no d.j. (as issued). First ed.

WILLIS, DEBORAH, ed. Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. 280 pp., color plates, notes, bibliog., index. Includes: Ifétayo Abdus-Salam, James Lattimer Allen, Kwaku Alston, Henry Clay Anderson, Thomas Askew, Anthony Barboza, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Josephine Baker, Cornelius Battey, James Brown, Renée Cox, Mansita Diawara, Lola Flash, Daniel Freeman, Joy Gregory, Charles (Teenie) Harris, Lyle Ashton Harris, Alex Harsley, Terrence Jennings, Marian Jones, Seydou Keita, Lauren Kelley, Harlee Little, Robert H. McNeill, white photojournalist Wayne F. Miller, John W. Mosley, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, David "Oggi" Ogburn, J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, Gordon Parks, Prentiss H. Polk, Sheila Pree Bright, Eli Reed, Richard S. Roberts, Jeffrey Scales, Addison Scurlock, Robert Sengstacke, Jamel Shabazz, Malick Sidibé, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Bayeté Ross Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Lewis Watts, Carrie Mae Weems, Wendel A. White, Carla Williams, Ernest C. Withers, Lauren Woods, et al. [Published in conjunction with exhibition of the same title at Gulf & Western, New York, NY; Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, August 27-October 18, 2009; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, January 16-May 9, 2010; Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA, June 11-August 22, 2010; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, September 11-November 21, 2010; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, February 2-May 8, 2011; USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, September 7-December 3, 2011; Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA, February 2-April 1, 2012; Figge Museum of Art, Davenport, IA, September 8-November 3, 2012; The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH, January 15-March 3, 2013; Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, September 5-December 7, 2013; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, April 26-July 27, 2014, and many other venues.] 4to (12.4 x 9.3 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

WILLIS, DEBORAH, ed. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000. 348 pp., 81 color plates, 487 b&w illus., notes, bibliog., index. Foreword by Robin D.G. Kelley. Published to accompany the three-part traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution. Important gathering of photographs of Black subjects by African American photographers from mid-nineteenth century through the present (roughly half from 1980s and 90s) by the pre-eminent historian of this subject. Photographers include: O'Neal Abel, Salima Ali, James Lattimer Allen, Winifred Hall Allen, Amalia Amaki, Linda L. Ammons, Ken D. Ashton, Thomas Askew, John B. Bailey, James Presley Ball, Sr., James Presley Ball, Jr., Thomas Ball, Anthony Barboza, Cornelius M. Battey, Anthony Beale, Arthur P. Bedou, Donald Bernard, Dawoud Bey, Howard Bingham, Caroll Parrott Blue, Terry Boddie, Rick Bolton, St. Clair Bourne, George O. Brown, John H. Brown, Jr., Keith M. Calhoun, Dennis Callwood, Don Camp, Roland Charles, Albert Chong, Carl Clark, Linda Day Clark, Allen Edward Cole, Florestine Perrault Collins, Herbert Collins, Adger Cowans, Renée Cox, Cary Beth Cryor, Steven Cummings, Gerald G. Cyrus, Jack Davis, C. Daniel Dawson, Roy DeCarava, Doris Derby, Stephanie Dinkins, Lou Draper, George Durr, Nekisha Durrett, Edward (Eddie) Eleha, Darrel Ellis, Jonathan Eubanks, Delphine A. Fawundu, Alfred Fayemi, Jeffrey Fearing, Joe Flowers, Collette Fournier, Jack T. Franklin, Elnora Frazier, Daniel Freeman, Roland L. Freeman, King Daniel Ganaway, Bill Gaskins, Glenalvin Goodridge, Wallace Goodridge, William Goodridge, Bob Gore, Lonnie Graham, Todd Gray, Camille Gustus, Robert Haggins, Austin Hansen, Edwin Harleston, Elise Forrest Harleston, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Doug Harris, Joe Harris, Lyle Ashton Harris, Thomas Allen Harris, Lucius Henderson, Craig Herndon, Leroy Henderson, Calvin Hicks, Chester Higgins, Jr., Milton Hinton, Raymond Holman, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., Curtis Humphrey, Reginald Jackson, Chris Johnson, Brent Jones, Kenneth George Jones, Lou Jones, Benny Joseph, Kamoinge Workshop, Perry A. Keith, Andrew T. Kelly, Roshini Kempadoo, Winston Kennedy, Keba Konte, Andree Lambertson, Bill Lathan, Carl E. Lewis, Nashomeh L. R. Lindo, Harlee Little, Fern Logan, Stephen Marc, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Charles Martin, Louise Ozell Martin, Chandra McCormick, Robert H. McNeill, Bertrand Miles, Cheryl Miller, Robert (Bob) Moore, John W. Mosley, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Ming Smith Murray (as Ming Smith), Mansa Mussa, Marilyn Nance, Sunny Nash, Constance Newman, David Ogburn, G. Dwoyid Olmstead, Kambui Olujimi, Villard Paddio, Gordon Parks, D.M. Pearson, Moira Pernambuco, Bonnie Phillips, John Pinderhughes, P. H. Polk, Paul Poole, Carl R. Pope, Marion James Porter, Sheila Pree, Eli Reed, Richard Roberts, Wilhelmina Williams Roberts, Orville Robertson, Herb Robinson, Eugene Roquemore, Susan J. Ross, Ken Royster, Jeffery St. Mary, Richard Saunders, Jeffrey Scales, Addison L. Scurlock, George H. Scurlock, Robert S. Scurlock, Robert A. Sengstacke, Harry Shepherd, Accra Shepp, Carl Sidle, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Moneta Sleet, Clarissa Sligh, Beuford Smith, Marvin Smith, Morgan Smith, Frank Stallings, Charles (Chuck) Stewart, Gerald Straw, Ron Tarver, Hank Willis Thomas, Elaine Tomlin, June DeLairre Truesdale, Sheila Turner, Richard Aloysius Twine, James Vanderzee, Vincent Alan W., Christian Walker, Shawn W. Walker, Augustus Washington, Lewis Watts, Carrie Mae Weems, Ellie Lee Weems, Jean Weisinger, Edward West, Wendel A. White, Cynthia Wiggins, Carlton Wilkinson, Carla Williams, Charles Williams, Milton Williams, Pat Ward Williams, William Earle Williams, Ernest C. Withers, Mel Wright. Large 4to (31 cm.), cloth, d.j. First ed.

Ernest Withers, a highly accomplished photographer, was born on August 7, 1922, in Memphis, Tennessee to parents Arthur Withers, a mailman and Pearl Withers, a school teacher, both from Marshall County, Mississippi.  Mr. Withers’ collection, which spans over 60 years of the 20th century, provides a vivid account of the segregated South.  It includes team shots of the Memphis Red Sox, a team from the historic Negro Baseball League, major moments from the Civil Rights movement, and the Beale Street music scene.  His work has appeared in major publications including Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times. It has also been collected in four books: Let Us March On (1992), Pictures Tell the Story (2000), The Memphis Blues Again (2001), and Negro League Baseball (2005). Ernest Withers’ interest in photography began in the eighth grade.  After graduating from high school in 1941, he joined the Army at 17, where he attended the Army School of Photography.  During his time in the Army, Withers ran a freelance business photographing white soldiers in Saipan, a U.S. occupied Japanese island. Shortly after his discharge, Withers returned home and bought a photography studio in Memphis with help from the GI Bill.  During this period Withers also worked for about three years as one of the first nine African-American police officers hired in Memphis.     During the late 1940s, Withers furnished publicity shots for the Memphis Red Sox. Without realizing it, Withers, with his images, documented the last years of the Negro League.  The league would soon fold after Jackie Robinson desegregated professional baseball in 1947.   During the 1950s and 1960s, Withers photographed many of the most important figures and events in the Civil Rights movement.  He traveled throughout the South with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Meredith, Medgar Evers, and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement.  His now iconic images include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. riding the first desegregated bus in Montgomery in 1956, the photos of Dr. King on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel just before and just after he was shot in 1968, and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike which led to the assassination of Dr. King.    The Withers photographs also captured the history of Beale Street which by the 1940s was an epicenter for American music.  On Saturday nights he photographed musicians and their audiences.  His work documented the emergence of Rock and Roll, and Rhythm and Blues, in the 1950s as they grew from traditional blues and gospel music.  One of his best known images here was of Elvis Presley and B.B. King in 1956. Ernest Withers passed away in Memphis on October 15, 2007 at the age of 85 from complications due to a stroke.  He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, three sons, Joshua, Andrew Jerome, and Perry, all in Memphis, and a daughter, Rosalind, in West Palm Beach, Florida.   Three years after his passing, a New York Times article revealed that Withers was briefly a paid FBI informant. He secretly provided the FBI photographs, biographical information, and scheduling details for Dr. King and other notable leaders of the civil rights movement between 1968 and 1970. The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues". In 1885, the Cuban Giants formed the first black professional baseball team.[1] The first league, the National Colored Base Ball League, was organized strictly as a minor league[2] but failed in 1887 after only two weeks owing to low attendance. After integration, the quality of the Negro leagues slowly deteriorated and the Negro American League of 1951 is generally considered the last major league season. The last professional club, the Indianapolis Clowns, operated as a humorous sideshow rather than competitively from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. Contents 1 Etymology 2 History of the Negro leagues 2.1 Amateur era 2.2 Professional baseball 2.3 Frank Leland 2.4 Rube Foster 2.5 Golden age 2.6 Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Gus Greenlee 2.7 World War II 2.8 Integration era 2.9 End of the Negro leagues 3 Negro major leagues 3.1 Colored and Negro World Series 3.2 Negro minor leagues 4 The Negro leagues and the Hall of Fame 5 Last Negro leaguers 6 2008 Major League draft 7 Museum 7.1 Postage stamp recognition 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Histories and encyclopedias 11.2 Biographies and autobiographies 12 External links Etymology During the formative years of black baseball, the term "colored" was the accepted usage when referring to African-Americans. References to black baseball prior to the 1930s are usually to "colored" leagues or teams, such as the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (1886), the National Colored Base Ball League (1887) and the Eastern Colored League (1923), among others. By the 20s or 30s, the term "Negro" came into use which led to references to "Negro" leagues or teams. The black World Series was referred to as the Colored World Series from 1924 to 1927, and the Negro World Series from 1942 to 1948. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People petitioned the public to recognize a capital "N" in negro as a matter of respect for black people. By 1930, essentially every major US outlet had adopted "Negro" as the accepted term for blacks.[3] By about 1970, the term "Negro" had fallen into disfavor, but by then the Negro leagues were mere historic artifacts. History of the Negro leagues Amateur era Octavius Catto, black baseball pioneer Because black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism in the United States, they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s.[4] The first known baseball game between two black teams was held on November 15, 1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens, defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn, 54 to 43.[5] Immediately after the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and during the Reconstruction period that followed, a black baseball scene formed in the East and Mid-Atlantic states. Comprising mainly ex-soldiers and promoted by some well-known black officers, teams such as the Jamaica Monitor Club, Albany Bachelors, Philadelphia Excelsiors and Chicago Uniques started playing each other and any other team that would play against them. By the end of the 1860s, the black baseball mecca was Philadelphia, which had an African-American population of 22,000.[6] Two former cricket players, James H. Francis and Francis Wood, formed the Pythian Base Ball Club. They played in Camden, New Jersey, at the landing of the Federal Street Ferry, because it was difficult to get permits for black baseball games in the city. Octavius Catto, the promoter of the Pythians, decided to apply for membership in the National Association of Base Ball Players, normally a matter of sending delegates to the annual convention; beyond that, a formality. At the end of the 1867 season, "the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with a black player."[1] In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation, with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other but white teams as well. "Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent 'semipro' clubs."[7] Professional baseball Bud Fowler, the first professional black baseball player with one of his teams, Western of Keokuk, Iowa Baseball featuring African American players became professionalized by the 1870s.[8] The first known professional black baseball player was Bud Fowler, who appeared in a handful of games with a Chelsea, Massachusetts club in April 1878 and then pitched for the Lynn, Massachusetts team in the International Association.[9] Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the first two black players in the major leagues. They both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association.[10] Then in 1886 second baseman Frank Grant joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, the strongest minor league, and hit .340, third highest in the league. Several other black American players joined the International League the following season, including pitchers George Stovey and Robert Higgins, but 1888 was the last season blacks were permitted in that or any other high minor league. Moses Fleetwood Walker, possibly the first African American major league baseball player The first nationally known black professional baseball team was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants.[11] The success of the Cubans led to the creation of the first recognized "Negro league" in 1887—the National Colored Base Ball League. It was organized strictly as a minor league[2] and founded with six teams: Baltimore Lord Baltimores, Boston Resolutes, Louisville Falls Citys, New York Gorhams, Philadelphia Pythians, and Pittsburgh Keystones. Two more joined before the season but never played a game, the Cincinnati Browns and Washington Capital Cities. The league, led by Walter S. Brown of Pittsburgh, applied for and was granted official minor league status and thus "protection" under the major league-led National Agreement. This move prevented any team in organized baseball from signing any of the NCBBL players, which also locked the players to their particular teams within the league. The reserve clause would have tied the players to their clubs from season to season but the NCBBL failed. One month into the season, the Resolutes folded. A week later, only three teams were left.[citation needed] Because the original Cuban Giants were a popular and business success, many similarly named teams came into existence—including the Cuban X-Giants, a splinter and a powerhouse around 1900; the Genuine Cuban Giants, the renamed Cuban Giants, the Columbia Giants, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, and so on. The early "Cuban" teams were all composed of African Americans rather than Cubans; the purpose was to increase their acceptance with white patrons as Cuba was on very friendly terms with the US during those years. Beginning in 1899 several Cuban baseball teams played in North America, including the All Cubans, the Cuban Stars (West), the Cuban Stars (East), and the New York Cubans. Some of them included white Cuban players and some were Negro Leagues members.[12] The few players on the white minor league teams were constantly dodging verbal and physical abuse from both competitors and fans. Then the Compromise of 1877 removed the remaining obstacles from the South's enacting the Jim Crow laws. To make matters worse, on July 14, 1887, Cap Anson's Chicago White Stockings were scheduled to play the Newark Giants of the International League, which had Fleet Walker and George Stovey on its roster. After Anson marched his team onto the field, military style as was his custom, he demanded that the blacks not play. Newark capitulated, and later that same day, league owners voted to refuse future contracts to blacks, citing the "hazards" imposed by such athletes.[13] In 1888, the Middle States League was formed and it admitted two all-black teams to its otherwise all-white league, the Cuban Giants and their arch-rivals, the New York Gorhams. Despite the animosity between the two clubs, they managed to form a traveling team, the Colored All Americans. This enabled them to make money barnstorming while fulfilling their league obligations. In 1890, the Giants returned to their independent, barnstorming identity, and by 1892, they were the only black team in the East still in operation on a full-time basis. Frank Leland Chicago Union Giants in 1905 Also in 1888, Frank Leland got some of Chicago's black businessmen to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club. Through Chicago's city government, Leland obtained a permit and lease to play at the South Side Park, a 5,000 seat facility. Eventually his team went pro and became the Chicago Unions.[14] After his stint with the Gorhams, Bud Fowler caught on with a team out of Findlay, Ohio. While his team was playing in Adrian, Michigan, Fowler was persuaded by two white local businessmen, L. W. Hoch and Rolla Taylor to help them start a team financed by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company, the Page Fence Giants. The Page Fence Giants went on to become a powerhouse team that had no home field. Barnstorming through the Midwest, they would play all comers. Their success became the prototype for black baseball for years to come. After the 1898 season, the Page Fence Giants were forced to fold because of finances. Alvin H. Garrett, a black businessman in Chicago, and John W. Patterson, the left fielder for the Page Fence Giants, reformed the team under the name of the Columbia Giants. In 1901 the Giants folded because of a lack of a place to play. Leland bought the Giants in 1905 and merged it with his Unions (despite the fact that not a single Giant player ended up on the roster), and named them the Leland Giants.[14] Rube Foster The Philadelphia Giants, owned by Walter Schlichter, a white businessman, rose to prominence in 1903 when they lost to the Cuban X-Giants in their version of the "Colored Championship". Leading the way for the Cubans was a young pitcher by the name of Andrew "Rube" Foster. The following season, Schlichter, in the finest blackball tradition, hired Foster away from the Cubans and beat them in their 1904 rematch. Philadelphia remained on top of the blackball world until Foster left the team in 1907 to play and manage the Leland Giants (Frank Leland renamed his Chicago Union Giants the Leland Giants in 1905). Around the same time, Nat Strong, a white businessman, started using his ownership of baseball fields in the New York City area to become the leading promoter of blackball on the East coast. Just about any game played in New York, Strong would get a cut. Strong eventually used his leverage to almost put the Brooklyn Royal Giants out of business, and then he bought the club and turned it into a barnstorming team. When Foster joined the Leland Giants, he demanded that he be put in charge of not only the on-field activities but the bookings as well. Foster immediately turned the Giants into the team to beat. He indoctrinated them to take the extra base, to play hit and run on nearly every pitch, and to rattle the opposing pitcher by taking them deep into the count. He studied the mechanics of his pitchers and could spot the smallest flaw, turning his average pitchers into learned craftsmen. Foster also was able to turn around the business end of the team as well, by demanding and getting 40 percent of the gate instead of the 10 percent that Frank Leland was getting. By the end of the 1909, Foster demanded that Leland step back from all baseball operations or he (Foster) would leave. When Leland would not give up complete control, Foster quit, and in a heated court battle, got to keep the rights to the Leland Giants' name. Leland took the players and started a new team named the Chicago Giants, while Foster took the Leland Giants and started to encroach on Nat Strong's territory. As early as 1910, Foster started talking about reviving the concept of an all-black league. The one thing he was insistent upon was that black teams should be owned by black men. This put him in direct competition with Strong. After 1910, Foster renamed his team the Chicago American Giants to appeal to a larger fan base. During the same year, J. L. Wilkinson started the All Nations traveling team. The All Nations team would eventually become one of the best-known and popular teams of the Negro leagues, the Kansas City Monarchs. On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I. Manpower needed by the defense plants and industry accelerated the migration of blacks from the South to the North. This meant a larger and more affluent fan base with more money to spend. By the end of the war in 1919, Foster was again ready to start a Negro baseball league. On February 13 and 14, 1920, talks were held in Kansas City, Missouri that established the Negro National League and its governing body the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs.