revolutionary school. that's why she's going to all these meetings and the bookstores. that's the real university. when you join these movements for justice now think about you have the intellectual component to it. i think with time for maybe one question. >> i don't know if we do get are we out of time? spink so that's what that sign means. >> but it's been a great conversation. [applause] >> this if it was part of the 15th annual harlem book fair. for more information visit qdr.com. >> in 1964, a year after martin luther king, jr. and "letter from birmingham jail," in 17 years after jackie robinson became the first african-american to play major league baseball, the minor-league birmingham barons fielded the first integrated team, and the first in the state

of alabama. next on booktv, author and former major league pitcher larry colton recounts the team's exploits on and off the field amongst a backdrop of political and social change in birmingham, alabama. this is a little over one hour. >> hi, everybody. i'm really delighted with the opportunity to introduce larry this evening, but i know most of you know something about larry already. i become he is a kind of one man portland institution, the founder of the community of writers, founder of the work to stop -- workshop literary festival, just recently the stewart holbrooke libére legacy award, and so his devotion to writing and support the writing community important is really well known. some organizing programs for

grammar school children getting their first taste of how to organize their thoughts about the world, to advice for aspiring writers, people like can't, recently honored at the oregon book award who turned to larry for advice when they were starting their own writing projects. but i have no military since long before you publish anything, back to when he was an enthusiastic and only slightly cynical high school teacher at adams high, still recovering from the psychic blow of not having stuck in the big leagues where his baseball talents have long predicted he would go. i mean, what other web of the holbrooke awards has or ever will have a baseball card? what o'leary has made the incredibly effective use of his two innings in the big leagues, inspiration as rich in its own way to him as bruce madeline.

larry's first book was about the portland trail blazers. and looked for a while like is going to be a one off. between the publication in 1978 and the next book, larry work that nike and wrote hundreds of magazine articles. then he published toll brothers in 1992, the great fanfare. it was a book of the month club when that mattered. and it established where his reputation above all as an accomplished storyteller with a gift for juggling marriages about multiple characters that only been hinted at in idle time. there was an eight year wait again for the next big bow, "counting coup," a remarkable feat of reporting that had even a seasoned journalist like richard ben cramer marveling a larry's ability to get the players on a girls basketball team in montana, some white, some from the crow reservation, to share the hope, spears and

aspiration. larry's account of the quest for a state basketball championship was intimate, detailed, and convincing. and was one of the first ever e-book award for book of the year at the frankfort book fair. raising his two daughters as a single dad, certainly contributed to larry summers didn't have the bruises of teenage angst. the hiatus between "counting coup" and let his fourth book, no ed -- no ordinary joe's was another decade in part because his working full-time, getting were stocked up and running, but also because he was struggling over how to tell the remarkable story of a group of american sailors captured by the japanese in world war ii who were forced to spend years in slave labor camps. getting the balance right between their back stories and the horrors of camp life was a really great challenge, but larry i think really nailed it. once again he was able to --

personalize into the larger narratives of the depression and world war ii. "no ordinary joe's" had the misfortune to be published at the same time as laura hildebrand's unbroken which was a similar tale, if not identical to. i think told with less nuance and subtlety. but it got all the recognition that they think "no ordinary joe's" really deserves. now with the second book in a mere two years at an age when most writers are starting to put down the pen, larry suddenly -- he's like a philip roth of creative nonfiction. [laughter] larry s. but what he learned about the psychology of the dugout during his baseball career to excellent use in his new book, "southern league." i know is ideas for more books but in the meanwhile, let's listen as larry shares "southern

league" t have a book that examines the 1964 birmingham barons season as alabama's first racially integrated professional sports team, in a race that played out in the context of the struggle to talk of jim crow. so welcome, larry colton. [applause] >> well, in one way this is a very dark day for american literature. when i had been used in comparison with philip roth, something's wrong. but i'm going to keep going. also, he said that i was an institution. [laughter] i'm going to put that on my w-2 form next time, you know. if i am an institution, it's not

