While most black baseball players performed in front of small crowds in run-down stadiums, every so often they enjoyed the limelight. The East-West Negro League All-Star Game attracted huge throngs and created thrills that other games lacked. Exhibitions against white all-star teams provided the opportunity to match talent with the major leaguers. These games brought wide acclaim to black baseball and gradually gained the attention of white owners, who realized that a lucrative market existed in the black population.

"A Joyful Experience"

The most publicized spectacle of Negro baseball started in 1933 when business executives Roy Sparrow and Gus Greenlee arranged for a game to be played in Chicago's Comiskey Park, the home of the white major league White Sox, pitting the best stars from each division in the Negro leagues. Called the East-West Negro League All-Star...