Synopses & Reviews
From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League BaseballAfter peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Award-winning historian Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across society. Integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind.
By looking at this history from the vantage point of black America and the Caribbean, a more complex story comes into focus, one largely missing from traditional narratives of baseball's history. Raceball unveils a fresh and stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.
About the Author
Rob Ruck teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of
Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh and
The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic, he made the Emmy Award–winning documentary
Kings on the Hill: Baseball’s Forgotten Men. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Maggie Patterson, his coauthor for
Rooney: A Sporting Life.
From the Hardcover edition.
Table of Contents
Introduction One The Gospel of Baseball
Two Blackball’s Heyday
Three A Latin Challenge
Four The Winds of War
Five Integration’s Curse
Six ¡Viva México!
Seven New Caribbean Currents
Eight Whiteout
Nine The Rise of the Academies
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index