[15] The league was initially composed of eight teams: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC's, Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Giants. Foster was named league president and controlled every aspect of the league, including which players played on which teams, when and where teams played, and what equipment was used (all of which had to be purchased from Foster).[15] Foster, as booking agent of the league, took a five percent cut of all gate receipts. Golden age On May 2, 1920, the Indianapolis ABCs beat the Chicago American Giants (4–2) in the first game played in the inaugural season of the Negro National League, played at Washington Park in Indianapolis.[16] But, because of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the National Guard still occupied the Giants' home field, Schorling's Park (formerly South Side Park). This forced Foster to cancel all the Giants' home games for almost a month and threatened to become a huge embarrassment for the league. On March 2, 1920 the Negro Southern League was founded in Atlanta, Georgia.[17] In 1921, the Negro Southern League joined Foster's National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs. As a dues-paying member of the association, it received the same protection from raiding parties as any team in the Negro National League. Foster then admitted John Connors' Atlantic City Bacharach Giants as an associate member to move further into Nat Strong's territory. Connors, wanting to return the favor of helping him against Strong, raided Ed Bolden's Hilldale Daisies team. Bolden saw little choice but to team up with Foster's nemesis, Nat Strong. Within days of calling a truce with Strong, Bolden made an about-face and signed up as an associate member of Foster's Negro National League. On December 16, 1922, Bolden once again shifted sides and, with Strong, formed the Eastern Colored League as an alternative to Foster's Negro National League, which started with six teams: Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, Brooklyn Royal Giants, New York Cuban Stars, Hilldale, and New York Lincoln Giants.[18] The National League was having trouble maintaining continuity among its franchises: three teams folded and had to be replaced after the 1921 season, two others after the 1922 season, and two more after the 1923 season. Foster replaced the defunct teams, sometimes promoting whole teams from the Negro Southern League into the NNL. Finally Foster and Bolden met and agreed to an annual Negro League World Series beginning in 1924. The two opposing teams line up at the 1924 Colored World Series 1925 saw the St. Louis Stars come of age in the Negro National League. They finished in second place during the second half of the year due in large part to their pitcher turned center fielder, Cool Papa Bell, and their shortstop, Willie Wells. A gas leak in his home nearly asphyxiated Rube Foster in 1926, and his increasingly erratic behavior led to him being committed to an asylum a year later. While Foster was out of the picture, the owners of the National League elected William C. Hueston as new league president. In 1927, Ed Bolden suffered a similar fate as Foster, by committing himself to a hospital because the pressure was too great. The Eastern League folded shortly after that, marking the end of the Negro League World Series between the NNL and the ECL. After the Eastern League folded following the 1927 season, a new eastern league, the American Negro League, was formed to replace it. The makeup of the new ANL was nearly the same as the Eastern League, the exception being that the Homestead Grays joined in place of the now-defunct Brooklyn Royal Giants. The ANL lasted just one season. In the face of harder economic times, the Negro National League folded after the 1931 season. Some of its teams joined the only Negro league then left, the Negro Southern League. On March 26, 1932 the Chicago Defender announced the end of Negro National League.[19] Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Gus Greenlee Just as Negro league baseball seemed to be at its lowest point and was about to fade into history, along came Cumberland Posey and his Homestead Grays. Posey, Charlie Walker, John Roesnik, George Rossiter, John Drew, Lloyd Thompson, and L.R. Williams got together in January 1932 and founded the East-West League. Eight cities were included in the new league: "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and Washington, D.C.".[20] By May 1932, the Detroit Wolves were about to collapse, and instead of letting the team go, Posey kept pumping money into it. By June the Wolves had disintegrated and all the rest of the teams, except for the Grays, were beyond help, so Posey had to terminate the league. Across town from Posey, Gus Greenlee, a reputed gangster and numbers runner, had just purchased the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Greenlee's main interest in baseball was to use it as a way to launder money from his numbers games. But, after learning about Posey's money-making machine in Homestead, he became obsessed with the sport and his Crawfords. On August 6, 1931, Satchel Paige made his first appearance as a Crawford. With Paige on his team, Greenlee took a huge risk by investing $100,000 in a new ballpark to be called Greenlee Field. On opening day, April 30, 1932, the pitcher-catcher battery was made up of the two most marketable icons in all of black baseball: Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. In 1933, Greenlee, riding the popularity of his Crawfords, became the next man to start a Negro league. In February 1933, Greenlee and delegates from six other teams met at Greenlee's Crawford Grill to ratify the constitution of the National Organization of Professional Baseball Clubs. The name of the new league was the same as the old league Negro National League which had disbanded a year earlier in 1932.[21] The members of the new league were the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Columbus Blue Birds, Indianapolis ABCs, Baltimore Black Sox, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cole's American Giants (formerly the Chicago American Giants) and Nashville Elite Giants. Greenlee also came up with the idea to duplicate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, except, unlike the big league method in which the sportswriters chose the players, the fans voted for the participants. The first game, known as the East-West All-Star Game, was held September 10, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago before a crowd of 20,000.[22] World War II With the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States was thrust into World War II. Remembering World War I, black America vowed it would not be shut out of the beneficial effects of a major war effort: economic boom and social unification. Just like the major leagues, the Negro leagues saw many stars miss one or more seasons while fighting overseas. While many players were over 30 and considered "too old" for service, Monte Irvin, Larry Doby and Leon Day of Newark; Ford Smith, Hank Thompson, Joe Greene, Willard Brown and Buck O'Neil of Kansas City; Lyman Bostock of Birmingham; and Lick Carlisle and Howard Easterling of Homestead all served.[23] But the white majors were barely recognizable, while the Negro leagues reached their highest plateau. Millions of black Americans were working in war industries and, making good money, they packed league games in every city. Business was so good that promoter Abe Saperstein (famous for the Harlem Globetrotters) started a new circuit, the Negro Midwest League, a minor league similar to the Negro Southern League. The Negro World Series was revived in 1942, this time pitting the winners of the eastern Negro National League and midwestern Negro American League. It continued through 1948 with the NNL winning four championships and the NAL three. In 1946, Saperstein partnered with Jesse Owens to form another Negro League, the West Coast Baseball Association (WCBA); Saperstein was league president and Owens was vice-president and the owner of the league's Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise.[24] The WCBA disbanded after only two months.[24] Integration era Judge Kenesaw M. Landis, the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, was an intractable opponent of integrating the white majors. During his quarter-century tenure, he blocked all attempts at integrating the game. A popular story has it that in 1943, Bill Veeck planned to buy the moribund Philadelphia Phillies and stock them with Negro League stars. However, when Landis got wind of his plans,[25] he and National League president Ford Frick scuttled it in favor of another bid by William D. Cox. After Landis' death in 1944, Happy Chandler was named his successor. Chandler was open to integrating the game, even at the risk of losing his job as Commissioner. He later said in his biography that he could not, in good conscience, tell black players they couldn't play baseball with whites when they'd fought for their country. In March 1945, the white majors created the Major League Committee on Baseball Integration. Its members included Joseph P. Rainey, Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey. Because MacPhail, who was an outspoken critic of integration, kept stalling, the committee never met. Under the guise of starting an all-black league, Rickey sent scouts all around the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico, looking for the perfect candidate to break the color line. His list was eventually narrowed down to three: Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson. On August 28, 1945, Jackie Robinson met with Rickey in Brooklyn, where Rickey gave Robinson a "test" by berating him and shouting racial epithets that Robinson would hear from day one in the white game. Having passed the test,[how?] Robinson signed the contract which stipulated that from then on, Robinson had no "written or moral obligations"[26] to any other club. By the inclusion of this clause, precedent was set that would raze the Negro leagues as a functional commercial enterprise. To throw off the press and keep his intentions hidden, Rickey got heavily involved in Gus Greenlee's newest foray into black baseball, the United States League. Greenlee started the league in 1945 as a way to get back at the owners of the Negro National League teams for throwing him out. Rickey saw the opportunity as a way to convince people that he was interested in cleaning up blackball, not integrating it. In midsummer 1945, Rickey, almost ready with his Robinson plan, pulled out of the league. The league folded after the end of the 1946 season. Pressured by civil rights groups, the Fair Employment Practices Act was passed by the New York State Legislature in 1945. This followed the passing of the Quinn-Ives Act banning discrimination in hiring. At the same time, NYC Mayor La Guardia formed the Mayor's Commission on Baseball to study integration of the major leagues. All this led to Rickey announcing the signing of Robinson much earlier than he would have liked. On October 23, 1945, Montreal Royals president Hector Racine announced that, "We are signing this boy."[26] Early in 1946, Rickey signed four more black players, Campanella, Newcombe, John Wright and Roy Partlow, this time with much less fanfare. After the integration of the major leagues in 1947, marked by the appearance of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers that April, interest in Negro league baseball waned. Black players who were regarded as prospects were signed by major league teams, often without regard for any contracts that might have been signed with Negro league clubs. Negro league owners who complained about this practice were in a no-win situation: they could not protect their own interests without seeming to interfere with the advancement of players to the majors. By 1948, the Dodgers, along with Veeck's Cleveland Indians had integrated. The Negro leagues also "integrated" around the same time, as Eddie Klep became the first white man to play for the Cleveland Buckeyes during the 1946 season. These moves came despite strong opposition from the owners; Rickey was the only one of the 16 owners to support integrating the sport in January 1947. Chandler's decision to overrule them may have been a factor in his ouster in 1951 in favor of Ford Frick. End of the Negro leagues Some proposals were floated to bring the Negro leagues into "organized baseball" as developmental leagues for black players, but that was recognized as contrary to the goal of full integration. So the Negro leagues, once among the largest and most prosperous black-owned business ventures, were allowed to fade into oblivion. First a trickle and then a flood of players signed with Major League Baseball teams. Most signed minor league contracts and many languished, shuttled from one bush league team to another despite their success at that level. The Negro National League folded after the 1948 season when the Grays withdrew to resume barnstorming, the Eagles moved to Houston, Texas, and the New York Black Yankees folded. The Grays folded one year later after losing $30,000 in the barnstorming effort. So the Negro American League was the only "major" Negro League operating in 1949. Within two years it had been reduced to minor league caliber and it played its last game in 1958. The last All-Star game was held in 1962, and by 1966 the Indianapolis Clowns were the last Negro league team still playing. The Clowns continued to play exhibition games into the 1980s, but as a humorous sideshow rather than a competitive sport. Negro major leagues While organized leagues were common in black baseball, there were only seven leagues that are considered to be of the top quality of play at the time of their existence. None materialized prior to 1920 and by 1950, due to integration, they were in decline. Even though teams were league members, most still continued to barnstorm and play non-league games against local or semi-pro teams. Those games, sometimes approaching 100 per season, did not count in the official standings or statistics. However, some teams were considered "associate" teams and games played against them did count, but an associate team held no place in the league standings. Negro National League (I), 1920–31. Eastern Colored League, 1923–28. American Negro League, 1929; was created from some of the ECL teams but lasted just one season. East-West League, 1932; ceased operations midway through the season. Negro Southern League, 1932; incorporated some teams from the NNL(I) and functioned for one year as a major league, was otherwise a minor league that played from 1920 into the 1940s. Negro National League (II), 1933–48. Negro American League, 1937–60 or so; after 1950, the league and its teams operated after a fashion, mostly as barnstorming units, but historians have a hard time deciding when the league actually came to an end. Colored and Negro World Series Main article: Negro World Series See also: List of Negro league baseball champions The NNL(I) and ECL champions met in a World Series, usually referred to as the "Colored World Series", from 1924 to 1927 (1924, 1925, 1926, 1927). The NNL(II) and NAL also met in a World Series, usually referred to as the "Negro World Series" from 1942 to 1948 (1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948). Negro minor leagues Early professional leagues cannot be called major or minor. Until the twentieth century, not one completed even half of its planned season. Two leagues can be considered the prototypes for Negro league baseball: Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, 1886 National Colored Baseball League, 1887 Eventually, some teams were able to survive and even profit by barnstorming small towns and playing local semi-pro teams as well as league games. Two important leagues of this era are: International League of Independent Professional Base Ball Clubs, 1906. National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba, 1907–1909. Early Negro leagues were unable to attract and retain top talent due to financial, logistical and contractual difficulties. Some early dominant teams did not join a league since they could pull in larger profits independently. The early leagues were specifically structured as minor leagues. With the integration of Organized Baseball, beginning 1946, all leagues simply lost elite players to white leagues, and historians do not consider any Negro league "major" after 1950. A number of leagues from the major-league era (post-1900) are recognized as Negro minor leagues. A general rule of thumb was leagues in the north were major while leagues in the south were minor, due mainly to population and economic disparities. Below are some of the better-documented leagues: Texas Colored League/Texas–Oklahoma–Louisiana League/Texas–Louisiana Negro League, 1919-1931 Negro Southern League (I), 1920–1936 – considered a de facto major league in 1932 because it was the only league to play a full season schedule due to the Great Depression Negro Southeastern League, 1921 Interstate League, 1926 and 1940 (mixed-race league) Tri State League, 1935 Negro American Association, 1939 and 1948-1949 Negro Major League, 1942 By default, leagues established after integration are considered minor league, as is the one of two 1940s majors that continued after 1950. Also at this time, leagues began to appear in the west, just as in other sports, due to the post-War boom and improved transportation modes. Below are some of the better-documented leagues: Negro Southern League (II), 1945–1951 United States League, 1945-1946 West Coast Negro Baseball Association, 1946 East Texas Negro League, 1946 Negro Texas League, 1949 Negro American League, 1951–1960 – considered a major league from 1937 until integration diminished the quality of play around 1950/51 Arkansas–Louisiana–Texas League, 1951 Eastern Negro League, 1954 Negro National Baseball Association, 1954 The Negro leagues and the Hall of Fame See also: 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting and 1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting In his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966, Ted Williams made a strong plea for inclusion of Negro league stars in the Hall. After the publication of Robert Peterson's landmark book Only the Ball was White in 1970, the Hall of Fame found itself under renewed pressure to find a way to honor Negro league players who would have been in the Hall had they not been barred from the major leagues due to the color of their skin. At first, the Hall of Fame planned a "separate but equal" display, which would be similar to the Ford C. Frick Award for baseball commentators, in that this plan meant that the Negro league honorees would not be considered members of the Hall of Fame. This plan was criticized by the press, the fans and the players it was intended to honor, and Satchel Paige himself insisted that he would not accept anything less than full-fledged induction into the Hall of Fame. The Hall relented and agreed to admit Negro league players on an equal basis with their Major League counterparts in 1971. A special Negro league committee selected Satchel Paige in 1971, followed by (in alphabetical order) Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Martín Dihigo, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin, Judy Johnson, Buck Leonard and John Henry Lloyd. (Of the nine, only Irvin and Paige spent any time in the major leagues.) The Veterans Committee later selected Ray Dandridge, as well as choosing Rube Foster on the basis of meritorious service. Other members of the Hall who played in both the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball are Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson. Except for Doby, their play in the Negro leagues was a minor factor in their selection: Aaron, Banks, and Mays played in Negro leagues only briefly and after the leagues had declined with the migration of many black players to the integrated minor leagues; Campanella (1969) and Robinson (1962) were selected before the Hall began considering performance in the Negro leagues. From 1995 to 2001, the Hall made a renewed effort to honor luminaries from the Negro leagues, one each year. There were seven selections: Leon Day, Bill Foster, Bullet Rogan, Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes, Willie Wells, and Smokey Joe Williams. In February 2006, a committee of twelve baseball historians elected 17 more people from black baseball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, twelve players and five executives. Negro league players (7) Ray Brown; Willard Brown; Andy Cooper; Biz Mackey; Mule Suttles; Cristóbal Torriente; Jud Wilson Pre-Negro league players (5) Frank Grant; Pete Hill; José Méndez; Louis Santop; Ben Taylor Negro league executives (4) Effa Manley; Alex Pompez; Cum Posey; J. L. Wilkinson Pre-Negro league executive, manager, player, and historian (1) Sol White Effa Manley, co-owner (with her husband Abe Manley) and business manager of the Newark Eagles (New Jersey) club in Negro National League, is the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The committee reviewed the careers of 29 Negro league and 10 Pre-Negro league candidates. The list of 39 had been pared from a roster of 94 candidates by a five-member screening committee in November, 2005. The voting committee was chaired by Fay Vincent, Major League Baseball's eighth Commissioner and an Honorary Director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Last Negro leaguers Hank Aaron was the last Negro league player to hold a regular position in Major League Baseball. Minnie Miñoso was the last Negro league player to play in a Major League game when he appeared in two games for the Chicago White Sox in 1980. Buck O'Neil was the most recent former Negro league player to appear in a professional game when he made two appearances (one for each team) in the Northern League All-Star Game in 2006. 