a well-paying job. and he mentioned that my book came out the same day that laura hildebrand's unbroken came out. i think the major difference between the two books is about $10 million. [laughter] but i'm not bitter. [laughter] not at all. and he said that i helped young students organize their thoughts. this afternoon i sat down and i took some notes about what i might say today. those notes are sitting on my desk at home. [laughter] so if i tend to stutter and stammer, well, at any rate i thought, i had the good fortune last week of speaking at the jimmy carter library in atlanta, which i thought was a pretty big

deal. and so a woman there asked me, why is it or how is it a guy from portland, oregon, comes to write a book about birmingham, alabama? so i give this some thought, and as they're sort of a back story here, why i wrote this book. it starts back in 1963. in 1963, i was a student at the university of california, and i was a jock and a frat boy. so i was kind of a nightmare. [laughter] so, but one day we were sitting around watching tv, and certainly i was not in civil rights until. there was no blacks at my high school. at the university of california at berkeley the liberal bastion anit was less than 1% of the

student population was black, and there was none on the baseball team when i was there. so but, in the spring of 63 we were sitting in the tv room, and on came walter cronkite. and he showed pictures of birmingham, alabama, and the horror that was going on in birmingham. and that they attack the birmingham police on the young nonviolent demonstrators there. there was something in me that just said, this is not, something is wrong with this. this is not right. and so it stuck with me. so the next semester, i took a class, and the only thing way to do in that class was write a term paper. and i ended up, i wasn't a very good student, but i wrote a paper that was 60 pages long,

and i did on the student non-violent coordinating committee. so i really got into the whole civil rights thing by writing this paper. i thought it was like way but anything i had ever done. which didn't really say much, but i turned it in fully expecting to get in a. i got a b on the damn paper. the next semester the same course was offered but at a different professor. about a week before the paper was due in the course, a young woman, her name is bonnie, and she was a santa barbara blog, and i had eye on her for quite some time, and she said, i don't have the paper. i didn't do anything, how would you feel about giving me your paper? [laughter] and i thought, this is my chance laschance.

[laughter] this was back in the days before computer. the professor had written on other sheets of paper and insert them into the thing, so it was copied, so i just retired to title paper in her name, she turned it in word for word. the same paper i did, and guess what she got on the? she got in a. and i did not even get lucky. [laughter] so that's when i first learned that, the lesson i learned was laura hillenbrand. i already knew it was not always going to be the payoff i thought it would be. so then the second, perhaps awakening to this story, happened in 1966.

and i'm going to read just a little bit from the book about how i first thought about it. in 1966, two years after the story in this book takes place, i was a 23 old pitcher in the suddenly. a california boy expressing the south for the first time, the idea of becoming a writer, let alone writing this book never occurred to me than, not for a nano second. i was a ballplayer, that's it. baseball defined who i was. i'm not on steroids. [laughter] i could easily come in fact when we played we used

anti-enhancement performing drugs. [laughter] jim dean, yeah. i could easily decouple baseball from the civil rights movement. i was not to observe the office habits of jim crow or my job was to blow the ball by any son of a who carried a louisville slugger into the batter's box. like the players in this book, i was singular in purpose. have a good season and get called up to the show. i played against some of the players written about in this book, including blue moon odom. and now almost four years removed from the game, but instinctively and emotionally, once you've lived in the land of baseball, you are a permanent resident. as a player in the southern league i never took notes or record my thoughts into a tape

recorder. i would've been laughed out of the locker room. but over the years a few distinct memories have stuck stubbornly in my mind. details of specific games are long gone are the memories i do carry, however, were the ones from which this book would emerge from ford decades later, and each one of those memories had to do with race. perhaps my most vivid memory of my season and the suddenly springs from a road trip to mobile, alabama, somewhere along u.s. 31 between montgomery and mobile our bus stopped for lunch at a small greasy spoon, café nestled in a clump of pine trees. i took a seat at the counter. a heavyset waitress wearing at hairnets from glass of water in a plastic tumbler. watching the rest of the team struggle in, she spotted me have

to eat a back, she instructed. and become an old school barrel chested tobacco chewing native of west virginia who once got a world series games with a broken rib and was the catch of the day jackie robinson broke into the major leagues, glared at her. then you don't serve none of us, he proclaimed them signaling the team to head back to the bus. ..

