EDITOR RACHEL BORST TALKS ABOUT AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO BLACK BASEBALL HISTORY
John Holway was a major contributor to the field of Black baseball history and his contribution to Hastings House's reputation and the field of baseball history were both immeasurable. The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues, secured in 1997, was conceived as a reference work to cover black baseball history from its infancy in the pre-Civil War days to the end of the Negro League era in 1948. As Holway states in his introduction to this work, it was designed to pick up where the Macmillan Encyclopedia broke ground in 1989.
For a small company such as Hastings House, it was a massive undertaking that would require many dedicated months of author/agent liason and handholding, historical research, fact-checking and painstaking photo-editing. The huge rough-cut manuscript was initially nothing more than a loose compilation of statistics that Holway, a former specialist at the U.S. Information Agency, had taken three decades to compile. A former Casey Award winner and the author of five other books on Negro League history, the author was highly respected as a pioneer in the field of black baseball history. He was also an uncompromising perfectionist. And while he had in his possession a voluminous amount of obscure statistical information on topics ranging from the Cuban and Puerto Rican leagues to post-season games and matchups, it was far more difficult to balance this groundbreaking new material with consistent reporting, a problem attributable to the fact that Negro League baseball had never been given credence by the white media and black baseball management itself was often sloppy and uncaring about its own record keeping. From an editorial standpoint I had to find creative ways to fill in occasional but glaring information gaps and so chose to add historical tidbits which were relevant to the time periods under discussion in each chapter. As each chapter was demarcated chronologically, I attempted to set a progressive tone by placing emphasis on matters pertinent to both black history, the development of baseball, and African-American experiences in baseball as well as other popular sports.
While compiling this research it was with great interest to learn, for instance, that if it hadn't been for the racist sentiments of one man with great influence (George Preston Marshall), the field of football would have remained wide open to black players from its inception in 1920. While black baseball had its own anti-heroes, including Cap Anson and the infamous Ty Cobb, whose racism was legendary, Holway leaves the impression that the great initial split in this particular sport owed much more to the general sentiments of a public not ready for integration on the field, than to the influence of a few powerful people. Startling and ugly examples of public racism are documented in areas such as Ohio and Canada, which is especially ironic given the North's reputation for supposed liberaliam. The heartache many early Negro League players felt, such as the early great George Stovey who was buried in a potters field, is well contrasted with information Holway provides about the survivors, such as the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, who by 1941 was drawing a yearly salary that exceeded Joe DiMaggio's. His success was well deserved, and did not come without its own share of early testing; in 1932 for example, Holway reports that Paige responded to one particularly strong racial slur directed to him by a white bystander at an interracial game by just ordering everyone to sit down and watch him strike out two more players.
I never failed to marvel at the way Holway, while limited in what coverage was available to him, still managed to include snatches of research that were so highly vivid in their importance and detail. Here we have specifics on the relation of Negro League players on the unfolding drama of black/white relations to the outside world, including pitcher Doc Sykes' involvement in the notorious trial of the "Scottsboro Nine," one of the greatest civil rights dramas of the 20th century, as well as inside information on the day-to-day existence of the players' lives during the Depression (from descriptions of flea-ridden rooms to rancid diets). Everyone is a hero, and no one less than the infamous Rube Foster, one of the earliest Negro League players and the man who assembled the first Negro National League in 1920. Always urging high levels of excellence from his players, he never doubted that one day blacks would gain entry into the white majors. Holway also provides much eye-opening information about baseball's integration in 1947, and dispels many myths in the process.
Editing the photos proved to be ultimately the greatest challenge in working with this manuscript. They were essential to the presentation and success of the book, and a great many of them, especially those which we wanted to add to illustrate baseball's early years, were too old or overexposed for even the most sophisticated computer imaging resources to render passable. It took many hours of close collaboration with our out-of-house production team as well as more than a few all-nighters on my living room floor to pick and arrange just the right photos for this book. The collection Holway lent for this book was priceless, and we were able to find some real gems: early photos include pictures of such notables as Jose Mendez of the Cuban Stars, considered the best black pitcher of his time (circa 1909), who threw with such velocity that he accidentally killed a teammate during batting practice. There is also a photo of Donney McClellan, who pitched black baseball's first perfect game, a full-page photo of slugger Josh Gibson, also known as the "Black Babe Ruth," who may have driven the longest homer in the history of Yankee Stadium, a portrait of the awe-inspiring Effa Manley, co-owner of the Newark Eagles and the last surviving owner of a franchise of a black baseball team, as well as many priceless team photos from even the earliest years, including the Page Fence Giants, the earliest organized black baseball team, which was founded in 1895 by Bud Fowler. Indeed, it can be argued that The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues was as invaluable for the quality of its photos as it was for the stats or text itself.
Within years of the integration of baseball in 1947, the best of the Negro League players had been absorbed into the major leagues. And to this day, most people you may meet on the street will just recall the name of Jackie Robinson when asked what they know about Negro League baseball. Many important black ballplayers whose talent equaled if not exceeded their white counterparts went to their graves with little or no recognition, at least until now. Recent conversations with John Holway indicate he is working on two or more contributions to this field that will be released by late 2006, including another book of stats as well as a book of interviews with former Negro League players that should both prove to be outstanding contributions to the field of Negro League history. Holway in the final analysis should be commended for raising a beacon, not only to the undisclosed inequities of America's favorite pastime, but to the intense bravery and endurance many men and their loved ones endured in the face of ignominy.
Rachel Borst
Editor
May, 2006
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