Ohio's Connection to the Negro Leagues

At 7 pm Wednesday evening, September 7, historian Dr. Leslie Anne Heaphy will speak to Shaker Library via Zoom to talk about baseball and the Negro Leagues. Register here to receive a Zoom link to her talk.

Dr. Leslie Anne Heaphy is Associate Chair and Associate Professor in the History Department at Kent State University Stark Campus, where she teaches all the history survey classes as well as courses in Asian history, 20th century US and sports history. She also co-directs the honors program on the Stark campus. She earned her BA in history from Siena College in New York, and her MA in History and Ph.D. in American History from the University of Toledo. Dr. Heaphy loves all sports but especially baseball and she admits to being a New York Mets and New York Yankees fan.

Prior to her presentation, she took the time to answer some questions about herself, her interest in baseball, and her research.

Q: When did you become interested in baseball?
A: I’ve been interested in baseball since I was little. I grew up watching the Mets and the Yankees.

Q: How did you get involved in the sport?

A: I never played, just a little softball for fun. My involvement has all been research since I started graduate school.

Q: As a director of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) – and winner of the 2014 Bob Davids Award— you helped organize SABR’s Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference—a symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of black baseball history. SABR offers scholarships to teens for essays and art. Can you tell us a little bit about this?

A: Each year as part of our conference we offer four scholarships to graduating seniors. We also offer one scholarship for an essay on women’s baseball as well. We also have an annual contest with categories for youth (under 16), amateur, and professional –focused on Negro league history. SABR also has an amateur and youth art contest for women’s baseball as well.

Q: Is it true that in the 1940s, Negro League baseball was the third largest black business in the country?

A: Yes, behind insurance and cosmetics.

Q: Integration in baseball was an important catalyst for change, but it has been said that it was also painful because it cost Black baseball players control over their sporting lives. Can you talk about this?

A: Sure, by entering the Majors and White Minors players no longer could move from one team to another—they had to stay unless a team decided to sell their contract. The bigger issue though was the decline of the Negro Leagues as a result and so opportunities became fewer and fewer for players to play.

Q: When did you start the Journal, Black Ball, and who serves on the editorial board of this peer-reviewed, annual book series that offers authoritative research on all subjects related to Black baseball?

A: We started the journal/book series in 2010. A variety of educators and historians serve on the editorial board—people such as Larry Lester, Dr. Rob Ruck, Dr. Ray Doswell, Dr. Dan Nathan, Dr. Amy Essington, and others.

Q: You’ve also edited The Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball and two collections of essays on black baseball in Chicago and Kansas City. Any plans for a book on how Ohio was important to the growth of Black baseball in America?

A: It is on the agenda but I have two books ahead of that—one on Black women in baseball and another on the Martin’s and the Memphis Red Sox.

Q: Favorite baseball quote?

A: “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” –Moneyball

Q. Do you have a favorite book about baseball or a baseball player?
A: One of my favorite baseball books is Only the Ball was White and my second is We Are the Ship

Q: Do you have a most interesting fact or piece of research about the Negro Leagues?
A: Most people don't know there were women who played for the KC Monarchs and Indianapolis Clowns in the mid-1950s.

Q: Teaching or research?

A: I love both—they each bring great fun and joy, in different ways.