so league the third crispness it possible to have three genesis? the third happened in the -- three years ago. be aware once wrote a column. it was called pillars. it was up fictional account of what went on here in portland and the main characters were like westfield, foster. so i bought my can write fiction. i have this idea. i wrote 150 pages. everything and have written and

published his ben nonfiction. i showed it to three people here in town. one of them is john straw, and another one was catherine bend who was nominated by the national book award in fiction. i figured, whenever she said or whenever john said, i would go with that. and i will tell you what john said. i will tell you what catherine said. she said, larry -- and she is the sweetest to manassas, most supportive person there are matt . larry, it's up the worst of all i've ever read. [laughter] and thus live pitching career came skidding to a halt. so it was with that and started

tearing their research to make this nonfiction and in the process at the time i did not know about the 1964 birmingham barons. i learned about them there were the first integrated team down in the deep south. and in birmingham in 1963 when the police dogs were turned loose by pitbull o'connor, the head of the police force there and it praised our rage across the country about what was going on down there. and the person in charge of the police and the person behind it and who became the public figure of segregation and racism in america was bull connor.

as jfk called him, he did more for integration in this country and abraham lincoln because he's so turned everybody -- i mean, he affected me way out in california. but is history with baseball in this city of birmingham, he rose to popularity. the only had an elementary school education. he rose to popularity because he became the announcer for the birmingham barons. you just sort of backed into a job. the guy did not show up one day. he did it and became one of the most well-known figures allover alabama because he was a radio announcer in he parlayed that into a political career and a very powerful political caribbean. and he also was the enforcer of rule that was in birmingham on

the city puts a deterrent called the checkers' ordinance, the checkers rule. in the checkers ruleless that no black-and-white can play any sport together be, a football, basketball, baseball, and including checkers. it was strictly enforced by it bull connors. he would say that his police force to keep people from playing in integrated support. so the checkers rule came up in 1962. the major league baseball told a minor league teams, either you integrate or you don't get teams and rather than into great there was such force from the ku. >> klan not to integrate the team, but the owner of the team,

the local owner of the team, this guy here, albert belcher, he folded the team. birmingham, and in had over 100 years history in baseball, of the lead in the whole league collapsed because he would not go up against the complex plan and another group called the big meals which were the business leaders of birmingham. the business leaders or if not members of the ku. >> klan, certainly out front segregationists'. infection in birmingham the police department was allegedly 75 percent of the police department, none of whom were black, 75 percent of them were members of the plan. so birmingham had become known as bombing him.

because over the last 20 years there have been 44 unsolved bombings, always of black churches are black homes and with bull connors as the man to investigate, nothing ever happened, and they all went unsolved. there were solves, but nothing was ever done about it. in 1964 he went to the major league meeting and met charlie finley who was the controversial owner of the kansas city a's. also from birmingham. there were -- he did not like what happened. all the native publicity in birmingham, and he said, let's put a team together. let's go again soon the chairs rule, defy that, and that professional baseball back in birmingham. so with albert belcher facing threats from the ku klux klan they brought back baseball in

1964. the night before the first game the grand dragon -- is a dragon or wizard? and did he know the answer to that, you shouldn't. [laughter] he showed up at his front door at 10:00 at night and said, don't plan. but he went ahead and plate. when the first game, they had a bomb threat. right before the first inning. he get the phone call at the ballpark that there was a bomb threat. he looked at the -- he did not want to bring baseball back because he was an integrationist. if he was already up millionaire in the timber industry. and he thought about it. he looked at the long line. he decided to not report the

bomb threat which would never happen today when he saw those ticket sales going. and he also taught, if we have to call the first game in two years there because of a bomb threat the national media will jump all over this the move will have to my side of publicity. he went ahead with the game in the bond did not tow off. bell, hired to manage this chamber this guy here haywood sullivan from dothan, alabama. he went to an all white high-school and all sec quarterback at the university of florida which had no blacks in the whole sec conference.

no blacks. not only on the teams, but the whole school. then the major leagues, he played with the boston red sox which is the most racist organization in baseball, the last team to have a black on their team, and it was like ten years after jackie robinson. and he grew up just down the road from birmingham. so you think this is not the right guy to be leading the first ever integrated team. but it turned out despite his background he was an amazing manager and i interviewed all the guys in the team. every one of them, they all love this guy. first of all so damned handsome.

