"After Jackie" by Carl Fussman

Book Reveiew

"After Jackie", by Carl Fussman is subtitled "Pride, Prejudice, and Baseball's Forgotten Heroes: An Oral History". It is hard to write a book review about "After Jackie" because "No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever..." followed by the usual permission instructions. "Like a good meal, praise should be served," I read "when it is still bubbling." I have been waiting for two years for a reply to a permission request and it is hard to keep praise bubbling for such long periods of time. Do publishers know how difficult it is to entice people to read a book without offering up a tidbit, a little appetizer to the main course?

You will be hearing about meals in this book. Playing professional baseball did not give African-Americans entrance into dining establishments to use their meal tickets. 1950s prejudice and outright bigotry was not limited to the South, Jim Crow laws and lasted well into the 1960s. The way players reacted to being refused service varied. This is where quotes come in handy. I am dying to share a joke one of the players used when a server told him the establishment did not serve his kind. His response involved what he was not planning on ordering, like crackers.

Like, Jackie Robinson, "After Jackie" is a winner from start to finish. I liked the dedication page which was short and had nothing to do with baseball or racism. The forward by Henry Aaron has a great tale about dreams. Fussman starts the first chapter about pressure with an illustration about Shaquille O'Neal. Each chapter starts with a word from the author, followed by oral history as told to him by players, their wives, friends, others involved in 1950s baseball as well as people like Spike Lee and Charlie Pride. Fussman did an excellent job breaking up his interviews into bite size bits of conversation to fit each chapter topic. I especially liked Don Newcombe's narratives.