I recently read the book this post is named after written by Jules Tygiel and it was awesome. I have written a critical analysis of this book hope you enjoy and are inspired to read it yourselves.
Baseballs Great Experiment is a book that shows how much a couple of people under the right circumstances can literally change history. Tygiel shows this by telling the story of how baseball started out segregated and allows the reader to relive the steps that Jackie Robinson, with the guidance and help of Branch Rickey, took to desegregate baseball and make it the game we know today.
The author’s thesis in this book is that Jackie Robinson was a great example of how to produce change in a society that has an unfair prejudice by maintaining his composure and class and not giving up in the face of racism and even bodily harm. The author also comments about Robinson’s actions and inactions being a great example to other African-American baseball players who wanted to make it into the major leagues and African-Americans as a whole to change the unfair Jim Crow system.
One of the strengths in this book was the attention to detail. Tygiel must have spent hours and hours researching to gather all of the data that was compiled in his book. The author not only tells the story of Jackie Robinson but also brings to light all that was going on in African-American baseball in that time period. Tygiel even traces the history of the Negro Leagues and discusses how desegregation in the Major League affected them.
One of the weaknesses in this book was the amount of time spent on baseball statistics. For lovers of the sport of baseball this would probably be considered a strength of the book as those statistics would make sense and be relevant to them. However, if the reader does not have a very deep understanding of baseball and baseball statistics it can be quite boring to read through the lists of numbers when the reader doesn’t understand what meaning or relevance they have.
Another strength of this book was how Tygiel shows that during the 1940’s and 1950’s the desegregation of baseball was taking place in the minor leagues. Before reading Tygiel’s book many readers may have thought that Jackie Robinson just kind of magically appeared in the Major Leagues one year playing for the Dodgers. However, in reality, as the author brings to light in his book, it was a pre-planned and slow process of introducing Jackie Robinson into the minor league baseball seen and gradually moving him through to the majors while trying not to make waves in the baseball establishment. It is important to note that part of the reason this is a strength to the book is because the author is not only telling Jackie Robinson’s story but is also telling the story of Rickey Branch who was the architect behind the scenes bringing about desegregation in the Major Leagues.
One of the weaknesses of this book is that there was not enough credit given to Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s wife. She is mentioned a few times throughout the book but one must give credit where credit is due. As Jackie Robinson’s wife Rachel literally experienced all of the same problems that Jackie did. The author could have spent a little bit more time explaining the difficulties that Rachel went through being moved all over the country and trying to get into games to watch her husband play.
In conclusion, reading Baseball’s Great Experiment was an extremely eye-opening experience for me. I am not a sports fanatic I knew of Jackie Robinson and that he was one of the first African-American ball players but had no idea the planning, hard work and pain that went into getting him into Major League Baseball. I enjoyed reading Tygiel’s book and have now passed it on to my father who has loved baseball since his youth. I look forward to discussing it with him when he has finished reading it.
