2002 SABR/The Sporting News Baseball Research Award, Winner

2002 Casey Award, sponsored by SPITBALL, the Literary Baseball Magazine, Finalist

“Racist major league baseball policies expunged box scores for most Negro Leagues players, but black newspaper sportswriters kept careful records of the immensely popular all games of the 1930s and ‘40s. Lester has assembled 21 years of headlined articles, photos, game stats and league records into a sort of Negro Leagues all-star game almanac-a-year-by-year reconstruction of every East-West game from 1933 to 1953. There is an authentic, time capsule quality about Lester’s collection and more than enough raw stats to fuel hot stove leagues across the county for many an evening.”

Publishers Weekly, January 28, 2002

“Lester highlights black baseball’s leading event, the East-West All-Star game. His volume contains a fine chapter on Gus Greenlee, the visionary owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who helped to establish the “National Showcase” that featured stars from Satchel Paige to Jackie Robinson. Also included are contemporaneous game reviews, box scores and voting results. Essential for baseball aficionados and public libraries.”

Library Journal, February 1, 2002

“While Lester chronicles all of the greatest players in the segregated game who came to Comiskey Park each summer, he also illustrates the behind-the-scenes efforts of those who sought to desegregate the national pastime. Lester’s latest effort may be his best yet.”

Shepherd Express Metro, December 19, 2002

“Unafraid to show the less-than-savory aspects of black ball, Lester effectively argues that the owners cared about fostering the black game but cared more about the green profits. By folding into each chapter a section on race relations in baseball and society, Lester provides background on the debate over integrating the major leagues, including a scathing 1938 editorial column by sports writer Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier that compares Major League Commissioner Judge Landis to Hitler.”

“What’s so refreshing is that in Lester’s able hands; ‘Black Baseball’s National Showcase’ becomes more than just a fascinating look back at some great games played by greater players. Instead, Lester uses the East-West game as a prism for viewing the sometimes-contradictory forces-economic, political, personal and communal—at work in black baseball, in turn complicating the aura of nostalgia that occasionally seeps into histories of the Negro Leagues”

Chicago Tribune, July l7, 2002

“This work brings together for the first time the painstakingly assembled history of those games, including reconstructed play-by-plays and accurate historical records.”

The Black Scholar, May 6, 2002

“Lester recaptures the vigor of the black communities’ united attention to the game, describing the players who talent brought them to this pinnacle of achievement, and discusses the maneuvers of promoters, gamblers and petty tyrants who cast an occasional shadow on the sunlit fields of Chicago. This is an important addition to the history of baseball and a welcome book to any serious fan of the game.”

Time for Entertainment, April 12, 2002

“A wonderful addition to the growing number of titles on this previously neglected area of U.S. social history, Lester’s book is suitable both as an engrossing story to be read from cover to cover and as a reference book. This elaborate and enjoyable book includes not only detailed statistics and summaries, but also a relevant sociocultural context for every Negro Leagues all-star game.”

M.P. Tosko, American University for Choice

“This attractive book includes previously unpublished photographs, strong historical research and excerpts from the African American newspapers that covered the games.”

Bruce Dancis, Sacramento Bee, April 14, 2002

“The work brings together for the first time the painstakingly assembled history of those games and reconstructed play-by-play with accurate statistical records.”

Richard Miller, Sports Collectors Digest, April 1, 2003

Clarence ''Fats'' Jenkins may have viewed the experience as icing on the cake. For Jenkins, participating in the first EastWest Game in 1933 came in the fall after a spring filled with several notable events as a member of the New York Renaissance professional basketball team. In January, for the first time in their history, the Rens barnstormed in the South, playing the black college teams. Jenkins stepped in as a player/coach when Renaissance owner, Bob Douglas, took over as manager of the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem. The Rens had broken a color barrier in York, PA when they spent the night at an all-white athletic club, and a few days later they achieved an 88-game winning streak in a little over a three-month period. Now Jenkins had another ''first'' to add to his resume, pinch-hitting in the first East-West Classic.

''Fats'' Jenkins name, along with dozens of others, can be found in a superbly researched and organized book written by Larry Lester, Black Baseball's National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953. Following an introduction by the late Joe Black and acknowledgements to several dozen historians, researchers, former players and family members, Lester introduces the reader to the East-West All-Star game, and the challenges a researcher faces in documenting the event. Lester gives William Augustus ''Gus'' Greenlee his clue with a short biography about the entrepreneur's life, focusing on his relationship to baseball. Readers not only learn about Greenlee the businessman, but also Greenlee the humanitarian (Greenlee provided loans, many of which were never repaid, and paid the bills of many people in need in the 1930s).

The next 21 chapters are devoted to consecutive years of the East-West All-Star Game. Much like Ken Burns at the beginning of each inning of his Baseball documentary, Lester sets the scene for each chapter with a short sampling of events that occurred each year in baseball, sport, and African-American history. This half-page listing of events presents a history lesson in itself. For example, readers learn that in 1933 President Roosevelt appointed Mary McLeod Bethune to his unofficial ''Black Cabinet,'' in 1941 New York bus companies agreed to hire black drivers and mechanics, and in 1949 several African-American autoworkers led by Barry Gordy, Jr. organized Motown Records in Detroit. The price of milk and potatoes steadily increased each year from 21 to 56 cents, and 23 to 76 cents, respectively, between 1933 and 1953.

