Fair Ball!: 14 Great Stars from Baseball's Negro Leagues

I got this book for my 8 year old who is becoming more serious about baseball. He loves it and asks for me to read or help him to read "just one more" mini-bio before bed. (Each biography is one page and a colorful picture comes with each one.) Just smile and nod when reading the players' amazing records. Don't expect to see any stats adjusted by baseball historians here! Josh Gibson hit 972 home runs. Cool Papa Bell stole 175 bases in one year. Satchel Paige completed 2,600 games. (If I have my stats correct, Paige appeared in fewer than 200 major league games, so that means he averaged about 115 complete games per year for 21 years in the Negro Leagues, right?) I know, I don't have to explain these questionable stats to my eight year old, but the author retells the story of Bell being hit by his own ground ball while rounding second. I do have to explain THAT one! I don't know why Winter has to state so stridently that Josh Gibson was "THE greatest power hitter who ever lived - better than Babe Ruth, better than Hank Aaron." What's so wrong with saying the man was among the greatest? Why does he insist on commenting "If only baseball fans of all colors could have seen Buck Leonard play?" Were only African-Americans allowed in the stands? For now I can smile and read it to my boy and not worry about whether the author tries a little too hard to prove his case.

Jonah Winter has won the appreciation of baseball's angels. Not in Anaheim from the great beyond. "Fair Ball" celebrates masterful, unsung Negro League players, most of whom are dead today, but courtesy of this book, now have a permanent home in the legacy of baseball literature for children. Written and illustrated with the dynamism of a ball card, it evokes the smell of grass and bubble gum, as well as important history off the diamond.