At Home Plate

Book Review: Only the Ball was White

Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams
by Robert Peterson
p 404
Published by Gramercy Books.


If there is a recent book that is more definitive on the topic of the Negro Leagues and black baseball through the early years of baseball’s integration, I have not read it, nor am I even aware of it. Only the Ball was White is a book of tremendous scope and unlike Black Diamond (review), it is written for an adult audience. It covers roughly ninety years in scope, from 1867 to 1960 and provides an overview of how organized baseball dealt with the questions of race, ability and baseball, or perhaps how it failed to.

In many ways the popularity of baseball was something that came as a direct result of the Civil War. Before the war (at least as early as 1856 but more likely since 1852) baseball had been a game played by the well to do in New York City but it was little more than a game of the gentry. The Civil War however brought baseball from New York and into the Union and eventually even the Confederate armies were playing. On the Union side baseball was played by troops both white and black, together, and when the war ended, baseball had become a part of the American culture both black and white.

While the game spread south following the war, many of the 4.5 million African Americans who had become citizens, migrated north, where more opportunity and lesser degrees of prejudice existed - including the chance to play baseball. However while the prejudice was lesser or at least not as blatant, it still existed. In 1867 the first color line in baseball was drawn by the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) who barred Negroes and the clubs for which they played from joining the association. The NABBP survived only a short time thereafter to be supplanted by the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) in 1871. The NAPBBP never set a rule in writing but had a gentleman’s agreement not to admit Negro players or their teams and they set the precedent for the unspoken agreement until the color line fell again when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.

This however did not stop black men from playing the game. They played amongst themselves and by 1867 there were some formal teams playing challenge matches against each other. In fact, the first self-proclaimed “Colored Championship” was played in that year by the Brooklyn Uniques and the Philadelphia Excelsiors.

If truth be told, the ban on colored players was not a complete one even in professional baseball. In a year around 1872 (records are kind of sketchy) John “Bud” Fowler, a black man from Cooperstown, New York, joined a white team from New Hope, PA. He played as a professional for 25 years with white teams. In 1887 as many as 20 black men were playing in the minor leagues of their time, but the tide was turning against them and in 1898 the final official game of professional baseball involving both black and white men was played. This lasted until 1946 when Jackie Robinson joined the Montreal affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Black baseball however rolled on. In 1885 the Cuban Giants (Cuban was a euphemism used by many teams in the hopes that if they were not seen to be blacks they might be allowed into professional baseball) may have been the first salaried black team, but there were to be many more. Most of these teams were local and played against other local teams but some were barnstormers, traveling and for a fraction of the gate or a set fee taking on local teams of any color.

There were white men who wanted to the color lines broken but they were not strong enough to fight the pressure put on them directly. They tried subterfuge, signing players as Hawaiians, Spaniards, Cubans, and even in the famous case of John McGraw trying to pass black second baseman, Charles Grant, off as the Native American Charlie Tokohama. Had any of these subterfuges been successful the color barrier might have been weakened but as it was, even real Hispanics of dark skin were discriminated against - to the point that they too were barred from the game.

From that discrimination came the Negro Leagues, as well as the informal teams that barnstormed. There were a large number of leagues in black baseball, most unsuccessful, not due to lack of talent, but due to lack of organization and agreements between owners. Leagues lived and died, as did teams. By today’s standards Negro baseball could at best be described as chaotic, but great teams and great stars existed there.

The book provides information, not just on the great teams, but of the players themselves, the pioneers, the groundbreakers, and those who tried to elevate the game. There are chapters and sections on the names we know and a few that we don’t know. You can read about Satchel Paige, or Josh Gibson who was called “the black Babe Ruth”, about Rube Foster, Roy Campanella, speedster “Cool Papa” Bell, or John Henry Lloyd who was called the “black Honus Wagner” (and of who Honus Wagner said that “it was a privilege to have been compared with him.”)

Finally it comes to the final years of segregated professional baseball (blacks and whites often played against each other in barnstorming tours) and the collapse of the color barrier. Even then the barriers fell slowly, with only 5 teams having black ballplayers in 1950. In 1959 the last holdout team, the Boston Red Sox, finally signed their first black player Pumpsie Green.

The last part of the book tries to share with reader the statistics of the Negro Leagues that can be pieced together as well as biographies of the legendary black players of black baseball. Though modern research by members of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) has improved upon much of the data, what is presented here gives a picture of Negro League baseball that will be etched on your mind.

Give this book 3 out of 4 balls, for the fascinating read, history, and thoughtfulness it provokes. While not the most modern book about Negro baseball, it has a power than makes it one of my favorite baseball books of all time.

Have you always wanted to be a sportswriter? We did too! We can always use writers, editors, fact checkers, photographers, graphic designers, and web gurus to help us make the site even better. Come chase your dreams with us. Click here for more information

Would you like to Exchange Links? Our links page can be found here: Links

Search Now: