Early Negro Teams & Players

[JACKIE42]

Since Jackie no longer is a member, and his photos have been deleted, I am taking this thread over. I will post a lot of Negro League photos.

[baclightning]

A few notes on a couple of the other players pictured, from James A. Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of Negro Baseball Leagues (a fantastic book, BTW):

"[Walter Ball] was one of the best pitchers of the early decades of black baseball. At the end of the first decade of the century, he, Rube Foster, Dan McLellan,and Harry Buckner were considered head-and-shoulders above other moundsmen. He was a smart pitcher with good control, and made frequent use of the spitball, but was not a power pitcher. Off the field, the premier hurler was noted for his sartorial splendour, wearing tailored suits and earning a reputation as the 'swellest' dresser.

"Ball pitched for eighteen years (1906-1923), primarily on Chicago-based teams, including the Leland Giants, Chicago Giants, Chicago Union Giants, and the Chicago American Giants. He also played with the Milwaukee Giants, and was one of the first black pitchers to play in the Cuban winter league, spending three winters on the island."

"A fleet-footed, slightly bowlegged, sharp-hitting center fielder during the deadball era, Spot Poles usually batted in the leadoff position to utilize his incredible speed, which was comparable to Cool Papa Bell. Once in spring traing he was clocked under 10 seconds for the 100-yard dash. A left-handed batter, he watched the ball all the way to his bat, and consistently hit for a high average. He was also a good bunter, but despite a stocky build and arms described as massive for his size, he had only moderate power. in the field he had excellent range, good hands, and an accurate arm. An intense competitor, he was confident but not cocky in his baseball ability."

Poles played from 1909 to 1923, and remained in the game as a coach after his retirement. During World War One, he served in the US Army as a Sergeant in the 369th Infantry Division, earning five battle stars and a Purple Heart for his service in France. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

John McGraw said that Poles was one of the four black players he would pick for the major leagues if the color line was erased; Paul Robeson ranked him with Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, and Jack Johnson as one of the greatest black atheletes he had seen.

[prof93]

http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/Images/pings/NL75.png




1920 Negro Leagues formed with 19 teams:

Negro National League 1920-31
Southern Negro League 1920
Eastern Colored League 1923-28
Negro Southern League 1926, 32, 45
American Negro League 1929
East-West League 1932
Negro National League 1933-48
Negro American League 1937-60

[Bill Burgess]

Introducing Wilbur "Bullet Joe" Rogan.

First, a few personal details. A Negro L. star player, he was formost a great pitcher, but also played OF, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, manager, umpire. His playing career extended from 1917-38, and his umpiring days from 1939-46.
His teams were:
Kansas City Colored Giants, 1917
All Nations, 1917
Kansas City Monarchs, 1920-38
League: Negro American League; BR, TR; 5'7, 180;
Born: July 28, 1889, Oklahoma City, OK
Died: March 4, 1967, Kansas City, MO

An outstanding pitcher with a tremendous fastball, a fine curve, and good control. "Bullet Joe" Rogan was a star for the Kansas City Monarchs for almost twenty years. The right-hander was a smart pitcher who used a no-windup delivery, a sidearm motion, and always kept the ball down. In addition to his basic pitches, he included a forkball, palmball, and spitter in his repertory.. A durable workhorse averaging 30 starting assignments per year for a decade and rarely being relieved, this versatile player's value to the team was inestimable. He also was a superb fielder and a dangerous hitter with good power.

He had strong wrists and used a heavy bat, and when not pitching, he played elsewhere to keep his bat in the lineup.

He showcased his stamina and versatility when he gained two victories in the 1924 World Series against the great Hilldale club, pitching three complete games and relieving in another, and batting .325 while playing in the outfield the other six games. That winter, in his only trip to Cuba, the hard worker continued his winning pace, recording a 9-4 worksheet.

The following year without Rogan on the mound in the World Series, the Monarchs lost to the same Hilldale club. In 1926, Bullet hit .331 and compiled a 12-4 record on the mound, which was tops for the first-half champion Monarchs, who lost a heartbreaking five-out-of-nine play-off to the second-half champion, Chicago American Giants. In a valiant effort to stave off defeat, Bullet Joe started both ends of a double-header on the last day of the play-off, but to no avail.

During his twilight years, Rogan served as manager of the Monarchs prior to his retirement in 1938.

He was known as a good curveball hitter with a smooth swing, often hit cleanup, and led the league with 16 homers in 1922. From 1922-30, he hit .351, .416, .412, .366, .314, .330, .353, .341, .311, while, for the 1st 7 yrs. of those years, he registered these pitching records:

13-6, 12-8, 16-5, 15-2, 12-4, 15-6, 9-03.

In exhibitins against MLers, Rogan is credited with a .329 BA, making his last appearance at age 48, when he collected 3 hits against Bob Feller's All-Stars. Jocko Conlon, who often played against black teams before beginning his career as an umpire, regarded Rogan as one of the greats of the Negro L., describing his motion as "a nice, easy delivery" and declaring him to be faster than Satchel Paige.

On June 29, 1949, both Oscar Charleston and Ed Bolden, chose their all time Negro L. teams for the Sporting News. Both chose Bullet Joe as their 1st starting pitcher and Paige as their 2nd starting pitcher. Charleston's other pitchers were:Leblanc Western, Pat Doherty & William Dismukes. Ed Bolden's other pitchers were: Smokey Joe Williams Cannonball Dick Redding & Rube Foster.

In 1952, the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, polled 31 Negro league players, writers, officials and managers and they selected a A & B teams:

----A team pitchers-------B team pitchers

P - Smokey Joe Williams----P - Dave Brown
P - Satchel Paige-----------P - Cannonball Dick Redding
P - Bullet Joe Rogan--------P - Nip Winters
P - John Donaldson--------- P - Dizzy Dismukes
P - Willie Foster------------P - Don Newcombe

Later in 1952, the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, polled its fans as to the greatest Negro leagues players. They chose 5 teams. The first team was as follows.

