one book, one school

Biddy Owens is by Walter Dean Myers, who grew up loving baseball. In Harlem, Walter played sandlot baseball. He was a great outfielder, but when it came to hitting, he just couldn't do it. He has written many books for the My Name Is America series. Walter Dean Myers has also won many awards for his books.

Picture (right): Walter Dean Myers

Since this is my web page, I will give my honest opinion that the setting is on the Black Barons Bus. It seems to me like there whole lives is on the bus. I feel bad for them, having to travel for hours at a time for a baseball game, then rush back on the bus to go to another game 4 hours away.

If you look on the front of the book, it says the setting is Birmingham, and if you go by that, that is the setting. Birmingham is a small town in Georgia where Biddy Owens makes his dream and lives.

This story is in 1948, when baseball and just about everything else was segregated.

Biddy Owens is a fictional character. He plays on the team the Birmingham Black Barons. Biddy is the equipment manager on the team. Sometimes he gets to play, which he loves. He has dreams of being a great baseball player someday, and loves the game. Even so, he is not to good at baseball. Biddy Owens knows he is not to good at it, but still loves playing the game. He is 17 years old.

The plot of this story is to tell about the life of a regular black ballplayer in the late 1940's when Jackie Robinson had already made it to the majors. It shows that in the negro leagues there were more challenges than in the major leagues. Restraints wouldn't serve them, gas stations would close down bathrooms, and hotels wouldn't rent them rooms. It is a great story that explains segregation and integration through the eyes of a fictional character that loves the nation's past time, even though he is not good at baseball.

This is simply showing that much of the teams time was spent traveling hours on a bus.

This represents the last world series ever played in the negro leagues, which the black barons lost.

Back when everything was segregated, the Negro League was the league in baseball for African Americans, or anyone who wasn't white for that matter. In one way it helped because many African-Americans needed jobs, and that wa what they found. The Negro Leagues had some great players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell. Even so, they weren't alound to play in the major leagues until the late 1940's. Many times negro league games had the same or greater attendance than the major league. These teams also had it harder. They could have up to 4 games a day, traveling for hours at a time and just making it to the field to have time to throw on gear and get out there. They also didn't get paid nearly as well; only about $300 a month. Still, they all needed the extra money.