Sports' Forgotten Heroes

The name Oscar Charleston is not familiar to many. An absolute star in baseball’s Negro Leagues, Charleston’s best years came before there was much structure in the Negro Leagues. His prodigious power, spectacular defense and winning ways came before the more popular names of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Buck O’Neill took the field. Oscar played for the likes of the Indianapolis ABC’s, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords and even though he never played in Major League Baseball, he still drew comparisons to such legends as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. So, who was Oscar Charleston? Jeremy Beer recently released an incredible biography on Oscar titled, “Oscar Charleston, The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Hero.” This bio, which won the Seymour Medal, which is awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research – SABR – for the best baseball history or biography published in the preceding year, covers so much of Oscar’s life, from his childhood, through his stints in the militar