Justice Batted Last : Ernie Banks, Minnie Miñoso, and the Unheralded Players Who Integrated Chicago's Major League Teams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zminda, Don.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Miñoso, Minnie, 1922-2015.

Miñoso, Minnie.

Banks, Ernie, 1931-2015.

Banks, Ernie.

Major League Baseball (Organization).

Chicago White Sox (Baseball team)--History--20th century.

Chicago White Sox (Baseball team).

Chicago Cubs (Baseball team)--History--20th century.

Chicago Cubs (Baseball team).

Discrimination in sports--United States.

Discrimination in sports.

Minor league baseball--United States--History.

Minor league baseball.

Baseball players--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Baseball players.

Hispanic American baseball players--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Hispanic American baseball players.

African American baseball players--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

African American baseball players.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Champaign : Three Fields Press, 2025.

Summary:

"On May 1, 1951, Orestes "Minnie" Minoso took the field for the Chicago White Sox and broke the color line for Chicago major league baseball. Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs two years later. The future Hall of Famers began their Chicago baseball careers against the backdrop of a 1951 race riot in suburban Cicero, where a white mob abetted by local police attacked a building that had rented to Black tenants. Don Zminda's account looks at these interconnected events alongside the little-known chronicle of Chicago's slow track to integrating major league baseball. By the early 1950s, the Cubs and White Sox organizations had become rich in Black and Afro-Latino stars and talented prospects. Unlike Minoso and Banks, however, most of these minor leaguers never advanced to the majors or, if they did, it was for little more than a cup of coffee. Zminda also profiles these players, from Charles Pope, the Cubs' first Black signee, to larger-than-life fireballer Blood Burns. Essential and dramatic, Justice Batted Last uses the lives and careers of two Chicago legends to tell a story of integration on and off the diamond"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

The Comet . . . and the riot

A long and winding road

Not in our back yard

Beginning their journey

Pioneers

New men, old ideas

At wild's end

Window dressing

The problems we must solve

A trying year

The forgotten one

The arc of history

Keepin' on

Bingo, bango, and baseball

Stormy times

Baseball's new superstar

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780252047725

0252047729

OCLC:

1500233100