396: "Play Harder" - With Gerald Early

We welcome to our microphones award-winning author, cultural critic and Washington University in St. Louis professor Gerald Early, whose new book "Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America" is a sweeping chronicle of Black Americans' extraordinary influence on the game of baseball — from the sport's formative days in the wake of the Civil War, through the heyday of the Negro Leagues, to the modern era. A leading voice in the conversation about race, sports, and American identity, Early also served as an advisor to the National Baseball Hall of Fame's landmark new exhibit, Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball. Together, the book and exhibit offer a timely and powerful retelling of baseball's past — one that acknowledges long-overlooked figures like Moses Fleetwood Walker, Rube Foster, and Cool Papa Bell, and reexamines well-known legends like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds through a deeper historical lens. We discuss how Play Harder arrives at a moment of renewed focus on the Negro Leagues, as Major League Baseball officially recognizes them as major leagues and integrates their stats into the game's official record. Early explains why this recognition matters, how the Negro Leagues shaped Black identity and community, and what the story of Black baseball says about America itself. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable "Good Seats" Merch: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/good-seats-still-avalable?ref_id=35106 BUY THE BOOK (AND SUPPORT THE SHOW!): "Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America": https://amzn.to/4dzBmRj SPONSOR THANKS (AND SUPPORT THE SHOW!): Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old Fort Baseball Co. (15% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://www.oldfortbaseballco.com/?ref=seats 417 Helmets (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://417helmets.com/?wpam_id=3 Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats Yinzylvania (20% off promo code: GOODSEATSSTILLAVAILABLE): https://yinzylvania.com/GOODSEATSSTILLAVAILABLE FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/