Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams.

Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams. By Alan J. Pollock. Edited by James A. Riley. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, c. 2006. Pp. xii, 407. $35.00, ISBN 0-8173-1495-4.)

Syd Pollock's lengthy career as a promoter embodies the heyday of black professional baseball. His late son, Alan J. Pollock, completed this memoir about his father just before suffering a fatal heart attack. It is a touching look at the barnstorming era, when teams like the Indianapolis Clowns offered an entertaining blend of comedy and athleticism. From the late 1920s to the mid-1960s, the Clowns drew thousands of fans as they traveled the entire country, often touring segregated states rife with racial tension. Before television, major league baseball reached only as far west and south as St. Louis. For many remaining fans in rural America, barnstorming teams like the Clowns offered the only look at professional-caliber baseball, and with it came direct challenges to local Jim Crow laws. Yet the Clowns were even more popular in the urban North, where black teams outdrew major league squads in cities like New York and Chicago. African Americans had few opportunities to see their favorite stars on the field, and they showed up en masse whenever the Clowns played at Comiskey Park, the Polo Grounds, or Yankee Stadium.

Even with segregation in the major leagues, there were still a myriad of popular black stars. From the comedic genius of Richard "King Tut" King and Edward "Peanuts" Davis to the likes of Henry "Hank" Aaron and Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the Clowns featured players who combined professional entertainment with some of the best baseball skill in history. Pollock describes the comedy routines and scripted horseplay with the excitement of a man recalling his most treasured childhood memories. Indeed, he grew up in environments that are truly gone--many of the countless small ballparks that once dotted America's heartland have since been destroyed. Tinged with sadness, Pollock's nostalgic tone is certainly warranted.

Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams helps readers understand how integration in the majors and the advent of television led to a sharp decline in the popularity of small-town, minor-league baseball and diminished the pool of talented black players for the Negro Leagues. However, Pollock also illuminates how the Clowns continued to draw crowds of more than ten thousand well into the 1960s. Furthermore, the team's unique combination of athletic competition and scripted entertainment would later influence Abe Saperstein and the Harlem Globetrotters. Unlike the Globetrotters, Pollock emphasizes, the Clowns always maintained a serious commitment to winning, joining the Negro American League in 1943 and subsequently fielding some of the best squads in organized baseball, white or black. In order to join, the Clowns were forced to tone down many of their antics and minimize the comedy. Still, Pollock's team struggled to receive the coverage it deserved in the white press, even after black athletes like Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis routinely made headlines in the mainstream media. Barnstorming to Heaven is among the best, and most intimate, of the recent books on Negro League baseball, a son's tribute to a father who lived and breathed baseball in its most pure, forgotten form. It is also a testament to the commitment and perseverance of countless black athletes who helped shape the nation's pastime.

LANE DEMAS

University of California, Irvine