Autobiographies

Here, browse our expanding bibliography of autobiographies featuring black baseball, organized alphabetically according to the author's last name. Click on each title to be directed to a purchase link.

Aaron, Hank, with Lonnie Wheeler. I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story. Harper Touch, 1992.

"I used to have talks with Jackie Robinson not long before he died, and he impressed upon me that I should never allow myself to be satisfied with the way things are. I can't let Jackie down--or my people, or myself. The day I become content is the day I cease to be anything more than a man who hits home runs."

Through his own tremendous achievements and travails as a black player in a white-dominated sport, Aaron tracks the continued desegregation in baseball decades after Robinson's breakthrough with the Dodgers in 1947. He offers a particular rending description of the controversy and racist vitriol that accompanied his 715th homerun in 1974, which broke Babe Ruth's record.

Baraka, Amiri. The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones. Lawrence Hill, 1997.

“The Negro league’s like a light somewhere. Back over your shoulder. As you go away. A warmth still, connected to laughter and self-love."

In the opening section of Baraka's Autobiography, he reminisces about seeing the Newark Eagles as a child. His poignant images of black baseball capture the strong sense of solidarity and pride engendered by Negro League teams and players.

Flood, Curt, with Richard Carter. The Way It Is. Trident, 1971.

“I do not regard myself as a piece of property to be bought or sold.”

The Way It Is is the memoir of Curt Flood, an African American centerfielder for St. Louis Cardinals who opted to sue Major League Baseball rather than be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood lost his case in the Supreme Court in 1972 and never returned to baseball, but his actions paved the way for the eventual erosion of the Reserve Clause.

Gibson, Bob, with Lonnie Wheeler. Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson. Penguin, 1996.

The former Cardinals pitcher offers a candid account of his feats at the plate, as well as the bigotry he experienced, both as a player and when he attempted to secure a front office position.

Johnson, James Weldon. Along the Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson. Viking, 1933.

"I struck out sixteen men and held the others down to ineffectiveness. My reward was a pretty full cup of the sensation of being a popular hero."

Johnson's prodigious achievements include being an architect of the New Negro/Harlem Renaissance, an accomplished poet and novelist, a songwriter, a key NAACP leader, and a diplomat, but many do not know that he was also an early master of the curveball. In his autobiography, he writes briefly about his early career in baseball, having learned the curveball from "one of the pitchers on the 'Cuban Giants,' the crack Negro professional team of New York" (36). Johnson then recounts a game in which he bewildered batters, coaches, and spectators alike with his wide curves that broke just at the right moment.

Check out this phenomenal photograph of Johnson on Atlanta University's baseball team: http://hbcudigitallibrary.auctr.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/rwwl/id/106/rec/1

Paige, Leroy (Satchel) and David Lipman. Maybe I'll Pitch Forever. University of Nebraska Press, 1993.

“He said he’d never seen a pitch like that. He said I was tricking batters and umpires—having the batters swinging at balls when all the time I had the ball in my hand.”

The official autobiography of Leroy (Satchel) Paige describes Paige’s long and complicated career in the Negro Leagues, barnstorming, and finally in the Major Leagues. Not only one of the most resilient pitchers ever to grace the field, Paige's autobiography also affirms that he was a master strategist. For example, he describes his infamous “hesitation pitch,” which exemplifies the innovations that black ballplayers contributed to an institution that systemically denied them access.

Robinson, Frazier "Slow," with Paul Bauer. Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Syracuse UP, 1999.

"Race was always something you were aware of, and it seemed like just when you'd pushed it to the back of your mind, you'd see or hear something to remind you that you were black in a white world."

Robinson's memoir recounts his career as a catcher in the Negro Leagues, as well as on the road barnstorming with his friend Satchel Paige.

Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made. 1972. Ecco, 1995.

"I had to [join the Montreal Royals] for so many reasons. For black youth, for my mother, for Ray [my wife], and for myself.”

Jackie Robinson’s autobiography provides a first-hand account of his childhood, his time at UCLA and in the army, his experiences in the Negro League, his groundbreaking career in the Major Leagues, and his civil rights activism following his retirement. Robinson’s astute and discerning voice provides invaluable insight into the challenges faced by black athletes at the forefront of athletic integration.

White, Sol. History of Colored Base Ball. 1907. U of Nebraska P, 1995.

"In no other profession has the color line been drawn more rigidly than in base ball."

Perhaps black baseball's first historian, as well as a player-cum-manager, Sol White offered a crucial snapshot of trailblazing teams and players in his Official Base Ball Guide (1907). This reprinted edition includes an informative introduction by Jerry Malloy and a number of archival treasures from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s. Malloy calls White's Guide "the Dead Sea Scrolls of black professional baseball's pioneering community" (xvi).