2008 Major League draft On June 5, 2008, Major League Baseball held a special draft of the surviving Negro league players to acknowledge and rectify their exclusion from the major leagues on the basis of race. The idea of the special draft was conceived by Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.[27] Each major league team drafted one player from the Negro leagues. Bobo Henderson, Joe B. Scott, Mule Miles, Lefty Bell, James "Red" Moore, Mack "The Knife" Pride and his brother Charley Pride (who went on to a legendary career in country music), were among the players selected. Also drafted, by the New York Yankees, was Emilio Navarro, who, at 102 years of age at the time of the draft, was believed to be the oldest living professional ballplayer. Museum The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is located in the 18th and Vine District in Kansas City, Missouri. Postage stamp recognition On July 17, 2010, the U.S. Postal Service issued a se-tenant pair of 44-cent U.S. commemorative postage stamps, to honor the all-black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960. The stamps were formally issued at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, during the celebration of the museum's twentieth anniversary.[28][29] One of the stamps depicts Rube Foster. See also flag United States portal icon Baseball portal East-West All-Star Game List of first black Major League Baseball players by team and date List of Negro League baseball players List of Negro League baseball teams Negro League World Series Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame (including "The Negro Leagues" wing) The Soul of Baseball – 2007 book by Joe Posnanski Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson, Connie Morgan (the only women to play in the leagues) Before Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, breaking baseball’s “color barrier,” he had played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. Since the 19th century, black- and brown-skinned ballplayers were banned from Major League Baseball. A few players, such as Moses “Fleetwood” Walker and John W. “Bud” Fowler had played on white teams in the 1880s, but they were the exception. By 1890, racism and “Jim Crow” laws promoted segregation between African-Americans and whites. Baseball team owners made a “gentleman’s agreement” not to hire any African-Americans. Many black players formed their own teams. The teams would travel around the country playing “pickup” games with any team that would play with them. By the 1900s, African-Americans had formed their own baseball leagues. In 1910, Andrew “Rube” Foster, a former player and manager, became owner of the all-black Chicago American Giants. In 1920, he helped organize the Negro National League. Determined to be successful, he controlled all the operations from equipment to scheduling to selling tickets. Soon other rival leagues formed across the country, and many became the pride of black communities. Another team, the Newark Eagles, was managed by Effa Manley, wife of owner Abe Manley. Tough-minded and shrewd, she was committed to her players and kept the team operating from 1936 to 1948. Effa Manley was the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Life in the Negro Leagues was not easy. Teams struggled to make a profit. Players had to travel long distances, often in broken-down buses. They were paid very little, sometimes only $100 a month. White ballplayers made three to four times more in the Major Leagues. Black players were not allowed to go to restaurants or hotels that served white customers. Gas stations closed their restrooms to them. But the players did not let these challenges stop them. They played for the love of the game and were determined to do their best. Negro League players showed great teamwork and worked hard to impress the crowds. They developed an exciting style of play that was fast and daring. Players often stole bases and made opposing Photos, top and bottom: © National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB Photos via Getty Images. ABOUT The Negro leagues Student Reproducible 5 The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro Leagues pose for a photo in front of their team bus. Josh Gibson, Homestead Grays, 1929  pitchers nervous with intimidating talk. Before games they warmed up with an exercise called shadow ball. Players would throw and hit an imaginary ball, making close plays and diving catches. To many spectators, it looked like they were using a real ball. There were many excellent players in the Negro Leagues. Leroy Satchel Paige was a natural athlete who was primarily a pitcher. During his career he had 300 shutouts and played 2,500 games. Josh Gibson was a great hitter with 900 career home runs. He could hit a ball more than 575 feet. Both Paige and Gibson were later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Buck O’Neil had a great career with the Kansas City Monarchs. He later became the first AfricanAmerican to coach a Major League team, the Chicago Cubs. After he retired from baseball, he helped found the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. The Negro League teams survived through the Great Depression and World War II. After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Major League Baseball began to allow black players to join their teams. Many Negro League teams lost their star players and went out of business. But their legacy lives on—there are 35 players who played in the Negro Leagues inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Photos, left to right: © Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images; © National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB Photos via Getty Images. Student Reproducible 5 Resources: Negro League Museum: www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/teams.html Negro League Baseball.com: www.negroleaguebaseball.com/teams/teams_index.html National Baseball Hall of Fame: http://baseballhall.org/hall-famers Satchel Paige (left) and Buck O’Neil (above), both of the Kansas City Monarchs. FIND OUT MORE: Use the resource links below to research one of the Negro League teams. Put together a brief report on your findings and share it with your classmates. STARTING YOUR RESEARCH: Begin by locating a Negro League team for your report. Record the team’s name, and research the following for your report: •  a brief history of the team, including how it began and ended •  the team’s owner •  the team’s best record, including the year •  the team’s playoff history •  a list of two or three of the team’s best players, the years they played, and their positions •  a brief description of any of the teams’ players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame 1 Negro League Baseball Historical Timeline 1855 The first recorded baseball game between two black teams occurred on October 24, 1855. According to the Newark Daily Mercury, the St. John’s team was beating the Union Clubs by a score of 10-2 at the end of two innings when the game was rained out. 1858 The National Association of Baseball Players is formed. The organization included both  black and white players. 1860 The Colored Union Club of New York was defeated by a team from Weeksville (NY) at  Elysian Fields (Hoboken, NJ) by a score of 11-0 on September 28, 1860. 1865 Black baseball grows in popularity in the United States. Organized black teams that played in 1865 include: Albany Bachelors, Baltimore Hannibals, Camden Blue Skies, Chicago Uniques, Detroit Rilatos, Harrisburg Monrovia, Jamaica (NY) Monitors, Philadelphia Excelsiors, Philadelphia Pythians and Washington Mutuals. 1867 The National Association of Baseball Players votes to ban black players from their teams. 1867 The Philadelphia Excelsiors meet the Brooklyn Uniques in what is publicized as a “Colored  Championship Game.” Philadelphia wins the game by a score of 42-35. This is the first  “colored championship” game of record. 1868 The Philadelphia Pythians play the first recorded interracial game when they beat the City  Items (white team) by a score of 27-17. 1869 Philadelphia Pythians go undefeated for the second straight year. 1869 The Pythians (Philadelphia, PA) defeat the Uniques (Chicago, IL) by a score of 9-1 in a  game that had been billed as the “World Colored Championship.” 1871 The Philadelphia Pythians apply for membership in the National Association of  Professional Baseball Players. Their application is rejected. 1871 Octavius Catto (Owner and Manager) of the Philadelphia Pythians is killed in race riots in  that city. 1878 John “Bud” Fowler becomes the first black professional black ball player to play on an integrated team when he signs with Chelsea, Massachusetts in April of 1878. One month latter he pitched for the Lynn Live Oaks of the International Association as they defeat Tommy Bond and the Boston Nationals by a score of 2-1. 1881 Moses “Fleetwood” Walker and his brother Weldy join the Oberlin College varsity baseball  team. 1883 Moses “Fleetwood” Walker signs with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern  League. 2 1883 Cap Anson, star player of the Chicago White Stockings, refuses to play in an exhibition  game against the Toledo Blue Stockings because they have a black player (Moses  Fleetwood Walker). 1884 Moses “Fleetwood” Walker becomes the first African American ball player to play in the  Major Leagues when the Toledo Blue Stockings move to the American Association. 1885 The Cuban Giants are formed by Frank P. Thompson, head waiter of the Argyle Hotel in  Babylon (NY). The Cuban Giants are considered the first professional black baseball team. 1886 Southern League of Colored Base Ballists is formed. This is the first professional all black  league in baseball history. The league was made up of ten teams: Charleston Fultons,  Florida Clippers (Jacksonville, FL), Georgia Champions of Atlanta, Jacksonville Athletics,  Jacksonville Macedonians, Memphis Eclipses, Memphis Eurekas, New Orleans Unions,  Savannah Broads and Savannah Lafayettes. The league folded during its inaugural season. 1886 George Stovey signs with Jersey City of the Eastern league. Stovey a pitcher goes 16-15 for  the season with a 1.13 ERA. 1886 Frank Grant starts the season with Meriden of the Eastern League and is batting .316 when  he gets promoted to Buffalo of the International League. Grant finished the International  League season with a .344 batting average (third highest in the league). 1886 John “Bud” Fowler hits .309 for Topeka of the Western League and leads the league in  triples with 12. 1887 League of Colored Baseball Clubs is formed. Teams that played in the league included  Baltimore Lord Baltimores, Boston Resolutes, Cincinnati Browns, Louisville Falls City,  New York Gorhams, Philadelphia Pythians, Pittsburgh Keystones, and Capital City Club of  Washington, D.C. The league folded 13 games into its first season. 1887 George Stovey establishes himself as one of the first black stars to play in organized ball.  Stovey, pitcher for the Newark Little Giants of the Eastern League, compiled the following  statistics for the 1887 season: 48 games pitched, 424 innings, 33-14 record (led the league  in wins) and 2.46 ERA. 1887 Frank Grant hits .353 with a league leading 11 homeruns for Buffalo of the International  League. 1887 On July 14th Cap Anson, player-manager of the Chicago Blue Stockings announced that he  would not play in that days game Newark if George Stovey played. Newark announced that  Stovey was “sick” and would not be in uniform. This event is credited with doing more to  start segregation than anything else. 1887 The International League bans future contracts with black players. 1887 Future Negro League baseball historian Sol White hits .371 for Wheeling of the Ohio State  League. 1887-1888 Cuban Giants barnstorm all over the Northeast promoting themselves as the  “Colored Champions.” 3 1888 Frank Grant (Buffalo) continues to dominate International League pitching by hitting .346  for the season 1888 Frank Grant is dropped from the Buffalo team when he demands $ 250 per month for the  1889 season. 1889 The Cuban Giants change their name to the New York Gorhams. The team is actually  based out of Philadelphia. 1889 Both the New York Gorhams and the Trenton Cuban Giants join the Middle States League.  The Trenton Cuban Giants win the Middle States League championship with a 57-16 (.780)  record. The New York Gorham (45-28 .616) finish in third place behind Harrisburg (61-20  .753). The league title is taken away from the Cuban Giants when three Giants wins are  disallowed. 1889 The New York Gorhams beat the Trenton Cuban Giants take both games of a two game  series to claim the “Colored Championship.” 1890 Colored Monarchs of York (formerly the Cuban Giants) play in the “all white” Eastern  Interstate League and win the league championship. Colored Monarchs finished the season  with a record of 40-16 (.714) in league play and 88-27 (.765) in all games played. 1890 The International League bans the signing of African-American ball players. 1891 Frank Grant, George Stovey and Sol White play for the New York Big Gorhams.  According Sol White the Big Gorhams finished the season with a record of 100-4 (.962).  Sol White called the Big Gorhams team the best black ball club of the decade. 1892-1893 Black baseball clubs have a hard time financially surviving. Most clubs including the  Big Gorhams and the Cuban Giants disband. 1893 Cuban Giants are reformed and along with the Chicago Unions are two of the most  dominate black baseball teams in the country. 1895-1898 Page Fence Giants dominate black baseball in America. The Page Fence Giants were  formed by John “Bud” Fowler and Grant “Homerun” Johnson. They were based in Adrian,  Michigan and travel the country in their own Pullman railroad car. 1895 John “Bud” Fowler and George “Lefty” Wilson leaves the Page Fence Giants and sign with  Adrian of the “white Michigan State League. Wilson goes 29-4 on the mound for the  season and Fowler hits .331 in his last year of professional baseball.. 1896 The Plessey vs Ferguson case requiring “separate but equal public facilities for blacks” is  upheld by the United States Supreme Court. The ruling firmly establishes the practice of  racial segregation throughout the United States. 1896 The Page Fence Giants and Cuban Giants play a fifteen game “championship”  series for the title of the best colored baseball team in the world. The Page Fence Giants  won the series ten games to five for the Cuban Giants. 4 1896 Chicago Unions turn professional. 1897 Page Fence Giants are reputed to have won 82 consecutive ball games in route to a season  record of 125-12. 1898 The Acme Colored Giants of Celeron (NY) are the last all black team of the 19th century  to play in an otherwise “all white” league. The Colored Giants played in the Iron and Oil  League. 1899 Many of the stars (Charlie Grant, Homerun Johnson, Chappie Johnson and Bill Binga) of  the defunct Page Fence Giants sign with the Columbia Giants of Chicago. 1899 Cuban X Giants (champions of the East) played the Unions of Chicago (champions of the  West). Cubans defeat the Unions to claim the “Colored Championship” by winning nine of  the fourteen games. 1899 Bill Galloway formerly of the Cuban Giants played 20 games for Woodstock of the  Canadian League. Galloway is considered as the last black player to play in “white”  organized ball until 1946. 1900 There are at least five high-level professional black teams traveling the country. They were  the Genuine Cuban Giants, Cuban X Giants, Chicago Unions, Columbia Giants and  Norfolk Red Stockings. 1900 Even though no play off was held, both the Cuban X Giants and “Genuine” Cuban Giants  claim the title as “Colored Champions.” 1900 The Cuban X Giants become the first black team to travel to the Caribbean when they go to  Cuba to play a 15 game barnstorming schedule. The Cuban X Giants had a season record  of 110-21 in the United States. They went 12-3 during their Cuban tour. 1900 The Cuban League opens it’s doors to black players. 1901 Frank Leland combines the Chicago Unions and the Columbia Giants teams to form the  Chicago Union Giants. 1901 John McGraw, Baltimore Orioles manager, attempts to sign black player Charlie Grant to  play in the American League by trying to pass him off as a full-blooded Cherokee Indian  by the name of “Chief Tokahoma.” 1901 Andrew “Rube” Foster joins the Chicago Union Giants s for his first season in professional  baseball. 1902 Newspaper men Harry Smith (Philadelphia Tribune) and Walter Schlichter (Philadelphia  Item) form the Philadelphia Giants. Sol White is named the team’s manager 1903 Dan McClellan of the Philadelphia Giants becomes the first black pitcher to throw a perfect  game when he beat Penn Park Athletic Club of York (Tri State League) on July 7, 1903. 1903 The Algona Brownies (IA) beat the Chicago Union Giants for the “Western  Championship.” 5 1903 Rube Foster defects to the Cuban X Giants. Foster claims to had 44 straight wins during the  season. 1903 Dan McClellan of the Cuban X Giants pitches a perfect game against York of the Tri-State  League. 1903 The Cuban X Giants with Rube Foster defeat the Philadelphia Giants five games to two  claim the title of “Colored World Champions.” Rube Foster goes 4-0 in the series. 1904 The Philadelphia Giants raid the Cuban X Giants and sign Rube Foster and Charlie Grant. 1904 The Philadelphia Giants finish the season with a record of 95-41-6 (.699) and are declared  the “Colored World Champions” after defeating the Cuban X giants in a three game playoff  series. 1905 Andrew “Rube” Foster of the Philadelphia Giants reportedly posts a 51-4 record for the  1905 season. 1905 The Chicago Union Giants change their name to the Leland Giants after their owner Frank Leland. They finish the season with a record of 112-20. The Leland Giants reportedly had a 48 game win streak during the season. 1905 The Philadelphia Royal Giants finish the season with a record of 134-21-3 (.848). 1905 The Philadelphia Giants claim their second “Colored World Championship” in a row. They  defeat the Brooklyn Royal Giants three straight games in the playoff series. 1905 Rube Foster of the Philadelphia Giants posts a reported record of 51-4 for the season.  During the season Foster also pitched a no-hitter against a team from Camden (NJ). 1905 The Cuban X Giants defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers (Major League) in Atlantic City by a  score of 7-2. This is believed to be the first victory by a black team over a “white” Major  League squad. 1906 The Philadelphia Giants defeat the Cuban X Giants to claim the “Negro Championship  Cup.” Pete Hill leads the Giants attack with 28 hits in 62 at bats for a .452 batting average.  