Press Box Red by Irwin Silber
Long before Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a Brooklyn Dodger contract in 1945, Lester Rodney, the newly hired and first sports editor of the Communist Daily Worker, launched the campaign that proved decisive in eventually breaking baseball's color line. But in the hostile anti-Communist climate of those years and for many years after, Rodney's story remained largely unknown. It therefore came as a surprise to many when Arnold Rampersad, in his authoritative 1997 biography of Jackie Robinson, wrote: In the campaign to end Jim Crow in baseball, the most vigorous efforts came from the Communist press, most notably from Lester Rodney. Now Press Box Red tells the story of that remarkable 11-year campaign and of Rodney's unique career covering sports for the Daily Worker until he left the Communist Party in 1958. Press Box Red is packed with first-hand accounts of Rodney's challenges to the high muck-a-mucks of professional and collegiate sports, and contains frank and frequently humorous encounters with owners, managers, and coaches like Branch Rickey, Larry MacPhail, Bill Veeck, Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Nat Holman, Clair Bee and numerous athletes including Robinson, Roy
This lively book is a welcome addition to the saga of 20th-Century American sports and sportswriting, especially in its telling of the little-known tale of Lester Rodney's role in the integration of baseball-Robert Lipsyte Lester Rodney was a Communist. Whether because of that or in spite of that, he was also one of the most independent and courageous sportswriters of his day. Press Box Red is a timely, much-needed reminder of the pivotal role he played in integrating baseball, and, therefore, in the history of this country.-David Margolick Anyone interested in the New York sports scene in the era of Joe Louis and Joe DiMaggio is likely to derive much pleasure from these pages.-Choice While the book is first and foremost a history of Rodney's efforts, parts of this book are of particular interest to revolutionary socialists...Press Box Red sheds light on this hidden history.-The Socialist Worker This book is required reading for anyone who's interested in sports and politics and how the two can intersect.-The International Socialist Review Besides its engaging account of an engaging man, the book offers a look into one of the odd corners of baseball history-the not-so-remote byway where baseball crossed paths with communism.-Elysian Fields Quarterly [Rodney and Silber] dispense wisdom coupled with wit, salient information paired with keen insight. In the process, they confer a human face on an ideological construct: American communism... Rodney's odyssey from a Republican household to CP affiliation to disaffected radical makes for fascinating reading, which the book captures, to borrow a Gershwin phrase, in fascinatin' rhythm.-American Communist History Author Irwin Silber devotes half the book to situating Rodney's efforts within the larger scene and lets his subject talk for the rest. The result is a pleasure to read.-Z Magazine Online
Irwin Silber is a self-employed writer who lives in the Bay Area of northern California. He is the author or editor of eight previous books, including Socialism: What Went Wrong and The Vietnam Song Book (with Barbara Dane).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781566399746 |
| ISBN 10 | 1566399742 |
| Title | Press Box Red |
| Author | Irwin Silber |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Temple University Press,U.S. |
| Year published | 2003-08-04 |
| Number of pages | 248 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |