Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game

by Rob Ruck

From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League Baseball

After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Award-winning historian Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across society. Integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind.

By looking at this history from the vantage point of black America and the Caribbean, a more complex story comes into focus, one largely missing from traditional narratives of baseball's history. Raceball unveils a fresh and stunning baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Rob Ruck teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh and The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic, his documentary work includes the Emmy Award–winning Kings on the Hill: Baseball’s Forgotten Men. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Maggie Patterson, his coauthor for Rooney: A Sporting Life.

Reviews

[Mark J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this at a garage sale last month. It was a great use of fifty cents! The previous owner had made some notes throughout the book, and I'm guessing it was used for a high school paper. It would be fun to read that, too.

I am a lifelong baseball fan, but I learned quite a bit from this book. For example, there are stories and thoughts about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in major league baseball that I never knew - despite reading books and watching movies solely focused on him. Upon completion of Raceball, I spent some time on the author's website and realized there are some other books of his that I should read, too.

My only complaint - which is really just more of an opinion/observation - is that there was so much covered that some topics felt short-changed a bit.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, at its best when it gives a critical view of integration and its effect on the Negro leagues, as well as when it was analyzing MLB's motives for how they deal with the Caribbean leagues (and Mexico). It loses a star (somewhere between a 3.5 and 4.0 for me) because it could have used some streamlining. Each chapter seems to be treated as a separate essay, so Ruck will mention some information about, say, the demise of the NNL in the chapter about the Negro Leagues, and then repeat the same information in the chapter about Jackie Robinson and integration into MLB. (Same for the Mexico and Caribbean chapters). Worthwhile read for not only understanding baseball, but our part of the world here in North America and the Caribbean.

[Roncibio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent narrative detailing the roles of African American and Latino baseball players and organizations in the history of the game. A must read for anyone interested in a broader, more inclusive understanding of baseball's past.

[Traci Powell]

Finished this amazing read with my son who is a thirteen-year-old lover of the baseball sport.

My son: Mom, this kind of racism still exists in the sport today, what has changed?
Me: I'm still searching for ways and answers and examples to answer and process.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2014/...

Rob Ruck's Raceball is an entertaining look at the development of black and Latino participation in baseball. He traces this from the Negro Leagues to Cuba to Mexican leagues the academies in the Dominican Republic. For baseball history, it's a great read--lots of interesting tidbits and interviews. Analytically, it falls a bit short.

The subtitle of the book is "How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game." This is obviously provocative and ends up more complicated than that. The essence of his argument about the Negro Leagues was that MLB integration destroyed them, which over time decreased African American interest in baseball. This stands in clear tension to the fact that African Americans were trying very hard to integrate. In other words, this isn't simply one agent acting upon another. As Ruck notes, Jackie Robinson is now considered a national hero--hardly an accomplice in colonization.

The part on Mexico was my favorite, not only for the stories but for the outcome, which unfortunately is less unanalyzed. A fight to attract American players in the 1940s eventually led to MLB agreeing to pay for Mexican players they wanted. That led to strong Mexican leagues, but Ruck jumps straight to Fernando Valenzuela without examining how Mexico succeeded so well.

The book ends with the suggestion that somehow MLB will destroy Latin American baseball: "And if it's lost, the last, best piece of baseball's soul may go with it" (p. 235). Sounds dire, but it comes soon after an interview with Juan Marichal--an icon of both MLB and the DR--says he thinks the Dominican academies are great. So how do we square that?

For a book that emphasizes three Latin American countries, one drawback is that there are virtually no Spanish-language sources at all--books, newspapers, documents, etc. (so that a chapter called "Viva Mexico!" relies on the NYT and WaPo) That is a major drawback for the thesis because it removes the Latin American voice from the equation--to what degree did they believe they were being colonized, or that the experience was negative in some form?

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not long after the release of his excellent academic biography of Art Rooney, Rob Ruck returns to baseball scholarship with Raceball. In it, he examines the "colonization" of Latino and African-American baseball by well-funded MLB teams, synthesizing his first two books on the subject--Sandlot Seasons and the Tropic of Baseball--with other leading works. The result is an overview of the troubled, shifting relationship between baseball and race in which Ruck deplores the loss of sporting autonomy in the African-American community while noting critical differences that may prevent the Caribbean, Mexican, and Venezuelan variations of the game from following in that direction. A must-read among this year's leading selections in sports history, and one that will likely to snag a few awards before the dust around home plate has settled.

[Gay Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raceball boldly, unfolds the history of baseball, as told through the eyes of African-American baseball historian. In the process of American major league baseball integrating Jackie Robinson and others into the major leagues, this integration gutted the strong Negro and Latino baseball leagues. Ruck passionately tells of the consequences to society and to the game of baseball, with a sociological emphasis. Ruck believes baseball has turned into a business now and the game has been weakened. Readers discover more than detailed information about baseball history, but about the social ramifications of the Jim Crow laws and how the black culture views their athletes today. Ruck knows his baseball history and gives us insights into how race lines influenced play on the field and how inequalities made baseball a transnational sport.

[The Book : An Online Review at The New Republic]

I BECAME A serious baseball fan in the mid-1950s, when my mother took me to the Polo Grounds to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers play the New York Giants. The loudest cheers at that hulking old stadium in central Harlem were for a quartet of black men—Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, and Roy Campanella who played for Brooklyn, and Willie Mays who starred for the Giants. Read more...

[David Lucander · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about how racial integration (1) killed Negro league baseball and (2) gave impetus for the game to thrive more than ever in Latin America. By far the best treatment of the game as it's played south of Texas and Florida, this book introduced me to a whole new cast of characters. My favorite chapter was "Whiteout," which is about race and baseball post 1980 where Robinson is celebrated but there are fewer African American players than ever in MLB.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is carefully written--it could have had a much stronger tone. I think Ruck's cautious approach makes the book less compelling. Organization seems haphazard; there is a general chronological trend but the issues are so different in each era that the argument gets harder to follow (especially when the argument itself is relatively muted).

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't realized quite how much the heroes of my youth had gone through or how much the current lords of baseball have done to take over the Latin American game. An interesting read for a serious baseball fan and history buff.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart and engaging look at race and baseball. A recommended read for anyone it invested in learning more about the history of the game and the ways in which American imperialism and transnationalism has affected it.

[Chris Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. It combines history of the game with insight in the ebbs and flows of the different races and countries playing the game. I highly recommend it, especially if you love the game of baseball as I do:

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent insights on the economics of MLB and how race factors into the history of the game.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really thorough look at the history of integration in baseball and the effect it's had on the sport.