Down to the Last Out, The Journal of Biddy Owens, The Negro Leagues: Birmingham, Alabama, 1948 (My Name Is America)

Newbery and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Walter Dean Myers's baseball story THE JOURNAL OF BIDDY OWENS is now available in paperback, with an exciting repackaging! Seventeen-year-old Biddy Owens is part of the Birmingham Black Barons baseball team and dreams of becoming a major league baseball player. However, in 1948 most black players can only play for the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson has just recently integrated and is playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the white owners are reluctant to add too many blacks to their rosters. The Birmingham Black Barons are some of the best players in the league. But as they travel around playing ball, Biddy realizes that not everyone is ready for blacks and whites to play on the same team. Can Biddy prove he's good enough to be part of the game his loves, no matter what color his skin is? The Journal of Biddy Owens, The Negro Leagues, Birmingham, Alabama, 1948Seventeen-year-old Biddy Owens is part of the Birmingham Black Barons baseball team and dreams of becoming a major league baseball player. However, in 1948 most black players can only play for the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson has just recently integrated and is playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the white owners are reluctant to add too many blacks to their rosters. The Birmingham Black Barons are some of the best players in the league. But as they travel around playing ball, Biddy realizes that not everyone is ready for blacks and whites to play on the same team. Can Biddy prove he's good enough to be part of the game his loves, no matter what color his skin is? A teenager's 1948 journal about working for the Birmingham Black Barons covers the games, the players, racism the team faces, and his family's resistance to his becoming a professional, with a historical note about the Negro Leagues