[laughter] should not be looking at get up there. but the problem did not mess around. that is my guess. he was the only guy in the history of baseball to play in the major leagues, managed and the major leagues than a major league general manager as well as a major league owner. he grew up with nothing and ended up owning the boston red sox. somebody loaned him a million dollars to buy into the team 20 years later resold for intelligent $38 million, not a bad deal. he then went into business and became a business partner with -- from sure you all know this calibers a cough.

they were going to do a big complex in orlando and then perhaps up in boston. there were going to be entertainment. he passed away before that could happen. the book really follows the story of four guys. update to ' -- to black players into white players to show their story. and so this guy's name is tom robo. let me read you just a bed. asleep at the wheel. twenty-two, getting heavy. good during 1964 and as she drove east along the gold coast beyond trying to keep the lead.

this was the start of his second year in pro ball and he was on the fast track to the big leagues. his first year in burlington he led the league in batting average three to six in home runs 27 and was so impressive that he had gotten call-up to kansas city for last month of the season. a rare feat for a player from a ball. now he was said it's a big league training in bradenton, florida. pretty heavy stuff, especially for a guy ignored when he played outfield in san diego. across america there was none an option -- an option. having slept in his car for trinity was a bit discombobulated. he had a sign announcing a restaurant and pub miles.

his parents were from louisiana. he lived in the projects in san diego. during his two years in the army either missouri are the base and comenius certain places were off-limits to blacks and that many of his white comrades dismissed and simply because of the color of the skin. he felt his head jerked back snapping him back to the test at hand and the appendage would be a lousy outcome for many reasons

to my including the damage it would surely do to his new 64 chevy malibu super sport with his wire rims front seat council. to his dismay the rest area was closed for construction, but it was later denied that he was dead tired. to keep going would be foolish. after surveying the scene and figuring out what was said he steered his super sport of the side of the construction site, turning up the engine and leaning back in a seat. the 44 caliber service revolver was within easy reach within the sheet and then fell fast asleep. he will have to buy the book to find out what happened to end. i did. in one of the perils of writing nonfiction and about real people

, you tried to portray somebody as accurately as you possibly can. you try to say nice things are bad things. in the case of tommy reynolds, he endured more crop then jackie robinson and remember, this integrated team was 17 years after jackie robinson, 17 years. but there were unmerciful toward him. and i think up portrayed him as a relief hurler -- a really heroic figure. portrayal. for me to go and meet with people ever about, i would not

do that. and i came up to him to my, how you doing. he lives in south georgia now. i had been down to interview him twice. i had done all the way down and called him on the phone. well, there is a fabricator. what are you talking about? he said, i hit 328 cannot 326. seven. [laughter] >> well, okay. i caught you on that one. also the thing in birmingham was , this is the first time not only the playing field was integrated with the first time that the vans were integrated. in previous years the stadium,

they had a chicken wire fence and the blacks had to sit on the far side of the chicken wire fence way down the right-field line. it was called a cold beer and. so this was the first time. as scary as it was to have the team integrated, having the stannous integrated, they were very leery about what would happen. there are a couple of pier. and he was from the georgia. he signed that year in jen. he signed for the largest bonus ever given to a black athlete in any sport, 75,000.

again, i think a did a nice job of portraying him. thirteen years and the big wood -- big things. when a couple of world series games console has been a lot of time with them. quantity of the book? there's some stuff at the end of the book that is necessarily positive about him. he said, well, i have not ready yet. a carry. and then he proceeded to "the book. that only that. part of his bonus when he -- he got a 1964 candy apple red for a

fair lane. f. other people talked about how u.s. grew out of the parking lot . in the candy apple red automobile he had installed a stereo. as a his private i said that them was on the-. yeah this specially installed stereo. when he was camion number in the book he said this area was under the department again, hardly noticed? he was okay with the book. he was the guy was out to have a friend of the most. i became closer than in any of the other players.

