Canada's Baseball Legends

Steven R. Hewitt teaches history at the University of Saskatchewan.

This book is a typical example of that genre known as sports writing:
not particularly insightful and full of anecdotes and clichés. The
primary source for Shearon’s look at “the achievements of Canadians
in baseball’s big leagues” appears to be the New York Times, which
might explain why many of the profiles read like a baseball box score.
Just as the author ignores the broad secondary literature on baseball,
so too he makes no effort to consider his subjects in the context of the
eras in which they played.

Worse still, Jackie Robinson is described as the “First Negro to play
organized baseball.” Politically incorrect terminology aside, this
statement totally ignores the existence of the professional “Negro
Leagues,” which many observers argued were comparable, or superior, to
the white leagues. Nor is Shearon’s history correct, since a black
player did play major-league baseball in the 19th century. Finally,
equating “organized baseball” with the major leagues does a
disservice to the little leagues and minor leagues. Baseball is much
bigger than the big leagues.