Robert Hitt Neill

The Barefoot Dodgers Robert Hitt Neill

The Barefoot Dodgers was a real plantation baseball team in the Mississippi Delta back during the farm sharecropping era when pasture baseball was an everyday summer pastime. Though the official team was all black players, the farm white boys practiced with the team, but seldom got to play in the games. These youngsters were raised up as friends of different races. They worked together, played together, got into mischief together. After the Barefoot Dodgers win the State title, accidents take out four regulars, and Coach Longmile Henderson has to have enough players for the Regionals, but the only boys eligible are three whites and a Mexican. Two of the whites are sons of the plantation owner, so the coach and the owner conspire to integrate the Barefoot Dodgers, and thereby the Regional Tournament for the International Amateur League. Opposition comes from the Northern team and officials, as the Dodgers advance to the IAL World Series. This is a book about friends who play baseball, and is a must for any parent who has spent his or her summers on hard bleacher seats, eating cold hot dogs for summer suppers, and going home with sore throats from cheering their team on to victory!