Negro League

14 Pages 3565 Words

egregation, no one succeeded until Brooklyn Dodger's general manager Branch Rickey took action. In 1945, the Jim Crow policies of baseball changed when Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson of the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs agreed to a contract that would bring Robinson into the major leagues in 1947. Jackie Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs and played with baseball greats like Satchel Paige and Martin Dihigo. Negro League competition featured speed, surprise, and more action than in organized baseball. Written contracts to keep players with teams through a season were unusual and schedules were weird.

As with racial prejudice, economic and other factors contributed to segregation in baseball. Many owners of major league teams rented their stadiums to Negro League teams when their own teams were on the road. Team owners thought if baseball were integrated, the Negro Leagues would probably not survive losing their best players to the majors, major league owners would lose important rental income, and many Negro League players wou...