this guy here, they called him hollis balm. hoss was from arkansas buried in december representative for theh testicular cancer and had major surgery and the doctors said, you will never play again. he ended at showing up to spring training and played. his verse and is lois. mellowness -- not louis, lois. in arkansas and he figured out it became firmly back in the woods. hoss and his wife madeleine they

all looked up about madeline. how smart she was. she was beautiful and all this. and they came to you did in birmingham. they had been divorced for about 15 years. he came with his current wife, but she wanted to see all the other wives and where there. very respectful of staying away from a loss. in the book as and the backwoods of arkansas surrounded with people familiar with the n-word.

when i saw him an interview him he said, i never heard the in were growing up. her about central high, you grew up in arkansas in part of dixie in never heard that word? >> there were no blacks in our county. >> well, more cause the you heard it all the time. so he wanted me to change the fact that he had never -- put into there he had never heard the inward. he also said when he got out of the hospital he had a $1,500 bill for the cancer surgery from the hospital. imagine $1,500 today. he sent it into charlie finley. charlie finley, the multi, multi

millionaire refuse to pay it. they gave him a $50 a month raise until then to pay for it out of that. he would not be in baseball that long. so i put that in the book, that he was mad. the hell with charlie finley. that was a direct quote that he said to me. and then he said, never said that. i was never manage family. wait a second. he would not pay your hospital bill. it was not a baseball related injury was a clamor of the team. this was paul and kathy. that 12 year, 13 year career and there were from the heartland, from kansas, the men and nuys school. this is from their high-school prom. the sweetest couple, and he was national javelin champion and a

school. really in some very. , afford sox were in at that time. [laughter] maybe they were. so he is one of the guys. i'm going to give away a loaded at the end of the book. the age 50 he crafted early onset alzheimer's. this loving, sweet mersenne says cool. he lost control. one of the most of has ever. it just shows the horrible nature. now they have a child it was one-year-old in the book. this scandalous 50 yourself. when they had their unions back

in birmingham a couple of weeks ago. he went out there to throw a pitch that some guy just happen to be there. and picked up a bat. i didn't. maybe the best thing that i sought out of it, it's a very hard show kind of guy, tough guy in 1969 he and some minerals are roommates in boston. there were in the room. they got into a fight. this is not in the book. think it was the fact they got into the fight, with the details . there had been some local law involve. blue moon hit tommy reynolds of the head. but tommy reynolds definition did not to not.

that was in 1969 or eight. when we were down there in birmingham we played golf. he kept talking, can you imagine, implying golf in birmingham, alabama. they would not have even let me carry your club's american. we come up to the 18th green and he said to me, did tommy ever say anything to you about the incident in boston about what happened? i said, yes to meet it. i said to live up and in the but because i did not want to pile on. you hit him over the head. he said, as kutcher. it was a coke bottle.

he then turned to me and said, it to you think-apologized them? was shocked. he was asking me if i thought that he should apologize. i said absolutely. i think you should. thing that would be an incredibly good thing to do he thought about it, schick said. it went out to lunch caught in lunch right after that and he went up and apologize to him. this is some 47 years later he apologized. tommy accepted his apology. i said, that was pretty stunning that that happened. so old enough to cover open up here to questions. a couple of things here.

[laughter] my ex-wife said to me when she saw this picture and at that point we have been together maybe 20 years, how come you don't look like that now? but i did. always this clean-cut guy. i was a schoolteacher here at john adams has called back when that was the cutting edge of education. one of my coach teachers was sitting of there. when i was teaching, just to show you how far could go,. [laughter]

my mom calls these the lost years. any questions? i will answer anything about that time. in fact, let me back that up there. yes, in the back. >> did you ever pitch at wrigley? >> no. that is a field that the a's played on. a historical field. it is an incredible part. i went to a couple of games there. they have one a year. when i play in the leak birmingham -- they had moved to mobile. so birmingham was not in the lead. >> was the strike record? >> i did not value or during tests that? i feel silly telling it, but it is 19 telling -- actually.

