I belong to the baseball book club on Goodreads and each season after the World Series ends, we choose a book on the winning team as a group read. This book was our selection after the Dodgers won this year’s fall classic. Here is my review of “Joe Black.”
Title: “Joe Black: More Than a Dodger” by Martha Jo Black and Chuck Schnoffner
Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
Say the name Joe Black today to most baseball fans and the response you most likely will get is “Who’s that?” But that wouldn’t be the case back in 1952 when as a rookie he almost single-handedly pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to the 1952 National League pennant. This book by Black’s daughter Martha Jo and Chuck Schoffner tells of that special season and why it meant so much to the young pitcher.
The book as a whole is pretty standard fare as a biography for a Black baseball player in the early 1950’s. The color barrier had just been broken by Jackie Robison and by 1952, enough Black players were playing in Major League Baseball that the talent level and interest in the Negro Leagues was waning. Having gotten his crack at professional baseball in the Negro Leagues, Black was able to overcome the significant barriers he and his fellow Black players encountered to eventually pitch in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately, he never regained the magic of his 1952 season, gradually getting worse, and was eventually released by the Dodgers in 1957. He did sign with the Washington Senators for 1958 but pitched very poorly for them as that was his last season.
While reading about his baseball career was okay, I liked the chapters on his life outside of baseball better, especially his success first as a teacher and then as an executive for Greyhound Bus. He followed his mother’s advice and made sure to complete his education which paid off for him as it was unusual for baseball players in that era to have a college degree. It also contributed to another chapter in his post-pitching career that I enjoyed reading about.
Black was hired by MLB to guide players to be successful after baseball, but he grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of attention to this and caring about the history of the game for Black players. This was profoundly illustrated when it was written that future white Hall of Fame players like Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux wanted to talk to Black about topics like the Negro Leagues while a Black player like Vince Coleman had no idea who Jackie Robinson was. Frankly, that is very sad.
While the book didn’t have much of a “wow” factor for me as far as the baseball goes, it was nonetheless very interesting to read about Black’s life away from the diamond and it makes the title to be a very apt one for describing the man’s life.
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