I am very happy to announce the release of the new ebook "Darkhorse: The Jimmy Claxton Story" on Amazon Kindle now. For those without a Kindle device, perfect bound copies will be available February 29.

To commemorate the upcoming centennial of professional baseball's most unlikely integration, May 28, 2016, The Jimmy Claxton Story not only covers the ups-and-downs of his forty year baseball career, but also discusses his father's role as an African American strikebreaker in Cascade Mountain coal mines (1888), and his nephews ascendency to the judiciary (the Honorable Judge Jack Tanner, first African American federal judge west of the Mississippi). The book is exhaustively researched and detailed. His story is much greater than one outing in Oakland, or reducible to a baseball card. A thorough Pacific Northwest black history, I hope the book transcends geography and is as relevant today as it was one hundred years ago.

The Official Historian of Major League Baseball, John Thorn, previews the book thusly:"Ty Phelan tells the story behind one of baseball's most puzzling integration milestones; the Zee-nut card of 1916 featuring a black ballplayer with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. How did this player break the color line, or pass it by? Where did he come from? Was there more to Jimmy Claxton than this anomalous foray into Organized Baseball? Yes indeed, and author Phelan reveals all."

http://www.amazon.com/Darkhorse-Jimm...+claxton+story

Thank you seattlerainiers, bbpostcards, oaks1912, tlwise12, conor912, 71buc, for awesome feedback, and many contributions. Thank you as well, Leon and net54 for allowing me to make this announcement on your site.