The nnl had dis- banded in 1948 and the nal had only four teams by 1953

The era of black baseball was coming to fifa 15 coins an end. The nnl had dis- banded in 1948 and the nal had only four teams by 1953, down from ten teams in 1949. A few teams, however, were able to hang on financially by becoming unofficial farm clubs for the Major Leagues. The Ameri- can Giants had a close relationship with the St. Louis Browns and the Monarchs with the New York Yankees.

A combination of integration of the Major Leagues and changing American leisure patterns had taken their toll. Competing forms of en- tertainment, such as movies, travel, and other professional sports, pre- dominantly basketball and football, had cut into spectatorship. With the invention of television, fans no longer had to travel to games. Major League games were brought into their living rooms. But it wasn’t just Negro baseball that suffered. The All-American Girls Professional Base- ball League folded in 1954, and many white Minor League professional baseball teams also went out of business. After the war, attendance at Minor League games declined from 42 million to 15.5 million. They were all causalities of changing times.

Although it was sad to see Negro baseball disappear from the Ameri- can scene, it was a victory for American society. It meant that black base- ball players were no longer going to be second-class athletes, but rather were going to take their rightful place among white players. Integration of Major League Baseball paved the way for integration in other sports. Effa Manley, until her death in 1981 at age eighty-one, devoted herself to keeping the history of Negro baseball alive and to gaining recognition for many of its ballplayers. Her Negro Baseball . . . Before Integration,

written with Leon Hartwick, a professional writer, was published in 1976. She wrote numerous letters to both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and to the Sporting News, trying to get recognition for the Negro Baseball Leagues and the players. When the Hall of Fame finally recognized eleven players of the Negro Leagues, she was delighted, but she thought that many more players should have been chosen. She begged the Hall of Fame to admit others. She said that if it wasn’t possible to enshrine others, a plaque listing the names of the great Negro players should be installed and a Negro section be established. Her requests were denied.

In 1985, four years after Effa’s death, the Hall of Fame added an ex- hibit on black ball. Effa’s picture is prominently displayed in that exhibit, though she would doubtless be disappointedto learn that her name is not included among the women owners in the “Women of Baseball” exhibit that was added in 1988. According to the curator, William Spencer Jr., the reason for her omission from the exhibit is that it would be redundant to list her name in both exhibits.