Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Shadow
Review: The book has an interesting premise, attempting to chronicle the social upheaval of Washington DC between the Wars, the life of sports reporter/civil rights activist Sam Lacy, the life of ballplayer Buck Leonard, and the history of the Homestead Greys. Unfortunately, the book bites off more than it can chew. There are exasperatingly long tangents about Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and numerous other players. The book spends as much time on Lacy's peers as it does on Lacy. It spends a great deal of time talking about the Senators and Clark Griffith. It spends time chronicling the Greys competition. While all those bits are interesting, the book just seems to lose focus and never tells any particular story to satisfaction. Sometimes it seems that the storyline will bounce from one season to another and then back again.Overall, the book attempts to conquer a vast number of subjects, and while it touches on all of them, it fails to hit a satisfactory level of detail on any of them. The book claims it will tell the story of Buck Leonard, but Leonard takes a back seat most of the time to Josh Gibson. And thats the story for most the topics the book attempts to cover.
Rating: 
Summary: Symbiotic segregation and a great baseball read.
Review: This is a great, and true-to-life (i.e., "complex") story about the institution of 'Negro' League baseball and the various parties who profited and railed against it. Key people that are introduced and brought to life are:
Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson -- three of the greatest ballplayers who ever lived;
Clark Griffith -- the pioneering, penurious and controlling owner of the Washington Senators;
Sam Lacy -- the ahead-of-his-time, DC-native who tirelessly advocated for the integration of Major League Baseball; as well as
Cum(berland) Posey -- the shrewd owner of the Homestead Grays -- the dominant team of the loosely confederated Negro Leagues during the late 30's and 40's. Tangential to this story are:
the decimation of the post 1933 Senators, mostly due to finances and an inadequate ballpark;
the relative prosperity of Washington DC during the years of the depression and WWII and the partial equality of African-American government workers that led to a vibrant culture and ability to spend on entertainment;
the move by Posey and his "partner" (many of the Negro League baseball teams were financed by numbers entreprenuers) to Washington from their Pittsburgh home and the welcome of their rental payments and gate pctgs. by Clark Griffith;
Judge Landis' death, the increasing awareness of America's incongruity in its fight for freedom and democracy in Europe while maintaining a virtual apartheid culture at home; and
the greed/opportunity of baseball owners to find the best talent at the lowest price which ultimately led to Rickey's "great experiment"); This book also fleshes out the background and conflict around Jackie Robinson, who was rightly judged to be a great man and the right vehicle for Rickey's efforst, and the shared opinions that he was a good, but not all-time great Negro baseball player. [Check out how well a 42-yr old Satchel Paige pitched for the World Championship Indians in 1948.] The shifts in attitude between "separate but equal" and complete integration by the various parties reveal primarily self-interest. Judged by the standards of our time, I share many others' great respect for Sam Lacy and his tireless, moral advocacy and feel sorry for the Negro League baseball owners who were mostly left with nothing as they rarely had enforceable contracts that protected their relationship with their players. Clark Griffith was an "innovator" in attracting inexpensive talent from Cuba. Many of these players represented themselves well on the ballfield but would only be acceptable if they were of "Spanish" descent. Utterly inconceivable now, but the norm for over 60 years (since Cap Anson helped institute the "gentleman's agreement" against employment of African Americans in the early 1880's) was to allow a Major or Minor League ballclup to employ pretty much anyone (Swedes, Germans, Irish, Italians, Jews, etc.) anyone, except African-Americans. It has often been discussed that without Jackie Robinson (& the parts played by Branch Rickey, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Ben Chapman, etc.) the 1954 "Brown vs. Board of Education" decision would not have happened as quickly. This book provides a wonderful companion story to the integration of major league baseball which, in my opinion, is one of the most significant stories of 20th Century United States.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest !
Review: This is one the best books that I have ever read. It is thoroughly researched and I learned things that I had no idea ever happened even though I grew up in the Washington, DC area. This book could easily be included in a high school history ciriculum about segregation in fact it is far more inclusive than any high school history text that I have ever seen. I would love to sit down with the author and discuss the stadium and the general atmosphere at the time. If the author ever considers writing a history of Griffith Stadium I would love to give him some personal insights. I can be reached at JT, PO Box 231 Poolesville, MD 20837. Again.....great job by a great author!
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest !
Review: This is one the best books that I have ever read. It is thoroughly researched and I learned things that I had no idea ever happened even though I grew up in the Washington, DC area. This book could easily be included in a high school history ciriculum about segregation in fact it is far more inclusive than any high school history text that I have ever seen. I would love to sit down with the author and discuss the stadium and the general atmosphere at the time. If the author ever considers writing a history of Griffith Stadium I would love to give him some personal insights. I can be reached at JT, PO Box 231 Poolesville, MD 20837. Again.....great job by a great author!
Rating:
Summary: An informative and engaging portrait of forgotten heroes
Review: Whereas numerous contemporary sports historians find it sufficient to mix a superficial survey with the obfuscation of their own hyperbolic memories and opinions, Mr. Snyder does just the opposite. Through an appealing narrative style complemented by an admirable depth and breadth of research, he provides any reader, baseball fan or not, with a unique look into one of American society's defining epochs, setting a refreshing high bar for sports writers to come.
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