Rube Foster (Giants) picks up three wins. The Giants are awarded the International League  of Independent Professional Baseball Clubs championship trophy. 1906 The Philadelphia Giants finish the season with an unofficial record of 134-21(.866). 1907 Rube Foster returns to the Chicago Leland Giants as their player-manager. The Leland  Giants post a record of 110-10. 1907 Sol White publishes the History of Colored Baseball. 1908 The “Colored World Championship” series between the Philadelphia Giants and the  Chicago Leland Giants with Rube Foster ends in a tie with each team winning three  games. 6 1909 Newspaper reports credit Jose Mendez of the barnstorming Cuban Stars with a pitching  record of 44-2 for the 1909 season. 1909 The Philadelphia Giants defeat the Chicago Leland Giants three games to one to claim the  “Colored World Championship.” 1910 The Leland Giants are virtually unbeatable as they post a won-loss record of 123-6 (.953)  for the 1910 season. 1910 Rube Foster (Chicago Leland Giants) issues a challenge to any team that would play them  for the title of “Colored World Champions.” The challenge included a $ 3,000.00 side bet.  Foster received no takers and the Leland Giants became self- proclaimed “World  Champions.” 1911 The Chicago American Giants are founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster. 1911 At the end of the regular season, the New York Age newspaper called for a play-off series  between the New York Lincoln Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, New York Giants (Major  League Baseball World Series Champions) and the New York Yankees (American  League). No response to the New York Age’s challenge was ever received. 1912 Dick “Cannonball” Redding of the Lincoln Giants pitched a perfect game against the  Cherokee Indians barnstorming team in their game that was played at Olympic Field.  Redding struck out 14 in his 1-0 victory. 1912 Dick “Cannonball” Redding of the Lincoln Giants pitched what is believed to be the first  no-hitter between two Negro League teams. Redding no-hit the Jose Mendez and the Cuban  Stars 1-0 in Atlantic City. 1912 Newspaper accounts credit Dick “Cannonball” Redding (Lincoln Giants) with a 43-12  record for the 1912 season. The article also says that Redding pitched seven no-hitters  during the season. 1912 The New York Lincoln Giants behind the pitching of Smoky Joe Williams shut out a  combined Major League team of New York Giants and New York Yankees by a score  of 6-0. 1913 In one 15 game series that was played in 20 days versus the Chicago American Giants,  Smoky Joe Williams of the New York Lincoln Giants pitched in 11 games and had a record  of won-loss record of 7-2. 1913 Smoky Joe Williams and the New York Lincoln Giants defeat Grover Cleveland Alexander  and the Philadelphia Phillies (National League) by a score of 9-2. 1914 On August 26th, Frank “The Red Ant” Wickware (Chicago American Giants) pitched a no-  hitter against the Indianapolis ABC’s. After walking the lead off batter of the game, he was  perfect the rest of the game and recorded a 1-0 victory. 1914 Smoky Joe Williams pitched no-hitter against Portland of the Pacific Coast League.  7 1914 Smoky Joe Williams of the Chicago American Giants is credited with a record of 41-3 for  the 1914 season. 1915 J.L. Wilkinson’s All Nations barnstorming team plays an independent schedule throughout  the Midwest. 1915 Dizzy Dismukes (Indianapolis ABC’s) pitches a no-hitter versus the Chicago Giants. 1915 Dick Whitworth of the Chicago American Giants pitches a 4-0 no-hitter against the  Chicago Giants. 1916 The Duval Giants from Jacksonville (FL) move north to Atlantic City (NJ) and become the  Atlantic City Bacharach Giants. 1916 Jimmy Claxton is signed by the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. When a friend  of Claxton’s revealed his African American and Native American heritage, Claxton is  released by the team. 1916 Bill Gatewood of the St. Louis Giants pitches a no-hitter against the Cuban Stars. 1916 The Indianapolis ABCs defeat the Chicago American Giants in a Western Playoff Series by  winning four games to one for the American Giants. Indianapolis was led by Dizzy  Dismukes who won three games. 1917 The 25th Infantry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers) baseball team know as the “wreckers” gain  national attention. The team featured Wilber “Bullet” Rogan, Oscar “Heavy” Johnson,  Lemuel Hawkins, Bob Fagin and Walter “Dobie” Moore. All five of these players would  go on to star in the Negro National league. 1917 The Chicago American Giants defeat the New York Lincoln Giants four games to three to  claim the “World Colored Championship.” 1918 Numerous Negro League stars (Oscar Charleston, Dizzy Dismukes, Dave Malarcher, Dick  Redding, Spottswood Poles, Louis Santop, Frank Wickware, Smoky Joe Williams etc.) are  drafted into the military during World War I. 1918 Bernardo Baro (Cuban Stars) pitches a 11-0 no-hitter versus the Indianapolis ABC’s. 1919 Smoky Joe Williams (New York Lincoln Giants) and Dick “Cannonball” Redding (Atlantic  City Bacharach Giants) both just back from World War I faced off against one another at  Olympic Park in Harlem. Redding pitched a two hitter and Williams pitched a no-hitter  winning the game 1-0 when the winning run scored in the bottom of the 9th with one out.  Williams called this the “greatest” game he ever pitched. 1920 J.L. Wilkinson forms the Kansas City Monarchs. 1920 Andrew “Rube” Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants, organizes the Negro  National League (NNL). The teams that played in the Negro National League during it’s  inaugural season were the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton  Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Stars.  The Negro National League proves to be the first successful black professional league. 8 1920 The Negro Southern League begins play. Cities fielding teams for the inaugural season of  the league were Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans. 1920 On July 17th the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants played the New York Lincoln Giants at  Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (New York). This was the first game in which two Negro League  teams played each other in a Major League stadium. 1920 Hilldale defeats the Brooklyn Royal Giants in a four game series two games to zero (the  first two games of the series ended in a tie) for Brooklyn to claim the “Eastern Colored  Championship.” 1920 The Chicago American Giants under Rube Foster win the Negro National League title. 1920 Knoxville the winner of the Negro Southern League with a record of 55-21 (.724)  challenged the Chicago American Giants to a Negro League World Series, but no series  was ever held. 1921 John Beckwith becomes the first player (black or white) to hit a homerun out of Redland  Field (home of the Cincinnati Reds). 1921 The Eastern Colored Championship Playoff Series ended with the Atlantic City Bacharach  Giants and Hilldale each team winning two games. A tie breaker was never played. 1921 The Chicago American Giants win their second straight Negro National League title. 1921 The Chicago American Giants played a double championship series against the Atlantic  City Bacharach Giants and then Hilldale. The American Giants defeated the Bacharach  Giants two games to one and then fell to Hilldale three games to two. 1921 The Kansas City Monarchs win both ends of doubleheader vs the Babe Ruth All Stars. 1922 Western League of Colored Baseball Clubs is formed. Cities represented in the league include Independence, Oklahoma City, Omaha, St. Joseph, Topeka, Tulsa and Wichita. They began operation on June 4, 1922 and folds by the end of the year. 1922 Hilldale pitcher Phil Cockrell threw a no-hitter against the Chicago American Giants on  August 19th at Schorling Park in Chicago. Hilldale won the game 5-0. 1922 The Chicago American Giants win their third straight Negro National League  championship. 1922 The Chicago American Giants defeat the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants three games to  two in a “Colored Championship” Series. 1923 Ed Bolden (Hilldale) and Nat Strong (Brooklyn Royal Giants) head up a group of owners  that form the Eastern Colored League (ECL). Teams that played in the ECL during its first  season were the Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cuban  Stars (East), Hilldale and Lincoln Giants. 1923 Hilldale wins the Eastern Colored League’s first championship. 9 1923 Jose Mendez (five innings) and Bullet Rogan (four innings) combine for a no-hitter against  the Milwaukee Bears. 1923 The Kansas City Monarchs win their first Negro National League championship. The  Monarchs would go on to win Negro National League titles in 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1929. 1923 Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis, the Commissioner of Baseball, bans off-season games  between Major League teams and black ball clubs. The result was that Major League  players formed their own “all star” teams to barnstorm against black teams. 1924 In an twelve inning exhibition game, Smoky Joe Williams of the Brooklyn Royal Giants  struck out twenty-five (25) Brooklyn Bushwick batters. He struck out 11 of the first 12  batters he faced. The game was played on March 30th at Dexter Park in the Queens (NY). 1924 John Henry “Pop” Lloyd of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants gets eleven (11)  consecutive hits over one three game stretch. 1924 The first Negro League World Series is played. The Kansas City Monarchs who won the  Negro National League championship played Hilldale who were the champions of the  Eastern Colored League. The Kansas City Monarchs won the Negro League World Series  by winning five games to four for Hilldale. 1925 Hilldale dominated the Kansas City Monarchs by winning five of the six games played to  give them the Negro League World Series title. 1926 Rube Foster (President and Founder of the Negro National League) is arrested for  displaying violent behavior. A Chicago judge rules him to be insane and commits him to an  asylum in Kankakee (IL) where he would remain until his death in December of 1930. 1926 Willie Foster, ace pitcher for the Chicago American Giants (Negro National League)  reportedly has a 26 game winning streak during the season. 1926 The Kansas City Monarchs loose to the Chicago American Giants in the Negro National  League Playoff Series. The American Giants won five games and lost four. 1926 Claude “Red” Grier pitches 27 consecutive scoreless innings with out giving up a run.  During this string he shut out the Cuban Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants and Ocean City  Riverias. 1926 Claude “Red” Grier of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants pitches the first no-hitter in  Negro League World history. Grier defeated the Chicago American Giants by a score of  10-0. 1926 The Chicago American Giants (Negro National League) defeated the Atlantic City  Bacharach Giants (Eastern Colored League) to claim the Negro League World Series title. 1927 The Chicago American Giants defeated the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro  National League Playoff Series then defeated the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants in the  Negro League World Series. 10 1927 Lonnie Goodwin, promoter and owner of the Philadelphia Royal Giants, takes the Royals  Giants on a tour of Japan after the conclusion of the California Winter League season. This  was the first time a Negro league team had ever traveled to the Far East. The Royal Giants  went 23-0-1 on their tour of Japan. 1927 Luther Farrell of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants pitches a no-hitter against the Chicago  American Giants in game five of the Negro League World Series. Atlantic City won the  game 3-2. It is important to note that Farrell only pitched seven innings, as the game was  called due to darkness. 1927 The Chicago American Giants defeated the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants five games to  three (one game ended in a tie) to claim the Negro League World Series title. 1928 The Eastern Colored League (ECL) folds before mid season. 1928 With no eastern league, teams like the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black  Sox, Hilldale and New York Lincoln Giants play an independent schedule for the season. 1928 The St. Louis Stars win the Playoff Series with the Chicago American Giants and are  crowned champions of the Negro National League. 1929 The American Negro League (ANL) is formed, but folds after the first season. The  Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, Cuban Stars (East), Hilldale,  Homestead Grays and New York Lincoln Giants make up the teams that played in the  league. The Baltimore Black Sox are crowned the champions at the end of the season. 1929 Quincy J. Gilmore (secretary of the Kansas City Monarchs) forms the Texas-Oklahoma-  Louisiana League. Gilmore serves as the President of the league. The Houston Black  Buffaloes win both halves of the season. 1929 Satchel Paige (Birmingham Black Barons) strikes out 17 Cuban Stars batters in a game on  April 9th . Paige bettered the feat six days later Paige when he struck out 18 Nashville Elite  Giants hitters. Paige is credited with 194 strikeouts in 196 innings for the Negro National  League season. 1929 Herbert “Rap” Dixon (Baltimore Black Sox) collects fourteen (14) straight hits over a four  game stretch in July of 1929. 1929 The Kansas City Monarchs are crowned the Negro National League champions. 1929 The Kansas City Monarchs meet the Houston Black Buffaloes in a self-proclaimed  “Colored World Championship.” Kansas City wins the series. 1929 The Chicago American Giants play the Homestead Grays in a “Championship Series.”  The American Giants swept the Grays in five straight games. 1930 J.L. Wilkinson the owner of the Kansas City Monarchs purchases a portable lighting  system that enables the Monarchs to play night game as they barnstorm all over the United  States. Wilkinson introduces night baseball to America five years before the Major League  play night games. The cost for the lighting system was reported at $ 50,000.00. 11 1930 On May 15th Johnny Marcum (Kansas City Monarchs) pitched the first no-hitter in night baseball history. Marcum beat the Waco Cardinals (Waco, Texas) 8-0. The game was also the first perfect game in night baseball. 1930 Negro League clubs make their first appearance at Yankee Stadium. In July of 1930 the  Baltimore Black Sox and New York Lincoln Giants played a double header at Yankee  Stadium. The game was played to benefit the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. 1930 Smoky Joe Williams of the Homestead Grays struck out twenty-seven (27) Kansas City  Monarchs batters and gave up only one hit in a twelve (12) inning 1-0 victory for the  Monarchs. 1930 The Kansas City Monarchs drop out of the Negro National League at the end of the  summer of 1930. The Monarchs owner cited financial loses as the reason for his team  changing to an independent schedule. The Monarchs would play a barnstorming-  independent schedule for the next six years. 1930 The St. Louis Stars defeat the Detroit Stars in a Negro National League Playoff Series. 1930 Even though there is no formal league in the East, the Homestead Grays and the New York  Lincoln Giants play an 11 game “Championship Series.” 1930 Josh Gibson hits the longest homerun in the history of Yankee Stadium. The dispute still  continues today if it went over the roof. Hall of Famer Judy Johnson who played in the  game for the game was sure it did. Bill Holland and Larry Brown of the Lincoln Giants  disagreed. The one thing they all agreed on was it was the longest homerun any of them  ever saw. 1930 Satchel Paige is credited with sticking out 22 hitters in a barnstorming game. 1930 Andrew “Rube” Foster the founder of the Negro National League dies on December 9,  1930 in Kankakee, Illinois. 1931 At the height of the Depression, Gus Greenlee (owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords) builds  his own stadium at the staggering cost of $ 100,000. 1931 Ed Bolden looses control of Hilldale to John Drew who renames the team the  “Hilldale Daisies.” 1931 Robert Cole takes over the Chicago American Giants. 1931 Kansas City Monarchs barnstorm against the “white” House of David. 1931 The Homestead Grays and Kansas City Monarchs play a “Championship Series.” The  Grays win the series by defeating the Monarchs six games to three. 1931 Juan “Tetelo” Vargas (Cuban House of David) becomes recognized as the fastest baseball  player in the world when he circles the bases in an astounding 13.02 seconds. The feat was  accomplished in September when the Cuban House of David were playing in Sioux City,  Iowa. 12 1931 In October the Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Stars combine their rosters to form one  team to play a National League All Star team that included: Babe Herman, Bill Terry,  Lloyd Waner and Paul Waner. The Kansas City-St. Louis team wins all five games of the  series. 1931 The Homestead Grays are credited with a won-loss record of 136-17 for the season. 1931 Newspaper stories report that Josh Gibson hit 75 homeruns for the 1931 season.  This number has never been confirmed with actual box scores. 1931 The Negro National League ceases operation and does not field a schedule for the 1932  baseball season. 1932 Cumberland Posey leads a group that forms the short-lived East-West League. The “new”  league included the following teams Baltimore Black Sox, Cleveland Stars, Cuban Stars,  Detroit Wolves, Hilldale, Homestead Grays, Newark Browns, New York Black Yankees,  Pittsburgh Crawfords and Washington Pilots. Originally, each team was to have played  56 games. The league folds in late June of 1932. 1932 The Negro Southern League is considered a “major” league of Negro League baseball. 1932 Chicago American Giants win the first half of the Negro Southern League season and then  defeat the Nashville Elite Giants in a Playoff Series to win the Negro Southern League title. 1932 Satchel Paige (Pittsburgh Crawfords) tosses a no hitter against the New York Black  Yankees. The Crawfords won the game 6-0. 1932 The Pittsburgh Crawfords post a won-loss record of 96-36 (.727) for the season. 1933 Under the leadership of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the “new”  Negro National League is formed. Teams played in the Negro National league during the  1933 season were the Baltimore Black Sox, Cole’s American Giants, Columbus Blue  Birds, Detroit Stars, Homestead Grays, Nashville Elite Giants and Pittsburgh Crawfords. 1933 Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburg Crawfords, installs lights at Greenlee Field to give  the team the opportunity to play night games. 1933 The Pittsburgh Crawfords beat the Nashville Elite Giants in a Playoff Series to claim the  Negro National League title. 1933 The first annual East-West All Star game is played. The historic game was played at  Comiskey Park (Chicago, IL) on September 10th . In a real slugfest the West squad defeated  the East by a score of 11-7. 1933-1934 Over the winter of 1933-34, the Kansas City Monarchs made a tour of the Orient. The  Monarchs traveled to the Philippines, China, Japan and Hawaii. Their won-loss record for  the tour was reported as 46-4. 1934 Satchel Paige throw a no-hitter and strikes out 17 batters against the Homestead Grays. 13 1934 The Austin Black senators defeat the Newgulf Black Buffs by a score of 3-2 in a 27 inning  game. Both teams played in the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana League. The game was played  in August at Monarch Field in Houston, Texas. 1934 Satchel Paige and Bill Perkins join the “white” House of David team and lead them to a  victory over the Kansas City Monarchs in the prestigious Denver Post Tournament. 1934 The Philadelphia Stars defeat the Chicago American Giants in a Playoff Series to win the  Negro National League title. 1935 Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson lead the Pittsburgh Crawfords to a Playoff Series  victory over the New York Cubans. 1935 Bismarck (ND) with Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige win the National Semi-pro  Championship. 1935 Yankee Stadium hosted a four-team Negro League doubleheader on September 22nd .  The Nashville Elite Giants defeated the Cuban Stars 4-3 and the Pittsburgh Crawfords  defeated the Philadelphia Stars 12-2. An estimated crowd of 20,000 to 27,000 attended the  two games. 1936 The New York Black Yankees are admitted to the Negro National League. 1936 Negro National League All Stars win the prestigious Denver Post Tournament. 1936 Negro League All Stars barnstorm against Bob Feller’s All Stars and take four of the five  games played. 1936 Ray Brown goes 21-4 with 23 complete games during the Cuban Winter League season. 1936 Abe Manley buys the Newark Dodgers and combines them with his team the Brooklyn  Royal Giants to form the Newark Eagles. 