Although Andrew "Rube" Foster (1879-1930) stands among the best African American pitchers of the 1900s, this baseball pioneer made his name as the founder and president of the Negro National League, the first all-black league to survive a full season. In addition to founding this groundbreaking black-owned and -operated business, Foster also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. This definitive biography combines period editorials and correspondence with insightful narrative to provide a comprehensive portrait of this innovative Hall of Famer. From the unstructured early days of black baseball, when Foster gained glory as a hard-throwing pitcher, through his struggles to establish the NNL and the Giants, to his tragic death from complications of syphilis, this work pays overdue tribute to an authentic American baseball icon.

From the best-selling author of the Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History, 1867-1955 comes the definitive biography on the career of an outstanding baseball pitcher, manager, and President of the Negro National League. Andrew "Rube" Foster is in a class all to himself as an architect of race relations and social progress in American baseball. His most lasting legacy was the founding of the Negro National League in 1920, which provided opportunities for an entire generation of African-American athletes. Although there were few opportunities when he was in his youth, Foster, the son of a former slave, sought success on baseball fields throughout the South with the Waco Yellow Jackets. Leaving Texas in 1902, he arrived in Chicago where two African-American men, Frank C. Leland and William S. Peters, had already achieved some of what Foster had dreamed of doing himself. They were operating their own teams, hiring talented players and turning a profit on their labor. Labeled as aloof and ineffective as a pitcher, Foster left Chicago after only one season with the Chicago Union Giants. Yet believing in himself, Foster traveled East to where Grant "Home Run" Johnson was training his Cuban X Giants team, and sought employment. In his only season with the Cuban X Giants Foster's pitching led them to the World's Championship. Foster was lured to the Philadelphia Giants in 1904, a team under the leadership of Sol White, and Foster promptly pitched them to their first World's Championship. Philadelphia's Championship run was repeated in 1905 and 1906. Having matured as a player under Johnson's and White's guidance, Foster sought to manage a team of his own in 1907. Although revered as a stern taskmaster, Foster had great charisma with players and fans. In 1907 he returned to Chicago, this time as manager of Leland's team, the Chicago Leland Giants. Arriving with Foster were players from the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Philadelphia's Giants, and the Cuban X Giants. As a result, he fired all of Leland's former players and replaced them with men that had played in the East. Foster's new team dominated baseball's freedom fields as no African-American team had before them. In 1909, the Foster-led Leland Giants captured the City League pennant and then battled the National League's Chicago Cubs for City Championship honors. The next year, in 1910, Foster fielded his best team ever. His team finished with just six games lost. Having won many victories, Chicago's Leland Giants symbolized economic equality, inspired social change, and provoked African-American pride. Crowds filled the parks when and wherever Foster and his team appeared. Charles Comiskey and members of the Chicago White Sox, the World's Champion Chicago Cubs, John McGraw and Connie Mack sought to see the legendary Andrew "Rube" Foster in action. Based on twenty years of research, Andrew "Rube" Foster: A Harvest on Freedom's Fields is an inspiring story of an enduring figure and the many individuals who inspired his success on baseball fields all over America.

Although Andrew "Rube" Foster (1879-1930) stands among the best African American pitchers of the 1900s, this baseball pioneer made his name as the founder and president of the Negro National League, the first all-black league to survive a full season. In addition to founding this groundbreaking black-owned and -operated business, Foster also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. This definitive biography combines period editorials and correspondence with insightful narrative to provide a comprehensive portrait of this innovative Hall of Famer. From the unstructured early days of black baseball, when Foster gained glory as a hard-throwing pitcher, through his struggles to establish the NNL and the Giants, to his tragic death from complications of syphilis, this work pays overdue tribute to an authentic American baseball icon.

The foremost historian of the "blackball" era spent nearly 10 years researching this acclaimed oral history, interviewing 17 outstanding players including Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, and Willie Wells. Over 80 vintage photographs.

“We are the ship; all else the sea.”—Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball. Using an “Everyman” player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. The voice is so authentic, you will feel as if you are sitting on dusty bleachers listening intently to the memories of a man who has known the great ballplayers of that time and shared their experiences. But what makes this book so outstanding are the dozens of full-page and double-page oil paintings—breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in emotion, and created with understanding and affection for these lost heroes of our national game. We Are the Ship is a tour de force for baseball lovers of all ages.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige “Among the rare biographies of an athlete that transcend sports . . . gives us the man as well as the myth.”—The Boston Globe Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent. Here is the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname “Satchel” from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members. Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints, spent as much money as he made, and left tickets for “Mrs. Paige” that were picked up by a different woman at each game. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (“Age is a case of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”) More than a fascinating account of a baseball odyssey, Satchel rewrites our history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role. This is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a shuffling stereotype to disarm critics and racists, floated comical legends about himself–including about his own age–to deflect inquiry and remain elusive, and in the process methodically built his own myth. “Don’t look back,” he famously said. “Something might be gaining on you.” Separating the truth from the legend, Satchel is a remarkable accomplishment, as large as this larger-than-life man.

The result of a study commissioned by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and funded by a grant from Major League Baseball(, this richly illustrated, comprehensive history combines vivid narrative, visual impact, and a unique statistical component to re-create the excitement and passion of the Negro Leagues. 75 photos.