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Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams. By Alan J. Pollock. Edited by James A. Riley. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, c. 2006. Pp. xii, 407. $35.00, ISBN 0-8173-1495-4.)
Syd Pollock' s lengthy career as a promoter embodies the heyday of black professional baseball. His late son, Alan J. Pollock, completed this memoir about his father just before suffering a fatal heart attack. It is a touching look at the barnstorming era, when teams like the Indianapolis Clowns offered an entertaining blend of comedy and athleticism. From the late 1920s to the mid-1960s, the Clowns drew thousands of fans as they traveled the entire country, often touring segregated states rife with racial tension. Before television, major league baseball reached only as far west and south as St. Louis. For many remaining fans in rural America, barnstorming teams...