Raceball How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game

From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League Baseball The colliding histories of black and Latin ballplayers in the major leagues run the gamut from early collaboration in civil rights protests to simmering intra-racial tensions. Jackie Robinson jumped baseballrs"s color line to much fanfare, but integration was also painful. It gutted the once vibrant Negro Leagues and often subjected Latin players to Jim Crow racism. Today, MLB tightens its grasp around the Caribbeanrs"s burgeoning baseball academies; at home, it embraces, and exploits, the legacy of the Negro Leagues. After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth-a decline unimaginable in other menrs"s pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over a quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across all quarters of society. InRaceball, a brilliant researcher and deft storyteller puts the pieces together to unveil a fresh and stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.

Rob Ruck teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh and The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic, he made the Emmy Award–winning documentary Kings on the Hill: Baseball’s Forgotten Men. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Maggie Patterson, his coauthor for Rooney: A Sporting Life.