'Baseball essential to American identity' | Author Gerald Early discusses Black baseball's rich legacy – fox43.com

To stream FOX43 on your phone, you need the FOX43 app.
Next up in 5
Example video title will go here for this video
Next up in 5
Example video title will go here for this video

HARRISBURG, Pa. — When the Harrisburg Giants and York Monarchs took to baseball diamonds across Pennsylvania in the early 20th century, they weren’t just playing a game – they were writing an important chapter in American history.
African American baseball teams and leagues represented community organization, business development and social advancement during times of segregation and discrimination.
“It is about baseball as a sort of microcosm about black people in society,” said Gerald Early, author of “Play Harder – The Triumph of Black Baseball in America,” in an interview with FOX43.
The Keystone State played a foundational role in the development of organized Black baseball, with roots stretching back to the post-Civil War era.
“Pennsylvania was an active place in the beginnings of baseball after the Civil War, and Pennsylvania was very active in Black baseball as well,” Early said. “Philadelphia was also a key place. Pittsburgh would eventually become a very key place later in the 20th century with Black baseball.”
Early emphasized the broader regional significance of these early developments.
“The East was very important in the development of baseball and Black baseball in those early days in the 1860s, right after the Civil War,” he said. “Washington, D.C. was another key place where Black baseball developed.”
Early’s book highlights players like Oscar Charleston of the Harrisburg Giants, who posted remarkable statistics – including a 1925 season with 20 home runs and 97 RBIs – and was eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. According to Early, documenting these achievements serves an important historical purpose.
“It’s important for people to know, number one, that Black people devoted a lot of time and energy to developing baseball teams, trying to develop leagues and working on developing players,” Early said. “When the Black leagues were finally formed in the 1920s, one of the reasons was that Black baseball owners wanted to be able to develop players for when the major leagues finally would integrate.”
Early’s work, produced in collaboration with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to accompany its exhibit on Black baseball, explores how the sport became a vehicle for broader social advancement.
“It isn’t just a baseball book,” Early explained. “Here was one area, a small area, but an important one, where Black people were organizing, forming teams, promoting baseball in their communities and wanting to develop players.”
These baseball organizations had multifaceted missions that extended far beyond athletic competition.
“They wanted to integrate, but also, they wanted to be able to develop businesses and show that they could do things on their own independently and really help to uplift the race and uplift Black people through these kind of activities,” Early said.
While acknowledging that baseball organizations might seem less consequential than other civil rights institutions, Early argued for their significance.
“Baseball is a rather minor thing,” he said. “It isn’t as important as starting the NAACP or something like that. But, it is important, in many ways, to show people trying to lift themselves up and improve their lives and also to provide entertainment for Black people.”
Despite this rich history, Early noted that contemporary engagement with baseball among African Americans has declined significantly in recent decades.
“Black Americans are not as engaged in the game as they used to be,” Early observed. “There are major efforts being done by Major League Baseball to engage Black Americans more, not only as fans, but also as players, because Black Americans only make up about 6.5% of players in Major League Baseball. They used to make up a much higher percentage about 25 years ago.”
Early, also a professor of African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., views reconnecting African Americans with baseball as essential given the sport’s historical importance.
“It’s important to try to re-engage Black Americans in the game because the game has been so important to them historically,” he said.
Looking ahead, Early expressed cautious optimism about revitalizing this relationship.
“I think the future would be working to re-engage Black Americans in the game, both as fans and as players, and I think that can happen,” he said. “[It’s important] to make sure that everybody feels included and feel that this game is important because this game is so important to America itself. It’s essential to our identity as Americans, I think, more than any other game.”
As Major League Baseball continues outreach initiatives aimed at increasing African American participation, books like Early’s serve as reminders of the profound connections between baseball, race, and American identity that have shaped the national pastime for over 150 years.