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Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Category Archives: Brown Dodgers

The New York Daily News

25 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by Jeremy Beer in Brown Dodgers

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baseball integration, Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Daily News, Oscar Charleston, United States League

ran an excerpt from Oscar Charleston yesterday, in which I discuss Oscar’s role scouting for Branch Rickey and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Presumably the article provided readers with a welcome interlude between stories about headless corpses and dogs driving cars.

By spring 1945 two years had passed as Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, deliberately searched, to no avail, for the first black man to sign for his team.

Part of the problem, he believed, was that it was hard for his white scouts to show up at Negro League games without arousing suspicion. It was even harder for them to get accurate inside knowledge about the character and background of any given player. Oscar Charleston and a new black baseball circuit called the United States League (USL) provided Rickey with a solution to this twofold dilemma.

More here . . .

Charleston Chronology

25 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by Jeremy Beer in Biography, Brown Dodgers, Cuba, Early Life, Harrisburg Giants, Homestead Grays, Indianapolis ABCs, Indianapolis Clowns, Lincoln Stars, Managing Career, Philadelphia Stars, Philippines, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Toledo/Indianapolis Crawfords

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Oscar Charleston

I had intended to include in Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player a chronology of Charleston’s life. I thought it would be particularly helpful in Oscar’s case, given how peripatetic he was, and given the errors floating around in the online ether. But including it would just make the darn book too long, said the University of Nebraska Press, no doubt wisely. So I have now included that chronology here. You can navigate to it using the top menu of the site.

As always, if you spy any errors or have any questions, please let me know.

Monte Irvin, R.I.P.

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Jeremy Beer in Brown Dodgers

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Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, Monte Irvin, Oscar Charleston

Nearly a year ago, I began to try to get in touch with former Giants great Monte Irvin. I was, of course, interested in talking to him about his memories of Oscar Charleston. Unfortunately, his health was already in serious decline. Today comes the sad news that he has died. May he rest in peace.

In his memoir, Nice Guys Finish First, Irvin wrote about Charleston and his role in helping Branch Rickey’s Dodgers scout black players–including, perhaps, himself:

“I had already gone to Puerto Rico when I heard that Jackie had signed with the Dodgers. I had gone down there to get back into shape shortly after I was discharged from the Army on September 1, 1945. Branch Rickey announced that he had signed Jackie on October 23rd of the same year. I was very happy for him. I wasn’t jealous of Jackie’s success, but I was envious. I thought, Gee whiz, why couldn’t that be me?

“Most people don’t know that Oscar Charleston was involved in the process of finding a player for Rickey to sign. Oscar was very smart and an astute baseball person. When they had their meetings, he was telling them who was out there, who was signable, and who would probably be able to make it. Oscar was probably working directly under Clyde Sukeforth. Clyde couldn’t have picked a better man to help him than Oscar, and Rickey couldn’t have picked a better man than Jackie Robinson.”

Managing the Brown Dodgers

03 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Jeremy Beer in Brown Dodgers, Managing Career

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Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, Heritage Auction, Oscar Charleston, United States League

As this check shows, Oscar Charleston was paid $500 per month to manage the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers of the short-lived United States League in 1945. Usually referred to as the brainchild of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Branch Rickey, the league had another moving force in former Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee, for whom Charleston played in the 1930s.

This check was sold at auction for more than $35,000 in 2010. See this Heritage Auction page for more info.

Charleston Brown Dodgers check

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Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

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