"While box scores, standings and statistics fill the literature of baseball, it is the fans who fill the grandstands who give life to the game and generate its history. The story of baseball is nothing less than the story of the American people.''
(Mills, 1993)

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From their inception, the Negro leagues were a source of pride for African Americans in both the north and south. As noted by Luther Mayweather, "I guess seeing that first baseball game woke me up to there being a whole world outside South Georgia.''
(Mills, 1993)

In the 1920's, Negro League teams played only about 33% of their games against other league teams. The rest they played on the road- "barnstorming" across the U.S., playing challenge games to make extra money.