A new perspective on postwar New York City baseball, including the city’s Negro League teams

In the golden age of baseball, three Major League Baseball teams in New York City vied for supremacy on the diamond, with the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Yankees each winning at least one World Series. Too often overlooked, the Negro Leagues had five teams in the city fighting for primacy in the sport: the Brooklyn Royal Giants, the New York Lincoln Giants, the New York Black Yankees, the New York Cubans, and, albeit very briefly, the Brooklyn Eagles.

In The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey: New York City Baseball's Golden Age amid Integration, Robert Cottrell highlights a unique period in history when New York City baseball was at its height of dominance, spanning over a decade in postwar America. Cottrell includes detailed coverage of the three years in succession when the Giants, Dodgers, and Yankees won the World Series in the 1950s, featuring star players Willie Mays, Duke Snider, and Mickey Mantle. He also examines the major Black teams of the era, melding the story of New York City baseball with that of the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson and the Great Experiment, and the remarkable Black athletes who braved racism and threats to integrate the game.

New York City baseball flourished in the postwar years, but its era of dominance wound to a close amid struggles to transform playing fields and America itself. The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey is a fascinating perspective on the city’s teams, players, and integration of the sport.