MIKE PETERS
Kerry Warren stars as Effa Manley in “Effa Loves Baseball.”
In baseball lore, you don’t hear very often about the owners. And when you do, it’s usually in a negative way: They’re the greedy, soulless ones, butting in and getting in the way of the players and the managers. But the central figure of Pia Wilson’s “Effa Loves Baseball” — which Premiere Stages is currently presenting, in its world premiere, at Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University — is Effa Manley, who co-owned and served as the business manager of the Negro leagues’ Newark Eagles in the 1930s and 1940s.
There are several things that make Manley (1897-1981) a rare example of a baseball owner whose story deserves to be told.
She became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, and remains, to this day, the only woman to have received that honor.
Also, she was a visionary in a way that few baseball owners are, aligning herself with the Civil Rights Movement and fighting for better working conditions for her players.
And crucially, there is an inherent drama to her story, as her time with the Eagles coincided with great change in the world of professional baseball, with Jackie Robinson entering the Brooklyn Dodgers’ system and Eagles star Larry Doby following him, becoming the second African-American player in the Major Leagues (and the first in the American League).
MIKE PETERS
Grant Kennedy Lewis plays Larry Doby in “Effa Loves Baseball.”
Wilson portrays Philadelphia native Manley (played here by Kerry Warren) as a hard-driving owner, fiercely devoted to her players, whom she calls “my boys.” And, as the play’s title implies, she really does love baseball, deeply.
But she is not a saint. She often interacts with Eagles catcher-manager Biz Mackey (DeShawn Harold Mitchell) with sarcasm and condescension, and has an off-puttingly high opinion of herself.
When Mackey tells her that she acts like she is the greatest thing to ever happen to baseball, she roars back, “I AM the greatest thing to ever happen in baseball!”
I wouldn’t say there is a lot of psychological depth to this depiction of Manley. Similarly, Effa’s relationship with her easy-going husband Abe (Greg Alverez Reid), whose success as a businessman enabled him to buy the Eagles, is pretty simple and straightforward. They adore each other — always. Effa is in the driver’s seat, at least as far as the Eagles are concerned; he may question her at times, but he basically shrugs and lets her do what she wants.
The play starts with the Eagles’ signing of the South Carolina-born, New Jersey-raised teenager Doby (portrayed as an earnest, hard-working, no-nonsense kind of guy by Grant Kennedy Lewis), in the early ’40s. And we get a glimpse of Doby during his 1943-44 stint in the Navy, where we see him befriending fellow serviceman Marion Motley (Justin Walter Cook), who would go on to help integrate professional football. Doby returns to baseball, though, and everything builds to the Eagles’ Negro World Series victory in 1946, with Doby and Monte Irvin as their leading players.
At this point, Effa is looking forward to another great season. But Doby tells her he wants to sign with the Major Leagues’ Cleveland Indians. It is a bittersweet development. The likeable Doby gets to fulfill his dream. Society becomes more integrated. But Effa worries that racist players and fans will treat Doby badly and also knows, on some level, that the integration of Major League Baseball spells doom for the Negro leagues.
MIKE PETERS
Kerry Warren and Greg Alverez Reid co-star in “Effa Loves Baseball.”
“They’re not better than us!” she snaps at Doby. But soon, she tells him she doesn’t want to hold him back. And in an amusing scene, she holds her own in a negotiation with the Indians’ smooth-talking owner Bill Veeck (David Andrew Morton), getting $15,000 out of him for Doby when he only wanted to give $10,000.
“It’s more than (Dodgers owner) Branch (Rickey) paid for Jackie,” Veeck tells her, before agreeing to an additional demand, that Doby receive at least $5,000 a season for playing with the Indians. (The Eagles paid $4,000.)
The play ends in 1949, with Doby happily settled in Cleveland, and the Manleys moving the Eagles to Houston.
We know now that the Houston Eagles did not not last there for long, and that soon, there were no Negro leagues, at all. But at this moment, the Manleys are still swept up in the excitement of it all.
“The Houston Eagles are going to be the new sensation!” says Abe.
“You better believe it!” says Effa, adding that this will be a “better” Negro league.
“I haven’t given up. Not till my dying day.”
Premiere Stages will present “Effa Loves Baseball” at Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University in Hillside, though Oct. 25. Visit premierestagesatkean.com.
The play was commissioned by Premiere Stages’ Liberty Live program, which supports plays devoted to aspects of New Jersey history.
_________________________________________
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