1936 Effa Manley, co-owner of the Newark Eagles with her husband Abe, becomes the first  women general manager in Negro League baseball history. 1936 The Negro National League Play-Off Series ends after only one game is played. The  Washington Elite Giants defeated the Pittsburgh Crawfords by a score of 2-0. No other  games were ever played. The problem that league officials was faced with was that many  of the players from both teams were already playing with other teams for the winter  baseball season. 1937 The Negro American League (NAL) is formed. The teams that played in the inaugural  season of the Negro American League were the Birmingham Black Barons, Chicago  American Giants, Cincinnati Tigers, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis Athletics, Memphis Red  Sox and St. Louis Stars. 1937 Josh Gibson and Judy Johnson are traded by the Pittsburgh Crawfords to the Homestead  Grays for Pepper Bassett, Henry Spearman and $ 2,500.00 of cash. 14 1937 Hilton Smith (Kansas City Monarchs) throws a no-hitter against the Chicago American  Giants. The Monarchs won the game 4-0. 1937 Most of the top Negro League players defect to the Dominican Republic. Some of the top  defectors were Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, James “Cool Pappa” Bell, Chet Brewer, Martin  Dihigo, Sam Bankhead, Pat Patterson, Alejandro Oms and Juan “Tetelo” Vargas. 1937 The Kansas City Monarchs win both halves of the Negro American League season. 1937 The Chicago American Giants dispute the Kansas City Monarchs being awarded the title,  so a special post season Playoff Series is played. Kansas City defeats Chicago to claim title. 1937 Homestead Grays win the Negro National League championship. This would be their first  of nine consecutive Negro National League titles (1937-1945). 1937 After the regular Negro National League season, the Homestead Grays and Newark Eagles  combine their rosters to form one team to play a combined squad from the Kansas City  Monarchs and Chicago American Giants of the Negro American League. The Grays-Eagles  team win eight of nine games to hand the Monarchs-American Giants team a humiliating  defeat. 1937 Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and James “Cool Pappa” Bell return from the Dominican  Republic and lead their Cuidad Trujillo team to a Denver Post Tournament title. 1937 At the Polo Grounds in New York City, Johnny Taylor (New York Cubans) throws a  no-hitter against Satchel Paige and his Dominican All Stars. 1938 In February Satchel Paige meets with Negro National League officials in Pittsburgh to see  if he and the other players who had been banned for jumping their teams during the 1937  season would be reinstated. Paige leaves the meeting disgruntled and threatens to for his  own team that would barnstorm across the United States and Latin America. 1938 Quincy J. Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas City Monarchs, proposed a plan to nationally  organize all the black semipro and independent teams in the United States into a series of  regional leagues. The goal of these regional leagues would be to “feed” the Negro  American League and Negro National League with ballplayers. Gilmore felt his plan would  revitalize Negro League baseball. The press titled the proposed endeavor the “Rube Foster  League.” The plan never materialized. 1938 The Miami Giants become the Ethiopian Clowns under owner Johnny Pierce. 1938 A four team doubleheader is played at Yankee Stadium to benefit the Greater New York  Fund. An estimated crowd of 15,000 fans turned out to see the Philadelphia Stars beat the  Baltimore Elite Giants in game one and the Pittsburgh Crawfords defeat the New York  Black Yankees in game two. 1938 Josh Gibson hits four homeruns in one game against the Memphis Sox at Mack Park in  Zanesville (OH). 1938 Roy Campanella plays his rookie season with the Baltimore Elite Giants. 1938 Chet Brewer becomes the first Negro League ball player to play in the Mexican League. 15 1938 The Memphis Red Sox (21-4) win the first half of the Negro American League season and  the Atlanta Black Crackers (12-4) win the second half of the season. Memphis beat the  Black Crackers in a Playoff Series. 1938 Homestead Grays win the Negro National League pennant. 1939 Jorge Pasquel, President of the Mexican League, lures James “Cool Pappa’ Bell, Cher  Brewer, Barney brown, Willie Jefferson, Lazaro Salazar, Ramon Bragana and Silvio Garcia  to play South of the Border. 1939 Kansas City Monarchs win the Negro American League title and the Homestead Grays win  the Negro National crown.. 1939 The Homestead Grays, Newark Eagles, Philadelphia Stars and Baltimore Elite Giants  square off in a four way Playoff Series. The Grays beat the Stars in the first match up and  the Elite Giants beat the Eagles in their series. In the finals Baltimore prevailed over  Homestead to win a “trophy” donated by Colonel Jacob Ruppert (owner of the New York  Yankees). 1939 Willie Wells of the Newark Eagles becomes the first player in baseball history to wear a  batting helmet. Wells borrowed a construction helmet to protect his head when he had  received a concussion the day before and the doctor ordered him not to play. 1939 The Homestead Grays sweep the American Series in Cuba, winning all five games. 1939 Satchel Paige goes 19-3 and strikes out 208 batters in 205 innings to lead Guayama to the  Puerto Rican League championship. 1940 In an attempt to integrate Major League baseball, the Young Communist League of New  York collect 20,000 signatures supporting blacks playing in the Major Leagues. 1940 A large number of Negro League Stars play the 1940 season in Mexico. Negro League  players defecting to Mexico included: Sam Bankhead, James “Cool Pappa” Bell, Barney  Brown, Willard Brown, Ray Dandridge, Ducky Davenport, Martin Dihigo, Martin Dihigo,  Bob Griffith, Bob Harvey, Willie Jefferson, Leroy Matlock, Henry Mc Henry, Pat  Patterson, Andy Porter, Ted Radcliffe, Theo Smith, Ed Stone, Ted Strong, Johnny Taylor,  Quincy Trouppe, Willie Wells, Roy Welmaker and Wild Bill Wright. 1940 Kansas City Monarchs win the Negro American League pennant and the Homestead Grays  win the Negro National League title. 1940 On December 29th a fire destroyed the Chicago American Giants ball park (American  Giants Park). The park had originally been the home of the Chicago White Sox before the  Team moved to Comiskey Park. 1941 Satchel Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs is reported to be the highest paid player in  professional baseball (black or white). 16 1941 A crowd of 39,000 fans at Biggs Stadium (Home of the Detroit Tigers) are on hand to  witness the Kansas City Monarchs sweep a double header from the Chicago American  Giants. 1941 Newt Allen takes over as manager of the Kansas City Monarchs and leads them to a Negro  American League title. 1941 Homestead Grays win the first half of the Negro national League season and the New York  Cubans win the second half. The Grays win the Playoff Series against the Cubans. 1941 Gene Smith of the St. Louis Stars pitches a 6-1 no-hitter versus the New York Black  Yankees. 1941 The East-West All Star game at Comiskey Park (Chicago) draws a record 50,256 fans. 1942 Radio station WWDC of Washington, D.C. becomes the first radio station to regularly  broadcast Negro League baseball games. WWDC aired the Washington-Homestead Grays  games. 1942 The Negro Major League is formed. League teams included Baltimore Black Orioles,  Boston Royal Giants, Chicago Brown Bombers, Cincinnati Clowns, Detroit Black Sox  and Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) Black Gophers. League folds at the end of the  season. 1942 Leon Day (Newark Eagles) struck out 18 batters and only allowed one hit in a victory over  the Baltimore Elite Giants. 1942 The Philadelphia Phillies of the National League show an interest in signing Roy  Campanella (Baltimore Elite Giants) as the first black player to play in the Major Leagues. 1942 The Pittsburgh Pirates (National League) announce they will give a tryout to the following  Negro League players: Dave Barnhill (New York Cubans), Roy Campanella (Baltimore  Elite Giants) and Sammy Hughes. The tryout is scheduled for August 4th but is rescheduled  to September. Nothing ever comes of the “tryout.” 1942 The first Negro League World Series is played between the Negro National League and the  Negro American League. The Kansas City Monarchs (Negro American League) defeated  the Homestead Grays (Negro National League) in four straight games to claim the Negro  League World Series title. 1942 The East-West All Star game that was played in Comiskey Park (Chicago) draws a record  crowd of 51,000 fans. 1943 Bill Veeck devises a plan to buy the Philadelphia Phillies (National League) and sign black  players for the next season. Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw “Mountain”  Landis blocks the deal. 1943 Alvin Gipson of the Birmingham Black Barons struck out 20 batters breaking the record of  18 by Satchel Paige and Leon Day. Birmingham breezed to a 5-1 victory over the  Philadelphia Stars. 17 1943 The Birmingham Black Barons win the Negro American League title after beating the  Chicago American Giants in a Playoff Series. 1943 The Homestead Grays (Negro National League) defeat the Birmingham Black Barons  (Negro American League) to win the Negro league World Series. 1944 Albert “Happy” Chandler succeeds Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis as the Commissioner of  Baseball. Chandler is more “open” to blacks playing in the Major Leagues. 1944 The Homestead Grays and Birmingham Black Barons meet in Negro League World Series.  The result is the same as the year before (the Homestead Grays won it all). 1945 Branch Rickey (Brooklyn Dodgers) is instrumental in starting the United States League.  Rickey’s goal was to use the “league” to scout black ball players. The league included the  following teams: Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, Chicago Brown Bombers, Detroit Motor City  Giants, Philadelphia Hilldales, Pittsburgh Crawfords and Toledo Rays. 1945 Ray Brown (Homestead Grays) pitches a perfect game against the Chicago American  Giants at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The Grays won the game 7-0. 1945 Dave “Showboat” Thomas (New York Cubans) and Terris McDuffie (Newark Eagles)  show up uninvited to the Brooklyn Dodgers training camp at Bear Mountain (NY) and are  given a “try-out.” 1945 Jackie Robinson (Kansas City Monarchs), Sam Jethroe (Cleveland Buckeyes) and Marvin  Williams (Philadelphia Stars) are given a tryout at Fenway Park by the Boston Red Sox. 1945 A.B. Chandler, Commissioner of baseball, meets with the black press in Washington, D.C.  and pledges support for efforts to integrate the Major Leagues. 1945 The Cleveland Indians farm team in Bakersfield (CA) announces they want to hire Chet  Brewer as the team’s player-manager. The deal is approved by George Trautman (Minor  League Commissioner) but is killed by Roger Peckinpaugh (Cleveland Indians General  Manager). 1945 Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals of the International League  (Brooklyn Dodgers farm club). 1945 The Homestead Grays make their third straight appearance in the Negro League World  Series. The Grays are thoroughly dominated by the Cleveland Buckeyes (Negro American)  who seep them in four straight games. 1946 Leon Day throws a no-hitter on the opening day of the Negro National League season. Day  posts s won-loss record of 14-4 for the season. 1946 Abe Saperstein attempts to bring “Major League” Negro League baseball to the West Coast  when he forms the West Coast Baseball Association (also known as the Negro Pacific  Coast League). The league had franchise in Fresno, Oakland, Portland, San Francisco and  Seattle. The league folded before the midpoint of the season. 18 1946 Jorge Pasquel, President of the Mexican League and owner of the Vera Cruz Blues, raids  the Negro Leagues for Ray Dandridge, Bill Cash, Theo Smith, Martin Dihigo, Wilmer  Fields and Raymond Brown. 1946 Branch Rickey (Brooklyn Dodgers) signs four more Negro League players and assigns  them to the Dodgers Minor League farm clubs. These players were Roy Campanella  (Nashua), Roy Partlow (Montreal), Johnny Wright (Montreal) and Don Newcombe  (Nashua). Don Newcombe goes 14-4 at Nashua. 1946 Gentry Jessup (Chicago American Giants) and Eddie “Peanuts” Davis (Indianapolis  Clowns) hook up for a 20 inning pitching duel that ends in a 3-3 tie. 1946 Josh Gibson (Homestead Grays) hits .397 in his final season of Negro League baseball. 1946 Jackie Robinson (Montreal Royals) leads the International League in hitting with a .349  batting average. 1946 The New York Yankees report taking in over $ 100,000.00 in stadium rentals to Negro  league teams. 1946 The Newark Eagles defeat the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League World Series. 1946 Satchel Paige (Kansas City Monarchs) and Bob Feller (Cleveland Indians) play a nation  wide barnstorming tour that draws 271,645 fans. 1947 The legendary Josh Gibson passes away on January 20, 1947 at the age of 35. 1947 Four New York Cuban pitchers (Eddie Daniels, Pat Scantlebury, James Jenkins and Luis  Tiant, Sr.) combine to pitch a perfect game against the New Orleans Creoles. 1947 Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American becomes the first black sports writer to be  admitted to the Baseball Writer’s Association of America. 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in the “modern day” Major  Leagues when he takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. 1947 Larry Doby becomes the first African American to play in the American League. Doby  played his first game for the Cleveland Indians on July 5th . 1947 Dan Bankhead becomes the first black pitcher to pitch in the Major Leagues when he takes  the mound for the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 26, 1947. 1947 Attendance at Negro League games begins a rapid decline. The Newark Eagles yearly  attendance dropped from 120,000 in 1946 to 57,000 in 1947. 1947 The New York Cubans make short work of the Cleveland Buckeyes in the Negro League  World Series. Cleveland can manage only one win in five games. . 1947 Jackie Robinson wins the National League Rookie of the Year award. 1947 At the Negro National League meeting in Chicago on December 29th, the league owners  19  agree to a $ 6,000 per month salary cap for each club. The move is made to combat a  significant drop in revenues. 1948 Satchel Paige is signed by the Cleveland Indians of the American League. At the age of 42,  Satchel becomes the oldest rookie to play in the Major Leagues. Paige finished the season  with a 6-1 record and a 2.48 ERA. Paige helped lead Cleveland to American League and  World Series championships. 1948 More than 72,000 fans jam into Cleveland Stadium to see Satchel Paige pitch in his first  game for the Cleveland Indians. 1948 Television station WEWS (Cleveland) broadcast a double header between the Cleveland  Buckeyes and Memphis Red Sox. The game was also covered on the radio, making it the  first time a Negro League game was ever be carried on the radio and television at the same  time. Further television broadcast were cancelled because Negro league officials felt they  hurt attendance at the game. 1948 Artie Wilson (Birmingham Black Barons) wins the Negro American League Batting Title  with a .402 batting average. This is the last time a player hit over .400 for the season in a  top level league. 1948 The Birmingham Black Barons beat the Kansas City Monarchs four games to zero for the  Negro American League championship. 1948 The Homestead Grays win the Negro League World Series. They beat the Birmingham  Black Barons it what would be the final Negro league World Series ever played. 1948 Satchel Paige becomes the first African American to pitch in a World Series game. 1948 Abe and Effa Manley sell the Newark Eagles Dr. W.H. Young of Memphis. The Manley’s  cited financial reason (they reportedly lost $ 22,000 in 1948) as the reason for the sale.  Dr. Young moved the team to Houston, Texas. 1948 The Negro National League disbands after the 1948 regular season. 1948 The Homestead Grays and New York Black Yankees quit organized baseball to play an  independent schedule. 1948 At a joint league meeting in Chicago, the Negro American League absorbs the remaining  teams from the Negro National League into their organization. The Negro American  League is divided into Eastern and Western divisions. 1949 Gene Collins of the Kansas City Monarchs pitches a no-hitter versus the Houston Eagles. 1949 The Homestead Grays join the Negro American Association and win the first half of the  season with a record of 24-2. The second half season results were not reported. 1949 Jackie Robinson is the first black player to lead the National League in batting average.  Robinson hit .3423for the 1949 season. 20 1949 Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson are the first blacks to  appear in a Major League All Star game. 1949 Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn Dodgers) is the first black player to win the National League  Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. 1949 Don Newcombe (Brooklyn Dodgers) is voted National League Rookie of the Year. 1951 Emmett Ashford becomes the first black umpire in organized baseball. Ashford umpires in  the Southwest International League during the 1951 baseball season. 1950 Sam Jethroe is signed by the Boston Braves of the National League. Jethroe goes on to win  the 1950 National League Rookie of the Year. 1951 Bill Veeck of the St. Louis Browns (National League) offers James “Cool Pappa” Bell a  contract. The 48 year old Bell declines the offer. 1951 Monte Irvin of the New York Giants leads the National League in runs batted in with 121. 1951 Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) becomes the first black player to win the National  League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Campanella would go on to win the MVP  award two more times (1953 and 1995). 1952 Indianapolis Clowns sign Toni Stone, the first women to play in the Negro Leagues. 1952 By the end of the season more than 150 Negro League ball players have been signed into  “white organized” baseball. 1952 Joe Black of the Brooklyn Dodgers wins the National League Rookie of the Year. 1955 Elston Howard joins the New York Yankees Major League roster, making him the first  black player to play for the Yankees Major League team. It took the New York Yankees  eight years to bring their first black ball player to the Major Leagues. 1954 Larry Doby (Cleveland Indians) leads the American League in homeruns with 32 and runs  batted in with 126. 1955 Sam Jones becomes the first black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the Major Leagues. 1956 Don Newcombe wins both the Cy Young Award and the National League Most Valuable  Player (MVP) Award. Newcombe won 27 games during the season. 1957 Jessie Mitchell (Birmingham Black Barons) wins the Negro American League Triple  Crown by leading the league in homeruns with 17, runs batted in with 67 and compiling a  .331 batting average. 1959 The Boston Red Sox become the last team to integrate their Major League roster when  Elijah “Pumpsie” Green debuts for the Red Sox on July 21, 1959. 1960 Comiskey Park (Chicago, IL) hosts its last East-West All Star game. 21 1961 An East-West All Star game is played in New York City. The game was held in  conjunction with the Negro Elks convention. 1962 Buck O’Neil becomes the first black coach in Major League baseball when he signs with  the Chicago Cubs of the National League. 1962 The last East-West All Star game is held. The game was played in Kansas City. 1962 The Negro American League folds after the East-West All Star game. 1962 Jackie Robinson becomes the first former Negro League player to be enshrined in the  National Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown). 1963 Elston Howard (New York Yankees) becomes the first black player to win the Most  Valuable Player Award in the American League. 1963 Even though there is no “official” league four teams (Indianapolis Clowns, Kansas City  Monarchs, Philadelphia Stars and Satchel Paige All Stars) continue to play a barnstorming  schedule. By the late 1960’s only the Indianapolis Clowns are left. 1964 Willie Mays (San Francisco Giants) becomes the first black captain of a Major League  team. 1965 Syd Pollock sells the Indianapolis Clowns to Ed Hamman. 1966 Emmett Ashford becomes the first black umpire in the Major Leagues when he umpires in  a game between the Cleveland Indians and Washington Senators on March 11, 1966. 1968 Monte Irvin is selected to serve in the office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Serving  under Spike Eckert and Bowie Kuhn, Irvin held that position until 1984. 1969 Elston Howard of the New York Yankees becomes the first black coach in the  American League. 1969 Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) is inducted into the National Baseball Hall of  Fame. 1970 Curt Flood files a lawsuit challenging Major League Baseball’s reserve clause. The action  would eventually result in free agency in baseball. 1971 Bill White becomes the first black announcer in baseball when he is hired by the New York  Yankees to announce their games. 1971 The Pittsburgh Pirates become the first team in Major League history to field an all black  starting lineup. The historic event occurred on September 01, 1971. 1971 Satchel Paige becomes the first player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of  Fame in Cooperstown strictly for his play in the Negro Leagues. 1972 Josh Gibson and Walter “Buck” Leonard are inducted into the National baseball Hall of  Fame in Cooperstown. 22 1972 Ed Hamman sells the Indianapolis Clowns to George Long of Muscatine, Iowa. 1975 Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians becomes the first black manager in Major League  history. 1977 Bill Lucas of the Atlanta Braves is the black general manger in the Major Leagues. 1978 Larry Doby of the Chicago White Sox becomes the second black manager in Major League  Baseball. 1981 Andrew “Rube” Foster is elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 1982 Frank Robinson of the San Francisco Giants finished in second place voting to Joe Torre  for the National League Manager of the Year. 1982 Negro League great Satchel Paige passes away on June 8th in his hometown of Kansas City. 1983 George Long sells the Indianapolis Clowns to Dave Clark and Sal Tombasco of Corning,  New York. 1989 After playing a few games at the beginning of the season, the Indianapolis Clowns cease  operation. 1989 Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles is named American League Manager of the Year.  Robinson led Baltimore to a record of 87-75 in 1989 (they had been 54-107 in 1988).
