L2AXF [DOWNLOAD] Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line Online [L2AXF.ebook] Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line Pdf Free Tom Dunkel DOC | *audiobook | ebooks | Download PDF | ePub Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #883087 in eBooks 2013-04-02 2013-04-02File Name: B00B77AHR6 | File size: 75.Mb Tom Dunkel : Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line: 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Before #42By ThachThis was one oif the best books I have had the joy of reading on baseball. I was getting jazzed up to see the new movie about Jackie Robinson and I saw this book and decided to read it thinking it was about The Robinson era. It was so much more. In fact Color Blind provided a whole new backdrop and context leading up to the Jackie Robinson story. I must admit I thought I knew a lot about baseball having grown up in a farm twon where at ages 4 and 5 we were hitting stones with sticks from the woods thinking about how someday we would swing a baseball bat in the Little League.Color Blind is a great combination of the history of the sport from the 1870s through the Robinson era through the midwest lens of Bismarck, ND far away from the East Coast I grew up. Tom has a great way of describing the hard times in the early 1900s into the depression years when baseball was a place to forget troubles and cheer and bet on your home team. His use of metaphor and analogies to describe towns, people and climates made me smile several times and laugh out loud at others. Most interesting of all was the way he brought legends like Satchel Paige and other lesser know but exceptional players such as Quincy Troupe and Hilton Smith to life through the exceptional way they played the game while being treated like second class citizens. Neil Churchill was a great character around whom most of the story is told. A man who would bet on anything and thankfully kept betting that it was more imoportant to have the best team rather than was might have been perceived as the right color.I really enjoyed the book. It was a fun, easy and interesting read I recommend to all who want to dig deeper than the Great Robinson Story....but I am going to see that toNicely done Mr Dunkel1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A very good nn-fiction book supported by very good researchBy Robert GrenierI am rating it as 5-star book even though it took me 18 months to finish. Because, it is so very well researched. About half of the book is devoted to Dunkel's acknowledgements and research notes. As a former academic, I am very impressed with his research. It is almost worthy of a doctoral dissertation.This is a story about baseball in the hinterlands mainly during the depression years. Although a late family friend played small town baseball in Illinois during those years, I had no idea about the popularity and extent of the game at this level.Think that integrated baseball started with the Jackie Robinson story? Think again! The birthplace of integrated baseball is Bismark, North Dakota. Neil Churchill, a local car dealer, was motivated to build a team that would dominate town teams in the area. He did the unheard of; recruiting black ballplayers to strengthen his roster -many from the Negro leagues most notably: Satchel Paige, Quincy Trouppe, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, Hilton Smith, and Vernon "Moose Johnson."The main protagonist are Churchill, Paige, and Trouppe although there are several others. I enjoyed several humorous anecdotes about Satchel and Moose. There are many interesting stories about Churchill and his partner Wick Corwin.The team was almost unbeatable. In 1935, they won the National Baseball Conference championship in Wichita, Kansas.Dunkel depicts the pre-recession years, the harsh effects of The Great Depression, The Dustbowl and bitter cold North Dakota winters in excruciating detail. There are poignant stories about President Roosevelt visiting the area - one quite humorous.The demise of semipro baseball in the years leading up to 1945 is an interesting story in its own right. There is an anecdote about a young Joe DiMaggio going 1 for 4 against Satchel. Even though it was a squib single, a scout raved to the Yankees that DiMaggio was able to hit Satchel Paige.Dunkel's description and narrative, of the lives of the "negro" ballplayers, shows how unjust segregated baseball was to their careers. After Jackie Robinson broke the barrier, some got a chance, but they were past their prime. If they had been given a chance twenty years earlier, some would have ranked among the greatest of all time.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Book About People and DeterminationBy TLRunBefore there was Jackie Robinson, in the middle of the depression and drought, in of all places, little and unheard of Bismarck, ND, there was the greatest integrated baseball team ever in 1935 consisting of future Hall Of Famers Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith. Add in Ted `Double Duty' Radcliffe and Quincy Troupe, you had the core one of the finest integrated baseball teams ever assembled. This team would go on to win the National Semi-Pro Championship in 1935. The author tells of the adventures of local Chrylser automobile dealer/manager Neil Churchill who went out and recruited these guys to come to Bismarck, ND.The author tells the story that is more than just baseball. The book is about people, race relations, the depression, hardships. As if everyone had something to prove that they belong, the author tells wonderful stories of the town and the characters. The story telling is wonderful and makes you yearn for a more simpler time of life. It is an amazing story that anyone would enjoy told by the author - Tom Dunkel. A 2013 CASEY Award Finalist for Best Baseball Book of the YearWhen baseball swept America in the years after the Civil War, independent, semipro, and municipal leagues sprouted up everywhere. With civic pride on the line, rivalries were fierce and teams often signed ringers to play alongside the town dentist, insurance salesman, and teen prodigy. In drought-stricken Bismarck, North Dakota during the Great Depression, one of the most improbable teams in the history of baseball was assembled by one of the sport’s most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, car dealer Neil Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race, and fielded an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion.Color Blind immerses the reader in the wild and wonderful world of early independent baseball, with its tough competition and its novelty. Dunkel traces the rise of the Bismarck squad, focusing on the 1935 season and the first National Semipro Tournament. This is an entertaining, must-read for anyone interested in the history of baseball.“A tale as fantastic as it is true.”—Boston Globe From Booklist*Starred * The plains states were particularly hard hit during the Depression. Between the economic issues and the drought, small farms folded by the hundreds, and the relief programs were underfunded and poorly run. Still, in the midst of it all, there was a need for people to be entertained and briefly forget their troubles. Neil Churchill, a Bismarck, North Dakota, car dealer, decided a baseball team was just the thing to help his neighbors forget. So, in an era when the Major Leagues only fielded teams east of the Mississippi, and the rest of the country made do with town- and company-sponsored semipro teams, Churchill’s plan was met with great enthusiasm. When he assembled his roster, Churchill picked the best players he could find, and some of them were black! Remember, this was more than a decade before Jackie Robinson would play in the majors. Award-winning journalist Dunkel has not only researched and presented a virtually forgotten but very significant piece of sports history, he has also done it in a very entertaining, narrative-nonfiction style. The principals, particularly Churchill and his players (including Satchel Paige) just simply come alive. Baseball fans will cherish this book, and it will become required reading among those who feel we can better understand today’s racial tensions by looking to the past. --Wes Lukowsky "A delightful read. This is a tale worth telling."—Washington Post"Dunkel tells one of the great untold stories about baseball history, one that almost sounds too good to be true."—Chicago Tribune"Dunkel's enthralling narrative of Bismarck's talented collection of white and black players falls into the 'must-read' category."—Cleveland Plain Dealer“A terrific book. It is funny, it is sad, it is spellbinding, required reading for anyone who loves baseball, who loves a vivid story well- told. Color Blind is crammed with characters . laced with joy, rocked by sadness, framed by the civil rights struggle. If you want to understand America, you have to understand baseball.”—Philadelphia Daily News"Give an exceptional storyteller an exceptional story to tell, and you just might wind up with a book as good as Tom Dunkel's Color Blind."—Gene Weingarten, Washington Post columnist and feature writer, two-time winner of The Pulitzer Prize"Dunkel writes with a passion and flair that matches the gritty, hardscrabble North Dakota landscape and culture of the Great Depression.