Essay about The Historical Significance of Negro Baseball...

Negro baseball leagues have a deep historical significance. Racism and â€Å"Jim Crow† laws encouraged segregation of African-Americans and whites. Arguably, the players on the negro baseball leagues were some of the best ever. Even today they are still being recognized and honored for their wonderful contribution to baseball as a whole. It started when major league owners had made a â€Å"gentleman’s agreement† to keep blacks from playing in the game. The barrier that went up was finally broken with a few black players being signed into white teams in the 1940s. It was once said by Martin Luther King Jr., â€Å"[Segregation] gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, it gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority.† While that is true of†¦show more content†¦The first all-black team formed in 1894 called the Page Fence Giants was from Michigan. Other teams followed later and traveled throughout the country playing each other in †Å"pickup games†. In 1920, Rube Foster, who had been a pitcher-manager with other teams, organized the first Negro National League. He had financial backing to support the eight teams he organized. The teams consisted of the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Giants, and Cuban Stars. With these teams he controlled all the operations from equipment to scheduling games to selling tickets. Foster wanted to add structure to baseball leagues to prove that it didn’t have to be run the way whites do. He also wanted to show white baseball league members that his ideas were good. â€Å"The attitude of the white majority was, there is nothing you can possesses that we cannot take away.† (Negro Leagues. Major League Baseball, 2014. Web. 12 Jan 2014.) The Negro League players were the best at entertaining the crowd. They would impress the audience by playing an upbeat, fast, and daring game. Players often stole bases on risky terms, but successfully stealing a base meant a roar from the crowd. Negro League players were also often known to talk a lot on the field. The batters would try to make the pitchers nervous by using intimidating talk. The silly phrases such as â€Å"we want a pitcher, not a belly itcher† wasShow MoreRelatedAmerican Society During The 1940 S2482 Words   |  10 PagesAmerican life, baseball, like most professional sports, was equally discriminatory against African Americans. The major league teams only signed white players and denied black men the opportunity to play professionally. Black players were restricted to their own Negro Leagues. Until one day in 1946, when Branch Rickey, an innovative Major League Baseball (MLB) executive, chose a black man named Jackie Robinson to become the first Afric an American man to play professional baseball. Jackie brokeRead MoreHistory and Importance of Baseball in the US Essay1763 Words   |  8 PagesBaseball is an American icon. It is the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle, ‘In God We Trust,’ Mount Rushmore, ice cream, apple pie, hot dogs, and rally monkeys. BASEBALL IS AMERICA.† At one time baseball held the hearts and captivated the minds of the majority of the United States of America with its luster and almost magical exuberance. It exerted this on minds of young children and all the way up to old men and women in America. Americans fell in love with the scent of ballpark hotdogs and theRead MoreModern History.Hsc.2012 Essay25799 Words   |  104 Pagesfelt like istory had turned a corner and never going back * stock market * black Thursday November 24 1929 * the jazz age * a speakeasyyyyyyy How significant were the Republican policies in causing the great depression? The significance of the republic policies were great, they brought a lot of growth in the 20’s allowing the market to strive over lots of trading and the purchase of shares, but was also an unstable market, as the government had no control over what it did and