Crossing the Line - by Larry Moffi (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, c1994.

Book Synopsis

From 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, through 1959, when the Boston Red Sox became the last Major League team to integrate, more than a hundred African American baseball players crossed the color line and made it to the Major Leagues. Each of these players is profiled in this comprehensive book, which includes their statistics and capsule biographies, their triumphs and trials.

Some of these players became superstars of the game and eventual Hall of Famers--Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Roy Campanella, and Bob Gibson; most were average players. All were pioneers, facing down the enormous difficulties of integrating organized baseball. The authors provide a new preface and appendix for this Bison Books edition.

Review Quotes

"It takes up where Robert Peterson's important Only the Ball Was White leaves off. . . . Moffi and Kronstadt demonstrate precisely and eloquently how the crossing of the color line was not a quick one-time event but, rather, a slow decade-long process of various courageous moves matched by even more cowardly moves by both players and owners."--Ed Folsom, editor of Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

"The more you read the more you shake your head. The minority players of that era are truly inspirational."--Frank Thomas, player for the Oakland A's

"Whether for loot or for love of the game, these players bridged the distance between racial segregation and racial integration in America's standard pastime."--Russell Adams, chair of the African American studies department, Howard University

About the Author

Larry Moffi has written five other books, including The Conscience of the Game (Nebraska 2006). Jonathan Kronstadt is a writer living in Silver Spring, Maryland.