Mitchell Nathanson

In the spirit of The Glory of Their Times, which transported readers to the long-gone time of the early 20th century baseball player, Under Jackie's Shadow is a portal to the hidden world of minor league baseball in the immediate post-Jackie Robinson era.  What was it like to be Black and playing in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1965, or Memphis, Tennessee in 1973?  What was it like to play for white coaches and scouting directors from the Jim Crow South who cut their professional teeth in the segregated game that predated the era of integrated baseball as ushered in by Jackie Robinson?  Or to be called into the clubhouse with your Black teammates one spring training morning in 1969 and told that for you make the ballclub you were going to have to beat out the Black men in that room because none of you were ever going to beat out a white player, regardless?  Or to spend a staggering eight seasons playing A ball in the Midwest League and even winning a triple crown while watching lesser white teammates annually get promoted while you stayed behind?  The men in Under Jackie's Shadow are going to tell you.  From their mouths to your ears, this is the unvarnished story of what it was like to be a Black man navigating the wilds of professional baseball's minor leagues during the 1960s and '70s.