The Decline of the Negro Leagues, 1948

From Wendell Smith, "The Sports Beat: Baseball's Glamour Girl Bows Out," The Pittsburgh Courier, September 18, 1948. Reprinted by permission of GRM Associates, Inc., agents for The New Pittsburgh Courier. Copyright © 1948 by The Pittsburgh Courier; copyright renewed 1976 by The New Pittsburgh Courier.

Baseball's Glamour Girl Bows Out . . .

Effa Manley, the beauteous boss of the Newark Eagles is divorcing baseball because of "mental cruelty and indignities." It seems that only small crowds have been turning out to see her team play, upsetting her mental tranquility quite some. . . .

Despite her riotous threats and growling when things didn't go her way, Mrs. Manley was every inch a fine, dignified lady and extremely emotional. In fact, she was never known to miss the opportunity to cry at one of those brawling sessions and at times it was so touching the sympathetic members of the press would pat her with platonic affection and suggest that she get out of baseball and go home to her kitchen and streamlined mop.

Her weepings always gave those meetings an atmosphere of moistness, whereas before her arrival on the baseball scene it was always dry as an African desert. The gentelmen of the press would sit around and listen to the executives double-talk each other and play tit-tat-toe while the schedules were being drawn.

She "Loved" The Working Press!

But when the Fair Lady from Jersey stepped into the picture things picked up and the scribes always kept pencils in hand, ready for action. Invariably Mrs. Manley would become involved in an argument with one of her colleagues over which team her club would play on such profitable days as Easter Sunday, Decoration Day, Fourth of July and other holidays. If she didn't get what she wanted, Mrs. Manley would wrinkle up her pretty face and turn on the sprinkling system. She didn't always win using this feminine attack but the flowers on the table over which she stood did. . . .

Mrs. Manley was definitely a woman. We never have believed that she meant all the mad things she said about the press. It was just that times were changing and so was the entire structure of Negro baseball. Mrs. Manley knew but refused to believe it. She was trying to fight off the inevitable and cling to the great days when Negro baseball--the offspring of big league baseball's discriminatory policy--thrived because Negro players had no place else to go. In her rantings she blamed every one for the demise of her dream world coming from Breach Rickey down to the press.

During these furious bleats, she refused to recognize the fact that nothing was killing Negro baseball but Democracy. The big league doors were suddenly opened one day and when Negro players walked in, Negro baseball walked out. When men like [Branch] Rickey and [Bill] Veeck decided to put some Democracy in baseball, it meant that the lush days for owners of Negro teams were over. When we say lush days, we mean when owners of Negro teams made as high as $50,000 a year profit from their segregated baby. They made that money without too much effort, incidentally. They rented the big ball parks, formed makeshift leagues with irregular schedules, elected puppet presidents and put on shows at excessive prices. The best that can be said for these exhibitions is that they were interesting.

Good Old Days Are Gone

But the time has come now when Negro baseball will by necessity return to its level. It is doubtful that the owners will ever have such a vulnerable audience or discriminatory paradise from which to pluck a bouquet of crisp, green dollars. Instead, Negro baseball is going to be in the same category as Class "B" minor league teams. It will exist. In fact, it must exist. But the big money days are gone. The overflow crowds are gone. Yet, it still has a place in the baseball picture. There is still a desire on the part of the fans to see Negro players and teams. But not at the same prices or under the same conditions as before. They have a reason to go to big league parks now and see their stars in action. They didn't have that privilege when Mrs. Manley and her Eagles were flying high.