Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues [Hardcover]

Pat McKissack (Author), Fredrick McKissack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1994

A history of the Negro Leagues features extensive player profiles, a baseball history timeline, and photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 6-10. This book goes far beyond the few familiar photographs and names most readers associate with the Negro Baseball Leagues, and it makes the trip in style. We discover, for example, that George Washington's troops were "batting balls and running bases" and that the nineteenth-century relationship between baseball and race was more diverse than many young readers may realize. The McKissacks carefully record the differences of opinion about some events and the difficulty of finding source material. Oral histories from surviving players add startling depth to descriptions of conditions of play and travel, and Jackie Robinson's entry into major league ball becomes a richer and more complicated moment because the authors show where Robinson came from (and how) in addition to where he went. A player roster will be helpful to students, and a time line carefully weaves together the sports world and the world of lynchings, race riots, the Civil War, and the incandescent electric lamp. Mary Harris Veeder

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Trade (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590458094
• ISBN-13: 978-0590458092
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Black Baseball's Best's Beginnings, November 28, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues (Paperback)

Black Diamond by Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick McKissack, Jr

It's mainly a book about baseball, but it tells you all about how baseball affected black's rights and treatments. You learn about the ways that fans and other players mistreated black players, even on their own team! They were somehow able to beat racism, and get black players into Major League Baseball. That lead to more black respect and freedom, eventually helping give blacks as much freedom as everyone else. I recommend this book to anyone who likes baseball and learning about black history. One of the best parts is that it is never, at any point, boring. This is also a great book for anyone 10 to 14 years old that likes learning about our country's history, or baseball's history. I completely recommend it.

5.0 out of 5 stars More than facts, a good story read!, December 25, 2011

By 

shoecanary - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues (Paperback)

This was a good story of the Black leagues. I bought the book to teach in my high school reading class. I found it very informative and exciting. I would recommend to anyone interested in the history of the black leagues. It is well written, unlike a book of facts. The McKissack's continue to write good books for young audiences that can also be enjoyed by adults!

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gift of Black Baseball, February 26, 2010

By 

W. Powell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues (Paperback)

Today I gave a book about the Negro Leagues of Baseball to a traveling friend. Its a book I've read more than once and felt that my friend would truly enjoy. It felt like giving a gift that you wanted to keep for yourself. I parted with the book knowing that my friend would enjoy reading it on his journey back east. Before giving him the book I spent about thirty minutes flipping through its pages and saying goodbye to some of the stories in it. I know I'll come across the book again, but for me, parting with books is like wishing a friend well on a journey, just as this friend of mine was journeying. Its great to send a visiting friend off with a friendly gift.

Well, in leafing through the book's pages I came across a few paragraphs I wanted to retain as a memory of my friend the book. Here below are the book and the lines from it that show in words what the negro baseball players faced every day of their lives; a color barrier that prevented them from gaining national sports recognition as professionals of the game they loved so much, baseball. Though Negro men had proven themselves heroic, capable of soldiering bravely in foreign battles of World War II, America was still treating them as second class citizens or less here at home. Major League Baseball would lead the nation in recovering from its racial prejudicial past. The nation today, even with a Black President, is still playing catch up.

excerpt from Black Diamond: "Only one thing is keeping them out of the big leagues, and that is the pigmentation of their skin." Shirley Povich washington post