Mumford: The history of black baseball in Minnesota
From Tracy Mumford at Minnesota Public Radio on February 23, 2016, with mention of SABR member Frank White:
Frank White’s childhood was all about baseball — watching games at St. Paul’s Lexington Park or playing catch with his dad on St. Anthony Avenue in the city’s old Rondo neighborhood, before Interstate 94 barreled through it.
White knew his dad was a talented athlete; he just had no idea how talented.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s, when he was an adult himself, that White visited a Minnesota Historical Society exhibit on African-American baseball leagues. There, he learned that his father, Louis White, had played baseball with traveling Negro League teams decades before.
When he confronted his father about the never-mentioned achievement, his father simply said, “It wasn’t important.”
Read the full article here: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/02/23/books-black-baseball-minnesota
Originally published: February 26, 2016. Last Updated: February 26, 2016.