Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams

Robert Peterson’s Only the Ball Was White, as the first volume to cover the full history of the Negro Leagues, is justifiably a landmark in this subsection of baseball books. Published in 1970, Peterson brought to light the full picture of black baseball and the shameful “gentleman’s agreement” to exclude players from the major leagues. Section titles referencing old Negro spirituals add poignancy to the narrative, and serve as a reminder of that ongoing struggle for racial equality and the oppressive Jim Crow laws of those unreconstructed times. The opening pages immediately draw the reader into Negro League experience via oral histories from some of the players a la Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times.

Here's a book that combines the thing I love the most, baseball, with the thing I hate the most, social injustice. So why don't I give it five stars, you ask? Because the book is far too short! It answers only about half the questions I have about the whole sordid arrangement of segregated baseball. The mention of some of the "moguls" of the Negro Leagues only whets my appetite for more information about them. The rivalry between Eastern and Western teams needs to be explored in more detail, would a peace settlement have led to more prosperity for all? What about the Birmingham Black Barons? What was it like to play for a team in the deep Jim Crow south? What issues and personalities were REALLY at the heart of the color ban? It can't show more all be laid at the feet of Cap Anson, can it? Seems like Judge Landis gets off far too easily!
All in all a terrific book, but it's almost like the author felt too much detail would be unwanted, so he just illustrated a few highlights instead. I'd like the whole story! show less

Robert Peterson originally published this book in 1970 so it's really the original and standard history of the Negro Leagues. Peterson not only tells the history of these leagues and some of the great players, but also provides brief biographical sketches of dozens of players whose big league service would otherwise be lost to history. The book also has extensive appendices with annual standings and box scores of all-star games. The book gives us glimpses into Jim Crow America (and it was not just in the South).

Peterson portrays the often overlooked fact that the Negro Leagues were a business venture run almost exclusively by and for black people. And it was a tough business at that, but one that drew often sizeable crowds, especially show more on exciting and exhausting barnstorming tours. The Negro Leagues could not survive integration as its best players were siphoned off to the 'majors'. Despite the obvious benefits to those men who were finally broke through the wall of prejudice, the reader also understands that there was a sense of loss when the leagues shut down in 1960. More powerfully, the reader experiences the lost opportunities suffered by those players who never got the chance to play in the majors and make major league money, like Jimmie Crutchfield, the Black Lloyd Waner, who barely made a living on one side of Pittsburgh playing for the Crawfords while Waner hauled down $12,000 a year (a princely sum at the time) playing for the Pirates.

A must read for anyone interested in baseball, race relations, or American history. show less

This is the definitive history of Negro League baseball. It contains a tremendous amount of research including first person accounts from the players and contemporary newspaper accounts. There is also an appendix with an impressive amount of box scores and standings.