Early Black Baseball in Minnesota: The St. Paul Gophers, Minneapolis Keystones and Other Barnstorming Teams of the Deadball Era (review)

Having done some research on nineteenth-century black baseball in Milwaukee, I know how hard it is to gather information in this area. Therefore, I am tremendously impressed with Todd Peterson's success in finding so many game results and biographical information on black players of the Minneapolis-St. Paul teams of this era.

In the early chapters, Peterson's account of the 1901 and 1902 seasons of the Waseca EACO team, in addition to the 1903 St. Cloud and 1904-05 Renville clubs, is a delight, bringing small-town traveling baseball to life. Peterson's research can only be marveled at. The 1907 season produces game summaries and highlights the like of which are hard to find in most books on major-league or minor-league seasons.

While reading this book, I am certain many will find much of what they thought were truths about black baseball to be not so true. How much money the St. Paul Gophers were paid for playing baseball and how much was made by the clubs is very interesting. For example, no doubt readers will find it rather surprising that visiting cities paid the club's expenses. One question that lingered in my mind was why so many very good black players landed in Minnesota. Peterson explains that "African Americans had moved to Minnesota for the same reasons that everybody else did-the promise of employment, land, and a better way of life" (51). A Minneapolis black newspaper boasted in 1899: "There is not another city in the Union where white people are so friendly disposed toward African Americans" (51). Peterson shows us this, but also lets us know of the hardships facing the black population of Minneapolis-St. Paul, both in baseball and in day-to-day living.

Chapter Four is a must read for everyone interested in baseball and its culture in America in the very early twentieth century. Those of us who live in modern urban areas have little idea why traveling teams like the St. Paul Colored Gophers would be a big draw. According to Peterson, "Prior to the country's entry into the First World War, baseball provided a welcome diversion for small town America. The game was often the only athletic activity and entertainment around. A town's baseball team was a symbol of community pride and means of demonstrating a city's quality, and a vessel through which people might cope with the alienation of rural life. The Gophers provided a unique experience when they came to town" (62-63).

Peterson lets us see these black baseball teams as they were, both the good and the bad. In addition to telling us of the very good ballplayers on these Minnesota teams, he describes the early Minneapolis Keystones' intimidation of other teams and their often terrible on-field behavior. Peterson writes, "The 1908 Keystones had been an intriguing blend of minstrel show, ball club, and train wreck that had delighted area fans with 'their quaint talk and witticisms'" (97).

It is hard to determine the actual strength of the St. Paul Gophers or Minneapolis Keystones, as the amateur and semipro teams they played varied so much in talent. When these two teams first met, Peterson writes, "Considering the abilities of the combatants involved, it is no stretch to say that it was also the first game in Minnesota between two major league clubs" (90). At first, this statement seems a little unrealistic, but we must consider it carefully. The Gophers and Keystones ran up their win totals against many small-town amateur clubs, so their awesome records are a little deceiving. But Peterson gives enough quotes from informed baseball people to show a number of the players were thought to be as good-or better-than major leaguers at their positions. Add to this the Gophers' excellent 1909 showing against the...