From the SF Chronicle’s Web presence, SFGate.com.
Metaphor alert: “Baseball is more than a game. It is a microcosm of America….”
Kevin Baker, author of Sometimes You See it Coming, did this review of two books about the Negro Leagues targeted for younger readers in the June 15 issue of the NY Times‘ Sunday book section. I never realized this was the same Baker that wrote the very entertaining historical fiction Paradise Alley, about the violent draft strike in New York City against conscription during the Civil War. According to the blurb, he’s working on a history of baseball in NYC.
From the La Jolla Light Web site:
Negro League baseball author at D.G. Wills May 24
Acclaimed Author and Illustrator Kadir Nelson will discuss his new book We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball on Saturday May 24 at 7 p.m., at D.G.Wills Books.
Nelson will be introduced by baseball historian Bill Swank. There will also be a special appearance by Negro League pitcher Walter McCoy.
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.
In 1999, Nelson began to collaborate with several notable authors on a series of picture books. Presently, almost twenty illustrated books are in print, including Debbie Allen’s “Dancing in the Wings”, Ntozake Shange’s “Coretta Scott King”, Award-winning book, “Ellington Was Not a Street”, Deloris and Roslyn Jordan’s best-seller “Salt in his Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream” and many others.
Many of his paintings are found in the collections of notable institutions and museums, including the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the U.S. House of Representatives; as well as in the collections of notable individuals, including Steven Spielberg, Denzel Washington, Will and Jada Smith, Sharon Stone, Spike and Tonya Lee and Queen Latifah.
Nelson also exhibits his work in galleries and museums throughout the country.
From the Muscatine (Iowa) Journal.
Lomax, an associate professor of sports history at the University of Iowa, is the author of Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1860-1901.
His second book, Sports and the Racial Divide, is due in August.
The Negro League star, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, was born this date in 1901.
The Amazon Report on Turkey Stearnes:
Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit, 1919-1933
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s review, which calls the children’s book “A big hit for baseball fans of all ages.” And the BBC, of all outlets, aired this lovely segment on the author, Kadir Nelson, in which the author/artist discusses his project and demonstrates his techniques.
From MPNow.com (Canandaigua, NY), this review of the book about the Negro Leagues that’s receiving universal praise.
A feature piece on Kadir Nelson’s new children’s book on the Negro Leagues, as well as a slide-show of the author’s paintings of some of the legends of the era.
According to NationalPastime.com:
Effa Manley, former Negro League team owner, become the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The co-owner of the Newark Eagles is one 17 former players and executives elected by a special committee using new statistics from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues.
The Amazon Report:
Queen of the Negro Leagues : Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles
Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles (American Sports History, No 1)
Based on Bill Veeck’s quashed attempt to buy the Philadelphia A’s and stock it with players from the Negro Leagues, The End of Baseball features a number of real-life characters, including Veeck, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis (who sought to keep the game lily-white); columnist Walter Winchell (the Matt Drudge of his day?); and J. Edgar Hoover (who sees a Communist under every base). Author Peter Schilling — editor of the marvelous Mudville Magazine — also includes stars of the Negro Leagues such as Josh Gibson, Martin Dihigo, and Cool Papa Bell.
I usually find recent baseball fiction quite lacking, but this sounds like a solid read, and one easily envision it as a motion picture down the line.
The End of Baseball is due out in May from Ivan R. Dee Publisher.
In response to a recent entry on artist Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship, Bob Kendrick of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, wanted readers of the Bookshelf to know that the museum will display a number of the original paintings used to illustrate the book in an exhibit beginning January 26, 2008.
“The NLBM already has several of Kadir’s works in its collection that were donated by San Diego Padres owner John Moores. Kadir was the museum’s featured artist in a groundbreaking national traveling exhibition developed by the NLBM called ‘Shades of Greatness.’ So we most definitely look forward to showing off his latest masterpieces,” Kendrick wrote in an e-mail.”The young man is an amazing talent.”
The artist/author will be on hand for the opening of the exhibition — which runs through April 13, 2008 — and will participate in book signings and other programs being developed by the NLBM.
In my "day job," I'm a writer/sports editor for a New Jersey weekly newspaper. I'm also the editor of the Bibliography Committee Newsletter for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
I did a piece on the award-winning cartoonist and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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