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The Kansas City Monarchs: Champions of Black Baseball

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This is the story of a remarkable baseball team in the first half of the twentieth century. The Kansas City Monarchs traced their heritage to the All Nation's barnstorming baseball team put together by J. L. Wilkinson in 1912. Known as Wilkie to his friends, the Monarchs owner was the only white owner in a new league for African Americans established in 1920. At first mistrusted by other owners because of his race, Wilkinson owned the Monarchs for more than 25 years, and over time earned the respect of all those associated with professional baseball. He loved baseball in all its permutations as a game, but it also served as his principal source of income. As such, he worked hard to make the Monarchs profitable.

The Monarchs were overwhelmingly profitable in the 1920s. Led by pitcher Wilber "Bullet Joe" Rogan, the Monarchs went 50-31 in 1921 to finish a close second in the league to the Chicago American Giants. An outstanding pitcher with a tremendous fastball, a fine curve, and good control, Rogan starred for the Monarchs for almost 20 years. In 1924 the Monarchs took championship, finishing at 55-22, but there was a new wrinkle with the inauguration of a post-season championship series against the Philadelphia Hilldale Giants. The Monarchs came out on top in the series, 5-4.

The teams succeeded well throughout the remainder of the 1920s, remaining a powerhouse in the league, but both their fortunes took a decided turn for the worse with the coming of the Great Depression in 1929. Indeed, the league collapsed in 1930. The Monarchs and some of the other league teams began barnstorming for survival. Five years before the major leagues turned on any lights, in 1929, the Kansas City Monarchs became the first team to regularly play night baseball. Monarchs owner Wilkinson bought a portable-lighting system so the Monarchs could play at night on the road. This proved both a safety net and a godsend for the team. Able to rent a playing field for an evening game ensured both a place to hold the game and an audience. The system consisted of a set of telescoping poles, which elevated lights fifty feet above the field. Each pole supported six floodlights measuring four feet across. Affixed by means of a pivot on a truck bed and raised with a derrick, the lights ringed the outfield and the grandstand. A 250-horsepower motor powered the system, and the whole thing could be set up in two hours and taken down in less than one.

During and immediately after World War II the Monarchs employed some of the greatest stars of the era, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, Larry Doby, Jackie Robinson, Willard Brown, and Hank Thompson. But after World War II the perennially excellent Kansas City Monarchs fell on sustained hard times and ceased operations for good in 1960. In no small measure the integration of the major leagues brought about their demise, for the team's greatest stars quickly found their way to the National and American Leagues and thereby robbed the segregated game of many of its box office attractions. An irony of the first magnitude existed here, for the ending of the American apartheid in baseball proved the undoing of the largely black-owned segregated teams. In October 1945 the first Monarch, Jackie Robinson, was signed by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson had played only part of the 1945 season with the Monarchs after mustering out of the Army at the end of World War II. By 1955 the Monarchs had seen a total of 38 players move to franchises in major league baseball.

This is a fine discussion of this interesting and significant baseball franchise. Enjoy!

This is a wonderfully well written book. Immensely enjoyable as the author deftly recounts the history of the Kansas City Monarchs in vivid detail. Quite often authors who write about black baseball tend to focus heavily on the personalities of the players, the injustice of their exclusion from Major League baseball or the "supposed" inferior quality of the teams owners. This book without sounding preachy, debunks the latter while covering the relationship between the team and the community. We are spared the analytical position that many attempt in trying to tie the succcess or failure of black teams, players and franchises to the struggle for equality. In place of this we are treated to interesting details such as the names of some of the community organizations and businesses the Monarch's were members of, associated or owned.

We are treated to detailed information and interesting photos of a young J.L. Wilkinson and other team officials. I could go on and on but all that you need to know is this is a title well worth purchasing...

If you are interested in the general history and sociological setting of the Kansas City Monarchs, this piece of research is for you. If you are looking for a book of hopping stories and personal Monarch players, you should look eleswhere.

This book is an obvious academic study (perhaps written as part of a master's or doctorate program) and has the feel of a textbook. Not a lot of thrilling baseball information for the fan, but if you are interested in understanding the business side of the the Negro Leagues and what the social effects of baseball on the community were, this is an invaluable resource. Well researched and detailed, this book will be used as a great secondary source for those who are interested in the Negro Leagues and in particularly the Monarchs.