First team: (1B) Buck Leonard, (2B) Jackie Robinson, (SS) Pop Lloyd, (3B) Oliver Marcelle, (OF) Monte Irvin, (OF) Oscar Charleston, (OF) Cristobel Torriente, (C) Josh Gibson, (C) Biz Mackey, (P) Joe Williams, (P) Satchel Paige, (P) Bullet Rogan, (P) John Dondaldson, (P) Bill Foster, (Utility) Martin Dihigo, (Utility) Sam Bankhead, (Mgr) Rube Foster, (Coach) Dizzy Dismukes, (Coach) Danny McClellan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gibson/Mackay.

Joshua (Josh) Gibson:
1929-46; Positions: C, OF, 3B, 1B; Teams: Homestead GHrays ('29-31, '37-'40, '42-'46), Pittsburgh Crawfords ('32-'36), Santo Domingo ('37), Mexican L. ('40-'41); BR/TR; 6'1, 210; Born: Dec. 21, 1911, Buena Vista, GA; Died: Jan. 20, 1947, Pittsburgh, PA

In black baseball, only Satchel Paige was better known than Joshua Gibson. Hit for both distance/ave. Was aptly titled "the black Babe Ruth", and his charisma electrified the crowd. Like Jimmie Foxx, he rolled up his sleeves to bare his huge arm muscles. Used a semicrouched, flat-footed stance and without striding, he generated a compact swing that lauched so many tape measure shots, that, like Ruth, they came to become expected.

Black kids idolized him, and he is credited with blasting one out of Yankee Stadium, but, like Ruth's "called shot", it is more folklore than fact.

Gibson was credited with 962 HRs in his 17 yr. career, although manyh of these wre against nonleague teams. Many of the individual season marks that are accredited to him also are against all levels of opposition.

In Mexico, he hit 44 HRs in 450 ABs with an .802 SLG. and, in one winter season in Puerto rico, hit 13 HRs in 123 ABs, smashing a HR every 9.5 ABs.

He compiled a .354 BA in the NL, .373 BA for 2 yrs, in Mexico, .353 BA for 2 winters in Cuba, .412 BA. in exhibitions games against major leaguers.

Defensively, he had a rifle arm, and worked hard to make himself one of the better receivers in the league. His only flaw in his game was weakness on pop-upsbehind the plate. He was quick, behind the plate & on the bases, & ran the bases well. Both Walter Johnson and Carl Hubbell placed him among the all time great catchers. Johnson assess his value at $200K, twice what he placed on Bill Dickey. His fans voted him to start 9 East-West all star games, in which he hit .483.

Despite his sucess on the field, by 1942, a dark side began showing itself. By the end of '42, a decline in his physical and mental well-being was obvious.
In Jan., 1943, he was committed to the hospital afer having a nervous breakdown. From then until his death, he was plagued with personal problems, depression, compounded by his excessive drinking, and possible substance abuse.
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James Raleigh (Biz) Mackey:
1920-47, '50; Positions: C, SS, 3B, 2B, 1B, OF, P, Manager; BB/TR; 6'0, 200; Born: July 27, 1897, Eagle Pass, TX; Died: Sept. 22, 1965, Los Angeles, CA.

Biz Mackey was an incredibly talented receiver who remained cool under pressure, and his defensive skills were unsurpassed in the history of black baseball. Considered the master of defense, he possessed all the tools necessary behind the plate, but gained the most acclaim for his powerful and deadly accurate throwing arm. He could snap a throw to second from a squatting position and get it there, harder, quicker, and with more accuracy that most catchers can standing up. Mackey delighted in throwing out the best basestealers, and his pegs to the keystone sack were frozen ropes passing the mound belt high and arriving on the bag feather soft.

Although barely literate, Mackey was intelligent, had a good BB mind, and employed a studious approach to the game. The ballpark was his classroom, and inside BB was his subject of expertise. He relied on meticulous observation and a good memory to match weaknesses of opposing hitters with the strengths of his pitching staff. An expert handler of pitchers, he also studied meople and could direct the temperments of his hurlers as well as he did their repertoires.

He was also a jokester, and utilized good-natured banter and irrelevant conversation to try to distract a hitter and break his concentration at the plate, and was a master at "stealing" stikes from umpires by framing and funneling pitches. Pitchers recognized his generalship and liked to pitch to the big, husky receiver who, for his size, was surpreisingly agile behind the plate. Hits unexpected quickness, coupled with soft hands, enabled the versatile athlete to play often at SS, 3B, or in the OF, and although lacking noteworthy range, he proved adept at any position. He was also a smart base runner and, while not fast, stole his share of bases.

In his prime, the swithc-hitting Mackey was one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball, with power from both sides of the plate. In his initial season for Hilldale, he hit .423 BA, 20 HRs, and .698. SLG.

From 1923 on, he hit .337, .350, .327, .315, .327, .337, .400, .376. Biz learned the craft of baseball under his 1st manager C.I. Taylor, a master teacher. In 1923, Mackey was a plum plucked by raiding Hilldale owner Ed Bolden. Initially, with the Hilldale Daisies, he split his playing time between catching and SS, sharing duties behind the plate with aging superstar Louis "Santop" Loftin. But for the '25 season he won the position full time, and for the next decade retained recognition as the premier receiver in black baseball.

Mackey was in demand for postseason exhibitions and played against ML all star squads. In 1926, Hilldale won 5 of 6 games from the Philadelphia Athletics with Lefty Grove. In balloting for the inaugural East-West All-Star game in 1933, Mackey's all-around skills were preferred over the slugging ability of young Josh Gibson. Mackey was then 36 yrs. old and past his prime, while Gibson was just beginning to hit his stride. However, Mackey's defensive skills were still so far above those of other catchers that he played in 4 of the 1st 6 midsummer classics. Even as late as 1937, he was still considered the best all-around receiver in the Negro Leagues. One of his proteges with the Elites was Roy Campanella, who credits Mackey with teaching him the finer points of catching. Observers say that watching Campanella was like seeing Mackey behind the plate again.

Biz had enough left to hit .307 in '45. He was a nonsmoker/nondrinker, and served as an exemplary role model for young black kids.

He hit .335 BA. in league play, .326 against white ML competition.

