Press Box Red : The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports

Silber, Irwin; Rodney, Lester

ISBN 10: 1566399742 / ISBN 13: 9781566399746

Published by Temple University Press, 2003

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 1650883-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Press Box Red : The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports
• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1566399742
• ISBN 13: 9781566399746
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Long before Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a Brooklyn Dodger contract in 1945, Lester Rodney, the newly hired and first sports editor of the Communist Daily Worker, launched the campaign that proved decisive in eventually breaking baseball's color line. But in the hostile anti-Communist climate of those years and for many years after, Rodney's story remained largely unknown. It therefore came as a surprise to many when Arnold Rampersad, in his authoritative 1997 biography of Jackie Robinson, wrote: "In the campaign to end Jim Crow in baseball, the most vigorous efforts came from the Communist press, most notably from Lester Rodney." Now Press Box Red tells the story of that remarkable 11-year campaign and of Rodney's unique career covering sports for the Daily Worker until he left the Communist Party in 1958. Press Box Red is packed with first-hand accounts of Rodney's challenges to the high muck-a-mucks of professional and collegiate sports, and contains frank and frequently humorous encounters with owners, managers, and coaches like Branch Rickey, Larry MacPhail, Bill Veeck, Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Nat Holman, Clair Bee and numerous athletes including Robinson, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Satchel Paige, Peewee Reese, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, and many others. It's a story every fan will love.

About the Author

Irwin Silber is a self-employed writer who lives in the Bay Area of northern California. He is the author or editor of eight previous books, including (with Barbara Dane) The Vietnam Song Book.