Black Baseball Out of Season: Pay for Play Outside of the Negro Leagues

Negro League ballplayers, earning paychecks comparable to those of blue-collar workers, needed an off-season source of income to make ends meet. Many of them found the answer in baseball, by joining racially integrated barnstorming teams that toured the country after the regular season ended, or by playing in the organized winter leagues that operated in Florida, California, and several Caribbean and Central and South American countries.

This history recounts the experiences of American bla...