Effa Manley, First Woman in National Baseball Hall of Fame

Effa Manley was born in 1900. Her mother, Bertha Brooks, was a white seamstress. Her employer, John Bishop, had gotten her pregnant.

Manley's father, Benjamin Brooks, sued Bishop and won a $10,000 settlement. Bertha and Benjamin divorced afterwards and Bertha remarried. Effa was raised with black half-siblings and a black stepfather. Many people thought she was a light-skinned black.

Manley was a big Babe Ruth fan and regularly attended Yankees games. She met her husband, Abe Manley, at the 1932 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Abe was a man of means, having made some shrewd investments either in real estate or in racketeering. It isn't known for certain which as sources are contradictory on the matter

Regardless of how he made his money, Abe wanted to organize baseball. He and Effa started a Negro League team named the Eagles.

"I guess he hoped they'd fly high," said Effa. [1]

When they realized the Eagles couldn't compete with the Dodgers as far as fans were concerned, they moved the team to Newark, New Jersey.

Effa proved to be a shrewd businesswoman herself, taking on business operations of the team, arranging playing schedules, planning travel for the team, managing payroll, purchasing equipment and taking care of publicity and promotions.

In the first game played by the Eagles in 1935, Manley coaxed then New York mayor Fiorello LeGuardia to throw out the first pitch. Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Charles C. Lockwood was among the almost 200 VIPs in attendance at the game, thanks to Manley's efforts.

Manley hated to lose games and was notorious for throwing verbal tantrums with each loss. At the end of their first losing season, Manley had manager Ben Taylor fired and replaced him with Eagles first baseman George Giles.

"When she was displeased, the world came to an end. She'd stop traffic," Giles once said. [1]

As much as she was prone to tantrums and outbursts when the team lost, Manley was even more magnanimous to her team and her players

Manley provided a $15,00 Flexible Clipper bus with air-conditioning for the Eagles. She and Abe sponsored a team in the Puerto Rican games so her players could earn money in the off-season. The Manleys were godparents to player Larry Doby's first child and they were known to loan money to player Monte Irvin for a down payment on a house. Manley constantly negotiated for better playing schedules and better salaries for her players.

Manley even helped player Lenny Pearson start his own business.

"After I quit playing, she started me out in business," said former player Lenny Pearson. "She interceded for me and spoke to people and helped me. She financed the first tavern I ever had. A beautiful, beautiful person in all ways." [1]

In return, Manley expected her players to show the best side of themselves.

"Mrs. Manley was the disciplinarian of the teams," recalled pitcher James Walker. "She would call you in and tell you how to dress, what to do, who to associate with. When you had your problems, if they were personal, you went to Mrs. Manley, and she was very understanding, as long as you toed the line." [1]

In addition to managing her baseball team, Manley was also a social activist for Civil rights. She organized a boycott of Harlem stores when they wouldn't hire black salesclerks. It took only six weeks for the stores to give in. As a result, one year after the boycott, 300 stores employed blacks. She held an "Anti-Lynching Day" at Ruppert Stadium and was treasurer for the Newark chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

World War II saw a surge in attendance at the Negro League games. The leagues were a $2 million enterprise by the end of the war.

But the end of World War II brought many changes to the United States; changes which affected almost ever aspect of American life, but baseball in particular. Integration of Major League baseball was one of them. It started when Branch Rickey signed Negro Leaguer Jackie Robinson to play for Montreal, the Dodgers' Triple-A International team.

That same year, the Newark Eagles beat the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League World Series.

"And," said Manley later of the championship, "I believe we could have beaten the winners of the white World Series [the Cardinals], too," [1]

As more Negro League players were sought after for the Major Leagues, attendance to Negro League games suffered/

When Bill Veeck, owner of the Cleveland Indians wanted Larry Doby for his team, he and Manley agreed on a deal that paid $15,000 for Doby who was the first black player in the American League. From that point on, Major League owners paid an average of $5,000 for Negro League players.

Due to declining attendance and poor profits, in 1947, the Manleys sold the team to Dr. W.H. Young, a black dentist from Tennessee.

Manley's scrapbook is now part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Manley published "Negro Baseball . . . before Integration" in 1976. For the remainder of her life, she championed for recognition of black players, especially for Negro League players to be included in the Hall of Fame. Larry Doby was finally enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Those who remember Effa Manley, do so with a mixture of respect and affection for she was a woman who played hardball. As is engraved upon her headstone, "She Loved Baseball." But she loved her players just as much.

"People say, 'Don't live in the past,'" Manley once said in an interview prior to her death. "But I guess it depends on how interesting your past is." [1]

Effa Manley died at the age of 81 on April 16, 1981. She was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

"Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles" by James Overmyer was published by The Scarecrow Press in 1998.

Sources:

[1] Major League Baseball

Negro League Baseball Players Association