Color blind : the forgotten team that broke baseball's color line

Title
  1. Color blind : the forgotten team that broke baseball's color line / Tom Dunkel.
Published by
  1. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2013]
Author
  1. Dunkel, Tom

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FormatTextAccessUse in libraryCall numberSc E 13-740Item locationSchomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
  1. xiii, 345 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
  1. During the Great Depression, in drought stricken Bismarck, North Dakota, one of the most improbable teams in the history of baseball was assembled by one of the sport's most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, car dealer Neil Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race, and fielded an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion. When baseball swept America in the years after the Civil War, independent, semipro, and municipal leagues sprouted up everywhere, especially in the large swaths of the country without a Major League team. With civic pride on the line, rivalries were fierce and teams often signed ringers to play alongside the town dentist, the insurance salesman, and the teen prodigy. But nothing could quite compare to Chrysler dealer Neil Churchill's team in Bismarck. Years ahead of his time, Churchill added stars from the Negro Leagues, including Quincy Trouppe, Hilton Smith, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, and the biggest star of them all, Satchel Paige. Set against the backdrop of the Great Plains and the Great Depression, Color Blind immerses the reader in the wild and wonderful world of independent baseball, with its tough competition and its novelty -- from all-brother teams and a prison team (who only played home games, naturally) to one from a religious commune that sported Old Testament beards. Dunkel traces the rise of the Bismarck squad, and follows them through their ups and downs, focusing on the 1935 season, and the first National Semipro Tournament in Wichita, Kansas.
Subject
  1. Baseball teams
  2. Discrimination in sports
  3. Racism in sports
  4. Semi-professional baseball
  5. African American baseball players
  6. Trouppe, Quincy, 1912-1993
  7. Discrimination in sports > United States > History
  8. Paige, Satchel, 1906-1982
  9. History
  10. Bismarck Churchills (Baseball team) History
  11. African American baseball players > History
  12. Racism in sports > United States > History
  13. Smith, Hilton, 1907-1983
  14. Semi-professional baseball > United States > History
  15. United States
  16. Churchill, Neil Orr, 1891-1969
  17. North Dakota > Bismarck
  18. SPORTS & RECREATION > Baseball > History
  19. Baseball teams > North Dakota > Bismarck > History
Genre/Form
  1. History.
Contents
  1. Preface : before 42 -- Coming together. Prairieland of opportunity ; Grasshoppers and hickory sticks ; Birth of a salesman ; Worlds apart ; Over the color line ; Throwing fire ; Showtime ; Nameless dread -- Playing together. Come and gone ; Feeling the heat ; Marriages and separations ; Cat and moose ; Long rifle rides again ; "A riotous opera of extra-base hits ..." -- Tested together. Little man, big idea ; Gunfight at the cowtown corral ; Big gun ; The Erle of Oklahoma ; Last team standing ; "Plenty of barn room" ; Endings ; Deep smoke winding.
Call number
  1. Sc E 13-740
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-345).
Author
  1. Dunkel, Tom, author.
Title
  1. Color blind : the forgotten team that broke baseball's color line / Tom Dunkel.
Publisher
  1. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2013]
Edition
  1. First edition.
Type of content
  1. text
Type of medium
  1. unmediated
Type of carrier
  1. volume
Bibliography
  1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-345).
LCCN
  1. 2014415003
ISBN
  1. 9780802120120
  2. 0802120121
Research call number
  1. Sc E 13-740
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