some elected out. this gentleman here came to me for an autograph. i said i only pitched one year. we look to the. i said temecula. i was not in the record book. >> the game down there. ucla. i was looking at the record book . it did not compare with santa barbara's. sir your record was in santa barbara's but. i told the meeting arafat. >> it's in there now. i looked it up every damn morning. [laughter] >> my question is about just your recollection of the

integration of baseball and its effect on that the release, have a dismantle the negro leagues. >> exactly. once jackie robinson made the major leagues and had been a star, the negro leagues hung in there for couple more years, but they stopped existing. i mean, they sometimes talk about if they put in these guys they used steroids and it to make them barry bonds or whomever, if they make the major leagues put an asterisk by them, how about everybody in the hall of fame who played before 1947 he played and did not ever played against black. how about an effort by their names. >> he was not the best player. they just thought that he could handle the challenge. >> exactly. >> and that is sort of what they did with tom reynolds. tommie reynolds should have been

. a sentence of aa because they thought he was best suited to handle the certainty of the attacks that would come against him. but robinson because he was college educated and had been in the army. there was a lot of reasons. >> say that again? >> anything more? >> i had not planned on it. if everyone would start doing the wave, maybe i would. let's ask some questions. if we have time in real well. >> so still running the tauber when the team reform? >> he was just on the way out. they ran him out. he they redesigned the city commission from a government that they had there.

he still had a lot of power, but he was not actually in office. he stopped being in office about two or three months before the team actually started. they did not know when they decided to have the team that he would be there, so there were in defiance of have to begin with. he tried to marshal the city in the leaders to stop the team. first question here. >> did he ever get prosecuted? >> to? >> carter for any of the stuff that people? >> no. no. he did not. there were some charges against him. they caught him prior to this. there was a rule that he heavily and forced called the hotel greuel. they know people that -- people were not married, they were not allowed to be in the same hotel room.

a disgruntled police lt. got wind that he was too far he had taken his secretary to our hotel . a classic picture of him in court, front row. is that in? sitting there with his big cat eating at chewing tobacco. >> oh, that's right. >> he knows everything. you average as many strikeouts in a game as nolan ryan. >> that's true. >> there is actually whenever i give a speech, a literary thought, i kind of often have the line that i only played one game, but i could strike any of you out. that is not true because we have two former big leaguers here in the crowd.

right over here. played a number of years. he actually grew up here. oregon state. where did you play? [inaudible] >> terrific. did you ever face me? [inaudible] >> okay. i would have struck you out if we did. [laughter] other questions down here. yes. >> what happened to the checkered long? >> they wanted out because of the team. really, to me, the impact of this team is that they showed birmingham and the entire south that it is possible that people can get along and it did not -- you know, the racism certainly

did not stop, but it set a precedent. they got rid of it. now the town is totally integrated. to me and be the role of this team was significant in not only birmingham, but perhaps the south in showing that there's a better way. >> when you were down there, did you look up and the guys that you played with? >> not really because this was about to five this was about these guys, and i was still in college when this was going on. i did not. i talked to some people that i've played with, but this is a book about 1964, and it is about these guys. so i did not talk to guys that i've played with. >> did any violence occur with the integrated team when it

first started up? >> no violence within the team. >> i mean, in the crowd or the town? >> that is the amazing point. no. threats of all kind, death threats that were called and repeatedly to the audubon, the was always the fear of that. 1964, july of 1964 is when the civil rights workers met and went missing in mississippi. there was a fear that somebody would get the idea the connecticut of the players. because in some ways these players were civil rights workers. in so most of the players, including the rights players, did not deal very much with the community at large. there really didn't. there were there to play ball. there were not big thinkers.

maybe one of them once. >> did you happen to see the jackie robinson from an 42? >> i like to the lot, and i would probably be the most cynical of all. >> i was curious about it because he said the manager brought these guys and because it was a financial decision, a business decision. that was the same theme from 42. analysts is curious about the. seventeen years had passed. was is still a financial thing really or was it just -- >> row, what he said it was -- he had been dead for 20 years, so i did not get to interview him. he did not need the money personally. he was more of the richest as in town. he made in the timber industry. i don't think personally it would be doing something that

