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Many of the happiest days of my life are moments spent on a baseball diamond. Mostly sandlots: sometimes cow pastures turned into a ball field for Sunday baseball outings, some with meticulously kept lawns, and some in the oldest minor league ballpark in America, Luther Williams Field, in Macon, Georgia.
There is a myth that Black youngsters are not playing baseball these days. If you look at Major League Baseball (MLB) rosters and most Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), it is easy to come away with that impression. Around eight percent of professional baseball players are Black Americans. This number is down from approximately 30 percent in the late 1970s, thirty years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier that kept Black baseball players off major league rosters.
Editors Note…
The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Negro Leagues Baseball. During its heyday, teams were often made up of ballplayers who previously played at historically black colleges and universities. Negro League teams were the only opportunities for African-American college ballplayers to continue playing the game. In his recently published book entitled “The Duke of 18th & Vine”, Black College Nines’ contributing writer Harold Michael Harvey references that relationship between the two entities and delves into the man who leads the Negro National Museum and his storytelling. Below is our Douglas Malan’s interview with Mr. Harvey.
Greg Fulginiti, Guest Blogger
A book review:
I’ve read The Duke of 18th & Vine: Bob Kendrick Pitches Negro Leagues Baseball, (Cascade Publishing House, Atlanta, 2020). I own this book and it will be forever in my baseball collection.
The Duke is a great read. Absolutely so!
Harvey uses his joy for baseball and the lessons that his granddad taught him about the game and life to spun an excellent tale around the tremendous volume of knowledge possessed by Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The Duke of 18 & Vine is an excellent read about how Negro Leagues Baseball paved the way for the desegregation of American society. It is a tale told in 160 pages and highlights how a group of Negro baseball players traveled the country and the world during the segregation era of American history.
Cascade Publishing House is excited to announce that Harold Michael Harvey’s new book The Duke of 18th & Vine: Bob Kendrick Pitches Negro League Baseball is available for pre-orders. We are excited because Michael, a certified baseball fanatic, finally has written a book about his beloved baseball.
Editor’s Note:
This article is an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Harold Michael Harvey, author of the bestselling book, Freaknik Lawyer. The title of the new tome is The Duke of 18th & Vine: Bob Kendrick Talking Negro League Baseball written in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Baseball Leagues (United States Baseball League) in 1920 will be released on May 15, 2020, by Cascade Publishing House. For further details contact the publisher at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com
I’ve been writing about baseball for a long time. I’ve interviewed hundreds of college baseball players, most of the players at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). I’ve only met two young men playing baseball at the HBCU level, who told me that their dream was not to play professional baseball. There is a large percentage of Black college baseball student-athletes who want to pursue professional baseball as a career; despite the fact, Major League Baseball seldom send scouts to watch HBCU baseball games.
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA ( Cascade Publishing House) It was a cold and blustery day. Intermittent rain fell from the sky, some of the droplets appeared like snowflakes as they swirled and floated to the turf in the ballpark once home for the Montgomery Rebels in the old Southern League. The combatants lined up along their respective baselines, the national anthem played over the public address system, and the umpires went over the ground rules. There would be no banging on trash cans, and signs, if stolen, had to employ the old fashion technique perfected during twentieth-century baseball.
“I’m excited to get another chance to revive a baseball program,” Coach Marcus Smith said over lunch at the iconic Beautiful Restaurant in southwest Atlanta.
Fourteen months ago, Smith walked away from the Head Baseball Coach position at Le Moyne-Owen in Memphis, Tennessee over an NCAA compliance issue that occurred two years before he became head coach at the school.