Gibson/Mackey:
Offense/Defense: Depends on how much one values brute power/ good defense over balanced power/master defensive technician. I take Mackey over Gibson.

Although Gibson supposedly was a good defensive man, in the NL, he was outranked defensively by, at the very least, Mackey, Bruce Petway, Larry Brown, Frank Duncan, Roy Campanella, Ted Radcliffe, Louis "Santop" Loftin.

If the Negro Leagues had a Top 10 Defensive Catchers list , Josh Gibson might fairly rank at the bottom of the Top 10, but the Top of the Top 10 Catchers Offensively.

If the Negro Leagues had a Top 10 Offensive Catchers list, Biz Mackey might fairly rank 4th, beneath Gibson, Santop and Campy. There might be a few others, but I'm still studying the Negro Leagues. All told, I'd indeed take Mackey over Gibson. In catchers, I value defense over offense. Same as at SS.

[Bill Burgess]

It might serve a purpose to see how many former members of the Negro Leagues have presently been enshrined.

1971 - Satchel Paige --------- Negro L. committee
1972 - Josh Gibson --------- Negro L. committe
1972 - Buck Leonard --------- Negro L. committee
1973 - Monte Irvin ---------- Negro L. committee
1974 - "Cool Papa" Bell -------- Negro L. committee
1975 - Judy Johnson -------- Negro L. committee
1976 - Oscar Charleston ------ Negro L. committee
1977 - Martin Dihigo -------- Negro L. committee
1977 - "Pop" Lloyd -------- Negro L. committee

1981 - Rube Foster - ---------Veterans committee
1987 - Ray Dandridge ---------- Veterans committee
1995 - Leon Day ----------- Veterans committee
1996 - Willie Foster ----------- Veterans committee
1997 - Willie Wells ------------ Veterans committee
1998 - Bullet Joe Rogan --------- Veterans committee
1999 - Smokey Joe Williams ------ Veterans committee
2000 - Turkey Stearns ----------- Veterans committee
2001 - Hilton Smith - -------------Veterans committee
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A. In 1952, the Pittsburgh Courier polled 31 Negro league players, writers, officials and managers and they
selected the following team:

1B - Buck Leonard-----------1B - Ben Taylor
2B - Jackie Robinson---------2B - Bingo DeMoss
SS - John Henry Lloyd-------SS - Willie Wells
3B - Oliver Marcell-----------3B - Judy Johnson
LF - Monte Irvin-------------LF - Pete Hall
CF - Oscar Charleston-------CF - Cool Papa Bell
RF - Christobal Torriente----RF - Chino Smith
C - Josh Gibson / Biz Mackey-C - Campanella / Bruce Petway
P - Smokey Joe Williams------P - Dave Brown
P - Satchel Paige------------P - Cannonball Dick Redding
P - Bullet Joe Rogan---------P - Nip Winters
P - John Donaldson ----------P - Dizzy Dismukes
P - Willie Foster-------------P - Don Newcombe
Utility OF - Martin Dihigo---Utility 1B - John Beckwith
Utility IF - Martin Dihigo----Utility 1B - Newt Allen
Utility IF - Sam Banheart---Utility - Clint Thomas
Coaches - Dizzy Dismukes--coaches - C. I. Taylor
Coaches - Danny McClelland--coaches - Dave Malarcher
Manager = Rube Foster-------Manager - Cum Posey
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The Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, polled of its fans in 1952. Their readers listed the following players into 5 teams:

First team: (1B) Buck Leonard, (2B) Jackie Robinson, (SS) Pop Lloyd, (3B) Oliver Marcelle, (OF) Monte Irvin, (OF) Oscar Charleston, (OF) Cristobel Torriente, (C) Josh Gibson, (C) Biz Mackey, (P) Joe Williams, (P) Satchel Paige, (P) Bullet Rogan, (P) John Dondaldson, (P) Bill Foster, (Utility) Martin Dihigo, (Utility) Sam Bankhead, (Mgr) Rube Foster, (Coach) Dizzy Dismukes, (Coach) Danny McClellan.

Second Team: (1B) Ben Taylor, (2B) Bingo DeMoss, (SS) Willie Wells, (3B) Judy Johnson, (OF) Pete Hill, (OF) Cool Papa Bell, (OF) Chino Smith, (C) Roy Campanella, (C) Bruce Petway, (P) Dave Brown, (P) Dick Redding, (P) Nip Winters, (P) Dizzy Dismukes, (P) Don Newcombe, (Utility) John Beckwith, (Utility) Newt Allen, (Mgr) Cum Posey, (Coach) C.I. Taylor, (Coach) Dave Malarcher.

Third Team: (1B) Jud Wilson, (2B) Bill Monroe, (SS) Dick Lundy, (3B) Jud Wilson, (OF) Rap Dixon, (OF) Larry Doby, (OF) Fats Jenkins, (C) Double Duty Radcliffe, (C) Louis Santop, (P) Slim Jones, (P) Bill Holland, (P) Phil Cockrell, (P) Webster McDonald, (P) Bill Byrd, (Utility) Emmett Bowman, (Utility) Dick Wallace, (Mgr) Ed Bolden.


Fourth Team: (1B) Ed Douglas, (2B) George Scales, (SS) Doby Moore, (3B) Ray Dandridge, (OF) Jimmy Lyons, (OF) Mule Suttles, (OF) Spotswood Poles, (C) Frank Duncan, (C) Bill Perkins, (P) Double Duty Radcliffe, (P) Frank Wickware, (P) Danny McClellan, (P) Leon Day, (P) Bill Jackman, (Utility) Rev Cannady, (Utility) Jose Mendez, (Mgr) Vic Harris.

Fifth Team: (1B) George Carr, (2B) Bunny Downs, (SS) Pelayo Chacon, (3B) Dave Malarcher, (OF) Frank Duncan, (OF) Turkey Stearnes, (OF) Jelly Gardner, (C) Doc Wiley, (C) Speck Webster, (P) Stringbean Williams, (P) Ray Brown, (P) Rats Henderson, (P) Luis Tiant, (P) Leroy Matlock.

