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Myers, Walter Dean.
THE JOURNAL OF BIDDY OWENS : THE NEGRO LEAGUES
New York : Scholastic, 2001.
IL 5-8, RL 6.2
ISBN 0439095034
Biddy Owens keeps a diary about his first real job, working as the batboy for Piper Davis's Birmington (Alabama) Black Barons, a Negro Major League Baseball team. As Biddy travels the League circuit, his diary reveals the talents of many of the Negro League's stars. But he documents more than baseball heroics. He also experiences the irony of being part of a heroic company who cannot celebrate victories: in many Southern towns, the team has to stay on their bus to sleep and to eat. Hotels won't rent rooms to "the coloreds" and dinner is often take-out from kitchens that served African Americans who were not allowed sit at the tables in the restaurant dining rooms. Despite such hardships, Biddy keenly follows the rising baseball career of Jackie Robinson, the first Negro player in mainstream American baseball. Will the Negro Baseball Leagues survive Jackie's success? This story is both a good story and a great resource for the history of America's favorite pastime.  (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2003-2004)
 
SUBJECTS:     Birmingham Black Barons (Baseball team) -- Fiction.
                        Baseball -- Fiction.
                        Negro Leagues -- Fiction.
                        African Americans -- Fiction.
                        Segregation -- Fiction.
                        Prejudices -- Fiction.
                        Diaries -- Fiction.

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