Editorial Content for In a League of Her Own

Effa Manley has the unique honor of being the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She is known for her role as a baseball executive who co-owned the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League alongside her husband, Abe Manley.

And, to be sure, that is a main portion of Kaia Alderson’s new historical novel. But as she writes in her author’s notes, “Mrs. Manley led just as interesting a life outside the Eagles’ front office as she did within it.”

Not to be confused with A League of Their Own, the classic movie about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN does indeed prove that Effa Manley was one of a kind.

"[F]rustration is a theme that runs throughout the story, whether it’s dealing with Effa’s desire to establish herself as a businesswoman, getting men to listen to her and take her seriously...or trying to work around a disappointing love life."

Effa meets Abe --- a well-to-do businessman whose business is never made quite clear --- at a New York Yankees game in the 1930s. But she wasn’t content to just be taken care of. Her ambitions included opening her own business. That took a backburner to other, ultimately more important causes as she worked tirelessly on behalf of African-American workers seeking to find positions in white-owned businesses in Harlem.

Taking place in that era, Effa had the double “handicap” of being a woman and being Black. However, much had been made of her light skin, which often led to her being mistaken for white, a situation that was no small sense of consternation for her.

When the opportunity came along, Abe --- a devout baseball fan --- bought the Brooklyn Eagles (who later relocated to Newark), with Effa as his right hand. She took care of many front office duties, and even though she was considered an equal partner with her husband, the owners of the other teams in the NNL belittled her because of her gender.

IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN takes a while getting to the baseball aspects for which Effa Manley is more widely recognized. Mixed into the social and sporting elements is the frustration of a home life that was devoid of the intimacy she desired, although Abe’s distance in that regard is never fully explained.

In fact, frustration is a theme that runs throughout the story --- whether it’s dealing with Effa’s desire to establish herself as a businesswoman, getting men to listen to her and take her seriously (there’s no shortage of condescending remarks from some of them, who seem almost cartoonish in their depiction), or trying to work around a disappointing love life.

The issue I have with historical fiction is that the author can fall back on the genre when it comes to explaining the characters and events. Will any readers take the time to delve into research to see how much is the former (historical) and how much is the latter (fiction)? And would that detract from the pleasure of just reading IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN for its own sake?