[...]... play 26 major league seasons The fraternity of major league club owners had moved quickly to mend the breach in the gentleman’s agreement that kept black players out of the highest level of professional baseball After Walker made his last appearance of the 1884 season on September 4, the major leagues would not see another acknowledged black player for 63 years, though Walker and several others would... Hartung, one of the most notorious flops in major league history, was “a cinch to develop into one of the best hitters in the National League. ”17 And Southernborn outfielder Dixie Walker of the Dodgers dismissed the news with the shortsighted comment, “As long as he isn’t with the Dodgers, I’m not worried.”18 The Sporting News believes that the attention which the signing of Robinson elicited in the press... presidents Ford Frick of the National League and Will Harridge of the American League, owners Sam Breadon of the St Louis Cardinals, Tom Yawkey of the Boston Red Sox, and Phil Wrigley of the Chicago Cubs Working with fervor and speed rarely seen in the executive circle of professional baseball, the committee prepared a report, drafted by MacPhail, for the owners’ August meeting The report, dated for... usurped by the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which was controlled by the team owners The National League is generally considered the first major league, ” although it initially faced challenges from other circuits After its closest rival, the International Association, was vanquished in 1879, the general framework for “Organized Baseball was formed with the development of the National... feigned for the continued financial health of the Negro Leagues if the major leagues acquired their best players But the real problem, according to the report, was the poor quality of the black players who had never been properly coached After taking a few potshots at “political and social drum beaters” who “know little about baseball, ” the study bemoaned the scarcity of talent in black baseball It... players, with the debut of Minnie Minoso 1949 May 20 Don Newcombe debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers — the ninth black major leaguer 1949 June The Chicago White Sox hire John Donaldson — the first black major league scout 1949 June The Chicago Cubs sign their first black player — career minor leaguer Robert Burns 1949 July 8 The New York Giants become the fourth team to integrate, with the debut of Hank Thompson... into organized leagues In 1906, the International League of Colored Baseball Clubs in America and Cuba was formed The Roaring Twenties would be the heyday of black baseball, but the boon times came to an end with the onset of the Great Depression As the financial hardships of the 1930s took a tremendous toll on the weakly administered Negro Leagues, black baseball fell to its lowest point in 1932 But Franklin... institution of Negro League Baseball, which the publication barely bothered to cover Great anxiety was also expressed over exposing those poor black fellows to the hazing of white players and fans The editors even worried that the legend of the great Satchel Paige might be tarnished if he took the mound to face major league hitters, apparently ignorant of the fact he’d been faring quite successfully against them... retold Commissioner Landis: The Last Barrier The biases of The Sporting News and the magnates notwithstanding, the most formidable obstacle baseball integrationists had to overcome is generally considered to be Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the long-time commissioner of Major League Baseball Landis became Baseball s first commissioner on January 12, 1921, in the wake of the infamous Black Sox scandal... semi-pro baseball job cost him his eligibility Before the 1902 season, he became the school’s baseball coach and two years later added the title of head football coach to his resume.1 The young man caught on as a catcher with Dallas of the Texas League following his graduation in 1904 and soon found himself in the major leagues when his contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds of the National League . The Integration of Major League Baseball ALSO BY RICK SWAINE The Black Stars Who Made Baseball Whole: The Jackie Robinson Generation in the Major Leagues,. left blank PREFACE The Integration of Major League Baseball is not another nostalgic trip through Negro League history or a re-telling of the Jackie Robinson–Branch