The Negro Leagues’ 1931 Homestead Grays: The Color of Greatness
Edited by Thomas Kern and Bill Nowlin
Associate Editors: Adam Hopps, Len Levin, and Carl Riechers
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-69-7, $34.95
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-68-0, $9.99
8.5″ x 11″, 204 pages
The 1931 edition of the Homestead Grays might be the greatest collection of talent on one team in baseball history. They not only retained all-time greats like Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, and Smokey Joe Williams from the previous year, but brought in future Hall of Famers Jud Wilson to play third base and Willie Foster to augment the pitching staff. They even briefly added Satchel Paige late in the season. Their solid supporting cast included Tubby Scales, Vic Harris, Lefty Williams, Ted Page, and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. This awesome collection of talent combined to post an overall record of 143-29-2 once all of their games against town teams, semipro squads, barnstorming squads, and organized Black professional teams are included.
The Negro Leagues’ 1931 Homestead Grays: The Color of Greatness is the ninth in a series of SABR books about the great teams which played in the Negro Leagues during the first half of the twentieth century. It contains contributions from 31 members of the Society for American Baseball Research. Included are biographies of all team members and team executives, a writeup on the Forbes Field ballpark in which they played home games, a complete season timeline, and a number of other looks at this outstanding baseball team.
Contributors include: Rich Bogovich, Vincent T. Ciaramella, Alan Cohen, Phil S. Dixon, Jeff Findley, Charlemagne (Charlie) Fouché, Joseph Gerard, Darren Gibson, Margaret M. “Peggy” Gripshover, Clem Hamilton, John V. Haynes II, Adam Hopps, Jay Hurd, William H. “Bill” Johnson, Thomas Kern, Sean Kolodziej, Bob LeMoine, Len Levin, Brian McKenna, John Miller, Bill Nowlin, Tim Odzer, Stephen V. Rice, Carl Riechers, Kelly Boyer Sagert, Brendan Schuster, Curt Smith, Jeb Stewart, Larry Tye, Darin Watson, Paul White, and Dave Wilkie.
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