[Chris Counts]

Hi, I just picked up from eBay a program for a 1941 exhibition game that featured the "Big League White All-Stars" vs. "Satchel Paige, America's One Man Ball Team, the the Great Kansas City Monarchs." The was played Oct. 5 at Sports man's Park in St. Louis.

Keeping in mind the saying, "If it's too good to be true, it probably is," I'm trying to verify this is real and not a copy.

What gives me hope that this is real is the fact that is scored meticulously in pencil, and I'm not sure why anyone would go to so much trouble to score a reprinted program just to sell it as a relative cheap ($60) BIN on eBay. On close inspection, the pencil is definitely real.

The seller has great feedback, and also lists a variety of MLB scorecards from the same era at $60 each, which is a bit on the high side.

Curiously, three recent books on baseball history mention this game, and all three say Stan Musial won the game with a home run. But he's not listed in the scorecard. I also found a post online by a baseball historian who dredged up a Sporting News box score for this game, and that account matches what's scored in my program.

Prominent players in the game included Feller, Paige, Home Run Brown, Hilton Smith, Ted Strong, Buck O'Neal, Johnny Hopp and Walker Cooper. An 18-year-old Connie Johnson is on the roster. The first game featured a couple of local teams, whose rosters include players named Easter and Jethroe. I suspect Easter is Luke, sinced he played first base, but Jethroe is listed as a catcher, so I'm not convinced it's Sam.

It's also interesting that a warmup game has its own scorecard, and instead of scoring the first game, the person who bought the program scored a World Series game that happened the same day. The World Series game started about an hour earlier (New York time), and only the first five innings are scored.

Aside from questions about its authenticity, the content of the program is fantastic. There's one article about why baseball should be integrated, and there's another about how liquor is the primary reason baseball audiences are segregated (in 1941). Unlike some similar programs I've seen, the writers, the publisher and the businesses advertised are all African-American.

All feedback is appreciated ...