Putting Together a 1986 Fritsch Negro League Set

The first time I ever really got a sense of baseball's Negro League is when I was a kid. I read a book about Willie Mays that also spotlighted heavily his relationship with Monte Irvin, whom you can see here. Both played in the Negro League before becoming teammates on the New York Giants in the early 1950s, and the book - which, of course, I can't remember a thing about because I read it in, like, 1978 - really impressed upon me the injustice of these tremendous athletes having to effectively hide themselves away from Major League Baseball and the public-at-large because of the color of their skin.

There was the human tragedy of it all, and then what my 10-year-old brain understood of the baseball tragedy of it all. Why couldn't Satchel Paige have faced Babe Ruth?? Why didn't Home Run Johnson get to play against Ty Cobb??? And so on. It didn't seem right. It wasn't right. The American Experiment still has a great deal to reckon with.

I've been to Kansas City many times for work, but have never been able to go to the Negro League Baseball Museum because I was always, you know, working during the day when they were open. I made it to a couple of Royals games, and it's even on the way there off the freeway from where I was working in Overland Park, KS. I'm bummed. I don't have that job any longer, nor do I have much reason to go to Kansas City (a place I really like, actually). In lieu of the five-hour visit I'll eventually make to that museum, here's how I'm getting my Negro League knowledge going again now: the 1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball Stars set. Thank you to Nick from Dime Boxes for alerting me to their existence in this excellent and exceptionally timely post.

I learned in the course of linking to the set just now that I - and you - can buy the entire 119-card set for $21.95 right now. Go ahead and do it if you want, but me - I'm getting into building this set individually, and I have 40-some-odd cards from it so far. It's great! Each card has a rare photograph of the player - some of whom likely only have that one photograph, especially the turn-of-the-century guys like our new hero Home Run Johnson. The backs are full of biographical information; the teams they played for; what happened to these guys after the Negro League (several went into the Hall of Fame many, many years after they should have), and much more. Did you know that Josh Gibson hit 89 home runs one season, and 75 more the year after that? Yeah, I didn't either.

It's a great set, and one that'll be a delight and a bit of a challenge to try and pull together. I'm going to guess I'll be needing a bit of an assist from "the internet" in order to do so. I definitely picked up the two Monte Irvin cards in the set right away - because his story has been buzzing around in the back of my brain for four decades - and will continue hunting the rest of them, time and money permitting.

Here's what some more of 'em look like.