Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1902-1931: The Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues

by Michael E. Lomax

Overview

As the companion volume to Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1860-1901: Operating by Any Means Necessary, Lomax's new book continues to chronicle the history of black baseball in the United States. The first volume traced the development of baseball from an exercise in community building among African Americans in the pre-Civil War era to a commercialized amusement and a rare and lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurship within the black community. In this book, Lomax takes a closer look at the marketing and promotion of the Negro Leagues by black baseball magnates. He explores how race influenced black baseball's institutional development and shaped the business relationship with white clubs and managers. Lomax analyzes the decisions that black baseball magnates made to insulate themselves from outside influences. He explains how this insulation may have distorted their perceptions and ultimately led to the Negro Leagues' demise. The collapse of the Negro Leagues by 1931 was, Lomax argues, "a dream deferred in the overall African American pursuit for freedom and self-determination."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815610397
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	06/27/2014
Series:	Sports and Entertainment
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Michael E. Lomax is associate professor of sport history in the Department of Health and Human Physiology at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1860-1901: Operating by Any Means Necessary.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction xi

Part 1 Independent Ball, 1902-1920

1 Continuity and Change 3

2 Black Professional Baseball's Growth and Expansion, 1906-1907 28

3 Striving for Professionalism 72

4 Years of Transition, 1911-1913 104

5 Black Baseball and the Separate Black Economy 138

6 The War Years: Toward the Rise of the Negro Leagues 171

Part 2 The Rise and Fall of the Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues, 1920-1931

7 Pitfalls of Baseball: The Rise of the Negro National League 241

8 Black Baseball War: The Rise of the Eastern Colored League 271

9 Pursuing Peace 309

10 Caught in a Rundown 342

11 Before the Fall 371

12 The End of an Era 404

Notes 429

Bibliography 471

Index 477

Editorial Reviews

Lomax recaptures this early period in the history of black baseball and the historical actors that shaped it. A valuable addition to the growing literature on Negro League history.

Adrian Burgos Jr.

A solid piece of scholarship that fills in big gaps in baseball historiography.

Our Man In Boston - Robert Birnbaum

As a very skilled sport historian, Lomax provides an informative and insightful analysis of black baseball entrepreneurs from 1902 to 1931. The structure and tenor of this volume captures the rise and fall of the Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues. Anyone wanting to take a fresh look at the inner-workings of early Negro Leagues baseball and the business acumen of black baseball owners, during their pinnacle and in their decline, should read this book.

Billy Hawkins