Champions of Black Baseball From Setbacks to Success

This book provides a detailed account of the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes with biographies of the players and the team officials who led the team to its World Series triumph. Also included is a complete season timeline, articles about some standout games. the story of League Park and Cleveland Stadium (where the Buckeyes played), and an appreciation of the cultural context of the time. Until the emergence of the Buckeyes in 1942, no Negro League team formed in Cleveland survived more than a year. The high-water mark for the Buckeyes was undoubtedly 1945, when they won the Negro American League title and then, against all odds, defeated the perennial Negro National League champion Homestead Grays four games to none in the Negro League World Series.This book comprises contributions from 29 members of the Society for American Baseball Research. This history of the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes is the eighth in a series of SABR books about the great Negro League teams of the first half of the twentieth century.