{"product_id":"southern-league-book-larry-colton-9781455511884","title":"Southern League","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBestselling and award-winning author and former major league pitcher Larry Colton shares the story of the Birmingham Barons, the first racially-integrated team of any sport in the state of Alabama, just few months after the horrific 1964 Birmingham church bombing which killed four young black girls. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Anybody who is familiar with the Civil Rights movement knows that 1964 was a pivotal year. And in Birmingham, Alabama - perhaps the epicenter of racial conflict - the Barons amazingly started their season with an integrated team.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Johnny \"Blue Moon\" Odom, a talented pitcher and Tommie Reynolds, an outfielder - both young black ballplayers with dreams of playing someday in the big leagues, along with Bert Campaneris, a dark-skinned shortstop from Cuba, all found themselves in this simmering cauldron of a minor league town, all playing for Heywood Sullivan, a white former major leaguer who grew up just down the road in Dothan, Alabama.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Colton traces the entire season, writing about the extraordinary relationships among these players with Sullivan, and Colton tells their story by capturing the essence of Birmingham and its citizens during this tumultuous year. (The infamous Bull Connor, for example, when not ordering blacks to be blasted by powerful water hoses, is a fervent follower of the Barons and served as a long-time broadcaster of their games.)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e By all accounts, the racial jeers and taunts that rained down upon these Birmingham players were much worse than anything that Jackie Robinson ever endured.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e More than a story about baseball, this is a true accounting of life in a different time and clearly a different place. Seventeen years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line in the major leagues, Birmingham was exploding in race riots....and now, they were going to have their very first integrated sports team. This is a story that has never been told.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49534269554961,"sku":"GOR009584633","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50607214067985,"sku":"CIN1455511889G","price":5.37,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50944935198993,"sku":"CIN1455511889A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51027474153745,"sku":"NIN9781455511884","price":37.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417020137745,"sku":"CIN1455511889VG","price":5.03,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1455511889.jpg?v=1751085083","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/southern-league-book-larry-colton-9781455511884","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}