Gay, Timothy M. Satch, Dizzy and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson.
Recent documentaries about the game would have us believe nearly all ball players had regular jobs in the off season. Yet from the 1930s to the mid-40s many of the best from the majors and Negro Leagues spent their autumns in for-profit exhibition games played in big cities and small towns. Players from both organizations either faced other or were teammates long before Robinson and Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey broke the major league color barrier in 1947. Gay chronicles how during that period of "barnstorming" the lives of three future Hall of Fame pitchers were altered: the seemingly ageless Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the flamboyant Jerome "Dizzy" Dean, and the phenomenal fastballer Bob Feller. Given his touring vantage point, Feller once said Robinson was ill-equipped for the majors in that he could not handle pitches thrown inside. That was interpreted negatively by many, which is ironic when one remembers Paige (who became friends with Dean) and Feller became teammates on the 1948 world champion Cleveland Indians.
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