Baseball integrated before Jackie Robinson?

Baseball maverick Bill Veeck always claimed that he tried to break baseball’s color barrier in 1943 by buying the woebegone Philadelphia Phillies and stocking the team with players from the Negro Leagues. His plan was foiled in real life, but what if Veeck had succeeded in integrating baseball four years before Jackie Robinson arrived in Brooklyn? Would it have been easier or harder to smash the barrier with an entire team of black players instead of one lonely individual? How would black stars such as Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, who were denied a chance to play in organized baseball, have fared in a National League weakened by the demands of World War II? Would getting a chance five years earlier have given Satchel Paige, Ray Dandridge and Roy Campanella— players who only reached the Majors late in life—more chance to demonstrate their greatness? This book explores the possibilities of Veeck’s mad scheme. It’s the story of a fabulous pennant race that might have been, populated by real historical characters. It’s the story of Veeck’s fight to block frantic efforts by baseball’s establishment to destroy his black team. It’s the season that would have been if Paige, Gibson and Leonard would have been given the chance to compete in the 1943 Major League season.

Alwyn Featherston has been a professional sports writer for more than 40 years. While his primary focus has been college basketball, Featherston has also been an avid baseball fan who was lucky enough to cover the rebirth of the famous Durham Bulls in 1980. He has met and interviewed several of the old Negro League stars that populate his book. Featherston, a graduate of Duke University, is the author of three previous books – two focused on basketball in North Carolina and a third about the World War II Battle of Mortain. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.