Profile
"We are drowning in information     
...but starving for knowledge."
- Larry Lester
 
 
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AUTHOR / EDITOR

Currently, Larry Lester serves as co-chairman of the Negro Leagues Committee for the prestigious Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), in Cleveland, Ohio. This committee also hosts the annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in selected cities, providing a presentation venue for scholarly papers and academic research.

SABR published his first book, simply titled: The Negro Leagues Book (1994) which is billed as “the most complete collection of information on baseball’s Negro Leagues ever published.” His next four books are a part of Arcadia’s Black America Series, entitled Whistle Stops. The stops included Black Baseball in Detroit , …. in Chicago, …. in Kansas City and … in Pittsburgh. In 2002, book #6 was published by the University of Nebraska Press, called Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933 – 1953. This publication won The Sporting News-SABR Research Award for the “best researched baseball book of the year.”

His latest book published by McFarland & Company (2006): Baseball’s First Colored World Series, the 10-game series between the Kansas City Monarchs and the Hilldale Club of Darby, PA.

Other writings on sports personalities have appeared in The National Pastime, Biographical Dictionary of American Sports, American National Biography, The Ball Players, World Book Encyclopedia, and the Dictionary of American Negro Biography. In 1997, he wrote 28 biographies for Major League Baseball’s black history month web page which included a special section on Jackie Robinson’s 50th Anniversary of breaking baseball’s color barrier. His comprehensive life history of Jackie Robinson’s journey was the featured article in the New York Mets’ Opening Day Program booklet in 1997. Other publications include the 1997 Official Major League Baseball Calendar, and featured articles in the 1998 & 1999 World Series Programs for MLB.

Other works include his text and photographs of James “Cool Papa” Bell, Josh Gibson and Leroy “Satchel” Paige on General Mill’s 75th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues Wheaties cereal box (1996), along with a regular series of Negro League calendars, "The Forgotten Leagues" by DMD Design (2001-2008).