White baseball titans knew that black fans were turning out in sizable numbers for their games and in droves for Negro League and exhibition contests, especially during the war years. They knew, too, that black stars like Satchel and Josh Gibson were crowd pleasers of the kind that the Majors longed for in the wake of the retirement of Babe Ruth in 1935—and that, with the exception of Satchel, Negro Leaguers could be had cheap. It was the color green more than black that had Branch Rickey wringing his hands at public hearings and plotting to actually do something about integrating the sport.