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases.[2] A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The principal objective of the batting team is to have a player reach first base safely; this generally occurs either when the batter hits the ball and reaches first base before an opponent retrieves the ball and touches the base, or when the pitcher persists in throwing the ball out of the batter's reach. Players on the batting team who reach first base without being called "out" can attempt to advance to subsequent bases as a runner, either immediately or during teammates' turns batting. The fielding team tries to prevent runs by getting batters or runners "out", which forces them out of the field of play. The pitcher can get the batter out by throwing three pitches which result in strikes, while fielders can get the batter out by catching a batted ball before it touches the ground, and can get a runner out by tagging them with the ball while the runner is not touching a base. The opposing teams switch back and forth between batting and fielding; the batting team's turn to bat is over once the fielding team records three outs. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is usually composed of nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. Most games end after the ninth inning, but if scores are tied at that point, extra innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, though some competitions feature pace-of-play regulations such as the pitch clock to shorten game time. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. Baseball's American origins, as well as its reputation as a source of escapism during troubled points in American history such as the American Civil War and the Great Depression, have led the sport to receive the moniker of "America's Pastime"; since the late 19th century, it has been unofficially recognized as the national sport of the United States, though in modern times is considered less popular than other sports, such as American football. In addition to North America, baseball is considered the most popular sport in parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In Major League Baseball (MLB), the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The MLB champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. The top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world. Baseball was played at the Olympic Games from 1992 to 2008, and was reinstated in 2020. Rules and gameplay Further information: Baseball rules and Outline of baseball Diagram of a baseball field Diamond may refer to the square area defined by the four bases or to the entire playing field. The dimensions given are for professional and professional-style games. Children often play on smaller fields. 2013 World Baseball Classic championship match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, March 20, 2013 A baseball game is played between two teams, each usually composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense (batting and baserunning) and defense (pitching and fielding). A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning. A game consists of nine innings (seven innings at the high school level and in doubleheaders in college, Minor League Baseball and, since the 2020 season, Major League Baseball; and six innings at the Little League level).[3] One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the top, or first half, of every inning. The other team—customarily the home team—bats in the bottom, or second half, of every inning. The goal of the game is to score more points (runs) than the other team. The players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by touching all four bases, in order, set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamond. A player bats at home plate and must attempt to safely reach a base before proceeding, counterclockwise, from first base, to second base, third base, and back home to score a run. The team in the field attempts to prevent runs from scoring by recording outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action, until their next turn at bat comes up again. When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played to resolve the contest. Many amateur games, particularly unorganized ones, involve different numbers of players and innings.[4] The game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield; the area farther beyond the infield is the outfield. In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher's mound, with a rectangular rubber plate (the rubber) at its center. The outer boundary of the outfield is typically demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height. The fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball's field of play, though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well.[5] There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt: The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches (23 centimeters) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching.[6] The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood. Other materials are now commonly used for nonprofessional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimeters) long, and not longer than 42 inches (110 centimeters).[7] The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions.[8] Protective helmets are also standard equipment for all batters.[9] At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players of the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher's mound. The pitcher begins the pitching delivery with one foot on the rubber, pushing off it to gain velocity when throwing toward home plate. Another fielding team player, the catcher, squats on the far side of home plate, facing the pitcher. The rest of the fielding team faces home plate, typically arranged as four infielders—who set up along or within a few yards outside the imaginary lines (basepaths) between first, second, and third base—and three outfielders. In the standard arrangement, there is a first baseman positioned several steps to the left of first base, a second baseman to the right of second base, a shortstop to the left of second base, and a third baseman to the right of third base. The basic outfield positions are left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. With the exception of the catcher, all fielders are required to be in fair territory when the pitch is delivered. A neutral umpire sets up behind the catcher.[10] Other umpires will be distributed around the field as well.[11] David Ortiz, the batter, awaiting a pitch, with the catcher and umpire Play starts with a member of the batting team, the batter, standing in either of the two batter's boxes next to home plate, holding a bat.[12] The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball[13] with the bat.[12] The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. A batter who hits the ball into the field of play must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred to as a runner (or, until the play is over, a batter-runner). A batter-runner who reaches first base without being put out is said to be safe and is on base. A batter-runner may choose to remain at first base or attempt to advance to second base or even beyond—however far the player believes can be reached safely. A player who reaches base despite proper play by the fielders has recorded a hit. A player who reaches first base safely on a hit is credited with a single. If a player makes it to second base safely as a direct result of a hit, it is a double; third base, a triple. If the ball is hit in the air within the foul lines over the entire outfield (and outfield fence, if there is one), or if the batter-runner otherwise safely circles all the bases, it is a home run: the batter and any runners on base may all freely circle the bases, each scoring a run. This is the most desirable result for the batter. The ultimate and most desirable result possible for a batter would be to hit a home run while all three bases are occupied or "loaded", thus scoring four runs on a single hit. This is called a grand slam. A player who reaches base due to a fielding mistake is not credited with a hit—instead, the responsible fielder is charged with an error.[12] Any runners already on base may attempt to advance on batted balls that land, or contact the ground, in fair territory, before or after the ball lands. A runner on first base must attempt to advance if a ball lands in play, as only one runner may occupy a base at any given time. If a ball hit into play rolls foul before passing through the infield, it becomes dead and any runners must return to the base they occupied when the play began. If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it lands, the batter has flied out and any runners on base may attempt to advance only if they tag up (contact the base they occupied when the play began, as or after the ball is caught). Runners may also attempt to advance to the next base while the pitcher is in the process of delivering the ball to home plate; a successful effort is a stolen base.[14] A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a strike or a ball. A batter against whom three strikes are recorded strikes out. A batter against whom four balls are recorded is awarded a base on balls or walk, a free advance to first base. (A batter may also freely advance to first base if the batter's body or uniform is struck by a pitch outside the strike zone, provided the batter does not swing and attempts to avoid being hit.)[15] Crucial to determining balls and strikes is the umpire's judgment as to whether a pitch has passed through the strike zone, a conceptual area above home plate extending from the midpoint between the batter's shoulders and belt down to the hollow of the knee.[16] Any pitch which does not pass through the strike zone is called a ball, unless the batter either swings and misses at the pitch, or hits the pitch into foul territory; an exception generally occurs if the ball is hit into foul territory when the batter already has two strikes, in which case neither a ball nor a strike is called. A shortstop tries to tag out a runner who is sliding head first, attempting to reach second base. While the team at bat is trying to score runs, the team in the field is attempting to record outs. In addition to the strikeout and flyout, common ways a member of the batting team may be put out include the ground out, force out, and tag out. These occur either when a runner is forced to advance to a base, and a fielder with possession of the ball reaches that base before the runner does, or the runner is touched by the ball, held in a fielder's hand, while not on a base. (The batter-runner is always forced to advance to first base, and any other runners must advance to the next base if a teammate is forced to advance to their base.) It is possible to record two outs in the course of the same play. This is called a double play. Three outs in one play, a triple play, is possible, though rare. Players put out or retired must leave the field, returning to their team's dugout or bench. A runner may be stranded on base when a third out is recorded against another player on the team. Stranded runners do not benefit the team in its next turn at bat as every half-inning begins with the bases empty.[17] An individual player's turn batting or plate appearance is complete when the player reaches base, hits a home run, makes an out, or hits a ball that results in the team's third out, even if it is recorded against a teammate. On rare occasions, a batter may be at the plate when, without the batter's hitting the ball, a third out is recorded against a teammate—for instance, a runner getting caught stealing (tagged out attempting to steal a base). A batter with this sort of incomplete plate appearance starts off the team's next turn batting; any balls or strikes recorded against the batter the previous inning are erased. A runner may circle the bases only once per plate appearance and thus can score at most a single run per batting turn. Once a player has completed a plate appearance, that player may not bat again until the eight other members of the player's team have all taken their turn at bat in the batting order. The batting order is set before the game begins, and may not be altered except for substitutions. Once a player has been removed for a substitute, that player may not reenter the game. Children's games often have more lenient rules, such as Little League rules, which allow players to be substituted back into the same game.[3][18] If the designated hitter (DH) rule is in effect, each team has a tenth player whose sole responsibility is to bat (and run). The DH takes the place of another player—almost invariably the pitcher—in the batting order, but does not field. Thus, even with the DH, each team still has a batting order of nine players and a fielding arrangement of nine players.[19] Personnel See also: Baseball positions Players Defensive positions on a baseball field, with abbreviations and scorekeeper's position numbers (not uniform numbers) See also the categories Baseball players and Lists of baseball players The number of players on a baseball roster, or squad, varies by league and by the level of organized play. A Major League Baseball (MLB) team has a roster of 26 players with specific roles. A typical roster features the following players:[20] Eight position players: the catcher, four infielders, and three outfielders—all of whom play on a regular basis Five starting pitchers who constitute the team's pitching rotation or starting rotation Seven relief pitchers, including one closer, who constitute the team's bullpen (named for the off-field area where pitchers warm up) One backup, or substitute, catcher Five backup infielders and backup outfielders, or players who can play multiple positions, known as utility players. Most baseball leagues worldwide have the DH rule, including MLB, Japan's Pacific League, and Caribbean professional leagues, along with major American amateur organizations.[21] The Central League in Japan does not have the rule and high-level minor league clubs connected to National League teams are not required to field a DH.[22] In leagues that apply the designated hitter rule, a typical team has nine offensive regulars (including the DH), five starting pitchers,[23] seven or eight relievers, a backup catcher, and two or three other reserve players.[24][25] Managers and coaches The manager, or head coach, oversees the team's major strategic decisions, such as establishing the starting rotation, setting the lineup, or batting order, before each game, and making substitutions during games—in particular, bringing in relief pitchers. Managers are typically assisted by two or more coaches; they may have specialized responsibilities, such as working with players on hitting, fielding, pitching, or strength and conditioning. At most levels of organized play, two coaches are stationed on the field when the team is at bat: the first base coach and third base coach, who occupy designated coaches' boxes, just outside the foul lines. These coaches assist in the direction of baserunners, when the ball is in play, and relay tactical signals from the manager to batters and runners, during pauses in play.[26] In contrast to many other team sports, baseball managers and coaches generally wear their team's uniforms; coaches must be in uniform to be allowed on the field to confer with players during a game.[27] Umpires Any baseball game involves one or more umpires, who make rulings on the outcome of each play. At a minimum, one umpire will stand behind the catcher, to have a good view of the strike zone, and call balls and strikes. Additional umpires may be stationed near the other bases, thus making it easier to judge plays such as attempted force outs and tag outs. In MLB, four umpires are used for each game, one near each base. In the playoffs, six umpires are used: one at each base and two in the outfield along the foul lines.[28] Strategy See also: Baseball positioning Many of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers.[29] A manager with several left-handed batters in the regular lineup, who knows the team will be facing a left-handed starting pitcher, may respond by starting one or more of the right-handed backups on the team's roster. During the late innings of a game, as relief pitchers and pinch hitters are brought in, the opposing managers will often go back and forth trying to create favorable matchups with their substitutions. The manager of the fielding team trying to arrange same-handed pitcher-batter matchups and the manager of the batting team trying to arrange opposite-handed matchups. With a team that has the lead in the late innings, a manager may remove a starting position player—especially one whose turn at bat is not likely to come up again—for a more skillful fielder (known as a defensive substitution).[30] Tactics Pitching and fielding A first baseman receives a pickoff throw, as the runner dives back to first base. See also: Pitch (baseball) The tactical decision that precedes almost every play in a baseball game involves pitch selection.[31] By gripping and then releasing the baseball in a certain manner, and by throwing it at a certain speed, pitchers can cause the baseball to break to either side, or downward, as it approaches the batter, thus creating differing pitches that can be selected.[32] Among the resulting wide variety of pitches that may be thrown, the four basic types are the fastball, the changeup (or off-speed pitch), and two breaking balls—the curveball and the slider.[33] Pitchers have different repertoires of pitches they are skillful at throwing. Conventionally, before each pitch, the catcher signals the pitcher what type of pitch to throw, as well as its general vertical and/or horizontal location.[34] If there is disagreement on the selection, the pitcher may shake off the sign and the catcher will call for a different pitch. With a runner on base and taking a lead, the pitcher may attempt a pickoff, a quick throw to a fielder covering the base to keep the runner's lead in check or, optimally, effect a tag out.[35] Pickoff attempts, however, are subject to rules that severely restrict the pitcher's movements before and during the pickoff attempt. Violation of any one of these rules could result in the umpire calling a balk against the pitcher, which permits any runners on base to advance one base with impunity.[36] If an attempted stolen base is anticipated, the catcher may call for a pitchout, a ball thrown deliberately off the plate, allowing the catcher to catch it while standing and throw quickly to a base.[37] Facing a batter with a strong tendency to hit to one side of the field, the fielding team may employ a shift, with most or all of the fielders moving to the left or right of their usual positions. With a runner on third base, the infielders may play in, moving closer to home plate to improve the odds of throwing out the runner on a ground ball, though a sharply hit grounder is more likely to carry through a drawn-in infield.