Kyle McNary was born on November 17, 1967 in Mitchell, South Dakota. After a few years in Mitchell, a few more in Bismarck, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota, McNary's family moved to Minneapolis where Kyle grew up and is now raising his own family.
McNary was a good baseball player in high school and college, and also a journalism student, so it was natural that he would end up writing articles and books about baseball. Why has McNary become an expert on Negro League baseball? That's a little complicated. In 1991, during his last year in college, McNary read an article abou the Negro Leagues and got hooked on the subject. After reading all the books that were available on the subject--there were three--McNary started writing to every library and historical society in the country for information/photos/boxscores, etc.
In 1992, McNary started intereviewing ex-Negro League players--totaling more than 50 now--and in 1994 he wrote the biography of Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, a Negro League All-Star pitcher AND catcher! Since then, McNary has written a book about the history of black baseball players from the Civil War through the present day, has written chapters for several Negro League books, helped produce a documentary about Double Duty for PBS, and runs his website, www.pitchblackbaseball.com.
McNary lives in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, with his wife Erica, son Ryne, daughter Claire, and dog Lula.
McNary is an insurance agent, and has coached baseball, basketball and soccer for more than 20 years.
Read more...