Others receiving votes: (1B) Leroy Grant, Mule Suttles; (2B) Nate Harris, Sammy T. Hughes, Frank Warfield, Ray Dandridge, George Wright, Harry Williams; (SS) Gerard Williams, Bobby Williams, Morton Clark; (3B) Bill Francis, Jim Taylor; (OF) Minnie Minoso, Jap Payne, Blaine Hall, Ted Strong, Ted Page, Vic Harris; (P) Jose Mendez, Laymon Yokely.

*Some players that weren't listed but could have been: (1B) Buck O'Neil, Red Moore, Steel Arm Davis, George Giles; (2B) Bonnie Serrell; (SS) Jake Stephens; (3B) Alec Radcliffe, Bobby Robinson; (OF) Jumbo Kimbro, Willard Brown, Bill Wright, Neil Robinson, Ducky Davenport; (C) Quincy Trouppe, Larry Brown, Buck Ewing, Pops Coleman; (P) Chet Brewer, Hilton Smith, Barney Brown, Ted Trent, Max Manning, Sug Cornelius, Harry Salmon, Barney Morris; (Mgr) Buck O'Neil, Double Duty Radcliffe, Quincy Trouppe.

Bill Burgess

[Baseball Guru]

Not sure if this has been poste din this thread as it has many replies and photos but here is a list that I found that I had posted on my Addicts site almost 4 years ago:


The Society for American Baseball Research, SABR, is the most widely recognized authority on baseball history. Their research in
every field of baseball has lead to more books and information found in books than any other group in history. Members of SABR
voted in 1999 on five different lists and these are the results of the forty greatest Negro League figures.
They are ranked from #40 (top) to #1 (bottom)
40 Greatest Negro League Figures


Name

Elwood "Bingo" DeMoss
Bruce Petway
Quincy Trouppe
Sam Jethroe
Newt Allen
John Beckwith
Sol White
Jose Mendez
Ben Taylor
Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe
Larry Doby
William Augustus "Gus" Greenlee
Dick Lundy
Hilton Smith
John "Buck" O'Neil
Ernest "Jud" Wilson
J.L. Wilkinson
Effa Manley
Cumberland "Cum" Posey
Louis Santop
"Cannonball" Dick Redding
Cristobal Torriente
Monte Irvin
William "Willie" Foster
Raleigh "Biz" Mackey
Leon Day
William "Judy" Johnson
George "Mule" Suttles
"Smokey" Joe Williams
Ray Dandridge
Wilber "Bullet' Rogan
Martin Dihigo
Norman "Turkey" Stearnes
Willie "The Devil" Wells
Andrew "Rube" Foster
Josh Gibson
John Henry "Pop" Lloyd
Oscar Charleston
James "Cool Papa" Bell
Walter "Buck" Leonard
Leroy "Satchel" Paige

[Baseball Guru]

Again, a little bio I did over 3 years ago on Wilber "Bullet" Rogan..

I apologize in advance if some of this was posted as I did not see a bio on him but there is always a chance I missed it:)
********************************************

Wilber "Bullet" Rogan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bullet-Proof Case

Position: Pitcher, Outfielder, 1917 - 1938
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 170 lbs.
B/T: Right, Right
Born: 1889 in Oklahoma City, OK
Died: 1967 in Kansas City, MO
National Baseball Hall of Fame: Selected by the Veterans Committee, 1998.

Wilber "Bullet" Rogan had long been in baseball's witness protection program, until he was discovered by Casey Stengel and, at the age of 30, referred to Monarchs' owner J.L. Wilkinson. Stengel was quoted as saying, "Rogan was one of the best?if not the best?pitcher that ever pitched."

Acknowledged as one of the game's most versatile players, Wilber Rogan, attained mastery both on the pitcher's mound and in the batter's box. The all-around Bullet was the trigger that fired up the early- day Monarchs. Rogan led the charge on five championship teams.

Rogan sometimes used a no-windup delivery to deliver a devastating fastball with a full assembley of curves. Some players say Rogan had mastered three curves: a slider, a regular curve and a jug-handle curve that made the ball drop like an anvil. While many players said his fastball looked like a bar of hotel soap coming to the plate.

Rogan also threw a fork ball, a palm ball, a legal spitter and a side-arm curve that looked like Chet Brewer's emery ball. Brewer, a former Kansas City Monarchs pitching great, played with Satchel Paige and could compare the two men. "Rogan should have been put in the Hall of Fame before Satchel," Brewer said. "Paige only had his fastball, but Rogan had a fast ball and a curve also. Rogan could throw a curve ball faster than most pitchers could throw a fast ball. He was the best pitcher I ever saw in my life."

Although mainly thought of as a pitcher, Rogan played every outfield position. He was a great low-ball and curve-ball hitter, using a heavy bat. Rogan stood deep in the batter's box and would attack the ball with his powerfully thin legs, tremendously strong wrist that resemble a smooth Ernie Banks-type swing.

"He was the oiliest pitcher I ever saw," Paige said about Rogan. "He was pitching and hitting in the clean-up place. He was a chunky guy, but he could throw hard. He could throw as hard as Smokey Joe Williams, yeah! Oh yes, he was a number-one pitcher, wasn't any maybe so."

In 11 seasons with the Monarchs, Bullet Joe compiled a batting average of .339 and slugging percentage of .545. During the period he led the team in home runs and stolen bases three times while leading the league in games won for three seasons. His career pitching won-lost record of 111-43, is the highest recorded winning percentage (.721) in Negro League history.

At the age of 48, Rogan played his last game against white Major League pitching. Playing left-field against the Bob Feller All-Stars he went three-for-four and even stole a base. Of the 25 games he played against the white Major Leaguer teams he batted a creditable .329 with a slugging percentage of .513 against the likes of pitchers Feller, Mort Cooper, Mace Brown and Dizzy Dean.

Country boy and self-promoter Dizzy Dean said "Old Rogan, was a showboat boy, a Pepper Martin type ball player. He was one of those cute guys, never wanted to give you a good ball to hit.

[moviegeekjan]

http://www.nlbpa.com/santop_louis_photo.jpg
Louis Santop
(1890-1942)

One of the earliest superstars and a crowd favorite, Louis Santop was solid, strong-armed catcher who was better known as a power hitter. The left-handed hitting Texan was noted for his tape-measure home runs during baseball's dead-ball era.

