In a League of Her Own

Alderson (Sisters in Arms) writes a fictionalized version of the real life of Effa Manley (1897–1981), the first and only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She’s portrayed here as a Black woman whom white people think is white. In reality, her race remains uncertain, but she called herself white in a 1977 interview. In this novel, she first meets Abe Manley, her second husband, at a New York Yankees game. She never asks the source (illegal, she suspects) of his wealth, but in 1935 he buys the Brooklyn Eagles, a Negro League Baseball (NLB) team. Highly ambitious, Effa dreams of owning a millinery shop. But Abe says he’ll handle the athletes; he wants her to do everything else. Grudgingly at first, she successfully manages their operation. A co-owner, she attends NLB meetings and tells the others—men—how to improve their business practices. No one listens. Abe purchases the Newark Dodgers in 1936, merging teams to form the Newark Eagles, who would become the 1946 NLB World Series champions. Effa establishes a precedent for player compensation, and they sell the team in 1948 after Major League Baseball starts stealing Black players.