was right. he loved baseball. a but being a baseball player at the university of alabama, and it was his love of baseball that overrode the other stocks. at least that as well as told. in the back. >> so that was the focus of what they're doing. what they did put up with a lot of abuse. so where did they -- it sounded like in the book that they did not feel like they were part of this integration. that was a big deal. how did they feel today about the abuse that they put up with? >> they feel worse about it now than they did back then. they had been more aware of it because when you're playing ball

you really are to singularly focused on it. you just want to make the big leagues. not all the other stuff. not to say that every player is that way, but they -- are don't think much of them like to five whites or blacks really gave -- the black said to think of every day because they could best day in the same hotel restaurant. the alleged time they saw the black players was at the ballparks are on the bus. there went their own way. allied planners never asked the black players, were you go. the black players, they put them up really ready places. to get part about that is the manager, they would tell them, never, ever came to check on us.

and as the expiry what study that is a really good benefit. bethel -- >> the stadium. unbeaten have when -- black folks did not go. very little maxine's like that. the first time -- they had one game in 1954 when the dodgers with jackie robinson came to town and played an exhibition game.

the milwaukee braves who had a guarantee of the team. this was the first major league exhibition really ever. to thousand people showed up. a stadium that held five times that much. and so the white, most of the people that came to the exhibition game or black. in the back. >> we have seen that the family had an enhanced stewardship of this experiment. but the players think of them? >> well, at the time they loved him because he was their ticket to the big leagues and he had sort of given more benefits to the birmingham team. but as you will read in the book, he is the one who really costs than in the end because of his egomaniacal waste.

he started calling guys out. the aaa team and so he wanted to a month to pick to the blue moon to pitch in the major leagues because he knew that he would be a big draw. he brought him up and they should not have. his first winning pitch was against the new york yankees. in the first inning mickey mantle hit a 3-run homer off of them try and that was so much for that. that was 1964. >> two years since the last book. did you start this book after the book or before? to starters -- >> i can barely hear the breakfast and write a book at the same time.

well was running at kennedy riders i could not ride seats. i can't multitasking. i did not physically start writing this book until after osama the other one. did you a lot of research before you started contacting key people? >> that's a good question. the first time i made a trip to birmingham i spent about four days in the birmingham library because i could not get access to the birmingham nils. their file system is such a mess that they did not have the papers filed away. and so i did the whole microfiches thing in set there. every time i printed something out you had to pay a quarter. i paleys to thousand dollars to press to tout their the -- us

that a lot of time in a birmingham downtown public library. i read parts of them. i have a friend it is not think that i read all of many books. >> any questions? >> what's the next book? >> by toes do you say it is a stupid idea and they would shoot me down. maybe we will do a movie of this one first. as a possibility. [inaudible] >> that's right. the community theater.

>> any thoughts on how there were so few african american teams and in the majors, the big stars today? >> any idea why? >> i think that the game is, you know, a slower paced game. back then it was really sort of the -- the rain option. there also has to deal with development on the field. you don't see any kids out there, whatever color, they are not playing ball. portland was a particularly bad baseball town. the beavers are gone. so i think the faster pace

games. my grandson's play soccer. date them for it. it was just -- soccer was not around. in the of the spores that are so much more popular now. gained so much more popularity. i just don't think it is an inner-city sports anymore. over here. >> talking about movies, was there any attempt to make a movie out of ghost brothers? >> yes. ordinary joes. have you seen any of them? of that there are really good.

an option a couple of times. just never came to be. optioned three times and might technically still be under option. a great script has been written by a friend of mine who wrote to end up. also one of the three people i should the fiction thing to but actually, you will is optioned it at one time. huey lewis, you know, i watched last night on television. they had induction into the rock-and-roll hall of fame. if you think all ball players look bad, oh, man. some of those guys. anyway.

any more questions? well, thank you for coming out. there is -- the books are back terrebonne. here is a special deal. he will have a little gathering out front. he will have a gathering down at a place called parish 231 northwest 11th, the corner of 11th and everett. if you show the bartender a copy of the book you can get a free drink. [laughter] and for you people who don't drink, that's too damn bad. [laughter] so again, thank you so much for coming out.