A lifetime .406 hitter, the big 6'4", 240-pounder starred with several great teams during his career, including the Lincoln Giants and Lincoln Stars, for whom he starred from 1911-16. With the Lincoln Giants, "Top" caught the two contemporary hardest throwers, Smokey Joe Williams and Cannonball Dick Redding, and chalked up batting averages against all levels of competition of .470, .422 and .455 for the years 1911, 1912 and 1914, respectively.

After navy service during World War I, he played with Hilldale from 19290-26, including the pennant-winning teams of 1923-25. Santop hit for averages of .358, .364 and .405 for the 1922-24 seasons, respectively, and .333 in the 1924 World Series against the Kansas City Monarchs.

The following year, the 35-year-old Santop's playing time was restricted, as Biz Mackey assumed the catching duties. Soon thereafter, he faded from the baseball scene, but is still remembered today for his colorful exploits and his powerful bat.

Years Played:
1909-1926

[jalbright]

We'll always have some of those number problems, but a key issue with single season Negro League numbers is seasons were often 50-60 games long. That's late May, early June in the modern majors--and look how often you've got numbers that just won't hold up over the course of a season. Guys who get hot for 10-12 games haven't had the chance for the longer season to take some of the air out of those stats. Really, when looking at Negro Leaguers, it's better to look at Negro League all-star appearances, Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican winter ball all-star appearances and league leaderships to get a better fix on them, IMO. Guys who lead the league 10 times even in short seasons are the best the league has to offer in that skill, not somebody who simply got hot. If you want to use stats from blackball, you've got to combine the many seasons these guys played, since they played year-round, and/or you have to look at career percentages (totals are screwy because of short seasons). There's also distortions due to slightly lower overall quality of play, much like happens with the Japanese Leagues.

Of course, Japan had nice record keeping, longer seasons, and balanced actually-played schedules (at least some Negro League teams frequently blew off games to play in more lucrative barnstorming type games) which eliminates many of the difficulties we see with Negro League data.

Another good place to look are the polls listed in this thread and, I might add, in Bill McNeil's one book Cool Papas and Double Duties. I wouldn't buy the book unless you're really into individual opinions of those surveyed, but it's worth getting through interlibrary loan. I have it, and I'll try to post some of the key results shortly.

Another interesting book is McNeil's work on the California Winter League, which was integrated long before the majors. One problem is they don't seem to have played balanced schedules, but still I think it helps clarify the relative skills of major leaguers and Negro League stars, who faced each other in the same league not just one-time exhibitions.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

In an earlier post, I promised to post key results of the polls in Bill McNeil's Cool Papas and Double Duties . Here they are:

There are two guys over 75% of the former Negro League players polled would put in the Hall of Fame who aren't already in:
Biz Mackey, C and Dick Lundy, ss

The players tended to be from the later times of the Negro Leagues, and tended to vote for guys from their own era. McNeil polled a group of historians, and in addition to Mackey and Lundy, they gave 75% to the following guys who aren't in: Cristobal Torriente (of), Mule Suttles (of-1b), Dick Redding (p), Ben Taylor (1b), Oliver Marcelle (3b), Jud Wilson (1b-3b), and Louis Santop (c).

Finally, McNeil tried to make sure early Negro Leaguers got their due, and selected a group of ten (10) historians familiar with that era. They had five guys with at least 7 votes (70%): Ben Taylor, Marcelle, Sammy T. Hughes (2b), Pete Hill (of) and Spot Poles (of).

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

I went through the list of leagues whose batting titles you listed, and Holway's numbers don't agree with the ones you cited. That's unfortunately common--different people find or don't find certain boxscores, and then there's the issue of which boxscores count. Anyway, what I got was the following, in chronological order:

West 1920, Jimmie Lyons .399 in 61 games
West 1921, Charlie Blackwell .484 in 92 games
West 1922, Heavy Johnson .451 in 77 games
West 1923, George Scales .433 in 62 games
West 1924, Bullet Rogan .470 in 87 games

East 1926, Jud Wilson .351 in 92 games
East 1927 Chino Smith .435 in 40 games
East 1928, Pop Lloyd .563 in 38 games
East 1929, Chino Smith .464 in 56 games.

Jim Albright

[SHOELESSJOE3]

We agree on the basic point, to be sure. I'm not sure we're together on how to quantify the difference. The above is more evidence pointing in the direction we agree on--but it's really hard to use for comparative purposes.

If you want to tell me who had the averages you're interested in and the year they supposedly had them, I'll see what I can come up with in Holway's book.

Jim Albright

Sure, I would like to see the number of games played for the following players in the years listed.

1936 Pat Paterson-----.484
1940 Chester Williams--.473
1941 Monte Irvin------.463 Eastern League
1941 Lyman Bostic----.488
1943 Josh Gibson-----.547

The city I live in has one of the best sections on baseball in it's library, so on my next visit I will take avery good look at books that deal with the negro leagues.

Again to point out the thinness of the pitching rosters in the negro leagues. I gave some pitching stats where a number of pitchers were credited with nearly 30 decisions and if there were an average of 60 game played per season, these guys had to be over worked even if some decisions came in a relief roll. Probably the reason that outfielders and infielders at times took the roll of starting pitchers.

[jalbright]

Just like in the majors of the time, Negro Leagues used their aces as closers in tight games. So, yes, they picked up decisions that way, just like Lefty Grove did. I have to believe that the way Negro League pitchers were used, they had to pace themselves to keep the better money a career in baseball afforded them. So if they were ahead by 3-4 runs, they probably tried to get by with less than their best--which would have helped hitters. Late in a tight game, or in a playoff, that wouldn't be an issue--but it had to come up a lot during the year.

For the guys you mention, here's what Holway's book says (I should point out the number of games I'm using are the number of games for the player's team--individuals may have played less than that):

1936 Patterson .694 in 7 games
1940 JesseWilliams, .430 in 35 games
1941 Irvin .382 in 34 games he was bested that year by Bill Hoskins of Baltimore, who hit .412 in 57 games, according to Holway
1941 Bostick .442 in 24 games
1943 Gibson .449 in 59 games, though bested by Tetelo Vargas (per Holway) at .484 in 39 games.

