"After Jackie Robinson broke the color line, executives and owners from the Negro Leagues met with their counterparts from the major leagues and proposed a number of options for mergers and cooperation. At first it was suggested that the better clubs with large fan bases from the Negro Leagues, such as the Kansas City Monarchs, be allowed in as expansion franchises.19 Several of these teams operated in cities that lacked a major-league team, already had large followings, and were perfectly positioned to help the major leagues take advantage of postwar prosperity and newly expendable income. The proposal was unanimously voted down. When this was rejected the possibility of the Negro Leagues becoming a Triple-A minor-league circuit was raised, but this idea also was summarily dismissed."
"As the postwar period continued with a housing boom in suburban areas, African-Americans once again found themselves cut out. Restrictive housing and lending policies like redlining and property covenants keep black residents restricted, at least in practice if no longer by law, to segregated neighborhoods in urban centers. As manufacturing began to follow workers out of the cities, these municipalities now had to provide for public infrastructure with a dwindling tax base, resulting in deep cuts to public amenities. During the 1960s and ’70s most of the old, downtown ballparks were demolished in the name of urban renewal with new, cavernous multi-use stadiums built usually away from the city center in acres of parking lots removed from public transit. The numbers of black players making their way to the major leagues has diminished with the lack of access to the game, despite efforts to increase play in the sport among youth."
John E. "Pete" Gaskill
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Inducted into Maine Baseball Hall of Fame, 1976
