Saturday, January 30, 2010

Queen of the Negro Leagues


Queen of the Negro Leagues, Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles by James Overmyer; 1998 , The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, MD; 297 pages; 865.M325 094/1-57886-001-6; ILL from Cal State University Fullerton; 4/11-4/19/06
An un-everything biography of Effa Manley, co-owner of the Newark Eagles of the National Negro League in the 1930’s and 40’s. The author gives all the details of her life, but it is a drag to read. The author seems to have cut and pasted from various other works, so there is no consistent style. The account of Effa’s life is incredible, she married a man several years her senior and as co-owners of the baseball team she met with the other owners and made policy for her team. She ran the team while her husband was the public face of the team. She was the one who made sure that when integration took place that the major league teams paid the Negro league teams for signing their stars. For her contributions to the game of baseball she was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and will be the first women ever inducted into Cooperstown.

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