Very good breif look at Early Black MLB players

While the story of Jackie Robinson is well-known, even by people who are not baseball fans, he was not the only Black baseball player who faced challenges in the early days of the integration of the sport. Many fans, managers, fellow players and even teams were resistant to the inevitable change, but by 1959, all 16 major league teams had at least one Black player. Aside from Robinson, this book by Jeffrey S. Copeland introduces the reader to the first Black player for each of the other 15 teams.

The format for each chapter, one for each player, is the same and explained in the preface. The chapter starts with the name of the player and the team with which he entered the major leagues. Then a description of him in a team picture or with teammates, an interesting story about him, a brief summary of his career, and his major league stats. It starts with Larry Doby, who signed with the Cleveland Indians later in the 1947 season and ends with Pumpsie Green, who signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1959 to become the final club to integrate.

What made the book enjoyable as a leisurely read was that the stories were not strictly about baseball, social justice or even about the player’s life. While there was some of these types of stories, they were mostly one snippet of either their time on the field with the major league team or interactions in places like the team hotel or at meals. One of the better stories was actually one that was well-known. The story on Sam Jethroe, the first Black player signed by the then-Boston Braves in 1950, was mostly about his tryout with the Red Sox in 1945 – a story well known because Jackie Robinson was also in that tryout. As it is known, the Red Sox had no intention of signing those players. It was their loss and the gains for the Dodgers and Braves.

While overall this book is very good, if a reader is interested in it, I highly recommend avoiding the audio version and picking either the physical or electronic copy. The biggest reason is so that the captions of the pictures make sense since the reader can see those photos. The other main reason is that the virtual voice narration reads the player statistics in a manner that is not done by baseball fans and broadcaster. For example, if the player’s batting average is .275, instead of “two seventy-five”, the narration says the batting average is “point two seven five.” Otherwise, the narration is okay, but it still was strange to hear this.

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