Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player

Jeremy Beer (Goodreads Author)

4.53 · Rating details · 17 ratings · 4 reviews

2020 SABR Seymour Medal
2019 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

Buck O’Neil once described him as “Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Tris Speaker rolled into one.” Among experts he is regarded as the best player in Negro Leagues history. During his prime he became a legend in Cuba and one of black America’s most popular figures. Yet even among serious sports fans, Oscar ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 456 pages

Published November 1st 2019 by University of Nebraska Press

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Oscar Charleston, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Oscar Charleston

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-39

Average rating 4.53 ·

Rating details

· 17 ratings · 4 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player

Nov 06, 2019 Lance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: baseball, biography-memoir, blog, own-a-copy, sports, nf-books-read-2019

Ask most baseball fans or historians to name the best players in the history of the Negro Leagues and the immediate answers are usually Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell. However, if one takes a closer look at both the statistics available and the excellence of his play for a long period of time, the answer must be Oscar Charleston. Charleston's life and legacy are told in this excellent book by Jeremy Beer.

Whether one is researching Charleston's early life, his lengthy baseball Ask most baseball fans or historians to name the best players in the history of the Negro Leagues and the immediate answers are usually Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell. However, if one takes a closer look at both the statistics available and the excellence of his play for a long period of time, the answer must be Oscar Charleston. Charleston's life and legacy are told in this excellent book by Jeremy Beer.

Whether one is researching Charleston's early life, his lengthy baseball career that took him to several teams' rosters or his personal life, it can be difficult to find official records and documents for him. Beer did painstaking research to paint a complex picture of a man who was not only an excellent baseball player but also held other jobs within baseball with mostly successful results. He was a player-manager for a significant portion of his playing career and his rise in this profession makes for great reading, especially the 1932 season when he was the manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, considered to be the best team in the history of the Negro Leagues. Of note, he also was a scout for Branch Rickey and the Dodgers in the 1940's, becoming the first black man to be hired for such a position.

Reading the book gives the reader not only a good picture of Charleston the baseball player and employee, but also of Charleston the man. He was portrayed by peers often as someone who was a trouble maker, especially with his penchant to never walk away from a fight. Beer puts that reputation to the test with other testimony to show the respect he earned from competitors, including major league stars against whom he played in barnstorming or exhibition games.

Interwoven with modern statistics calculated from the available box scores and other sources of information, one cannot help to wonder how Charleston would have fared in the major leagues had he been allowed to play. Even so, Beer paints a picture of a man who should be considered one of the greatest players ever to pick up a bat and glove. Readers who want to get an informed introduction to Oscar Charleston should pick up this book.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20... ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2019 Rob Neyer rated it really liked it

Utterly essential for anyone who cares about the history of Negro Leagues baseball (which is to say, anyone who cares about the history of baseball, period). Beer's research is phenomenal.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2019 Dick Hamilton rated it really liked it

A good biography of, as the title indicates, one of the great forgotten baseball players of all times. The author has to deal with the handicap of the limited information on Charleston but works through this using the information available, including access to family members and related documents. In addition, Charleston passed away over sixty years ago so the ability to interview individuals who actually saw Charleston play in his prime is limited. If nothing else, this book reminds us of the ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 21, 2020 Steve rated it it was amazing

I don't remember the first time I heard of Oscar Charleston. Probably in the Bill James Historical Abstract as that seems to be when he got more widely recognized as one of the all-time greats (by the white press that is). I've read books on some of the other Negro League greats and this one really stands out to me as there wasn't much out there on him so the research had to be time consuming. But Jeremy did an outstanding job putting it all together in a very readable format.

flag Like · see review

Gerard rated it it was amazing
Nov 18, 2019

Ike Stephenson rated it it was amazing
Dec 19, 2019

Tim Hoiland rated it it was amazing
Feb 16, 2020

Bryan rated it really liked it
Dec 19, 2019

Josh rated it it was amazing
Dec 28, 2019

Tim Odzer rated it it was amazing
Dec 31, 2019

Mark Cabrera rated it really liked it
Feb 13, 2020

Bob D'Angelo rated it it was amazing
Nov 03, 2019

Erik Madrid rated it it was amazing
Feb 16, 2020

Eric rated it really liked it
Dec 15, 2019

Dan Hirsch rated it really liked it
Nov 15, 2019

Makenzie Dolnick rated it it was amazing
Jan 13, 2020

Steve rated it liked it
Feb 13, 2020

Reggie marked it as to-read
Mar 25, 2019

Patrick Murtha marked it as to-read
May 14, 2019

CJ marked it as to-read
Jul 28, 2019

Mike added it
Sep 27, 2019

Noah is currently reading it
Oct 08, 2019

Jen marked it as to-read
Oct 19, 2019

David Dunlap marked it as to-read
Oct 25, 2019

Jibraun Riaz marked it as to-read
Nov 05, 2019

Casey O'Brien marked it as to-read
Nov 07, 2019

Chen marked it as to-read
Nov 08, 2019

Nicole Sperry marked it as to-read
Nov 09, 2019

Joe K marked it as to-read
Nov 10, 2019

Andrew Moses marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2019

Alan marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2019

Crystal Marie marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2019

Jordan marked it as to-read
Nov 18, 2019

Tim is currently reading it
Nov 21, 2019

Tim marked it as to-read
Nov 24, 2019

Tom Lambiase marked it as to-read
Nov 24, 2019

Paul marked it as to-read
Nov 25, 2019

Seth Tupper marked it as to-read
Nov 26, 2019

David marked it as to-read
Nov 30, 2019

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Sports > Sports

4 users

Sports > Baseball

4 users

Biography

2 users

Nonfiction

1 user

See top shelves…

About Jeremy Beer

Jeremy Beer

5 followers

I am a principal partner at American Philanthropic, a consulting firm, and chairman of the board at the American Ideas Institute, publisher of The American Conservative magazine and website. I am an Indiana native who like so many other Hoosiers lives in Arizona. My biography of Negro Leagues legend Oscar Charleston was published on November 1, 2019, by the University of Nebraska Press.

My next ...more