Baseball's Leading Lady

YA nonfiction 

     "Effa loved baseball, to be sure, but it was more than just the crack of the bat and the thrill of triumph that drew her to the game.  She saw the Negro Leagues as a vehicle to transport the Black community to a position of equality in American society, to provide jobs and financial stability where they were sorely lacking, and to give Black boys and girls regular opportunities to witness victory when so much of their lives was mired in defeat."

     Have I got a shero for us!  I say us because I just learned about Effa Manley by reading Andrea Williams' Baseball's Leading Lady.  Not only the book, but the story of how it came into being are fascinating.

     I'm sure most of us know about Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier by being the first Black on a major league team.  The role of Blacks in America's pastime before that historic signing is a footnote, if even that.  Well it's about time that sports fans learn more about the Negro Leagues.

     Actually Blacks weren't specifically excluded from white baseball until 1887.  That didn't stop them from forming teams of their own.  The players had an exhausting lifestyle.  They traveled by car, often playing daily against whatever team would take them on.   Many hotels and restaurants wouldn't admit them and even facilities as basic as public restrooms and water fountains were labeled whites only.

     Blacks realized that their baseball couldn't continue in that way forever.  The Negro National League was formed in 1920.  Circuits became organized, boosting attendance and revenues.

     "The formation of the NNL had been a boon for Black baseball, serving as proof that Black men could do more than hit, throw, and field.  They could, in fact, run their own teams and leagues too."

     In Harlem in 1934 the L. M. Blumstein department store, despite depending largely on revenue from the Black community, refused to hire any Blacks for positions higher than janitors and elevator operators.  Effa Manley wanted them to hire Black sales clerks.

     "'You know, Mr. Blumstein, we think just as much of our young colored girls as you think of your young white girls, and there's just no work for them,' she said.  'The only thing they can find to do is work in someone's home as a maid or become prostitutes.'"

When all other measures failed she organized a successful boycott.

     Effa's husband, Abe, acquired the Brooklyn Eagles.  He could run the on the field stuff like strategies easily.  But managerial matters like publicity and contract negotiation eluded him.

     "He'd failed miserably in the business of baseball before, but Abe had a feeling his fortunes might be on the upswing.  Effa's civic involvement had given her a crash course in reading a room, asserting herself, and effecting change.  Even better, she was on Abe's team."

     Williams tells readers that Baseball's Leading Lady was "more than fifteen years in the making." In 2004 she became a marketing assistant for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It was here that she learned about Effa.  Suddenly her own goal (managing a Major League baseball team) seemed possible.

     "Instead, my goal (in writing the book) was to lay all the facts on the table, unnerving as they may be, and to encourage you to have tough conversations about tough situations.  At the same time, I wanted to introduce you to a story that I desperately needed when I was your age.  It is a story of heartbreak and broken promises, sure.  But more than that, it is a story of grit and ingenuity, courage and victory."

On a purrrsonal note, last night's gathering at community garden was idyllic.  There was a mist in the air, keeping temperatures comfortable.  We had a bounty to harvest and give away including two boxes of genuine heirloom tomatoes donated by a farm.  We had a highly engaged, convivial crowd including our good garden dog.  We had melon and dates all the way from Algeria (much sweeter and plumper than American  dates) to snack on.  Couldn't have asked for more. (Jules)

She had a late night but she came home to me.  I could smell dog on her before she took a shower.  As long as she doesn't bring one home.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to the community garden family.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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