Black Baseball in New York City

Covering the post–Civil War period through the 1950s, this richly illustrated—300 photographs!—history examines black baseball in and around New York City, focusing on its economic impact and cultural legacy. The author documents such famed teams as the Cuban Giants, Lincoln Stars/Giants, Black Yankees, Newark Eagles, and Brooklyn Royal Giants, along with a number of other historically important clubs, as well as the integration of Major League Baseball’s Dodgers, Yankees and Giants. The photos include rare images of Willie Wells, Smokey Joe Williams, Satchel Paige, Minnie Minoso, Monte Irvin, Martin Dihigo, Pete Hill, Rap Dixon and Cannonball Redding, among many others.

Noted Negro League historian Larry Lester is the author of eight books and contributor to more then 175 books, theses, and articles on black sports history. He is a Negro Leagues Baseball Museum co-founder and has long served as chairman of the SABR Negro Leagues Committee. Since 1998, he has organized the annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, the only scholarly gathering devoted to the history of black baseball. Lester was a 2016 recipient of SABR’s Henry Chadwick Award, honoring baseball’s greatest researchers, and a year later received the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Larry Lester
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 302 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7046-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2941-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgment ix
Preface 1

Early Days of Black Baseball in New York
1. Cuban Giants, 1885–1899 3
2. Lincoln Stars, 1914–1916 15

Eastern Colored League
3. Brooklyn Royal Giants, 1905–1927 22
4. Cuban Stars (East), 1917–1932 37
5. Lincoln Giants, 1911–1930 49

Negro National League
6. New York Black Yankees, 1932–1950 63
7. New York Cubans, 1935–1936, 1939–1950 85

Brooklyn’s Best Bums
8. Brooklyn Eagles, 1935 122
9. Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, 1945–1946 132
10. Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947–1957 137

New York’s Sugar Hill Teams
11. New York Giants, 1949–1957 188
12. New York Yankees, 1955–1959 212

Faux New York Teams
13. Harlem Globetrotters 223
14. New York Black Travelers 229
15. Harlem Stars 230

East-West ­All-Stars Representing New York–Based Teams 233
New York State Cemeteries 235
Index 237

• “A powerful story, powerfully told.”—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter
• “This is a terrific piece of research, particularly on the pre-1925 years for which so little has been written. There is a wonderful collection of photos with very informative captions.”—David Neft, editor, The Baseball Encyclopedia, 1969, co-author The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1973-2007