Lawrence Hogan, senior professor of history at Union County College, is an expert on African-American baseball before race barriers were broken in the sport. Lawrence Hogan, the nation’s foremost expert on African-American baseball before Jackie Robinson cracked the color barrier, will speak at Middlesex County College 5-7 p.m. Feb. 21 in the College Center Gallery on the Edison campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Hogan, senior professor of history at Union County College, will be joined by Pedro Sierra, who played in the 1950s with the Indianapolis Clowns and the Detroit Stars.
Hogan will speak on “The House that Ruth Built and Pop Opened! Negro League Baseball and Yankee Stadium.” The talk will include a discussion, accompanied by video and exhibit material, of the history of Negro League baseball from 1930 through 1948 at Yankee Stadium. It will focus on the historic opening of the stadium to Negro League play on July 5, 1930, for a doubleheader that was arguably the most significant game ever played there. Hogan is the principal author of “Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African- American Baseball,” and author of “The Forgotten History of African American Baseball,” which is scheduled for publication in June.
In addition, Hogan wrote “So Many Seasons in the Sun: A Century and More of Conversation with Baseball’s Greatest Clubhouse Managers,” which will be published at the end of February. In this book, he tells the history of baseball as seen through the eyes of the game’s ultimate insiders, four legendary clubhouse men for the Yankees and the New York and San Francisco Giants: Fred and Ed Logan, Pete Sheehy and Mike Murphy.