ALLENTOWN, Pa., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Robert Peterson, a newspaper editor who helped bring attention to the Negro Leagues with his book "Only The Ball Was White," has died at the age of 80.
Peterson suffered a fatal heart attack at a hospital in Allentown, Pa., his wife told the Los Angeles Times. He suffered from lung cancer and emphysema.
Peterson's book was published in 1970, 23 years after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League baseball. He began working on it after the New York World-Telegram, where he was assistant news editor, folded in 1966.
Jim Gates, library director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. called the book "the key that unlocked the door to a missing piece in baseball history." Gates said he believes it is one of the 10 best books about baseball.
Peterson, who grew up watching Josh Gibson, the great slugger of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Cavaliers, interviewed many of the surviving Negro League players for the book. He met his first by hanging out in the liquor store owned by Roy Campanella, the great Brooklyn Dodgers catcher.
