The Golden Era of Major League Baseball: A Time of Transition and Integration

Soderholm-Difatte, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and writer of the blog Baseball Historical Insight, draws parallels between America’s growing pains after WWII and baseball’s contemporaneous transformation following a breach in the color barrier. He details the racist history of baseball before Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey signed former Negro League star Jackie Robinson in 1947. Rickey’s action sparked a constant stream of black athletes—such as Cleveland’s Larry Doby, and the St. Louis Browns’ Hank Thompson and Willard Brown—fighting for full citizenship against prejudiced white owners and insensitive players in the big leagues. While many owners felt that the Rickey experiment proved fruitful, others didn’t believe Negro League players could perform up to pro standards. Some even produced a scathing antiblack document, the MacPhail Report. Giving a realistic context for this cultural move, Soderholm-Difatte provides a candid, unsettling analysis of the men who brought integration to the clubhouse: Rickey, Leo Durocher, and Bill Veeck, the visionaries looking ahead to the game’s future. With artful prose, this expertly written account on social progress in baseball’s golden age explains how integration changed the sport and America. (Nov.)