I Will Never Forget: Interviews With 39 Former Negro League Players
Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line when he stepped on the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but he inadvertently broke the back of the Negro baseball leagues, too, by turning black fans' attention to the Major Leagues. But the Negro leagues were a significant chapter in American sporting history, and Kelley has captured the experience of the players in his three volumes of oral history. (This one followsVoices from the Negro Leagues, 1998,andThe Negro Leagues Revisited, 2000.) One of the more interesting players interviewed here is James Colzie, who pitched for 21 years and won 265 games, sandwiching his baseball around a career as an educator and president of the local NAACP. He recalls the insults he and his teammates endured--without verbal or physical retaliation--because that was the accepted path to integration at the time. What will strike readers is the affection these men have for their playing days and the success most had after their baseball careers were over, often in public service or education. A valuable piece of sports history.Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved