New book on the 1948 Homestead Grays

I’m not an expert on the Negro leagues, but the Homestead Grays of the 1940s (who split their home games between Washington DC and Pittsburgh) were arguably the most dominant team in Washington baseball history. So a few years ago I posted items on their 1943, 1944, and 1948 Negro World Series champsionships. I described the 1948 series between the Grays and the Birmingham Black Barons (who featured a young Willie Mays) as forgotten because of the relative dearth of information about it.

Now I can report that there’s quite a bit more information, thanks to a new book from SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series. The E-book is free for SABR members and inexpensive for non-members, and even the hardcopy is quite affordable. The book includes not only more detailed information than I was able to find about the series and the league championship series leading up to it, but also detailed biographies of the members of both teams. Many researchers contributed to this fine book. So if you’re interested in this relatively obscure part of American baseball history, I recommend that you get the book.