| Author |
Dunkel, Tom, author.
|
| Publication |
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, ©2013.
|
| Edition |
1st edition. |
| Description |
xiii, 345 pages, 8 pages of unnumbered plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Call # |
796.357 D |
| Note |
Also issued in paperback (xiii, 366 pages) by Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-345). |
| Summary |
During the Great Depression, in drought stricken Bismarck, North Dakota, one of the most improbable teams in the history of baseball was assembled by one of the sport's most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, car dealer Neil Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race, and fielded an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion. When baseball swept America in the years after the Civil War, independent, semipro, and municipal leagues sprouted up everywhere, especially in the large swaths of the country without a Major League team. This book immerses the reader in the wild and wonderful world of independent baseball, with its tough competition and its novelty--from all-brother teams and a prison team (who only played home games) to one from a religious commune that sported Old Testament beards. It traces the rise of the Bismarck squad, and follows them through their ups and downs, focusing on the 1935 season, and the first National Semipro Tournament in Wichita, Kansas. |
| Subject |
Churchill, Neil O.
|
|
Paige, Satchel, 1906-1982.
|
|
Trouppe, Quincy, 1912-1993.
|
|
Smith, Hilton, 1907-1983.
|
|
Bismarck Churchills (Baseball team)
|
|
Baseball teams -- North Dakota -- Bismarck -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Discrimination in sports -- United States -- History.
|
|
Semi-professional baseball -- United States -- History.
|
|
Racism in sports -- United States -- History.
|
| ISBN |
0802120121 : |
|
9780802120120 : |
|
9780802121370 (pbk.) : |
|
