Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line - Hardcover

Dunkel, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802120121 ISBN 13: 9780802120120

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013

Synopsis

A 2013 CASEY Award Finalist for Best Baseball Book of the Year and a Booklist Top Ten Sports Book of the Year

When baseball swept America in the years after the Civil War, independent, semipro, and municipal leagues sprouted up everywhere. With civic pride on the line, rivalries were fierce and teams often signed ringers to play alongside the town dentist, insurance salesman, and teen prodigy. In drought-stricken Bismarck, North Dakota during the Great Depression, one of the most improbable teams in the history of baseball was assembled by one of the sport’s most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, car dealer Neil Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race, and fielded an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion.

Color Blind immerses the reader in the wild and wonderful world of early independent baseball, with its tough competition and its novelty. Dunkel traces the rise of the Bismarck squad, focusing on the 1935 season and the first National Semipro Tournament. This is an entertaining, must-read for anyone interested in the history of baseball.

“A tale as fantastic as it is true.”—Boston Globe

About this title

About the Author

Tom Dunkel is an award-winning freelance journalist with more than 25 years of experience reporting for major newspapers and magazines including The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Wall Street Journal. He lives in Washington, D.C. This is his first book.

From the Back Cover

During the Great Depression, in drought stricken Bismarck, North Dakota, one of the most improbable teams in the history of baseball was assembled by one of the sport’s most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, car dealer Neil Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race, and fielded an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion. Color Blind, by award-winning journalist Tom Dunkel, tells this remarkable, largely forgotten story.

When baseball swept America in the years after the Civil War, independent, semipro, and municipal leagues sprouted up everywhere. With civic pride on the line, rivalries were fierce and teams often signed ringers to play alongside the town dentist, the insurance salesman, and the teen prodigy. Set against the backdrop of the Great Plains and the Great Depression, Color Blind immerses the reader in the wild and wonderful world of independent baseball, with its tough competition and its novelty—from all-brother teams and a prison team (who only played home games, naturally) to one from a religious commune that sported Old Testament beards. Dunkel traces the rise of the Bismarck squad, and follows them through their ups and downs, focusing on the 1935 season, and the first National Semipro Tournament in Wichita, Kansas. This is an entertaining, must-read for anyone interested in the history of baseball.

Reviews

*Starred Review* The plains states were particularly hard hit during the Depression. Between the economic issues and the drought, small farms folded by the hundreds, and the relief programs were underfunded and poorly run. Still, in the midst of it all, there was a need for people to be entertained and briefly forget their troubles. Neil Churchill, a Bismarck, North Dakota, car dealer, decided a baseball team was just the thing to help his neighbors forget. So, in an era when the Major Leagues only fielded teams east of the Mississippi, and the rest of the country made do with town- and company-sponsored semipro teams, Churchill’s plan was met with great enthusiasm. When he assembled his roster, Churchill picked the best players he could find, and some of them were black! Remember, this was more than a decade before Jackie Robinson would play in the majors. Award-winning journalist Dunkel has not only researched and presented a virtually forgotten but very significant piece of sports history, he has also done it in a very entertaining, narrative-nonfiction style. The principals, particularly Churchill and his players (including Satchel Paige) just simply come alive. Baseball fans will cherish this book, and it will become required reading among those who feel we can better understand today’s racial tensions by looking to the past. --Wes Lukowsky

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802120121
• ISBN 13: 9780802120120
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368