Negro League Baseball

The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution

De: Neil Lanctot

Narrado por: Todd Barsness

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents, Lanctot consulted virtually every sports page of every black newspaper located in a league city. He then conducted interviews with former players and scrutinized existing financial, court, and federal records.

Through his efforts, Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.

Winner of the 2005 Seymour Medal of the Society for American Baseball Research

©2004 Neil Lanctot (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Lanctot offers a careful and balanced judgment on the Negro leagues, one that is likely to stand for some time." ( The New York Times)

"Lanctot takes us beyond the ball field where the Paiges and Gibsons played in forced segregation, and into the commercial and social realities of baseball in black communities.... Lanctot offers a rich array of facts that history lovers can feast on." ( Washington Post)

"A fact-filled and thought-provoking book that should be of interest and use to scholars and lay readers interested in sports history, business history, and African American history." ( Enterprise and Society)

The research is the message

Negro league baseball is a compilation of exhaustive research completed by the author. It is about the business of Negro league baseball and less about its players. It serves an important purpose as documentation of the business of the Negro league. However it is a long and not so entertaining listen. I would suggest it only for those Who are interested in learning about the business of the Negro league and not its entertainment value.

The definitive history of negro league baseball

Neil Lanctot’s “Negro League Baseball” is the definitive history of Negro League Baseball in the United States. The author maps out the rise of this once beloved enterprise, the growing pains along the way, and its ultimate demise after Jackie Robinson finally broke the color barrier. Black entrepreneurs such as Cumberland “Cum” Posey, Gus Greenlee, Rube Foster, Abe Manley, and Ed Bolden created a league that played a positive social and economic role in black communities.


While Major League Baseball banned the participation of many talented black athletes for decades, the Negro Leagues were more diverse and succeeded with white American business man J. L. Wilkinson, who owned the prized Kansas City Monarchs for decades, and also served as secretary for the Negro National League. Effa Manley (Abe’s wife), who may have identified herself as black, was a successful white executive with the always competitive Newark Eagles.


The negro teams played lucrative games against semi pro and professional white teams, and rented Major League stadiums owned by white baseball owners that excluded blacks from playing in their league. The annual East West All-Star game played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, became a financial success for Negro League Baseball. The game was attended by more than 50,000 rapid fans in 1941 and 1943, and managed to survive until the 1960s.


Lanctot does an outstanding job of establishing the league’s hardships during the great depression, and the resiliency the league demonstrated during the war years. Despite the mounting restrictions on fuel and tires, the league preserved, even surviving while players were serving their country. Segregation forced teams to travel by bus, often times being denied service at restaurants, and being unable to find hotels that would allow them to rent rooms.


“Negro League Baseball” traces the path to integration, when the status quo finally struck out. The author superbly breaks down the social, cultural, and economic impact of integration. Many negro players were plucked from the Negro League’s without properly compensating the owners. The often outspoken Effa Manley voiced her dissatisfaction when she was forced to sell a player for $5,000, when the same player would have been purchased for $100,000 had they been white.


Lanctot writes the final chapter on Negro League Baseball, but not before future hall of famer’s Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron came through the circuit. Teams sold players to just to survive, but ultimately, couldn’t replace the talent being absorbed into the Major Leagues. In survival mode, many owners turned to gimmicks, such as featuring women, midgets, and clowns to attract an audience. The author puts the legacy of Negro League Baseball into proper perspective.

Very Robotic, hard to listen to, but informative

I am more knowledgeable having listen to this book, but it was an arduous task. Great information and data, but the narration sounds like it was AI generated.