“Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player”
The author:
Jeremy Beer
The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press
$29.95
472 pages
Published in November, 2019
The links:
At the publisher’s website
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Powells.com
At Indiebound.org
At the Oscar Charleston official website
The review in 90 feet or less
With the April 15 arrival of Jackie Robinson Day near, did you know that an African-American baseball legend named Oscar McKinley Charleston was employed by the team and wore a Dodgers’ uniform two years before Robinson broke into the MLB color line in 1947?
Read on …
There’s not a lot of documentation to gather about Charleston by fellow Indiana native Beer, a non-profit business warrior whose writing focused on sports, society and culture have been in the Washington Post, National Review and Baseball Research Journal. But if not Beer, then who else is best suited for this task?
He tracked down key relatives, including Charleston’s sister. Found photo albums, scrapbooks and person letters. All helped fill in many blanks that were not so well chronicled by sportswriters, on top of some already sketchy record keeping.
The quick afoot outfielder and worthy slugger is someone Bill James was convinced by the data he collected to be deemed the fourth-best player of all time, behind Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner and Willie Mays.
Yet when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976 specifically recognized for his career in the Negro Leagues, there were seven before him: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Monty Irvin, Cool Papa Bell and Judy Johnson.
Charleston’s time as a player in the professional game spans from 1915 to 1941, with such teams as the Indianapolis ABCs, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords. Then came managing, scouting, and whatever else the game needed him for.
Beer calls him Tris Speaker but with more home run power. Or Ken Griffey Jr., with more speed. Or:
In terms of today’s game, think of a left-handed, considerably more cantankerous Mike Trout
********
With Jackie Robinson Day near, there are two dots to connect for Charleston and Robinson. Continue reading “Day 17 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: Jackie Robinson Day is near — dance the Charleston”
“Easter is the only player I ever saw who can hit a baseball as far as Babe Ruth,” said then-Padres and future Angels coach Jimmie Reese. As his homers were known as “Easter Eggs,” he is said to have been the first to hit a ball into the center-field bleachers at the New York oblong Polo Grounds while with the Negro League’s Homestead Grays, a shot that was recorded at 477 feet.
The author/editor:
Just 102 pages, it is essentially a 12-part newspaper serial, ghost written for him in 1920, before Christy Walsh became his official agent in 1921. It’s Ruth talking and likely sportswriter (and future commissioner) Ford Frick doing the transcription, and it ended up in The Atlanta Constitution archives. The publishers call it a “breezy account of his early life that’s rich with recollections of his childhood, his transition from pitcher to outfielder, and the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Red Sox to the Yankees.” Paul Dickson provides the intro.
How did this book happen? What were you doing when you stumbled across it as you mention in the introduction?
In 2005, my book 
For a long time, the two most revered hikes to the top of Mount Babe were by Leigh Montville (2006, “The Big Bam”) and Robert Creamer (1974, “Babe: The Legend Comes to Life”). Then came, for our enjoyment, a most creative sidetrack into how starpower created the image, led by Jane Leavy. She received the 2018 SABR Seymour Medal for “The Big Fella” best-seller (which 
The illustrator:
As the sports-centric Triumph publishing found a triumphant response from an author/illustrator team that has already collaborated on the NBA-driven “
Which means, of course, it’s the perfect moment for parents and kids to sit and look at the compelling drawings that go with the creative educational links for each of the sections, art work that says so much with bold and defined strokes, and text that sneaks in smiles for moms and dads to appreciate and go back to their childhood.
Littlejohn: Yeah, even though we’re on opposite sides of the country I think we’ve developed some artistic chemistry. I lead a little more on figuring out the word for each letter and the players we’d include and then Matthew takes over from there with the illustrations while dealing with my annoying feedback along the way. 
Shipley: There’s lots of back and forth through the whole process. I had a lot to say about the soccer book and I had to lean on James a lot for Slugger. And I can’t take credit for all the visual ideas, James has had some great ideas too and I just do my best to bring them to life. We balance each other out pretty well. 
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 