SABR Digital Library: From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes
From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes
Edited by Vince Guerrieri, Thomas Kern, and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
Publication Date: July 31, 2025
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-45-1, $24.95
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-44-4, $9.99
8.5″ x 11″, 162 pages
From Setbacks to Success provides a detailed account of the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes with biographies of the players and the team officials who led the team to its World Series triumph. Also included is a complete season timeline, articles about some standout games, the story of League Park and Cleveland Stadium (where the Buckeyes played), and an appreciation of the cultural context of the time.
Until the emergence of the Buckeyes in 1942, no Negro League team formed in Cleveland survived more than a year. The high-water mark for the Buckeyes was undoubtedly 1945, when they won the Negro American League title and then, against all odds, defeated the perennial Negro National League champion Homestead Grays four games to none in the Negro League World Series.
This book comprises contributions from 29 members of the Society for American Baseball Research. This history of the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes is the eighth in a series of SABR Digital Library books about the great Negro League teams of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Below: Find player biographies, memorable game stories, and essays
in From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes
Biographies
Game Recaps
Essays
Contributors include: Richard Bogovich, Isaac C. Brooks Jr., Alan Cohen, Dominick Denaro, Jeff Findley, Matt Garvey, Darren Gibson, David J. Goldberg, Evelyn R. Gregory, Margaret M. Gripshover, Vince Guerrieri, John V. Haynes II, Leslie Heaphy, Jay Hurd, Bill Johnson, Thomas Kern, Sean Kolodziej, Bob LeMoine, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, Tony S. Oliver, Richard J. Puerzer, Carl Riechers, Kelly Boyer Sagert, Mark Shirk, Russ Speiller, Jeb Stewart, Tom Wancho, and Dave Wilkie.