Barnstorming to Heaven : Syd Pollock and his great black teams /

This delightful offering about the infamous African American traveling baseball team of the 1920s-60s, the Indianapolis Clowns, is equal parts memoir and history. As the son of the owner of the Clowns, Pollock was in a unique position to offer insights, recollections, and period photographs. Sadly, he died while the book was in the final stages, and Riley (a noted Negro Leagues historian) completed the project. The Clowns were the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball for decades, bringing their unique brand of skill and raucous entertainment to far-flung corners of North America. Players with colorful names like King Tut, Kalihari Evans, Impo Barnhill, Piggy Sands, and Spec Bebop took the field in colorful costumes--anything from grass skirts to Indian war paint and feathers--and displayed their true skills with baseball sleight-of-hand exhibitions that kept the crowds coming back for more. Organized chronologically, the book is a pleasing mixture of narrative history and personal anecdotes. In contrast to other Negro League history books on the market, this one contains no footnotes, endnotes, or bibliography. Still, readers interested in baseball or American social history will likely be intrigued by Pollock's tale. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All readers; all levels. M. P. Tosko University of Akron

Syd Pollock (1901-68) was a New York promoter who owned the Indianapolis Clowns during the heyday of the barnstorming teams of black professional baseball. Devised as much for entertainment as athleticism, the team became a part of the Negro American League in 1943 and toned down the clowning. Syd's son Alan compiled this flavorsome and fond memoir about a team that could both take a chance on a 16-year old named Henry Aaron and inspire the comedy of the Harlem Globetrotters. Will deepen any baseball collection. Paul M. Kaplan, head of adult services at Lake Villa District Library, IL, has reviewed for LJ since 1988. Robert C. Cottrell, author of Blackball, the Black Sox and the Babe, teaches history at California State University, Chico. Gilles Renaud is a judge on the Ontario Court of Justice, Canada. Margaret Heilbrun is social sciences editor, LJ book review (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.