Jim Albright

[Bill Burgess]

In my attempt to be useful to the house, I'd like to contribute these profiles. May these assist others in the Fever Hall of Fame, our endless polls/surveys.

John Beckwith
An undisciplined, mean, and short-tempered player, Beckwith stands with Josh Gibson as the two greatest right-handed batters to play in the Negro Leagues. A dangerous slugger, he crushed mammoth home runs and gathered hits by the bundle. Beckwith began with Frank Leland's Chicago Giants from 1916-23, when his dead-pull hitting led opponents to shift their defense to the left side of the field. Beckwith played with numerous teams in subsequent years, his malignant personality undoubtedly contributing to his short stay in many cases. A defensive liability as well, Beckwith's value as a hitter ranks him among the greatest right-handed hitters of any color, during any era.

Dave Brown
The pitching ace of the Chicago American Giants during the early 1920s, Brown had numerous effective pitches and the ability to win with either power or control. Brown was quiet and popular with his teammates in spite of consistently finding himself on the wrong side of the law. In 1925 he killed a man in a barroom fight and dropped out of sight to avoid conviction, cutting short a career that had tremendous promise.

Rube Foster
The most important figure in the establishment of the Negro Leagues, Foster is one of the most important figures in all of baseball history. In 25 years of black baseball, he was an excellent administrator, perhaps the greatest manager in black baseball history, and among the best few pitchers in the early part of his career. A crafty pitcher who featured a screwball, Foster was a dominant hurler in the 1900s, starring for a few teams, including the powerhouse Leland Giants from 1907-10. In 1910 he split with owner Frank Leland and formed his own team, the Chicago American Giants. Foster influenced black baseball for decades by building the Giants into a winner relying upon good pitching, excellent defense, and a bunting/free-running offensive attack. In 1920 he founded the Negro National League, the first "true" Negro League, and served as its president while running his own club. Thousands paid their respects after Foster's premature death in 1930.

Willie Foster
The younger half-brother of Rube, Willie starred for big brother's American Giants club from 1923-1930. Generally accepted as the best left-handed pitcher in black baseball history, Foster performed at his best when the game was most important. One example: he won the Negro National League pennant for the American Giants in 1926 by starting and winning both ends of a doubleheader to end the season against fellow Hall-of-Famer Bullet Joe Rogan. A power pitcher, Foster had good control and threw five different pitches well. He was likable, well-respected and educated - a dean at Alcorn State College after completing a career that established him as among the greatest pitchers - of any color.

Pete Hill
This outfielder began his long association with black baseball in 1899 and starred for the powerhouse Leland Giants and the Chicago American Giants. While existing statistics do not support the claims, many of his contemporaries considered him perhaps the finest hitter, and certainly the finest clutch hitter, of his era. A popular player who served as the team captain with the American Giants, Hill boasted solid defense, tremendous footspeed, and proficiency at the "inside baseball" style of play championed by his manager.

Grant Johnson
Nicknamed "Home Run" for his timely-if-infrequent blasts, this middle infielder helped form the Page Fence Giants in 1895 and was still playing nearly 30 years latter. Johnson was a leading hitter and a frequent captain for some of the best teams in the Negro Leagues, including the Brooklyn Royal Giants of the mid-to-late 1900s, the 1910 Leland Giants, and the great New York Lincoln Giants of the early 1910s. A good-natured, paternalistic team player, "Home Run" Johnson was one of the best players of his era.

John Henry Lloyd
The Negro Leagues produced a wealth of fine all-around shortstops, strong hitters and fielders both, but none rivaled John Henry Lloyd. "Pop" was the best Negro League player before the Negro National League in 1920. A star defensively who could play any infield position, Lloyd was also a marvelous base runner, a talented and patient hitter, and among the best at applying the "inside baseball" strategies favored in Negro League play. Expert at manufacturing a run, Lloyd competed for more than 10 teams during his storied career, playing for the owner willing to pay him the most. A man of strong moral fiber and particularly wonderful temperament, Pop Lloyd was one of the greatest three position players to play in the Negro Leagues.

Bill Monroe
Monroe was the greatest Negro Leaguer of the first decade of the century. Possessing a flare for the dramatic and superior talent, Monroe was particularly valuable in the field, where he flashed great range and avoided costly errors while delighting the fans with his showboating on the easier plays. He was a good contact hitter, on base regularly, with tremendous speed. He started with the Chicago Unions in 1896 and went on to contribute to the success of many of the finest teams of his era: The three-time champion Philadelphia Giants and the Brooklyn Royal Giants of 1907-10, before winding down his career with Rube Foster's first capable Chicago American Giants teams through the mid-1910s. Handsome and popular, Monroe stands with John Henry Lloyd as the finest Negro League players of their generation.

Bruce Petway
An intelligent student of the game, "Buddy" possessed numerous skills not typical in the men who have donned the "tools of ignorance" over the years. A switch-hitter, Petway was an excellent bunter, a contact hitter who protected runners well and a frequent threat to steal a base. He had a patient batting eye. However, his greatest strength was his legendary throwing arm. He was best remembered for throwing out Ty Cobb three times in a 1910 Cuban set of games. He spent eight seasons in his prime with the early Chicago American Giants, and seven with the Detroit Stars as a player-manager.

Spot Poles
The most prolific leadoff hitter of the early days, Poles was a superior defensive outfielder who hit for high averages, had a sharp batting eye, and ran the bases with singular speed that helped him pilfer many bases and score a lot of runs. Poles spent most of his career with the New York Lincoln Giants, enjoying two extended stints between 1911-23. A World War I hero who was a coach for many years after his playing years, Poles was an intense competitor and an impressive physical specimen and athlete.

