No less an authority than Bill James ranked Oscar Charleston as the fourth-best player of all time behind Ruth, Wagner and Mays. One of the many great things about baseball is debating opinions such as this, but Charleston should be part of any conversation about the legends of the game. He played for many teams in his career and also played many exhibition games against white major league teams, where he carried a .326 batting average. In painting this picture I wanted to capture the feel of the fields and stadiums these greats played on. They may have lacked the spit and polish of Major League parks, but 60 feet 6 inches is the same no matter where the game is played.
Oscar Charleston
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