The Integration of Major League Baseball

This book is a record of the men and events, team by team, during Major League Baseball’s integration. It focuses especially on the owners, executives and managers who were the heroes, villains or spectators of integration, and it sheds new light on the unheralded champions of integration and on those whose culpability has so far been overlooked. Individual chapters cover each of baseball’s integration-era teams, and a final chapter covers expansion teams of the 1960s. Each team’s responsible individuals are examined, its acquisition, deployment and treatment of black players documented, and the effect of its integration actions on team performance analyzed. Appendices provide populations of integration-era Major League cities, first black players by team, first black players in various minor leagues, rosters of black players by team, a timeline of black player milestones, and a list of black All-Star selections through 1969.

Society for American Baseball Research member Rick Swaine has five baseball books in publication, two of them on baseball’s integration era. He has also been a contributor to The Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime. Retired from an accounting career, he lives in the Tallahassee, Florida area.

Rick Swaine
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 279
Bibliographic Info: 56 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012 [2009]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6935-2
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5334-4
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

Integration Timeline      3

Introduction: Baseball’s Ignoble History of Segregation      9

1. The Dawn of Baseball’s Integration Era      23

2. The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers      34

3. The Cleveland Indians      48

4. The St. Louis Browns      62

5. The Baltimore Orioles      71

6. The New York/San Francisco Giants      77

7. The Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves      89

8. The Chicago White Sox      100

9. The Pittsburgh Pirates      111

10. The Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics      121

11. The Chicago Cubs      130

12. The St. Louis Cardinals      143

13. The Cincinnati Reds      155

14. The Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins      166

15. The New York Yankees      177

16. The Philadelphia Phillies      191

17. The Detroit Tigers      205

18. The Boston Red Sox      217

19. The 1960s Expansion Teams      230

Appendix A: Population of Integration Era Major League Cities      237

Appendix B: First Black Award Winners and League Leaders      238

Appendix C: First Black Players in Various Minor Leagues      239

Appendix D: Roster of Black Players by Team (1947–1959)       240

Appendix E: Black Player All-Star Selections Through 1969      243

Chapter Notes      245

Bibliography      257

Index      261

“provides a fresh and thorough team view of the integration of Major League Baseball. This book is highly recommended”—ARBA; “a book baseball fans will want to keep”—Tallahassee.com.