Thou Shalt Not Steal

Co-winner of the 2012 Robert Peterson Award from the Society for American Baseball Research's Negro Leagues Committee, Thou Shalt Not Steal: The Baseball Life and Times of a Rifle-Armed Negro League Catcher is the lively autobiography of Bill "Ready" Cash, a powerhouse catcher for the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro Leagues from 1943 to 1950. Cash had a nasty arm, a potent bat, and a knowledge of the game that would embarrass some of today's major leaguers. Co-authored with award-winning journalist Al Hunter Jr. Thou Shalt Not Stealpercolates with the thrills, challenges, heartbreaks, successes, and racism Cash endured in his baseball career -- including stints in Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, and Venezuela - and as a black man living in America. And he recalls in painful detail the controversial play at home plate in 1946 involving him, the Newark Eagles' Larry Doby, and a white umpire that nearly started a riot in Ruppert Stadium and probably kept Cash from making it to the majors. "Shoot, as bad as (the umpire's) call was," Cash writes, "I should've stomped him." Funny, charming, poignant, and significantly honest, Thou Shalt Not Steal is as much a history of the game as it is a record of the plight of African Americans in the 20th century.