For most of us, what we know of the Negro Leagues are the legends -- Josh Gibson clubbing a monstrous home run, Satchel Paige hurling a masterpiece, Cool Papa Bell streaking home from first on a single. Of the leagues as industry and institution, we know far less.

	"Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution" By Neil Lanctot University of Pennsylvania Press ($34.95)

Neil Lanctot addresses this information gap with a meticulously researched history that explores the economics, strengths, shortcomings and legacy of the Negro Leagues.

History professor at the University of Delaware, Lanctot provides a valuable volume that belongs in your collection -- whether on your baseball shelf or in your business or social history section.

While the Negro Leagues trace their roots to the 19th century, their modern history began in 1933 with the founding of the Negro National League (NNL); the Negro American League (NAL) followed in 1936.

As if trying to launch a separate "race" industry in the throes of the Depression weren't challenge enough, the leagues faced a variety of additional problems. They were chronically underfunded, and the source of what little capital they could muster often was dubious.

As Lanctot notes, about half the franchises in the NNL at one point were supported by the profits of numbers rackets and other illegal enterprises. The league also was forced to invite investments from white-owned businesses as well as rent ballparks from white owners, thus limiting concession revenues.

Standings and statistics that the leagues irregularly released were notoriously unreliable, as they staged their games without official scorers.

The looming integration of Major League Baseball in the mid-1940s presented the leagues with their most portentous dilemma. In 1948, the failing NNL merged with the NAL, which operated in obscurity until 1963.

Lanctot, who offers such rarely seen material as revenue and expense charts for certain franchises, organizes his voluminous data chronologically, a mixed blessing. The Negro Leagues were rich with courageous, colorful, controversial leaders including Gus Greenlee, the numbers baron who owned the Pittsburgh Crawfords and built his own stadium in the Hill District, and Cum Posey, a driving force of the NNL as co-owner of the Homestead Grays.

Yet because of the chronological structure, we get fragments about these leaders rather than fuller biographies.

However, Lanctot argues persuasively that the Negro Leagues, always an artistic success, were an important commercial and community force as well, providing unique opportunities for black entrepreneurs and spin-off revenue for black hotels, restaurants and other businesses.