Customer Reviews

Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I should state here that I am glad I bought this book, it has several excellent features such as 1) descriptions of post-season Negro League series, games with whites and Cuban exhibitions against major league teams 2) it highlights previously unappreciated performances (see Mule Suttles' 1926 quintuple crown season); and 3) other useful information (such as Suttles' career averages before and after his 1927 beaning by Chet Brewer)

If you have never previously purchased a book about the Negro Leagues, this is a 4 star purchase (one star off for the errata I will talk about later).

However it was not what I expected. Based on the editorial reviews, I hoped for a "Baseball Encyclopedia" for the Negro Leagues, if not on a season by season basis, then certainly for career statistics of the most significant players. The book instead concentrates on a yearly history from 1859 to 1948, with emphasis on yearly leaders, summary rosters and batting averages for those players. The "Statistical Record" comprises 13 pages at the back of the book.

There are also frustrating contradictions with previously published information. The 10th edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia (TBE) published season and career statistics of about 130 stars. The author contributed to that publication.

In his introduction to this book, the author explains that new sources of data have been used to arrive at the career statistics given in this book that supersedes TBE. How then can John Beckwith and Biz Mackey have "lost" 11 and 10 career homers respectively in 560 and 1367 extra career at-bats? Clint Thomas is credited with 51 HR in TBE, but is not mentioned on the career HR list in this book, which goes down to Howard Easterling's 21. Also, the author still claims (page 229) that Ed "Yump" Jones caught both the 1926 and 1927 World Series' no-hitters, however, Dick Clark and Larry Lester's Negro Leagues Book states that William "Fox" Jones was the 1926 AC Bacharach Giants catcher. Clark and Lester supposedly proof read the manuscript of this book.

Internal inconsistencies exist (e.g. the lack of cross-referencing of Mule Suttles' and Turkey Stearnes 1930 eastern and western statistics on pages 259 and 265, and on p26 Richard Harris scored 106 runs in 100 games but p105 shows him as making 106 hits in 100 games).

Omissions - the statistical summaries of post-season series sometimes show less than 8 position players for one team. How can this be so if box scores are available from which to compile the summaries?

Errata - the first half of the book in particular is littered with them. On p52, Nux James is listed as having a .375 BA for the Royal Giants, which would place him second in the batting race, but he is not listed with the leaders. This happens several times (e.g. Jap Payne p74, Lee Wade p76). Maybe there are minimum games or at-bats criteria, but this is not explained. On the same page, JH Lloyd is listed as both the second baseman and utilityman of the X-Giants, but with different batting averages of .108 and .000 respectively. On p62 the same Nux James is listed as having a .300 BA in the leaders, but .318 when listed with his team. On page 116 the triples figures are missing for the leaders. On p 165 Joe Rogan is listed as 5th with 13 triples in 1922, behind Charlie Blackwell and Heavy Johnson with 10 and 9 respectively. You can see a picture emerging.

Computation errors - I have only found one (Lyman Bostock's career average computes to .368 not .341) but I am not about to check the whole book.

All in all, I am still waiting for the various Negro Leagues' researchers to get together, develop a common definition of what constitutes a Negro League game and share their research databases to compile a Negro Leagues "Baseball Encyclopedia". It appears that the information is available, so I do not think that I want too much.

My personal library collection of baseball books includes several hundred volumes. Only a privileged few of these books sit on a small shelf handy above my word processor. Among the selected few is a newcomer, The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History by John Holway. This unique book succinctly traces the history of Negro baseball from pre-civil war days to the end of the Negro Major League era in 1948.

Mr. Holway is no stranger to the more than 7,000 members of the Society for American Baseball Research. He has been chronicling Negro baseball history since 1969, and has produced five previous books on the topic. His innumerable newspaper and magazine articles are referenced in the book's laudable bibliography. Well indexed, this book is the culmination of over three decades of dedicated ressearch by the man who knows more about Negro baseball than any writer ever. Royse "Crash" Paarr, co-author, Glory Days of Summer: The History of Baseball in Oklahoma.

This is a fine overview of the contributions made by black ball players from the mid 19th Century to the more well known players of the 20th. I judge baseball books on how they contribute to the overall understanding of their subject matter. This book stands among the others, including Only the Ball Was White and Larry Lester's pictorials on the Negro Leagues in Chicago, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.

John Holway is without doubt the most experienced researcher and most prolific author on the subject of the old segregated black leagues. Even other authorities on the subject will learn something on each page of The Complete Book. It's a must-read for baseball fans.
Robert Peterson, author of Only the Ball Was White

Whether you want to know alittle about Josh Gibson or a whole lot about the history of the Negro Leagues, this is the book for you!
Pieced together from unimagined hours of research, John Holway has found a way to bring the Negro Leagues back to life in a scholarly work of amazing depth and throughness.
It is all here, year by year line-ups, with batting and pitching numbers. Also a "League Leaders" section for us die hards. I can truely say nothing is left out.
This book belongs on every baseball fans shelves as an indispensable reference to the history of the Negro Leagues.
I give it my highest recommendation.

"To appreciate any sport, you must learn about its entire history. And you can't truly appreciate baseball without learning about the Negro Leagues. Begin with this book."

As submitted to Hasting House on Dec. 10, 2001 via e-mail

". . . statistics that prove the greatness of the Negro League players. Now, we can truly call baseball the National Pastime."

"To appreciate any sport, you must learn about its entire histroy. And you can't truly appreciate baseball without learning about the Negro Leagues. Begin with this book."

-Sports Columnist, Kansas City Star

"The food industry has Emeril, the political pundits have O'Reilly and the Negro Leagues has Holway. Artfully wrote by the premier expert on Negro Leagues history."

-President, Legends of Sports