Check out my new book…

White Fences Black Stars

A historical fiction on the Negro Baseball Leagues of old.

Three Black men in the early twentieth century struggle against racism and Jim Crow as they participate, to the best of their ability, in the sport they love. Join Negro League baseball players, Heath, Gooch and Wilkinson, as they triumph over adversity by sticking together through thick and thin, raise their families during a time of bigotry laced with victories and barnstorm their way across the country and around the world.

So I was reading a book called Black Diamond, about the so-called Negro Baseball Leagues of the 1800s and 1900s, I say so-called not because it was illegitimate by any means, but because we don’t use that word anymore. There were many stories and anecdotes about various African-American baseball players, telling of their situations with the plight of racism, the bane of segregation, and other difficulties. The stories were entertaining, but they were not very profound. What I mean is they didn’t plunge deeply into the personal lives of the men in the story. Perhaps they didn’t have adequate information. It occurred to me that I could pen a simple story about these complex and important people as fiction, and reference facts about them at the same time, calling it historical fiction.

I questioned myself as to whether I was the right person for the job since I am Caucasian, but as yet I do not know anyone who is both African-American and a writer, and someone who wanted to write this. I would certainly want to collaborate with someone fitting this description if I did. That way my work would be more authentic. I grew up in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood in Berkeley decades ago, but that doesn’t make me African-American, so I am not entirely qualified. Nonetheless, I am delighted to embark on this journey, and if along the way there is a better way to author this book that means someone else would do some of the writing or would collaborate with me, I would welcome that, but I feel privileged and excited to write it myself! If I put a lot of effort into it I would like to still be connected to it, but the main thing is that it should be entertaining, informative and encouraging.

I am also excited that as I wrapped up the first draft of this book, Major League Baseball announced that Negro League statistics will now be included in the official, MLB record books. This is a coup and a wonderful thing, praise God!

-Brendan Shea , San Francisco Bay Area, 2024

Here’s a link  to the book on Amazon.

Enjoy!