Writing from the often reviled podium of the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the American Communist Party, Lester Rodney played an important part in ending racial segregation in professional and amateur baseball in the United States. In the process he changed the focus of the daily newspaper sports section, which tended to be removed from life beyond the stadium turnstiles, making it an advocate for change in what at the time was the American "National Pastime." As a reporter, columnist, and the founding sports editor of the Worker, a position he held for seventeen years, Rodney insistently appealed to major-league owners and Americans at large to allow black players to play professionally alongside white players. His career, perhaps like that of no other sportswriter, was inextricably connected to the fortunes and impact of his newspaper. During his tenure, his efforts and those of the sports section of the...