[38] Batting and baserunning Several basic offensive tactics come into play with a runner on first base, including the fundamental choice of whether to attempt a steal of second base. The hit and run is sometimes employed, with a skillful contact hitter, the runner takes off with the pitch, drawing the shortstop or second baseman over to second base, creating a gap in the infield for the batter to poke the ball through.[39] The sacrifice bunt, calls for the batter to focus on making soft contact with the ball, so that it rolls a short distance into the infield, allowing the runner to advance into scoring position as the batter is thrown out at first. A batter, particularly one who is a fast runner, may also attempt to bunt for a hit. A sacrifice bunt employed with a runner on third base, aimed at bringing that runner home, is known as a squeeze play.[40] With a runner on third and fewer than two outs, a batter may instead concentrate on hitting a fly ball that, even if it is caught, will be deep enough to allow the runner to tag up and score—a successful batter, in this case, gets credit for a sacrifice fly.[38] In order to increase the chance of advancing a batter to first base via a walk, the manager will sometimes signal a batter who is ahead in the count (i.e., has more balls than strikes) to take, or not swing at, the next pitch. The batter's potential reward of reaching base (via a walk) exceeds the disadvantage if the next pitch is a strike.[41] History Main article: History of baseball Further information: Origins of baseball The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular among children in Great Britain and Ireland.[42][43][44] American baseball historian David Block suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and "tut-ball".[42] The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery.[45] Block discovered that the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player.[46] This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants.[47] By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America.[48] The first officially recorded baseball game in North America was played in Beachville, Ontario, Canada, on June 4, 1838.[49] In 1845, Alexander Cartwright, a member of New York City's Knickerbocker Club, led the codification of the so-called Knickerbocker Rules,[50] which in turn were based on rules developed in 1837 by William R. Wheaton of the Gotham Club.[51] While there are reports that the New York Knickerbockers played games in 1845, the contest long recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey: the "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings.[52] With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century.[53] By the time of the Civil War, baseball had begun to overtake its fellow bat-and-ball sport cricket in popularity within the United States, due in part to baseball being of a much shorter duration than the form of cricket played at the time, as well as the fact that troops during the Civil War did not need a specialized playing surface to play baseball, as they would have required for cricket.[54][55] In the United States Further information: Baseball in the United States and History of baseball in the United States Establishment of professional leagues In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area,[56] and by 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or "national game".[57] A year later, the sport's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. In 1867, it barred participation by African Americans.[58] The more formally structured National League was founded in 1876.[59] Professional Negro leagues formed, but quickly folded.[60] In 1887, softball, under the name of indoor baseball or indoor-outdoor, was invented as a winter version of the parent game.[61] The National League's first successful counterpart, the American League, which evolved from the minor Western League, was established in 1893, and virtually all of the modern baseball rules were in place by then.[62][63] The National Agreement of 1903 formalized relations both between the two major leagues and between them and the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, representing most of the country's minor professional leagues.[64] The World Series, pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall.[65] The Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series led to the formation of the office of the Commissioner of Baseball.[66] The first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was elected in 1920. That year also saw the founding of the Negro National League; the first significant Negro league, it would operate until 1931. For part of the 1920s, it was joined by the Eastern Colored League.[67] Rise of Ruth and racial integration Compared with the present, professional baseball in the early 20th century was lower-scoring, and pitchers were more dominant.[68] The so-called dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governed the ball's size, shape and composition, along with a new rule officially banning the spitball and other pitches that depended on the ball being treated or roughed-up with foreign substances, resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit.[69] The rise of the legendary player Babe Ruth, the first great power hitter of the new era, helped permanently alter the nature of the game.[70] In the late 1920s and early 1930s, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey invested in several minor league clubs and developed the first modern farm system.[71] A new Negro National League was organized in 1933; four years later, it was joined by the Negro American League. The first elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame took place in 1936. In 1939, Little League Baseball was founded in Pennsylvania.[72] Robinson posing in the uniform cap of the Kansas City Royals, a California Winter League barnstorming team, November 1945 (photo by Maurice Terrell) Jackie Robinson in 1945, with the era's Kansas City Royals, a barnstorming squad associated with the Negro American League's Kansas City Monarchs A large number of minor league teams disbanded when World War II led to a player shortage. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley led the formation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to help keep the game in the public eye.[73] The first crack in the unwritten agreement barring blacks from white-controlled professional ball occurred in 1945: Jackie Robinson was signed by the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers and began playing for their minor league team in Montreal.[74] In 1947, Robinson broke the major leagues' color barrier when he debuted with the Dodgers.[75] Latin-American players, largely overlooked before, also started entering the majors in greater numbers. In 1951, two Chicago White Sox, Venezuelan-born Chico Carrasquel and black Cuban-born Minnie Miñoso, became the first Hispanic All-Stars.[76][77] Integration proceeded slowly: by 1953, only six of the 16 major league teams had a black player on the roster.[76] Attendance records and the age of steroids In 1975, the union's power—and players' salaries—began to increase greatly when the reserve clause was effectively struck down, leading to the free agency system.[78] Significant work stoppages occurred in 1981 and 1994, the latter forcing the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.[79] Attendance had been growing steadily since the mid-1970s and in 1994, before the stoppage, the majors were setting their all-time record for per-game attendance.[80][81] After play resumed in 1995, non-division-winning wild card teams became a permanent fixture of the post-season. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997 and the second-highest attendance mark for a full season was set.[82] In 2000, the National and American Leagues were dissolved as legal entities. While their identities were maintained for scheduling purposes (and the designated hitter distinction), the regulations and other functions—such as player discipline and umpire supervision—they had administered separately were consolidated under the rubric of MLB.[83] In 2001, Barry Bonds established the current record of 73 home runs in a single season. There had long been suspicions that the dramatic increase in power hitting was fueled in large part by the abuse of illegal steroids (as well as by the dilution of pitching talent due to expansion), but the issue only began attracting significant media attention in 2002 and there was no penalty for the use of performance-enhancing drugs before 2004.[84] In 2007, Bonds became MLB's all-time home run leader, surpassing Hank Aaron, as total major league and minor league attendance both reached all-time highs.[85][86] Around the world With the historic popular moniker as "America's national pastime", baseball is well established in several other countries as well. As early as 1877, a professional league, the International Association, featured teams from both Canada and the United States.[87] While baseball is widely played in Canada and many minor league teams have been based in the country,[88][89] the American major leagues did not include a Canadian club until 1969, when the Montreal Expos joined the National League as an expansion team. In 1977, the expansion Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League.[90] Sadaharu Oh managing the Japan national team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Playing for the Central League's Yomiuri Giants (1959–80), Oh set the professional world record for home runs. In 1847, American soldiers played what may have been the first baseball game in Mexico at Parque Los Berros in Xalapa, Veracruz.[91] The first formal baseball league outside of the United States and Canada was founded in 1878 in Cuba, which maintains a rich baseball tradition. The Dominican Republic held its first islandwide championship tournament in 1912.[92] Professional baseball tournaments and leagues began to form in other countries between the world wars, including the Netherlands (formed in 1922), Australia (1934), Japan (1936), Mexico (1937), and Puerto Rico (1938).[93] The Japanese major leagues have long been considered the highest quality professional circuits outside of the United States.[94] Pesäpallo, a Finnish variation of baseball, was invented by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala in the 1920s,[95] and after that, it has changed with the times and grown in popularity. Picture of Pesäpallo match in 1958 in Jyväskylä, Finland. After World War II, professional leagues were founded in many Latin American countries, most prominently Venezuela (1946) and the Dominican Republic (1955).[96] Since the early 1970s, the annual Caribbean Series has matched the championship clubs from the four leading Latin American winter leagues: the Dominican Professional Baseball League, Mexican Pacific League, Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, and Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. In Asia, South Korea (1982), Taiwan (1990) and China (2003) all have professional leagues.[97] The English football club, Aston Villa, were the first British baseball champions winning the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain.[98][99] The 2020 National Champions were the London Mets. Other European countries have seen professional leagues; the most successful, other than the Dutch league, is the Italian league, founded in 1948.[100] In 2004, Australia won a surprise silver medal at the Olympic Games.[101] The Confédération Européene de Baseball (European Baseball Confederation), founded in 1953, organizes a number of competitions between clubs from different countries. Other competitions between national teams, such as the Baseball World Cup and the Olympic baseball tournament, were administered by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) from its formation in 1938 until its 2013 merger with the International Softball Federation to create the current joint governing body for both sports, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).[102] Women's baseball is played on an organized amateur basis in numerous countries.[103] After being admitted to the Olympics as a medal sport beginning with the 1992 Games, baseball was dropped from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games at the 2005 International Olympic Committee meeting. It remained part of the 2008 Games.[104] While the sport's lack of a following in much of the world was a factor,[105] more important was MLB's reluctance to allow its players to participate during the major league season.[106] MLB initiated the World Baseball Classic, scheduled to precede its season, partly as a replacement, high-profile international tournament. The inaugural Classic, held in March 2006, was the first tournament involving national teams to feature a significant number of MLB participants.[107][108] The Baseball World Cup was discontinued after its 2011 edition in favor of an expanded World Baseball Classic.[109] Distinctive elements Baseball has certain attributes that set it apart from the other popular team sports in the countries where it has a following. All of these sports use a clock,[110] play is less individual,[111] and the variation between playing fields is not as substantial or important.[112] The comparison between cricket and baseball demonstrates that many of baseball's distinctive elements are shared in various ways with its cousin sports.[113] No clock to kill A well-worn baseball In clock-limited sports, games often end with a team that holds the lead killing the clock rather than competing aggressively against the opposing team. In contrast, baseball has no clock, thus a team cannot win without getting the last batter out and rallies are not constrained by time. At almost any turn in any baseball game, the most advantageous strategy is some form of aggressive strategy.[114] Whereas, in the case of multi-day Test and first-class cricket, the possibility of a draw (which occurs because of the restrictions on time, which like in baseball, originally did not exist[115]) often encourages a team that is batting last and well behind, to bat defensively and run out the clock, giving up any faint chance at a win, to avoid an overall loss.[116] While nine innings has been the standard since the beginning of professional baseball, the duration of the average major league game has increased steadily through the years. At the turn of the 20th century, games typically took an hour and a half to play. In the 1920s, they averaged just less than two hours, which eventually ballooned to 2:38 in 1960.[117] By 1997, the average American League game lasted 2:57 (National League games were about 10 minutes shorter—pitchers at the plate making for quicker outs than designated hitters).[118] In 2004, Major League Baseball declared that its goal was an average game of 2:45.[117] By 2014, though, the average MLB game took over three hours to complete.[119] The lengthening of games is attributed to longer breaks between half-innings for television commercials, increased offense, more pitching changes, and a slower pace of play, with pitchers taking more time between each delivery, and batters stepping out of the box more frequently.[117][118] Other leagues have experienced similar issues. In 2008, Nippon Professional Baseball took steps aimed at shortening games by 12 minutes from the preceding decade's average of 3:18.[120] In 2016, the average nine-inning playoff game in Major League baseball was 3 hours and 35 minutes. This was up 10 minutes from 2015 and 21 minutes from 2014.[121] In response to the lengthening of the game, MLB decided from the 2023 season onward to institute a pitch clock rule to penalize batters and pitchers who take too much time between pitches.[122] Individual focus Babe Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the New York Yankees Although baseball is a team sport, individual players are often placed under scrutiny and pressure. While rewarding, it has sometimes been described as "ruthless" due to the pressure on the individual player.[123] In 1915, a baseball instructional manual pointed out that every single pitch, of which there are often more than two hundred in a game, involves an individual, one-on-one contest: "the pitcher and the batter in a battle of wits".[124] Pitcher, batter, and fielder all act essentially independent of each other. While coaching staffs can signal pitcher or batter to pursue certain tactics, the execution of the play itself is a series of solitary acts. If the batter hits a line drive, the outfielder is solely responsible for deciding to try to catch it or play it on the bounce and for succeeding or failing. The statistical precision of baseball is both facilitated by this isolation and reinforces it. Cricket is more similar to baseball than many other team sports in this regard: while the individual focus in cricket is mitigated by the importance of the batting partnership and the practicalities of tandem running, it is enhanced by the fact that a batsman may occupy the wicket for an hour or much more.[125] There is no statistical equivalent in cricket for the fielding error and thus less emphasis on personal responsibility in this area of play.[126] Uniqueness of parks Further information: Ballpark Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The Green Monster is visible beyond the playing field on the left. Unlike those of most sports, baseball playing fields can vary significantly in size and shape. While the dimensions of the infield are specifically regulated, the only constraint on outfield size and shape for professional teams, following the rules of MLB and Minor League Baseball, is that fields built or remodeled since June 1, 1958, must have a minimum distance of 325 feet (99 m) from home plate to the fences in left and right field and 400 feet (122 m) to center.[127] Major league teams often skirt even this rule. For example, at Minute Maid Park, which became the home of the Houston Astros in 2000, the Crawford Boxes in left field are only 315 feet (96 m) from home plate.[128] There are no rules at all that address the height of fences or other structures at the edge of the outfield. The most famously idiosyncratic outfield boundary is the left-field wall at Boston's Fenway Park, in use since 1912: the Green Monster is 310 feet (94 m) from home plate down the line and 37 feet (11 m) tall.[129] Similarly, there are no regulations at all concerning the dimensions of foul territory. Thus a foul fly ball may be entirely out of play in a park with little space between the foul lines and the stands, but a foulout in a park with more expansive foul ground.[130] A fence in foul territory that is close to the outfield line will tend to direct balls that strike it back toward the fielders, while one that is farther away may actually prompt more collisions, as outfielders run full speed to field balls deep in the corner. These variations can make the difference between a double and a triple or inside-the-park home run.[131] The surface of the field is also unregulated. While the adjacent image shows a traditional field surfacing arrangement (and the one used by virtually all MLB teams with naturally surfaced fields), teams are free to decide what areas will be grassed or bare.[132] Some fields—including several in MLB—use artificial turf. Surface variations can have a significant effect on how ground balls behave and are fielded as well as on baserunning. Similarly, the presence of a roof (seven major league teams play in stadiums with permanent or retractable roofs) can greatly affect how fly balls are played.[133] While football and soccer players deal with similar variations of field surface and stadium covering, the size and shape of their fields are much more standardized. The area out-of-bounds on a football or soccer field does not affect play the way foul territory in baseball does, so variations in that regard are largely insignificant.[134] A New York Yankees batter (Andruw Jones) and a Boston Red Sox catcher at Fenway Park These physical variations create a distinctive set of playing conditions at each ballpark. Other local factors, such as altitude and climate, can also significantly affect play. A given stadium may acquire a reputation as a pitcher's park or a hitter's park, if one or the other discipline notably benefits from its unique mix of elements. The most exceptional park in this regard is Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. Its high altitude—5,282 feet (1,610 m) above sea level—is partly responsible for giving it the strongest hitter's park effect in the major leagues due to the low air pressure.[135] Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, is known for its fickle disposition: a pitcher's park when the strong winds off Lake Michigan are blowing in, it becomes more of a hitter's park when they are blowing out.