1 Burst results for "Peace Negro League"

WNYC 93.9 FM

05:48 min | 2 years ago

"peace negro league" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM

"Miami Marlins general manager Kim Hang made history as the first woman and the first Asian American general manager. Major League Baseball. And shattered one of the few glass ceilings that exist in major league baseball for women. She stands on the shoulders of another woman named F A Manly who 85 years ago, triumphed as a baseball executive and became the first and only woman to envy inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. A new book called Baseball's Leading Lady. F. A Manly and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues. Author Andrea Williams tells the remarkable story of F A Manly, the owner and co manager of the Newark Eagles, a team she cultivated into a powerhouse. She also explores manly civil rights activism and the history of American baseball. Andrea Welcome to all of it. Hi. How are you? Good. So let's start with the fact that you are not only a baseball fan, you have worked professionally around the sport. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum know when you first heard about the life and learned about the career of F A manly What jumped out at you? What leapt out at you about her career. Yeah, I think the first thing was just that she had done. It was really just what she was able to accomplish in the thirties and forties. I started working active you them in the summer of 2004. I had just graduated with the sport management degree and By myself, working in a front office on myself, ultimately becoming a general manager of a major league baseball team. I wanted to work at a small market club and, you know, I had my own Moneyball aspirations. But at the time there was no one you know you mentioned in the intro Kim and what? Just becoming the first last year And so, you know, I would always say that. You know, I wanted to be the first but I really thought that Kim would beat me. Um And I don't know. I mean, I do know why it took so long One, but yes, see, Seen F um and what she accomplished back then was was really eye opening because a We didn't really know about it. You know, I just got my job at the museum and Up. Kendrick, who is the president now was giving me a cooler and, you know, I saw her picture in the corner and started asking questions and researching and reading and doing all the things and, Yeah, it was. It was remarkable because she had been owners, um, female owner his team before that they're you know, have been owners and Major League baseball and in the Negro leagues, but she Didn't just only team husband. She really handle the day to day did all the player contracts and negotiations or the equipment and manage the books and did all of the things that a general manager does. And she gave it back there. Open the book with a scene for the 1946 Negro World, Syriza and F Family's team. The North Eagles play and beat the Kansas City Monarchs. Why was this such a pivotal moment in her career and in baseball history? Yeah, it was. It was pivotal because of me. I'm sure I don't think she had. Why? No, she didn't have any. You know, she wasn't a little girl thinking of owning and operating a professional baseball team one day, but everything that she did. She did it to the degree. So if she's in based on now she wants to live. No, it matter that she, you know, Matter of fact celibate like she. She's been struggling. All this part 200 steam, You know, having having a professional team hard anyway, But doing it in black baseball was that much harder. You know, Budgets were tight, You know, they didn't. They didn't have their own stadium, very few black owners on their own stadium, so they were giving up. Hefty portion of gate receipts every single game to the white teams that they rented stadium space from so everything was always such a struggle. And so it was finally like, yes, this is this is what it was all for. It also missed it. Now, when you're the top team, right gate receipts go up because now people want to come see the best of the best to play in that team. Hurt. Here We really go goes on it. Larry Doby, who became the first black player in the American League following Jackie, who was first in the nationally he was on that team, one of efforts players Oh, yeah, It is a big deal. You know, Now that we see that, um Major League Baseball is element you know, has elevated the status of the peace Negro League players. You know that All of those guys were doing it on a professional level, and they were champions. My guess is Andrea Williams. They've her book is baseball's leading lady F A manly and the rise and fall of the Negro leaves. So in a little back background on efforts was born in Philadelphia, 18 97, and if you Google her her heritage has been debated for some time. Of and you write in your book that, according to US census records, her mother had at least some black heritage. And she and her mom and her half siblings lived his black Americans. She finds out later that her father Is white as the result of a relationship or affair, I guess how did she live in the world? And what impact did this have on the way she became involved in baseball and worked and lived in baseball. Yeah, As for definitely, um, you know, she took advantage of her fair complexion when she could when she needed to know she didn't interview later in life and talked about how you know if she was traveling alone, she would say in a white hotel or either the white only restaurant. Um, but I think that really that privilege is what enabled her to come back to Negro League baseball and say to it is boardroom in the In the conference is for the Negro National League. When she's surrounded by all of these black men and saying, OK, this is what we need to do..