Description
Book SynopsisDescribes the evolution of the Pacific Coast League, beginning with the league's differing treatment of African Americans and other non-white players. Because these Minor League teams integrated so much earlier than the Major Leagues or the eastern Minor Leagues, West Coast baseball fans were the first to experience a more diverse baseball game.
Trade Review"Amy Essington’s
The Integration of the Pacific Coast League: Race and Baseball on the West Coast points towards the underappreciated and vastly overlooked Minor League Baseball (MiLB) as an important new direction for scholars interested in baseball’s desegregation."—David Lucander,
NINE"Jackie Robinson was a trailblazer in integrating major league baseball, but as Essington shows, there were pioneers at the minor-league level who also blazed a path for a future generation of African American players. The Pacific Coast League integrated quickly and was ages ahead of other areas of the country. Essington's book provides readers with a concise, useful examination of that progress."—Bob D’Angelo,
Sport in American History"The West Coast's reputation as socially progressive was a factor even in sports. Amy Essington . . . tells the story of how the Pacific Coast League, a popular minor league before the majors' westward expansion, became one of the first leagues in any sport to integrate throughout."—Ross Atkin,
Christian Science Monitor"Essington's book is a worthy exploration of race, baseball, and American culture in the postwar American West. Historians and members of the general public interested in race, civil rights, baseball, and the American West should find this book useful and informative."—Robert Bauman,
Oregon Historical Society“The desegregation of the Pacific Coast League is a story that has never been fully told until now. Amy Essington gives a thorough account of the process and the individuals. . . . Essington explains the story beyond Robinson and Rickey. A definite must-read.”—Leslie Heaphy, editor of
Satchel Paige and Company: Essays on the Kansas City Monarchs, Their Greatest Star, and the Negro Leagues “Based on a subject that has received too little attention from sports historians,
The Integration of the Pacific Coast League explores the important role that the PCL played in the integration of baseball and how it became one of the first sports leagues to be fully integrated.”—Dick Beverage, founder and former president of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Baseball, the Color Line, and the Pacific Coast League before World War II
2. Baseball, the Color Line, and the Pacific Coast League in the 1940s
3. John Ritchey Integrates the San Diego Padres, 1948
4. Momentum and Challenges, 1949
5. The Pacific Coast League Integrates, 1950–52
Afterword
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
