Editing Negro league baseball (section)

===World War II===
With the Japanese [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, the United States was thrust into World War II. Remembering World War I, black America vowed it would not be shut out of the beneficial effects of a major war effort: economic boom and social unification.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Just like the major leagues, the Negro leagues saw many stars miss one or more seasons while fighting overseas. While many players were over 30 and considered "too old" for service, [[Monte Irvin]], [[Larry Doby]] and [[Leon Day]] of [[Newark Eagles|Newark]]; [[Ford Smith]], [[Hank Thompson (baseball)|Hank Thompson]], [[Joe Greene (baseball)|Joe Greene]], [[Willard Brown]] and [[Buck O'Neil]] of [[Kansas City Monarchs|Kansas City]]; [[Lyman Bostock, Sr.|Lyman Bostock]] of [[Birmingham Black Barons|Birmingham]]; and [[Lick Carlisle]] and [[Howard Easterling]] of [[Homestead Grays|Homestead]] all served.{{sfn|Holway|2001|p=404}} But the white majors were barely recognizable, while the Negro leagues reached their highest plateau. Millions of black Americans were working in war industries and, making good money, they packed league games in every city. Business was so good that promoter [[Abe Saperstein]] (famous for the [[Harlem Globetrotters]]) started a new circuit, the [[Negro Midwest League]], a minor league similar to the Negro Southern League. The [[Negro World Series]] was revived in 1942, this time pitting the winners of the eastern [[Negro National League (the second)|Negro National League]] and midwestern [[Negro American League]]. It continued through 1948 with the NNL winning four championships and the NAL three.

In 1946, Saperstein partnered with [[Jesse Owens]] to form another Negro league, the [[West Coast Baseball Association]] (WCBA); Saperstein was league president and Owens was vice-president and the owner of the league's [[Portland Rosebuds (baseball)|Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds]] franchise.<ref name="oba2005">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/west-coast-baseball-association-tf/|title=West Coast Baseball Association|encyclopedia=Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations|date=February 10, 2005|publisher=[[BookRags]]|access-date=July 31, 2010}}</ref> The WCBA disbanded after only two months.<ref name="oba2005"/>