[applause] [applause] next time i will have notes, and it will be really good murietta. >> joining us on book tv to preview his upcoming new book phil branson. why in 1927? >> i stumbled into it really. i had always been fascinated by the fact that babe ruth hit 60 home runs, the summer of 1927. added in mind that that in itself made it an interesting summer. iconic events happening in the exact parallel. maybe it would be interesting to try and do a dual biography of

these two guys with the narrative parts meeting. that was my starting point. then when i began looking into it, i found that those were only just a tiny parts. all kinds of other stuff happening. the great mississippi flood, the biggest natural disaster in american history. you had al capone beginning -- the beginning of the end about capone, the downfall and the impending end of prohibition. you had calvin coolidge the standing the world by announcing he did not want to run for reelection for president. could have won in a landslide in decided not want to do it. lots of reasons, but it was mystifying. henry ford, the mad idea to build an american city in the

amazonia. one thing after another. lots and lots and lots of things one after the other. the whole nature. looking at all of the things that were happening. the first talking picture film was filmed the death same summer a tremendous amount of activity, a great deal of which changed the world. so it was a consequential summer, but also really interesting and lively. >> any reason all these events happened in the summer? >> that is what is kind of interesting about it. sometimes these things just happen. all of the things happen. by and large there was not any particular reason. it they were not there because

it had to happen. most they just happened then. there were connections. the lindbergh was able to fly was because of the same storm system that caused the flooding in the midwest, the mississippi flood him at the same weather that had all of the other aviators pans down in new york led charles lindbergh flight from san diego to new york and get away from all the others . he would have cut off first and in the first to cross the ocean which would have certainly changed popular history and a great deal. >> so there was a contest. >> there was a contest. i had always just assumed that he got it into is said that he would try the ocean and got a plan and did. it was not anything like that.

there was a price. he just loved aviation. he had become very excited by aviation during the first world war with all the dogfights and everything and he put up a very generous price of $25,000 which was a lot of money in those days for the first people who could fly. lots of teams of getting ready to fly and take off that summer. and every single one of them was better prepared and funded and charles lindbergh. and with just being a kid at of the midwest, he flies into new york with the plane with one engine, no navigator, no co-pilot, just him and a simple, small plane, essentially just a

flying gas tank in everyone thought that it was suicide and he would crash in the water. of course, he was the one who beat everybody. because his plan was so much simpler and there was so much less necessary to get it ready to take off. >> you open the but by talking about a fire in new york city and that people would gather for events >> it's amazing. this happens again and again. i don't know what it was or that anyone could possibly say what it was, but there was this affinity of people together in huge crowds for almost anything. this hotel in new york on fifth avenue which was under construction, nearly finished, whole lot of wooden scaffolding around the top of it. they were just finishing off. somehow it car fire and all of the wooden scaffolding went up. it was a little bit like a

matchbox. in a couple of hours a crowd estimated at 100,000 people had come to see. imagine what it would take to get a hundred dozen people in new york together in one place now? would have to be something quite dramatic. then a fire did it. during the same summer you had shipwreck kelly hit went up on the hotel flagpole in newark, new jersey. tens of thousands of people came to watch that. people would turn out for anything. very popular entertainments. people would say, something going on. great crowds would turn out for it. >> well, on a macro level when it comes to american politics, was there something happening on

a macro level as well? >> the economy -- very interesting. because the economy was booming. american -- it was overheating, if anything. this was really a matter of some concern. worried that it was overheated. it was overheating. the federal reserve, central bankers, the federal reserve bank of new york and central bankers assumed that in germany, a secret meeting in long island not far from where lindbergh had to -- leonard had taken off and they decided, good intentions but mistakenly decided to cut the interest rates everywhere which was what lit the fire that really led to the stock-market crash of falling year and the great depression after that.

the upcoming book, october 2013. one summer, american 1927. you're watching a book tv un c-span2 ..

>> that all happened tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> next on booktv, pulitzer prize-winning history joseph ellis recounts the beginnings of the revolutionary war. he examines the inner workings of the continental congress and continental army and britain's political and military reaction to the start of the war. this is about one hour. >> thank you for that gracious introduction. and thank you all for making out on a not so pleasant evening. weatherwise at least. i was supposed to be her a couple years ago and i think i had a hip operation and it knocked me out, and i always

regretted