James A. Riley
Baseball Author and Historian
Author James A. Riley is a foremost authority on the history of baseball's Negro Baseball Leagues. His landmark reference volume, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (1994), is recognized as the most comprehensive work chronicling this era of baseball history. He has also written The All-Time All-Stars of Black Baseball (1983), Dandy, Day, and the Devil (1987), Buck Leonard: The Black Lou Gehrig (1995), Nice Guys Finish First: The Autobiography of Monte Irvin (1996), and Negro Baseball Leagues: African-American Achievers (1997). His forthcoming books include The History of the Negro Baseball Leagues, The Chronological Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues and The Statistical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues.
He has contributed to many compilations, including Insider's Baseball (1983), Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball (1987), The Ballplayers (1990), Baseball Chronology Supplement (1991) and Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: 1989-1992 Supplement (1992), Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: 1992-1995 Supplement for Baseball, Football, Basketball and other sports (1995), African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary (1995). He has also contributed to The Baseball Research Journal (1981, 1982, 1985, 1991), Oldtyme Baseball News (1989-95), Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Yearbook (1993-94), Athlon Baseball (1994 and 1995), and All-Star Game: Official Major League Baseball Program (1993-94); has served as an editor of the Negro Leagues Section of the Baseball Encyclopedia (1990); was a regular writer for The Diamond (1993-94); is listed in International Authors and Writers Who's Who (Fourteenth Edition, 1995-96); and is the editor and publisher of the Black Baseball Journal. A two-time recipient (1990 and 1993) of the SABR-MacMillan Research Award for his scholarship on the Negro Leagues, he has appeared in television documentaries A League Second to None (ESPN) and Safe at Home Plate (PBS) and guested on radio sports talk shows across the country. He is also the Director of Research at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
James A. Riley is a transplanted Tennessean and made the Sunshine State his home for over 30 years after graduating from East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee in 1961. He and his wife, Dottie, now reside in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
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