Black Baseball's National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 - Softcover

Lester, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803280009 ISBN 13: 9780803280007

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2002

Synopsis

The verdict is in. Whatever the deficiencies of the black baseball leagues as a source of reliable statistics, no one now doubts that when the best black players assembled for the annual East-West games, which for a generation paralleled the white All-Star games, the concentration of ability on the field was second to none. This work brings together for the first time the painstakingly assembled history of those games, including reconstructed play-by-plays and accurate statistical records. Larry Lester recaptures the vigor of black communities' united attention to the event, describes the players whose talent brought them to this pinnacle of achievement, and discusses the maneuvers of promoters, gamblers, and petty tyrants who cast an occasional shadow on the sunlit fields of Chicago. Larry Lester is the cofounder and former director of research at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. He has served as a consultant for and contributed to a number of research projects, firms, and museum exhibits related to black baseball. He is the coauthor of four books on black baseball, including most recently Black Baseball in Pittsburgh, and is the coeditor of The Negro Leagues Book. Joe Black was the starting pitcher in the 1950 East-West Game for the Baltimore Elite Giants. He started and won the first game in the 1952 World Series and won Rookie of the Year honors with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.

About this title

Review

"Lester has assembled 20 years of headlined articles, photos, game stats and league records into a sort of Negro Leagues all-star game almanac - -a year-by-year reconstruction of every East-West game from 1933 to 1953, with Lester's own historical notes offering context for each year's entries...There is an authentic, time capsule quality about Lester's collection and more than enough raw stats to fuel hot stove leagues across the country for many an evening." Publishers Weekly, January 28, 2002

About the Author

Larry Lester is the cofounder and former director of research at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. He has served as a consultant for and contributed to a number of research projects, firms, and museum exhibits related to black baseball. He is the coauthor of four books on black baseball, including most recently "Black Baseball in Pittsburgh," and is the coeditor of "The Negro Leagues Book." Joe Black was the starting pitcher in the 1950 East-West Game for the Baltimore Elite Giants. He started and won the first game in the 1952 World Series and won Rookie of the Year honors with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0803280009
• ISBN 13: 9780803280007
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 500