Author Bob Luke joins us to discuss his book, The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues.
Never one to mince words, Effa Manley once wrote a letter to sportswriter Art Carter, saying that she hoped they could meet soon because “I would like to tell you a lot of things you should know about baseball.”
From 1936 to 1948, Manley ran the Negro league Newark Eagles that her husband, Abe, owned for roughly a decade. Because of her business acumen, commitment to her players, and larger-than-life personality, she would leave an indelible mark not only on baseball but also on American history. Attending her first owners’ meeting in 1937, Manley delivered an unflattering assessment of the league, prompting Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee to tell Abe, “Keep your wife at home.” Abe, however, was not convinced, nor was Manley deterred. Like Greenlee, some players thought her too aggressive and inflexible. Others adored her. Regardless of their opinions, she dedicated herself to empowering them on and off the field. She meted out discipline, advice, and support in the form of raises, loans, job recommendations, and Christmas packages, and she even knocked heads with Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, and Jackie Robinson.
Bob Luke is an author, historian, and baseball enthusiast. Bob Luke's life-long passion for baseball reached its peak on the field when he captained his Montgomery Blair High School's baseball team as a centerfielder in Silver Spring, Maryland. After graduating from Colgate University and earning a PhD in sociology from the University of Maryland, he turned to a career in Human Resource Development. In retirement his interest in the history of baseball, especially the history of the Negro leagues, led to two biographies of Negro leaguers, Willie Wells and Effa Manley, one book on the history of the Baltimore Elite Giants, and, most recently, a book about the integration of the Baltimore Orioles. His first book traced the life and career of his childhood next door neighbor, Bill McGowan, an American League umpire from 1924 to 1954. He has also published a book about the role that African American soldiers played for the Union in the Civil War.
