From the early formation of barnstorming teams that toured the state to the moment Dave Winfield hit number three thousand, Minnesota's African American ballplayers have made the state a land of baseball. However, the stories of many black players parallel the larger struggle for civil rights. Those tales, collected here for the first time, show how teamwork on and off the field led first to acceptance, then to admiration and triumph. 

Swinging for the Fences is the first collection to highlight the thrilling and controversial landmarks in the history of black baseball in the North Star state. Award-winning author Steven R. Hoffbeck assembled a stellar team of writers - and baseball fanatics - to tell the great stories of black baseball's past, from establishment of the color lines to dazzling hits by black heroes that led the Twins to victory over the Cardinals in '87. Each chapter