I loved hearing about the charity work, fundraising and community-building events that Mrs Manley set up while she owned the Eagles. I find it fascinating that she did so much with the NAACP and even invited black soldiers to games for free during World War II. Hearing about the players on the team was interesting, but as this is likely the first time that I have heard most of the names, it didn't make as much of an impact as it might have for someone else. Far more exciting for me was the information about the community. I love the image of all the men and women dressed up in their Sunday finery (church hats and all) attending a baseball game every Sunday to share picnic lunches and gossip about who arrived with whom wearing what! I was impressed that the Manleys sponsored (and paid for) a little league team as part of the Eagles family. The whole thing is just really cool. I'm not sure that anything like it could happen today. It's becoming more and more obvious why Effa Manley deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame!

This book is a little interesting and a lot confusing. It doesn't stick with any character terribly long and rambles a lot. It doesn't explain things very well a lot of the time (the explanation for what a "feed" is did a much better job of illustrating the inability of small boys to explain things clearly than of explaining what the purpose of a "feed" is). I was amused by the birthday party and vaguely interested in Mr. Hackworth's new project, but mostly I'm rather confused!

It's really interesting to hear about Effa Manley's wonderful business sense in managing and promoting the Eagles. She really does seem to have been great at dealing with publicity and at managing the public opinion of the team. It's kind of amazing that she managed to get the mayor of Newark, the white mayor of Newark, to attend opening day every year. She seems to have had a great ability to keep the team in the black and the players happy, neither could have been an easy feat! Her mothering tendency seems to have been a good and a bad thing. I do like that she generally helped the players out when they needed it, though.