Ted Radcliffe
Called "Double Duty" for his dual role as starting pitcher and top catcher, Radcliffe is a unique figure in the annals of baseball history. No other pitcher at a Major League level has spent virtually his entire career as a full-time player on his off-days, let alone as a catcher, easily the most demanding position on the diamond. Of course, we can just as easily look at it the opposite way and observe that no starting player, never mind a catcher, has also taken a regular turn in solid pitching rotations for most of a career that spanned past the end of the color line. A superior catcher and solid pitcher, "Duty" played in numerous All-Star contests, as both catcher and a pitcher. He had a steady throwing arm, was quick defensively, and was a solid batter. As a pitcher he enjoyed throwing a variety of illegal pitches to confound the opposition. A ballplayer who always gravitated toward the fattest paycheck, Radcliffe never spent more than two successive seasons with the same team until the very end of his career, retiring as a unique competitor in the rich history of our national pastime.

Turkey Stearnes
Best remembered for the tremendous length of his home runs, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes hit for high average with power to all fields. He ran the bases well and had excellent speed (even leading off at times), was among the better defensive outfielders of his era, and was eventually molded into a capable "inside baseball" player, as well. The cozy confines of Detroit's Mack Park might have inflated his numbers, but Stearnes, who played in the high-octane 1920s and 1930s, legitimately stands as one of the most productive sluggers in black baseball history. Turkey was a quiet, private man. He spent 10 of the first 11 years of his career with the Detroit Stars, and later with the Kansas City Monarchs.

George Stovey
The "oldest" ballplayer in this set, Stovey was among the black ballplayers competing in the white minor leagues when the color line was put into place in 1887. In fact, Stovey is the pitcher who touched off Cap Anson's well-documented refusal to play the Newark club in 1887. A marvelous hurler who reportedly was considered for signing by Major League clubs, the left-hander pitched for the original Cuban Giants teams. Stovey's statistical accomplishments may have been marred by racial prejudices and the record keeping of the time, but he remains one of the most important baseball players of the 19th Century.

Ben Taylor
A star hitter on the solid early entries of the Indianapolis ABC's, Taylor stands as the finest all-around first baseman in the first 40 years of black baseball. He was nimble around the sack and hit to all fields, both able to knock home important runs and protect or advance the baserunner if necessary. Beginning in 1910, Taylor played, managed and coached numerous clubs. In the early years he played for powerhouses like the New York Lincoln Giants and Chicago American Giants. Taylor was a member of the largest ballplaying family in the Negro Leagues.

Christobal Torriente
C.I. Taylor famously said, "If I should see Torriente walking up the other side of the street, I would say, 'There walks a ballclub.' " Torriente was one of the finest outfielders in Negro League history, and one of the best overall players. A premiere slugger before home-run hitting took off, Torriente scorched line drives to all fields. Thickly built but light afoot, he was one of the finest defensive center fielders ever. Torriente starred with the Chicago American Giants from 1918-25 when the team was consistently among the best in baseball. A moody and sometimes difficult player, he left the American Giants amidst controversy and spent his final years shuttling between teams. One of the greatest Cuban-born players, Torriente was an inaugural member of the Cuban Hall of Fame.

Frank Wickware
A fireballing right hander, Wickware spent the better part of 10 seasons between the Leland Giants and Chicago American Giants during his 14-year career. He was among the best hurlers in the 1910s, but Wickware's freewheeling lifestyle, lackadaisical attitude, and uneven demeanor made him a handful for his various managers and contributed as much to his early decline as much as any erosion of talent.
Coming in March: Josh Gibson and the mighty Homestead Grays.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill Burgess

[JACKIE42]

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/photos/Radcliffe_Alex.jpg

Although he played for several teams during his career, Alexander "Alec" Radcliffe is best remembered as the slugging third baseman for the Chicago American Giants from 1936-39, 1941-44, and again in 1949. With his 40-ounce bat, Radcliffe set the record for most at bats and hits in the East-West All-Star game, and finished second behind Buck Leonard in RBIs. Radcliffe also played for the Chicago Giants and Cole's American Giants. After retiring from baseball, Radcliffe owned and ran a bar in Chicago. One of the bartenders was his brother, Double Duty. Some historians consider Alec to be the best third baseman to play in the Negro American League.

[JACKIE42]

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/photos/Bell_Cool_Papa1942.jpg
COOL PAPA" BELL | Shown in a 1942 Chicago American Giants uniform

[JACKIE42]

http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/2000/baseball/early%20grays.JPG

Photo of the 1913 Homestead Grays. Cumberland Posey is the third man from the left, on the second row. At this time he was the team's captain and the team manager.

[JACKIE42]

http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/2000/baseball/Grays%20dugout.JPG

1944 Washington Homestead Grays:

Front L to Right: Jelly Jackson, Ray Battle, Edward Robinson, Sam Bankhead, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Dave Hoskins, Jerry Benjamin, and Cool Papa Bell
__________________

[JACKIE42]

http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction29/photographs/36566.jpg

Buck Leonard- 1942

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0030/s003012.jpg

Johnson, Chicago Union Giants- 1905

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0031/s003125.jpg

Lytle, Chicago Union Giants , pitching from the mound- 1905

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0031/s003137.jpg

Lytle, Chicago Union Giants- 1905

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0031/s003139.jpg

Joe Miller, Chicago Union Giants- 1905

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0030/s003080.jpg

Chicago Union Giants- 1905

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichicdn/s0553/s055385.jpg

Gatewood, Leland Giants- 1909

[JACKIE42]

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/education/primary_sources/images/photograph_negro_leagues_01.jpg

1939 Homestead Grays in front of their team bus.
Back row: Josh Gibson, Edsall Walker, David Whatley, Roy Welmaker, Arnold Waite, Henry Spearman, Raymond Brown, James Williams, Robert Gaston, Roy Partlow.
Front row: Jerry Benjamin, Speck Roberts, Lewis Dula, Vic Harris, Buck Leonard, Sam Bankhead, Jelly Jackson.