[136] The absence of a standardized field affects not only how particular games play out, but the nature of team rosters and players' statistical records. For example, hitting a fly ball 330 feet (100 m) into right field might result in an easy catch on the warning track at one park, and a home run at another. A team that plays in a park with a relatively short right field, such as the New York Yankees, will tend to stock its roster with left-handed pull hitters, who can best exploit it. On the individual level, a player who spends most of his career with a team that plays in a hitter's park will gain an advantage in batting statistics over time—even more so if his talents are especially suited to the park.[137] Statistics Further information: Baseball statistics Organized baseball lends itself to statistics to a greater degree than many other sports. Each play is discrete and has a relatively small number of possible outcomes. In the late 19th century, a former cricket player, English-born Henry Chadwick of Brooklyn, was responsible for the "development of the box score, tabular standings, the annual baseball guide, the batting average, and most of the common statistics and tables used to describe baseball."[138] The statistical record is so central to the game's "historical essence" that Chadwick came to be known as Father Baseball.[138] In the 1920s, American newspapers began devoting more and more attention to baseball statistics, initiating what journalist and historian Alan Schwarz describes as a "tectonic shift in sports, as intrigue that once focused mostly on teams began to go to individual players and their statistics lines."[139] The Official Baseball Rules administered by MLB require the official scorer to categorize each baseball play unambiguously. The rules provide detailed criteria to promote consistency. The score report is the official basis for both the box score of the game and the relevant statistical records.[140] General managers, managers, and baseball scouts use statistics to evaluate players and make strategic decisions. Rickey Henderson—the major leagues' all-time leader in runs and stolen bases—stealing third base in a 1988 game Certain traditional statistics are familiar to most baseball fans. The basic batting statistics include:[141] At bats: plate appearances, excluding walks and hit by pitches—where the batter's ability is not fully tested—and sacrifices and sacrifice flies—where the batter intentionally makes an out in order to advance one or more baserunners Hits: times a base is reached safely, because of a batted, fair ball without a fielding error or fielder's choice Runs: times circling the bases and reaching home safely Runs batted in (RBIs): number of runners who scored due to a batter's action (including the batter, in the case of a home run), except when batter grounded into double play or reached on an error Home runs: hits on which the batter successfully touched all four bases, without the contribution of a fielding error Batting average: hits divided by at bats—the traditional measure of batting ability The basic baserunning statistics include:[142] Stolen bases: times advancing to the next base entirely due to the runner's own efforts, generally while the pitcher is preparing to deliver or delivering the ball Caught stealing: times tagged out while attempting to steal a base Cy Young—the holder of many major league career marks, including wins and innings pitched, as well as losses—in 1908. MLB's annual awards for the best pitcher in each league are named for Young. The basic pitching statistics include:[143] Wins: credited to pitcher on winning team who last pitched before the team took a lead that it never relinquished (a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings to qualify for a win) Losses: charged to pitcher on losing team who was pitching when the opposing team took a lead that it never relinquished Saves: games where the pitcher enters a game led by the pitcher's team, finishes the game without surrendering the lead, is not the winning pitcher, and either (a) the lead was three runs or less when the pitcher entered the game; (b) the potential tying run was on base, at bat, or on deck; or (c) the pitcher pitched three or more innings Innings pitched: outs recorded while pitching divided by three (partial innings are conventionally recorded as, e.g., "5.2" or "7.1", the last digit actually representing thirds, not tenths, of an inning) Strikeouts: times pitching three strikes to a batter Winning percentage: wins divided by decisions (wins plus losses) Earned run average (ERA): runs allowed, excluding those resulting from fielding errors, per nine innings pitched The basic fielding statistics include:[144] Putouts: times the fielder catches a fly ball, tags or forces out a runner, or otherwise directly effects an out Assists: times a putout by another fielder was recorded following the fielder touching the ball Errors: times the fielder fails to make a play that should have been made with common effort, and the batting team benefits as a result Total chances: putouts plus assists plus errors Fielding average: successful chances (putouts plus assists) divided by total chances Among the many other statistics that are kept are those collectively known as situational statistics. For example, statistics can indicate which specific pitchers a certain batter performs best against. If a given situation statistically favors a certain batter, the manager of the fielding team may be more likely to change pitchers or have the pitcher intentionally walk the batter in order to face one who is less likely to succeed.[145] Sabermetrics Sabermetrics refers to the field of baseball statistical study and the development of new statistics and analytical tools. The term is also used to refer directly to new statistics themselves. The term was coined around 1980 by one of the field's leading proponents, Bill James, and derives from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).[146] The growing popularity of sabermetrics since the early 1980s has brought more attention to two batting statistics that sabermetricians argue are much better gauges of a batter's skill than batting average:[147] On-base percentage (OBP) measures a batter's ability to get on base. It is calculated by taking the sum of the batter's successes in getting on base (hits plus walks plus hit by pitches) and dividing that by the batter's total plate appearances (at bats plus walks plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies), except for sacrifice bunts.[148] Slugging percentage (SLG) measures a batter's ability to hit for power. It is calculated by taking the batter's total bases (one per each single, two per double, three per triple, and four per home run) and dividing that by the batter's at bats.[149] Some of the new statistics devised by sabermetricians have gained wide use: On-base plus slugging (OPS) measures a batter's overall ability. It is calculated by adding the batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.[150] Walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) measures a pitcher's ability at preventing hitters from reaching base. It is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits a pitcher surrendered, then dividing by the number of innings pitched.[151] Wins Above Replacement (WAR) measures number of additional wins his team has achieved above the number of expected team wins if that player were substituted with a replacement-level player.[152] Popularity and cultural impact Two players on the baseball team of Tokyo, Japan's Waseda University in 1921 Writing in 1919, philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen described baseball as the national religion of the US.[153] In the words of sports columnist Jayson Stark, baseball has long been "a unique paragon of American culture"—a status he sees as devastated by the steroid abuse scandal.[154] Baseball has an important place in other national cultures as well: Scholar Peter Bjarkman describes "how deeply the sport is ingrained in the history and culture of a nation such as Cuba, [and] how thoroughly it was radically reshaped and nativized in Japan."[155] In the United States The major league game in the United States was originally targeted toward a middle-class, white-collar audience: relative to other spectator pastimes, the National League's set ticket price of 50 cents in 1876 was high, while the location of playing fields outside the inner city and the workweek daytime scheduling of games were also obstacles to a blue-collar audience.[156] A century later, the situation was very different. With the rise in popularity of other team sports with much higher average ticket prices—football, basketball, and hockey—professional baseball had become among the most blue-collar-oriented of leading American spectator sports.[157] The Tampere Tigers celebrating the 2017 title in Turku, Finland Overall, baseball has a large following in the United States; a 2006 poll found that nearly half of Americans are fans.[158] In the late 1900s and early 2000s, baseball's position compared to football in the United States moved in contradictory directions. In 2008, MLB set a revenue record of $6.5 billion, matching the NFL's revenue for the first time in decades.[159] A new MLB revenue record of more than $10 billion was set in 2017.[160] On the other hand, the percentage of American sports fans polled who named baseball as their favorite sport was 9%, compared to pro football at 37%.[161] In 1985, the respective figures were pro football 24%, baseball 23%.[162] Because there are so many more major league games played, there is no comparison in overall attendance.[163] In 2008, total attendance at major league games was the second-highest in history: 78.6 million, 0.7% off the record set the previous year.[85] The following year, amid the U.S. recession, attendance fell by 6.6% to 73.4 million.[164] Eight years later, it dropped under 73 million.[165] Attendance at games held under the Minor League Baseball umbrella set a record in 2008, with 43.3 million.[166] While MLB games have not drawn the same national TV viewership as football games, MLB games are dominant in teams' local markets and regularly lead all programs in primetime in their markets during the summer.[167] Caribbean Since the early 1980s, the Dominican Republic, in particular the city of San Pedro de Macorís, has been the major leagues' primary source of foreign talent.[168] In 2017, 83 of the 868 players on MLB Opening Day rosters (and disabled lists) were from the country. Among other Caribbean countries and territories, a combined 97 MLB players were born in Venezuela, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.[169] Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente remains one of the greatest national heroes in Puerto Rico's history.[170] While baseball has long been the island's primary athletic pastime, its once well-attended professional winter league has declined in popularity since 1990, when young Puerto Rican players began to be included in the major leagues' annual first-year player draft.[171] In Cuba, where baseball is by every reckoning the national sport,[172] the national team overshadows the city and provincial teams that play in the top-level domestic leagues.[173] Asia An Afghan girl playing baseball in August 2002 In Asia, baseball is among the most popular sports in Japan and South Korea.[174] In Japan, where baseball is inarguably the leading spectator team sport, combined revenue for the twelve teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the body that oversees both the Central and Pacific Leagues, was estimated at $1 billion in 2007. Total NPB attendance for the year was approximately 20 million. While in the preceding two decades, MLB attendance grew by 50 percent and revenue nearly tripled, the comparable NPB figures were stagnant. There are concerns that MLB's growing interest in acquiring star Japanese players will hurt the game in their home country.[175] Revenue figures are not released for the country's amateur system. Similarly, according to one official pronouncement, the sport's governing authority "has never taken into account attendance ... because its greatest interest has always been the development of athletes".[176] In Taiwan, baseball is one of the most widely spectated sports, with the origins dating back to Japanese rule.[177] Among children As of 2018, Little League Baseball oversees leagues with close to 2.4 million participants in over 80 countries.[178] The number of players has fallen since the 1990s, when 3 million children took part in Little League Baseball annually.[179] Babe Ruth League teams have over 1 million participants.[180] According to the president of the International Baseball Federation, between 300,000 and 500,000 women and girls play baseball around the world, including Little League and the introductory game of Tee Ball.[181] A varsity baseball team is an established part of physical education departments at most high schools and colleges in the United States.[182] In 2015, nearly half a million high schoolers and over 34,000 collegians played on their schools' baseball teams.[183] By early in the 20th century, intercollegiate baseball was Japan's leading sport. Today, high school baseball in particular is immensely popular there.[184] The final rounds of the two annual tournaments—the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in the spring, and the even more important National High School Baseball Championship in the summer—are broadcast around the country. The tournaments are known, respectively, as Spring Koshien and Summer Koshien after the 55,000-capacity stadium where they are played.[185] In Cuba, baseball is a mandatory part of the state system of physical education, which begins at age six. Talented children as young as seven are sent to special district schools for more intensive training—the first step on a ladder whose acme is the national baseball team.[173] In popular culture The American Tobacco Company's line of baseball cards featured shortstop Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1909 to 1911. In 2007, the card shown here sold for $2.8 million.[186] Baseball has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the United States and elsewhere. Dozens of English-language idioms have been derived from baseball; in particular, the game is the source of a number of widely used sexual euphemisms.[187] The first networked radio broadcasts in North America were of the 1922 World Series: famed sportswriter Grantland Rice announced play-by-play from New York City's Polo Grounds on WJZ–Newark, New Jersey, which was connected by wire to WGY–Schenectady, New York, and WBZ–Springfield, Massachusetts.[188] The baseball cap has become a ubiquitous fashion item not only in the United States and Japan, but also in countries where the sport itself is not particularly popular, such as the United Kingdom.[189] Baseball has inspired many works of art and entertainment. One of the first major examples, Ernest Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat", appeared in 1888. A wry description of the failure of a star player in what would now be called a "clutch situation", the poem became the source of vaudeville and other staged performances, audio recordings, film adaptations, and an opera, as well as a host of sequels and parodies in various media. There have been many baseball movies, including the Academy Award–winning The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and the Oscar nominees The Natural (1984) and Field of Dreams (1989). The American Film Institute's selection of the ten best sports movies includes The Pride of the Yankees at number 3 and Bull Durham (1988) at number 5.[190] Baseball has provided thematic material for hits on both stage—the Adler–Ross musical Damn Yankees—and record—George J. Gaskin's "Slide, Kelly, Slide", Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", and John Fogerty's "Centerfield".[191] The baseball-inspired comedic sketch "Who's on First?", popularized by Abbott and Costello in 1938, quickly became famous. Six decades later, Time named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century.[192] Literary works connected to the game include the short fiction of Ring Lardner and novels such as Bernard Malamud's The Natural (the source for the movie), Robert Coover's The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., John Grisham's Calico Joe and W. P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe (the source for Field of Dreams). Baseball's literary canon also includes the beat reportage of Damon Runyon; the columns of Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Dick Young, and Peter Gammons; and the essays of Roger Angell. Among the celebrated nonfiction books in the field are Lawrence S. Ritter's The Glory of Their Times, Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer, and Michael Lewis's Moneyball. The 1970 publication of major league pitcher Jim Bouton's tell-all chronicle Ball Four is considered a turning point in the reporting of professional sports.[193] Baseball has also inspired the creation of new cultural forms. Baseball cards were introduced in the late 19th century as trade cards. A typical example featured an image of a baseball player on one side and advertising for a business on the other. In the early 1900s they were produced widely as promotional items by tobacco and confectionery companies. The 1930s saw the popularization of the modern style of baseball card, with a player photograph accompanied on the rear by statistics and biographical data. Baseball cards—many of which are now prized collectibles—are the source of the much broader trading card industry, involving similar products for different sports and non-sports-related fields.[194] Modern fantasy sports began in 1980 with the invention of Rotisserie League Baseball by New York writer Daniel Okrent and several friends. Participants in a Rotisserie league draft notional teams from the list of active MLB players and play out an entire imaginary season with game outcomes based on the players' latest real-world statistics. Rotisserie-style play quickly became a phenomenon. Now known more generically as fantasy baseball, it has inspired similar games based on an array of different sports.[195] The field boomed with increasing Internet access and new fantasy sports-related websites. By 2008, 29.9 million people in the United States and Canada were playing fantasy sports, spending $800 million on the hobby.[196] The burgeoning popularity of fantasy baseball is also credited with the increasing attention paid to sabermetrics—first among fans, only later among baseball professionals.[197] Derivative games Main article: Variations of baseball Informal variations of baseball have popped up over time, with games like corkball reflecting local traditions and allowing the game to be played in diverse environments.[198] Two variations of baseball, softball and Baseball5, are internationally governed alongside baseball by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.[199] British baseball Main article: British baseball American professional baseball teams toured Britain in 1874 and 1889, and had a great effect on similar sports in Britain. In Wales and Merseyside, a strong community game had already developed with skills and plays more in keeping with the American game and the Welsh began to informally adopt the name "baseball" (Pêl Fas), to reflect the American style. By the 1890s, calls were made to follow the success of other working class sports (like Rugby in Wales and Soccer in Merseyside) and adopt a distinct set of rules and bureaucracy.[200] During the 1892 season rules for the game of "baseball" were agreed and the game was officially codified.[201] Finnish baseball Main article: Pesäpallo Finnish baseball, known as pesäpallo, is a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and North American baseball, invented by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala in the 1920s.[202] The basic idea of pesäpallo is similar to that of baseball: the offense tries to score by hitting the ball successfully and running through the bases, while the defense tries to put the batter and runners out. One of the most important differences between pesäpallo and baseball is that the ball is pitched vertically, which makes hitting the ball, as well as controlling the power and direction of the hit, much easier. This gives the offensive game more variety, speed, and tactical aspects compared to baseball.[202] See also icon Baseball portal Baseball awards Baseball clothing and equipment List of baseball films List of organized baseball leagues Women in baseball Related sports Brännboll (Scandinavian bat-and-ball game) Comparison of baseball and cricket Lapta (game) (Russian bat-and-ball game) Oină (Romanian bat-and-ball game) Snow baseball (with similar rules played in India during winters) Stickball Stoop ball Vitilla Wiffle ball
  • Type: Photograph
  • Subject: Baseball

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