Color Blind; The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball's Color Line

xiii, [1], 345, [5] pages. A Note on Sources. Notes. DJ has slight wear and soiling. The author graduated from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. After college I worked for a documentary filmmaker in New York City, then he earned a masters degree in journalism at New York University. His first job was at New Jersey Monthly and for the next 20 years he oscillated back and forth between staff positions and periods of full-time freelancing. He was a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and he hiked the Arizona desert with Senator John McCain, tagged along with high-tech bounty hunters chasing "skips", and drove Bruce Willis' Dodge Charger while Mr. Willis rode shotgun. He spent four years researching and writing his first book, Color Blind, about the lost world of semipro town baseball. It's the story of an integrated team that broke the color line more than a decade before Jackie Robinson made his historic Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From a Kirkus review: Dunkel spins the colorful yarn of an integrated team's wild days of independent baseball during the Great Depression. For players unable to make the big leagues for lack of talent, personal issues or skin color, semiprofessional teams often offered a way to earn a living playing the game. In Bismarck, N.D. successful car dealer and gambler Neil Churchill's desire to put together a winning team led him to seek out the finest players available, regardless of race. The resulting mix went on to dominate opponents across the Midwest, culminating in the 1935 National Semipro Tournament. Their success was due in part to the on-again, off-again presence of the legendary Satchel Paige. The author addressed the racism faced by the black players, many of whom would likely have been major league All-Stars had they been allowed to play, and he provides historical background to flesh out the story. But at its heart, the book is a tale of a time when baseball was more than just a sport, a multibillion-dollar industry or another form of entertainment competing for Americans' attention. A well-told account of a fascinating, and forgotten, chapter in the history of America's national pastime. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated].…