Provides a history of the Elite Giants of Baltimore baseball team in the Negro League. Highlights pivotal games, players, and league decisions. Also discusses the relationship between the team and major league baseball during integration.

Biographies of the Negro Leagues players on the 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants team.

The first complete biography of an important Negro League baseball player from Austin, Texas. Willie Wells was arguably the best shortstop of his generation. As Monte Irvin, a teammate and fellow Hall of Fame player, writes in his foreword, “Wells really could do it all. He was one of the slickest fielding shortstops ever to come along. He had speed on the bases. He hit with power and consistency. He was among the most durable players I’ve ever known.” Yet few people have heard of the feisty ballplayer nicknamed “El Diablo.” Willie Wells was black, and he played long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. Bob Luke has sifted through the spotty statistics, interviewed Negro League players and historians, and combed the yellowed letters and newspaper accounts of Wells’s life to draw the most complete portrait yet of an important baseball player. Wells’s baseball career lasted thirty years and included seasons in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. He played against white all-stars as well as Negro League greats Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O’Neill, among others. He was beaned so many times that he became the first modern player to wear a batting helmet. As an older player and coach, he mentored some of the first black major leaguers, including Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe. Willie Wells truly deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bob Luke details how the lingering effects of segregation hindered black players, including those better known than Wells, long after the policy officially ended. Fortunately, Willie Wells had the talent and tenacity to take on anything—from segregation to inside fastballs—life threw at him. No wonder he needed a helmet. “Willie Wells: “El Diablo” of the Negro Leagues is well researched and well written, so the average baseball fan should find it to be an entertaining read.” —Dale Petroskey, president, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum “The story of Willie Wells opens another window on the conditions and constraints of Jim Crow America, and how painfully difficult it can be, even now, to remedy the persistent effects of discrimination. Every baseball fan will love this story. Every American should read it.” —Ira Glasser, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union, 1978-2001 “Reconstructing, indeed resurrecting, the career of a peripatetic Negro League baseball player is a daunting task. Negro and Major League great Monte Irvin tells us that his fellow Hall of Famer, shortstop Willie Wells, belongs on the same baseball page as Gibson, DiMaggio, Paige, and Feller. This fine biography by Bob Luke does a wonderful job in telling us why and how that is the case. We have here a Hall of Fame telling of the story of a true Hall of Famer.” —Lawrence Hogan, author of Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African American Baseball

Providing a comprehensive history of the Baltimore Black Sox from before the team's founding in 1913 through its demise in 1936, this history examines the social and cultural forces that gave birth to the club and informed its development. The author describes aspects of Baltimore's history in the first decades of the 20th century, details the team's year-by-year performance, explores front-office and management dynamics and traces the shaping of the Negro Leagues. The history of the Black Sox's home ballparks and of the people who worked for the team both on and off the field are included.

This work examines the historical significance of the state of New Jersey in the Negro League legacy, especially the black baseball players, teams, owners and managers, and their struggles against not just segregation, and their accomplishments. The book includes photographs, appendices (records of New Jersey Negro League teams, 1923-1948, and a chronology), notes, a bibliography of research sources, an annotated list of suggested further readings, and an index.

Get a first person look inside 1940’s negro-league baseball, as told through detailed, poignant, and humorous letters and journals of Baltimore Elite Giant pitcher, Donald Troy. Turn back time and step into the first-hand account of Donald Troy, a pitcher for the Baltimore Elite Giants. View this unique time in the 1940’s America, as told through detailed, poignant, and humorous letters and journals of Baltimore Elite Giant pitcher, Donald Troy. A behind the scenes look at how life was for the negro-league players. From bat boy to ballplayer Donald Troy’s experience as a negro-league baseball player is a rare and detailed glimpse into segregated America. A first-hand account from 1940’s America when black professional athletes are pushing to be accepted in the Major league. Read about negro-league Baseball legends such as Roy Campanella, Henry Kimbro, George Scales and many more. Includes photos and official documents including acceptance letters, pay stubs, and player’s contracts. From injuries to locker room antics and everything in-between, grab a hot dog and peanuts and dive into these personal stories. Published by Fulton Books and compiled by Belinda Cole Schwartz this book brings the author’s father’s baseball stories to light, bridging history and humor through personal human connection. The author states "I hope as you read these pages, you discover a greater understanding of baseball and particularly Negro League Baseball as played in the 1940’s. I anticipate you will feel the joy of his friendships and often comical interactions with those involved in the game; as well as a chance to consider the pain and hardships that were inflicted on Blacks in the south during era of Jim Crow."