For most of white America, the black half of baseball history has been entirely unknown or considered a footnote and a curiosity. Using entire new sources of data, author John B. Holway, the leading expert on the subject, has set out to write the most authoritative work to date on the subject of the Negro Leagues. Over twenty years in the making, this book contains narrative and statistical information on the performances of over 2,000 regular players form the years 1862-1948. The work will contain pioneering research - including narratives of over 200 games between the black leagues and the white major leagues and detailed statistics from the earliest years of the World Series (circa 1909). The author has likened his upcoming work to Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball by John Thorn et al (1995), the ultimate book on Major Leaguers as we know it. In this case, however, emphasis will be solely on black baseball players and their histories.