negro leagues

Willie, a boy growing up on the north side of Chicago in 1942, is disheartened when a neighbor tells him his skin color prohibits him from ever realizing his dream of playing professional baseball, but his hopes are revived when he sees an exhibition game at Wrigley Field between an astonishing Negro League team and players from the Major Leagues.

Chronicles the history of the players, teams, and fans that were part of African-American baseball in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries describing their contributions to the game and efforts to cross the color line in major league sports.

When modern baseball fans think of African American players, they may think of Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter, or Jason Heyward. But what about the black stars who didn't play Major League Baseball? In the early 1900s, professional baseball was mostly segregated - black players were not allowed in the Major Leagues. The Negro Leagues provided an alternative for African American players for decades before MLB began to integrate in 1947.

Eleven-year-old Tank and his older brother Jimbo, who both love baseball, can't believe their good fortune when Josh Gibson, home-run king of the Homestead Grays, stays at their house during a series in Nashville.

"Describes the history of the Negro Leagues, the only option for African-American baseball players until the color barrier was broken in the late 1940s"--.

Baseball legend Buck O'Neil tells about his life as a player in the Negro league, and discusses what it was like to break the color barrier in 1962 by becoming the first African American coach in the major leagues.

Tells the story of the Negro Leagues when Andrew "Rube" Foster, the Father of Black Baseball, organized the first Negro League in 1920, to when talented players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and James "Cool Papa" Bell were finally able to show their stuff.