{"product_id":"southern-league-a-true-story-of-baseball-civil-rights-and-the-deep-souths-most-compelling-pennant-race-9781455511884","title":"Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South's Most Compelling Pennant Race","description":"\u003cb\u003eBestselling and award-winning author and former major league pitcher Larry Colton shares the story of the Birmingham Barons, the first racially-integrated team of any sport in the state of Alabama, just few months after the horrific 1964 Birmingham church bombing which killed four young black girls. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnybody who is familiar with the Civil Rights movement knows that 1964 was a pivotal year. And in Birmingham, Alabama - perhaps the epicenter of racial conflict - the Barons amazingly started their season with an integrated team. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJohnny \"Blue Moon\" Odom, a talented pitcher and Tommie Reynolds, an outfielder - both young black ballplayers with dreams of playing someday in the big leagues, along with Bert Campaneris, a dark-skinned shortstop from Cuba, all found themselves in this simmering cauldron of a minor league town, all playing for Heywood Sullivan, a white former major leaguer who grew up just down the road in Dothan, Alabama. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eColton traces the entire season, writing about the extraordinary relationships among these players with Sullivan, and Colton tells their story by capturing the essence of Birmingham and its citizens during this tumultuous year. (The infamous Bull Connor, for example, when not ordering blacks to be blasted by powerful water hoses, is a fervent follower of the Barons and served as a long-time broadcaster of their games.) \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy all accounts, the racial jeers and taunts that rained down upon these Birmingham players were much worse than anything that Jackie Robinson ever endured. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMore than a story about baseball, this is a true accounting of life in a different time and clearly a different place. Seventeen years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line in the major leagues, Birmingham was exploding in race riots....and now, they were going to have their very first integrated sports team. This is a story that has never been told.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLarry Colton\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of several notable works, including \u003ci\u003eCounting Coup, Goat Brothers, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNo Ordinary Joes\u003c\/i\u003e. He has written for \u003ci\u003eEsquire, Sports Illustrated, \u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e. A former pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Colton himself played in the Southern League in 1966 for a farm team in Macon, GA.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50527620661522,"sku":"9781455511884","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_40dac95a-1792-475a-95d4-d2dfbc45f6eb.jpg?v=1731308747","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/southern-league-a-true-story-of-baseball-civil-rights-and-the-deep-souths-most-compelling-pennant-race-9781455511884","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}