Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond
by Bob Motley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bob MotleyContributor: Byron Motley
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-01
ISBN: 1596702362
Number of pages: 217
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Book Reviews of Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond
Book Review: Big League Bob Motley
Summary: 5 Stars
Born in Autaugaville, Alabama in 1923, Bob Motley chronicles his exciting and interesting life as a professional athlete. As an umpire in the Negro American League in the 1940s and `50s, he ran the gauntlet from top-flight professional baseball players to the Ku Klux Klan.
His birth in the heart of "Jim Crow territory," with all the restraints of segregation and prejudice, could not hold back his physical ability, positive attitude, and intellect, which powered him to be the best in his select profession. In that era, baseball was segregated far longer than other major sports. That forced the premier athletes of the time into the formation of the exclusively black Negro American League. Men like Elston Howard, Satchel Page, and Willie Mays turned the all-white Big Leagues on their ear after Brooklyn Dodger star Jackie Robinson broke the 80-year color barrier in 1947. Great black players who had been concentrated in the Black Leagues took the country by storm and elevated the game of baseball to infinite heights.
Motley umpired them all. His autobiography not only chronicles that story, but his story of success, in spite of unbelievable odds, with fortitude, personal discipline, patience, and guts. From my own personal view, having grown up playing ball with anyone who could swing a bat, I always wondered why such talent should be separated and thereby limited. My black high school teammates and I, although just two or three years from "integration," never gave that separation a thought when we took the field. Bob Motley, in this book, shows us what great a victory has been won by all Americans.
Even if Motley had not been with the Kansas City Monarchs, if he had not personally known Buck O'Neal, Roy Campanella, Hank Aaron, Joe Black or Cool Papa Bell, his story is that of a man who is in my Hall of Fame.
Summary of Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond
The Kansas City Monarchs. The Chicago American Giants. The St. Louis Stars. The Birmingham Black Barons. The Homestead Grays. The Indianapolis Clowns. For over 50 years, they were the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox of black baseball in America. And for over a decade beginning in the late 1940s, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for many of their games, working alongside such legends as Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. Today, Motley is the only living arbiter from the Negro Leagues, and "Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars" is his revealing, humorous memoir, which Ken Burns calls, "An important step in revealing what has been for most Americans a `hidden history.'"Motley's account of the Negro Leagues is not a sad one; rather, it celebrates a league long lost and salutes a remarkable group of baseball players that captivated audiences with its flashy play. That much was true of Negro League players, but it was also true of the umps. The men in black--not blue--took to diamonds across the country sporting fetching attire, black ties, and shiny dress shoes. Motley took things a step further, entertaining audiences by exaggerating his calls--doing the splits or leaping high in the air while roaring, "YOU'RE O-O-O-U-U-T-T-T!"
Motley saved his greatest opponent--Major League Baseball--for his final journey: his attempt to break the color barrier for umpires. Walter Cronkite calls Bob Motley's story "a fascinating history of the days not so long ago, when courage and perseverance opened baseball, and so many other sports, to all races." Join this esteemed umpire as he proudly bellows, "PLAY BALL!"
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