The ManDak League: Haven for Former Negro League Ballplayers, 1950–1957 (review)

Baseball experienced unparalleled growth after World War II. Stimulated by national economic prosperity, the Major Leagues enjoyed record attendance and dozens of new Minor Leagues sprang up across North America from 1945 to 1950. One of these Minor Leagues was the Manitoba-Dakota League. Popularly known as the ManDak League, this independent semiprofessional circuit fielded teams in Manitoba, Canada, and North Dakota from 1950 to 1957. With the Negro Leagues in decline due to integration, the league became a refuge for former Negro League players who were too old to make the Majors but who wanted to continue to play baseball. Hall of Fame members Willard Brown (who was elected after the book's publication), Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, and Willie Wells were among many ex-Negro League stars to see extensive action in the ManDak League. Former Major Leaguers, Minor League veterans, college players, and local talent also found a home in the circuit. Despite the league's significance, baseball historians have largely overlooked it. Society for American Baseball Research member Barry Swanton attempts to fill that void in The ManDak League.

Swanton traces how the league became a sanctuary for many former Negro Leaguers. Interracial competition was already firmly established in the region. Teams in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League, the ManDak League's precursor, had routinely signed "import" players from the Negro Leagues before 1950. The hospitable racial climate of western Canada and North Dakota and the ManDak League's above-average salaries provided extra incentives for black players to sign with the circuit.

Swanton divides his work into two parts. The first is a chronological history of the league. Organized at a December 1949 meeting in Brandon, Manitoba, the league fielded five teams during its first two seasons and four every season thereafter. Several franchises were short-lived, but the league always found a home for a new team. Some of the league's teams included the Brandon Greys, Winnipeg Buffaloes, Carman Cardinals, Elmwood Giants, and the Williston Oilers, all of Manitoba, and the Minot Mallards and Bismarck Barons of North Dakota. The number of games in a season varied from a low of 48 in 1950 to a high of 78 in 1955 and 1956. According to Swanton, the caliber of play was "somewhere between Double A and Triple A" (63). The league folded after the 1957 season due to declining revenues.

In the second section, Swanton provides profiles on each player who appeared in the ManDak League. These profiles include the players' statistics in the league and a brief discussion of their baseball careers outside the circuit. There are some notable names here. In addition to Brown, Dandridge, Day, and Wells, one finds the legendary Satchel Paige, who pitched briefly for the Mallards in 1950; Preston Gomez, a former Washington Senator who played for the Barons in 1955 and who would later become the first manager of the San Diego Padres in 1969; and thirteen-year Major League veteran Ken Heintzelman, who pitched one season in the league. Three appendices (featuring the team rules of the 1950 Mallards, additional statistics, and team rosters) and an index conclude this volume.

Although there is much valuable information in this volume, the book is not without shortcomings. Swanton's exhaustive season-by-season account of the ManDak League occasionally makes this book a tedious read. There are also some conspicuous editorial lapses. The last appendix is enumerated as the fourth when in reality it is the third, and two sentences are awkwardly fused into one on page 80. There is also little analysis. In particular, Swanton's explanation of the ManDak League's demise is abrupt. He links its collapse to economic woes, but he does...