Black Baseball Entrepreneurs 1860-1901: Operating by Any Means Necessary.

by Michael E. Lomax, Syracuse University Press, March 2003 $39.95, ISBN 0-8156-0786-5

This is without question the first book to trace the origins of black baseball's institutional development. The author's comprehensive analysis flows smoothly, Lomax covers related issues such as war, lack of funds, urbanization, and includes as an excellent report on the early success of the Cuban Giants. By the late 19th century and using "any means necessary," African American entrepreneurs stepped up financially to support black baseball teams, led by the Cuban Giants emerging as the most successful.

His report on how business practices evolved in these black clubs and why whites had no economic choice but to play with blacks is right on target, historically speaking. Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron and Satchel Paige are among a few African Americans who were lucky that their brothers laid a solid foundation for their playing in Major League baseball some 50 years later.

This book is an informative must-read for baseball historians and true fanatics like myself.

Art Rust Jr. is a celebrated sportscaster and sports historian whose career spans half a century. He has worked for NBC television and for WMCA and WINS radio. In the 1980s, Rust had a successful 10-year run with his Sportstalk show on WABC, which further established his position as a respected sports authority.

Rust has written for the Amsterdam News, as well as the New York Daily News. He is also the author of seven books, including Art Rust's Illustrated History of the Black Athlete. His first collaboration with BIBR, on baseball's black entrepreneurs, appears on page 57.