Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues

Josh Gibson was a great baseball player in the 30s and 40s in the Negro Leagues. This book chronicles his baseball career, as well as the life in the Negro Leagues and playing in Latin America during the winter months and some summers as well. William Brashler does a fine job writing about Gibson's passion for the game, to the point that I feel like I know him as well as any current major leaguers. In addition, Brashler explains in detail what life was like for Negro League players; the horrible way they were treated in many places in the south; the winter months that they played in places like Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin/South American countries. There are also separate short chapters on Cool Papa Bell, Jimmie Crutchfield and Sammy Bankhead, as well as plenty of interesting information on Satchel Paige. I'm glad I had a chance to read about the great Josh Gibson and the Negro Leagues. I believe anyone interested in baseball history would appreciate this book.

Beginning in 1930 with his debut with the Homestead Grays and extending through a career which featured several years with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and stints with various winter league teams in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, Josh Gibson was quite simply the greatest hitter of his era. While he is often referred to as the black Babe Ruth, the black press and fans of the Negro Leagues during the 1930's called Ruth the white Josh Gibson. Though records are sketchy, Gibson is reported to have hit as many as 70 homeruns in a single season and it can safely be assumed that he hit more than 800 round trippers in his career. There are stories indicating that Gibson actually hit a homerun completely out of Yankee Stadium, a feat no major leaguer has accomplished, and although Brashler's research disputes this claim, there are countless other tales of tape-measure blasts. There was a 525-foot homerun that landed in a Puerto Rico prison, a one-handed homerun in Indianapolis, and a doubtful claim of a 700-foot blast out of Chicago's Wrigley Field. Whether or not the stories are believed, the overall perception cannot be ignored. As the most imposing hitter of the 1930's and 40's, Josh Gibson was larger than life. He was posthumously inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1972. Most baseball fans are familiar with the legend of Josh Gibson, but Brashler brings readers behind the stories of one of the greatest hitters of all-time. Along with the glory accorded a player of such talent, there were disappointments as well. The death of his first wife and the subsequent abandonment of his children haunted Gibson throughout his playing career, and he often felt overshadowed by the showmanship of Satchel Paige. These concerns, combined with the disappointment of not being able to play in the major leagues, likely led him to alcohol when his body began to break down late in his career. When he died in 1947 at the age of thirty-five, months after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Gibson was buried in an unmarked grave. His family couldn't afford a gravestone.Brashler's biography of Gibson is complete and honest in its approach to Gibson's character and accomplishments. In addition to Gibson, he briefly profiles his peers, men like Satchel Paige, Oscar Peterson, Judy Johnson, Jimmy Crutchfield, Cool Papa Bell, and others. There can be no discussion of the Negro Leagues without comment on the discrimination which made them necessary, but Brashler avoids the trap of becoming overly sentimental, focusing instead on the facts. For a more complete picture of the players and teams mentioned by Brashler, try Only the Ball Was White, Robert Peterson's comprehensive history of the Negro Leagues.

This is among the very best books I have ever read. Easily the best biography and the best book on baseball (of which I have read a lot). Brashler's account of Gibson's life and the Negro Leagues engrosses you like a great novel. I could not recommend it more highly.

I HIGHLY RECOMMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO ENJOYS BASEBALL AND THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT PLAYERS IN THE NEGRO LEAGUES. TOO BAD STATS WEREN'T CLOSELY KEPT FROM THAT TIME PERIOD, FOR THE NUMBERS THAT JOSH PUT UP ARE PROBABLY TRULY BREATH TAKING. HE WAS THE BABE RUTH, JIMMIE FOXX, AND MARK MCGWIRE OF 1930'S AND 40'S. THE BOOK DOES A GOOD JOB OF SHOWING US JOSH'S TRIUMPHS AND HIS DARK SIDE. HE WAS WITH FAULTS, BUT THAT MADE HIM EVEN MORE INTERESTING. THIS BOOK ALSO TREATS US TO SOME INTERVIEWS WITH MANY OTHER GREAT PLAYERS OF THAT ERA AND AN IN DEPTH HISTORY OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES. WELL WORTH READING ABOUT A GREAT PIECE OF BASEBALL HISTORY.

I love baseball. I thought I knew all there was to know about Josh Gibson, his 926 homers, his never getting to the majors, or his friendship with Satchel Paige. Even his tragic death at a young age. This man needed to be in the majors, but it never happened. He died only 3 months before Jackie Robinson got in. This book chronicles the life of this man, 220 pound all muscle homer hitter. He was called the "black babe ruth". After reading this book they should call Babe Ruth the White Josh Gibson. It is truly sad how he never got in to the show. I can't tell you how sad it is though, you have to experience him for yourself. If you are at all interesed in baseball, then you should know about the negro leagues and the great players they beheld.