The Pittsburgh Crawfords

The Pittsburgh Crawfords were one of the Negro League’s best and most exciting teams. At the heart of the line-up were five men who would go on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history; Josh Gibson, a hitting catcher who rivaled Babe Ruth; Cool Papa Bell, one of the game’s fastest runners; Oscar Charleston, perhaps one of the all-around best players; and Judy Johnson, a skilled third baseman. This work takes a close look at the lives and careers of these men and others who played for the Crawfords, all of whom together built one of the greatest teams ever to play the game. Also included are comparisons between the Crawfords and the 1927 “Murderer’s Row” New York Yankees, the Negro National League standings (1933–1938), and statistics about the players and team records.

A new preface updates this richly detailed look at the major role sport played in shaping Pittsburgh's black community from the Roaring Twenties through the Korean War. Rob Ruck reveals how sandlot, amateur, and professional athletics helped black Pittsburgh realize its potential for self-organization, expression, and creativity.

The biography of Oscar Charleston, a Negro Leagues legend and one of baseball’s greatest and most unjustifiably overlooked players.

Painstakingly researched and documented, this volume is a comprehensive, year-by-year reference work giving important—yet often obscure—dates in Negro League history. From the Negro Leagues’ organized beginning in 1920 through their steep decline immediately after Jackie Robinson’s 1947 breaking of the color barrier, entries cover league meetings, noteworthy games, the commentary of columnists, and important events on and off the field. Controversies that defined the experience of black baseball organizers—such as player rights disputes, failure to adhere to league schedules and violations of league rules—are also included here.

When the Negro National League was formed in Kansas City in 1920, a new chapter in America's sports history had begun. Black Baseball in Pittsburgh chronicles the history of the Negro League in the Steel City from the Homestead Grays in the 1910s to the great Pittsburgh Crawfords teams of the 1930s and through the 1950s. Here, you will meet legends such as "Smokey" Joe Williams, the famed "Thunder Twins," Josh Gibson, the Steel City's Slugger Supreme, and Buck Leonard, the King of Negro League first basemen.