Customer Reviews

Sol White's History of Colored Baseball with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886-1936

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When author Sol White was among the 17 people who were selected this week by the Baseball Hall of Fame, I got curious about this book of his. Until now, few people have known of it. Presumably and hopefully, the Hall of Fame selection will change this.

The book, originally published in 1907, was apparently the first major attempt at a history of black baseball, written by a man who was heavily immersed in it for many years straddling the turn of the last century. As a player, he appears to have been at least excellent and possibly great -- an infielder who played all four positions and hit in the .300's with fair power. White's commentary about himself as a player is very routine and modest; most of what we gather of his playing is from the lengthy introduction written by Jerry Malloy for the 1995 re-printing.

The original book is preserved and included in this edition. Much of that original edition was "non-text" -- photos, box-scores, and delightful print-ads. The text portion is full of fascinating detail belying its brevity -- and VERY well written. Much of it is a series of dry year-by-year accounts of what happened in black baseball, really exactly like what we see in the "mainstream" annuals of the period like the Spalding guides. But there are also some sections that are quite activist, getting into the segregation issue and the plight of the black player. Additionally there are interesting sections on hitting, pitching, and managing, some of the them written by other authors. This edition also includes copies of newspaper and magazine articles on black baseball from later as well as earlier years, including an article written by White in 1930 for the Amsterdam News.

There are many wonderful old photographs of teams and individual players, of a type rarely seen elsewhere. From the photos we see that the author seems to have had a strong resemblance to the recent player Chris Chambliss, which I mention just to help give a visual image of him.

Perhaps the Hall of Fame's selection committee gave Sol White some extra credit for his writing. If so, it was well deserved. Thank you, Cooperstown, for helping to bring this book back into view.

and the patrons of colored baseball, to them I dedicate this book."

And what a book it is.

Originally published in 1907, Sol White is not just writing from a historian's perspective of the pre-NLB era, he was a major contributor as a player, manager and team owner on some of the best clubs from that era.

With an emphasis on box scores and photographs, the great teams, players and memorable games are chronicled in this 1996 reprint of the original book - with only minor editorial corrections - a supplement & additional articles by White and other writers. The original small run of copies was poorly printed and an end note explains the reproduction process for clarity.

A lenghty introduction by Jerry Malloy not only encapsulates the key areas in White's book, but provides a better understanding of a time when Jim Crow stepped into the batter's box of the professional game.

White was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. What he gave to future generations of fans & historians through the book is a grand slam.

I got book in good time & in good condition. My complaint is with I guess Amazon.com....not the seller of the book Sol White's History of Colored Baseball.

I've tried to leave a FEEDBACK several times & it does NOT work according to Amazon.com's instructions. I had to fumble around at a BIG BIG BIG BIG waste of my time trying to leave a good feedback for this seller.

Is a review the same as a feedback????? I WANT TO KNOW...use one word or the other...EITHER FEEDBACK OR REVIEW. Don't call it feedback one sentence & then review in the next sentence.

Amazon.com should do as e-Bay does...E-bay feedback is soooooooooooooo much easier.

Please do NOT send me a standing operating procedure reply...I want a personal reply & explanation as to why it is taking me soooooooooo long to leave a FEEDBACK.

I know the difference between a feedback & a review....Amazon.com does NOT know the difference. I tried to leave a so called feedback , but it just didn't want to go thru....so I did the next best thing I could do...leave a review...so I can get this awful mess over with. I will be pretty desperate to order anything from Amazon.com again....Amazon.com will be my last resort because they make it waaaaaaaaaaaaay tooooooooooo hard to get things done in a way that does NOT take so much time. Please Resond So Very Promptly.

Sincerely, Judy McMackin