From 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, through 1959, when the Boston Red Sox became the last Major League team to integrate, more than a hundred African American baseball players crossed the color line and made it to the Major Leagues. Each of these players is profiled in this comprehensive book, which includes their statistics and capsule biographies, their triumphs and trials. Some of these players became superstars of the game and eventual Hall of Famers-Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Roy Campanella, and Bob Gibson; most were average...

Baseball once evoked all that was wholesome and sound in the world of sports: team spirit and fair play. But recently the national pastime has exemplified much of what is wrong with the American sporting scene, from steroid abuse and conflicts of interest to antitrust maneuvers and gambling scandals. In one fan s journey across the often unforgiving and frequently mysterious terrain known as the best interests of the game, this book examines the office of the commissioner of baseball and offers a fair and original assessment of how or whether the commissioner truly acts as the conscience of...