South of the Color Barrier

This book tells the story of how Mexican multimillionaire businessman Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League hastened the integration of major league baseball. During the decade that preceded Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier, almost 150 players from the Negro League played in Mexico, most of them recruited by Pasquel.

John Virtue is director of the International Media Center at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. He lives in Miami Beach.

John Virtue
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 239
Bibliographic Info: 26 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3293-6
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword by Monte Irvin      1
Preface      5
Introduction      7

1. Not a Stereotypical Mexican      15
2. Baseballs and Bullets      23
3. Blacks Are Barred from Baseball      30
4. Cuba’s Baseball Pioneers      37
5. Negro Leaguers Face Discrimination      43
6. Cracks in the Color Barrier      48
7. A Dictator Raids the Negro Leagues      56
8. Satchel Paige Heads South      60
9. Negro Leaguers Are Courted      69
10. Pasquel Forms Team, Wins Title      74
11. Red Carpet for Black Players      86
12. Negro Leagues React to the Mexican Threat      94
13. World War II      100
14. Majors Lose Fans, Negro Leagues Gain      110
15. Latino Major Leaguers Jump      115
16. The Pressure to Integrate Baseball      120
17. Pasquel Raids the Majors      125
18. Pasquel Courts White Stars      130
19. Stephens Bolts, Owen Stays      135
20. Name-Calling      141
21. Fisticuffs on the Field      148
22. The Reserve Clause Is Challenged      155
23. Black Versus White      162
24. Robinson Integrates Organized Baseball      169
25. Mexican Leaguers Go to the Majors      177
26. The Mexican League Faces a Crisis      183
27. The Commissioner Lifts the Ban       188
28. Pasquel Quits Baseball      193

Epilogue      200
Appendix: Known Negro League Players in Mexico, 1937–1946      205
Chapter Notes      207
Bibliography      217
Index      223

“John Virtue has more in mind than baseball. He sets the story of [Jorge] Pasquel’s work as a promoter, businessman, hustler, and champion of equal rights against the background of the historical relationship between Pasquel’s native land and the colossus to the north, a relationship that Porfirio Diaz, for 35 years the president of Mexico, once summarized by opining ‘Poor Mexico. We are so far away from God and so close to the United States.’”—Boston Sunday Globe; “engaging and inspiring story”—La Prensa del Beisbol Latino.