Baseball historians of a certain age are well aware of the fact that Jackie Robinson wasn’t the first African- American to put on a glove or swing a bat. Long before Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Larry Doby burst onto the scene, men like Satchel Paige, Monte Irvin, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell enjoyed superstar status in the Negro community. And even after the color barrier was breached in baseball, a certain Willie Mays was patrolling center for the Birmingham Black Barons. Today, the Negro a...more