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phil dixon on the 1905 philadelphia giants Feb 11, 2007
In this book, Phil Dixon painstakingly describes the entire 1905 season of the Philadelphia Giants, a segregation-era African-American baseball team. This complete, game-by-game survey is, as far as I know, unprecedented in the literature, and gives the most thorough account yet produced of a black baseball team during a single season. That it covers such an early and still only sketchily-known club makes the book all the more worthwhile. As with his previous work on the Kansas City Monarchs, Dixon has attempted to chronicle every game, including games against semi-pro opponents that formed the bulk of the Giants' schedule. He has found box scores for 130 of 149 known games (Sol White reported that altogether the team played 158), most of them against white independent professional or semi-pro teams, although the schedule also included top black opponents (notably the Brooklyn Royal Giants) and white minor league teams. (The semi-pro teams were often bolstered by current or former major leaguers.) Dixon's book is a treasure house of unexpected news, such as Grant "Home Run" Johnson's pitching (which was quite good), and humanizing details, such as Bill Monroe's "hilarious antics" on the field, which were often the feature of newspaper accounts.
Dixon Hits it Out of the Park Nov 22, 2006
Phil Dixon has hit another home run with his chronicle of the 1905 Philadelphia Giants. He eloquently describes the institutional racism and discrimination faced by the African-American baseball pioneers, describes in intricate detail the challenges (and reasons for hope) for researchers examining the history of black ball, then provides the reader with a wealth of information, fully documented, regarding one of the greatest ballclubs (black or white) to ever take the diamond. His book is entertaining, informative and scholarly: in short, this represents the future in Negro League research. The bar has been raised!
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An important addition to baseball research Sep 03, 2006
Phil Dixon does the hard, thankless grunt work, discovering history which others then rewrite. He scores again with this study of one of America's great teams. I, for one, was surprised to learn that the Philadelphia Giants won four straight games from Newark, a member of America's highest minor league, then swept their top black rival, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, nine straight.
Manager Sol White and outfielder Pete Hill have just been elected to Cooperstown, joining the great pitcher, Rube Foster. Dixon argues passionately that Grant "Home Run" Johnson should also join them. Other standouts include Charlie Grant -- "Chief Tokohama," whom John McGraw had tried to sign as an "Indian" to the Baltimore Orioles, who were then in the American League -- and infielder Bill Monroe, who used to tell batters, "Sit down," then throw them out.
Dixon has already made an invaluable contribution to baseball history with his study of the Kansas City Monarchs. More books are already in the works, and I am anxiously awaiting them as well.
John B Holway, author of "The Complete Book of the Negro Leagues"
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A Fresh Approach to the Blackball Genre Aug 24, 2006
Phil S. Dixon, longtime baseball historian and photo archivist, scores again with his latest effort chronicling the undeservedly hidden history of pre-integration black baseball. Dixon has previously done excellent work on the Negro Leagues in general (The Negro Baseball Leagues A Photographic History, 1867-1955) and one team and player over a period of time (The Monarchs 1920-1938 Featuring Wilber "Bullet" Rogan The Greatest Ballplayer in Cooperstown). Here he tries a different approach, documenting one team over the course of a single year. The depth of his research is staggering, as he recreates the entire championship season of this great ballclub, managed by new Hall of Famer Sol White and featuring another new Cooperstown enshrinee (Pete Hill), a finalist in this year's special election who should have joined Hill and White in the HOF class of 2006 (Home Run Johnson), and blackball pioneer and class of 1980 Hall of Famer Rube Foster. Other superstars in the amazing lineup included Charlie Grant, Chappy Johnson, Dan McClellan and Bill Monroe. Game stories and player profiles are complimented by additional material which gives us a full picture of the entire contemporary African American baseball scene. To summarize, an important contribution to baseball history, and a must read for anyone with an interest in black baseball before Rube Foster's 1920 founding of the Negro National League.
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Barnstorming Negro Team in 1905 Aug 06, 2006
Phil Dixon has written the definitive book on the Philadelphia Giants baseball team of 1905. The author discusses all the games scheduled and played by the team. His format and coverage remind me of a diary that would have been kept by a player who not only wrote about the team he was playing on, but also mentioned other Negro League games being played almost daily, elsewhere. Dixon transforms one back the year 1905, but is careful enough to highlight the players who will someday hence, be considered or voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He points out that this team was exempt from the antiquated Blue Laws that forbad organized baseball from being played on Sunday. As a result of this exemption, the team derived much of its revenue from week end games. Many communities, large and small, anticipated and enjoyed the arrival of this Negro team to play against the local, mostly white teams.
Integration of baseball would be a long way off, but this team showed the county, what black players were capable of. I throughly enjoyed this book. It is a must have book for the baseball enthusiast.
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