The opening history facts are followed by information categorized under ''Negro League Business,'' ''Race Relations,'' ''All-Star Review,'' ''Scouting Reports,'' and various subtopics on events and players in both black and white baseball. Reader's are guided through a yearly history of the African-American experience in baseball, and the efforts made by league officials, sportswriters, and newspapers to chip away at the color line and integrate America's pastime. Yes, Lester discusses Negro League players such as Satchel Paige and Roy Campanella, but he also tells the stories of players such as Lynwood ''Schoolboy'' Rowe and Eddie Klep. Rowe, a Detroit Tiger pitcher, claimed ''too many colored people in the grandstands'' jinxed his attempt to break the American League record of 16 wins, and Klep became the first white player in the Negro Leagues when he signed with the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1945. ''Race Relations'' presents a variety and evolution of opinions from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s concerning integration and African-American players in the Major Leagues. Readers learn about the 1942 ''Can You Read, Judge Landis?'' campaign by the New York Daily Worker newspaper, which forced Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to take a stand on ''hiring Negro baseball players.''

Lester includes the actual accounts of each East-West AllStar Game, as well as box score statistics from the game and a compilation of the voting results from the fans. He uses the articles and weekly columns of such well known sportswriters and newspapers as Wendell Smith, William Nunn, and Chester L. Washington, Jr. of the Pittsburgh Courier, Fay Young of the Chicago Defender, Ed Harris of the Philadelphia Tribune, Dan Burley of the New York Amsterdam News, and Sam Lacey of the Baltimore Afro-American. Lester's use of the actual game reviews places the reader in an historical context and setting. Rather than reading an author's synopsis and therefore his interpretation of the account, readers get a feel for not only the time period and events that occurred at the game, but also how sportswriters described baseball games over 50 years ago through their use of language. Writing about the 1939 game, Chester L. Washington noted that, ''Brilliant hits of fielding, good pitching, and that home run hitting gave the mighty throng thrills galore.''

The narrative of Black Baseball's National Showcase ends with a poignant tribute to the Negro Leagues, the East-West All-Star Game, and the dedicated players whose vision for equal opportunity became a reality. Several appendixes make up the last 97 pages of the book, and serve as an invaluable tool for the current day Negro League researcher or fan. They include several topics such as lists of the East-West Game Summaries, All-Stars by Team, and Individual Batting and Pitching Statistics, as well as All-Star Trivia, Fun Facts on the First Game, and Financial Statements from the 1942-53 Games.

It is clear that Larry Lester's heart belongs to the research and study of the Negro Leagues, as he has gone above and beyond in his primary source documentation of the Annual EastWest Classic. However, Black Baseball's National Showcase goes much deeper than mere statistics and stories about an event that drew over 50,000 fans a year. Rather, it is the story of the color line in America, of vision and perseverance in challenging the social mores of the day, and of eventual integration, with baseball--specifically the East-West All-Star Games--as the vehicle. Complimented by over 60 photographs, this book is highly recommended for baseball fans, as well as cultural and sport historians. It is a must as a resource for any serious researcher of baseball or Negro League history.

Dr. Susan Rayl, University of New York at Cortland

Elaborate and enjoyable. . . . It is a joy to read these pieces, some of which present eloquent and compelling arguments for integration while maintaining great pride in the talent and achievements of black baseball. A wonderful addition. . . . Lester's book is suitable both as an engrossing story to be read from cover to cover and as a reference work.

Choice

Lester's pioneering research brings to life the all-star games that featured some of the best baseball players in the world, all of whom were barred from the major leagues, and drew at times more than 50,000 fans. This attractive book includes previously unpublished photographs, strong historical research and excerpts from the African American newspapers that covered the games.

Sacramento Bee

Bit by bit the obscure story of the legendary Negro Leaguers is being reconstructed, and books like this are playing a major role. Recounted here are all the East-West Games, the annual All-Star Games of the Negro Leagues, complete with boxscores, play-by-play, and contemporary newspaper coverage from the great African-American sportswriters & newspapers of the day. Finally those names from the dusty archives are being fleshed out into real players with recognizable skills. A superb reference. This is also a great companion volume to David Vincent's "The Midsummer Classic" about the (White) Major League All-Star Games, issued by the same publisher.

R. Riis, May 7, 2002 - Amazon

For twenty years, the East-West All-Star Game was a celebration of the outstanding achievements of some of the greatest baseball players ever, and so much more.

The idea of legendary Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee to have a mid-season exhibition game quickly evolved into a major summer event - there was even fan voting for the starters in some years - with an atmosphere that I compare with college football's Bayou Classic.

Author Larry Lester takes articles, photographs, box scores, league records and other statistics mostly from the leading newspapers that served the black community to recreate the excitement and glory of the games. The book is also an excellent retrospective of the top media sources like the Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender and Baltimore Afro-American.

At its peak, the game was one of the hottest tickets for any sporting event - though mostly ignored by the white press - where Jim Crow could not find a seat in the stadium. There was no prejudice or segregation; the contest was indicative of the openness found on the field, in the seats and within management of Negro Leagues Baseball.

The East-West All-Star Game was truly a showcase, on and off the field. 

Richard D. "Mr. C" Coreno, February 23, 2007 - Amazon