Color Blind

January 7, 2013
A decade before Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color line in 1947, an integrated team captured the imagination of Bismarck, N.Dak. by winning the national, semiprofessional baseball title. Bismarck was a town where “Norman Rockwell would have found plenty of... inspiration,” even though “Dakotans groped their way along the racial divide.” Bismarck’s integrated team was the brainchild of Neil Churchill, a failed dry goods clerk–cum–car salesman and inveterate gambler who subsidized the team’s existence with his winnings. Churchill looked to the Negro Leagues, “cherry-picking players” who were prohibited from playing in the Major Leagues to reinforce his roster, with his prize being the great Satchel Paige. Freelance journalist Dunkel (the Washington Post) delves into the history of players, towns, and baseball itself in constructing this portrait of a harmonious team rising above a segregated society. The tangential history lessons render the triumph of racial harmony a subtext within the larger context of sports, but it’s a story that transcends championships, and an inspirational reflection on an otherwise dismal human rights history.

April 1, 2013
Freelance journalist Dunkel spins the colorful yarn of an improbably integrated team's wild days of independent baseball during the Great Depression. As the new sport of baseball took hold of the American imagination after the turn of the century, teams of all forms sprang up across the country. For players unable to make the big leagues for lack of talent, personal issues or skin color, one of the legions of semiprofessional teams often offered a way to earn a living playing the game. In Bismarck, N.D., one of the areas hit hardest by drought and depression, successful car dealer and inveterate gambler Neil Churchill's desire to put together a winning team led him to seek out the finest players available, regardless of race. The resulting mix of has-beens, wannabes and assorted others went on to dominate opponents across the Midwest, culminating in the 1935 National Semipro Tournament. Their success was due in no small part to the on-again, off-again presence of the legendary Satchel Paige, arguably the greatest pitcher of all time and a character worthy of many books for his accomplishments and antics on and off the diamond. Though the team's inclusion of both black and white players is obviously noteworthy, Dunkel does not focus on racial politics or the issue of whether the Bismarck team was a precursor of things to come or merely a historical anomaly. The author does address the racism faced by the black players, many of whom would likely have been major league All-Stars had they been allowed to play, and he provides sufficient historical background to flesh out the story. But at its heart, the book is a tale of a time when baseball was more than just a sport, a multibillion-dollar industry or another form of entertainment competing for Americans' attention. A well-told account of a fascinating, and forgotten, chapter in the history of America's national pastime.

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Starred review from February 1, 2013
The plains states were particularly hard hit during the Depression. Between the economic issues and the drought, small farms folded by the hundreds, and the relief programs were underfunded and poorly run. Still, in the midst of it all, there was a need for people to be entertained and briefly forget their troubles. Neil Churchill, a Bismarck, North Dakota, car dealer, decided a baseball team was just the thing to help his neighbors forget. So, in an era when the Major Leagues only fielded teams east of the Mississippi, and the rest of the country made do with town- and company-sponsored semipro teams, Churchill's plan was met with great enthusiasm. When he assembled his roster, Churchill picked the best players he could find, and some of them were black! Remember, this was more than a decade before Jackie Robinson would play in the majors. Award-winning journalist Dunkel has not only researched and presented a virtually forgotten but very significant piece of sports history, he has also done it in a very entertaining, narrative-nonfiction style. The principals, particularly Churchill and his players (including Satchel Paige) just simply come alive. Baseball fans will cherish this book, and it will become required reading among those who feel we can better understand today's racial tensions by looking to the past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 15, 2013

Freelance journalist Dunkel provides a captivating recollection of the Bismarck, ND, Churchills, an integrated baseball team that won the 1935 semi-pro national championship held in Wichita, KS. While organized baseball remained segregated, Bismarck owner Neil Churchill refused to give in to prevailing racial sensibilities, whether they involved his ballplayers dining together or performing on the diamond. He put together a potent, integrated ball club, attracting some of the Negro League's finest, including legendary pitchers Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith and catcher Quincy Trouppe. Paige's brilliance, exemplified by his rising fastball and pinpoint control, drew thousands to the games he pitched and enabled Bismarck to carve out a spot in baseball history. The team proved unable to repeat the next year, falling in the semifinal round, because in his typically peripatetic fashion, Paige failed to return to the team. VERDICT This work delivers an important rendering of a too-little-remembered challenge to American society's segregated practices. Strongly recommended.--Robert C. Cottrell, California State Univ., Chico

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