[JACKIE42]

http://www.pitchblackbaseball.com/images/edstonenewlarge%20copy.jpg

Ed "Ace" Stone

Born: August 21, 1910 in Black Cat, Delaware
Died: April 11, 1983 in the Bronx, NY
Ht:6'-0", Wt: 195
Batted both and threw right
Position: outfield
Years: 1931-1950
Teams: Wilmington Hornets, Atlantic City Bacharachs, Brooklyn Eagles, Newark Eagles, Philadelphia Stars, New York Black Yankees, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Kansas City Monarchs, Nuevo Laredo Owls (Mexico), Veracruz Red Eagles (Mexico), Torreon Cotton Dealers (Mexico),Mexico City Red Devils, Havana Lions (Cuba

[JACKIE42]

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c10000/3c14000/3c14200/3c14266r.jpg

Baseball players from Morris Brown College , Atlanta, Georgia- 1899, or 1900.

[JACKIE42]

http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction30/photographs/37140a.jpg
http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction30/photographs/37140b.jpg
http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction30/photographs/37140c.jpg
"The first photo features three players with the New York Cubans and it includes Ray Dandridge in the center. The second is a nine-member pose of the Memphis Red Sox with Willie Wells in the center. And the third photo in this group evidently seizes a milestone moment for those Red Sox as it projects two unidentified executives while including Willie Wells Jr. and Willie Wells Sr".

[DODGER DEB]

To ALL of Jackie's wonderful (and incredible finds) photos of the NL, I like to add this one I found of BUCK LEONARD on eBay...

http://www.collectr.com/ebay/bpleonardbbw.jpg

c.

[Mattingly]

Jackie42, you've outdone yourself, which by my standards, is so difficult to do. Truest of praises are in order! :D

[538280]

Here is one photo of a player I believe there is not yet a photo of on this thread, the great third baseman Oliver Marcelle:

http://www.nlbpa.com/marcelle_oliver.jpg

[JACKIE42]

Jackie42, you've outdone yourself, which by my standards, is so difficult to do. Truest of praises are in order! :D

Thank you.

[JACKIE42]

http://www.cubanbaseballcards.com/sitebuilder/images/111Marcelle-156x204.jpg
Oliver Marcelle
http://www.blackbaseball.com/players/
http://lafourche.com/sports/ghost3.jpg
http://lafourche.com/sports/ghost4.jpg
http://lafourche.com/sports/ghost.jpg

[JACKIE42]

Oliver "The Ghost" Marcelle

1895-1949
By Bush Bernard
Published in the Daily Comet in 1996


The greatest third baseman to play in the Negro Leagues was born in Thibodaux.

But Oliver "The Ghost" Marcelle never got the recognition due such a man during his lifetime and for 42 years his body laid buried in an unmarked grave in Denver. He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

"I think Ollie Marcelle was the best third baseman there was," said Bobbie Robinson, a fellow third baseman who played against Marcelle in the Negro Leagues.

"He was colorful," Robinson said. "Some ball players, it just looks like they have more color when they take the field. I know he was one of the best."

Oliver Marcelle was born June 24, 1895, in Thibodaux. He was the fifth of Daniel and Eliza Marcelle's six children, according to census records. He had an older brother, Johnny, and sisters, Elnora, Celestine, Ann and Cecilea, who was 2 years younger than Oliver.

Little is known about his early life. John "Buck" O'Neil, a friend and former teammate who lives in Kansas City, said he didn't know Marcelle was from Thibodaux.

"He always said he was from New Orleans," O'Neil said.

His professional baseball career started in New Orleans, where he played for several teams during his teens. In 1918, he moved to Brooklyn where he played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants in 1918 and 1919.

He soon gained recognition for his fielding abilities and his flair for the dramatic, said Jay Sanford, a sports historian who lives in a Denver suburb. His nickname, "The Ghost," came from his fielding style.

He would stand 10 feet off the bag and wait for someone to hit a ball his way. He would run and leap, making the catch, Sanford said.

"It didn't seem like he was much faster than the other guys," Robinson said. "He played deeper than I did. He was just colorful."

"Ollie would play 10 feet closer to the batter than anyone else," Sanford said. "They'd shoot the ball at him and he'd catch it. He had cat-quick reaction."

From 1920-23 Marcelle played with the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, spent 1924 and part of 1925 with the New York Lincoln Giants, returned to Atlantic City in 1925 and stayed with them through 1928. He was part of the "Million Dollar" infield of the Baltimore Black Sox in 1929. He finished his playing career with the Brooklyn Royal Giants in 1930. His lifetime batting average was .305.

Marcelle was a fierce competitor with an equally fierce temper.

In a fight, "he'd hit you with whatever was available," Sanford said.

Although he had other players' respect, he had few friends.

Buck O'Neil is one of the few people who spoke kindly of Oliver Marcelle, Sanford said.

"They liked him as a player, but not as a person," Sanford said. "He drank a lot and fought a lot."

"When he drank he got nasty," Sanford said. "If he had a bat in his hand, he'd hit you with it. Even as an older man, living here in town, he'd get in fights in a crap game. It was like night and day."

His temper ended his career early.

During a fight over a craps game with a fellow player, Frank Warfield, in Cuba in 1929, Warfield bit off a piece of Marcelle's nose.

Marcelle started wearing a black eye patch over his nose.

"He was a proud, handsome guy, you know, and then he used to wear a black patch across his nose and he got so he couldn't play baseball any more," Bill Yancey, a player in the Negro Leagues, said in "Only the Ball was White," a book by Robert Peterson published in 1970.

Sanford went to Marcelle's old neighborhood doing research and could find no one that remembered him as a baseball player.

"I'd talk about baseball and get blank stares," Sanford said. "I'd talk about his nose, they'd say `The Patch.' "

Marcelle quit playing in 1930. He coached for a while and in 1933 toured with the Miami Giants, ending up in Denver.

His biggest contribution to baseball history didn't come as a player though.

The Denver Post sponsored one of the biggest semipro baseball tournaments in the country. In 1934, Marcelle convinced the Post's sports editor that the paper should invite the Kansas City Monarchs, a black team, to the tournament.

The Post invited the Monarchs, who had a pitcher by the name of Satchel Paige, who would later join the Hall of Fame.

The tournament was Paige's first exposure to the white press. Sanford believes that Marcelle's prodding speeded up the integration of baseball.

Prior to the 1934 tournament, Denver had black teams and white teams. The next year, Denver's baseball teams were integrated.

"That was 11 years prior to Jackie Robinson," Sanford said.

O'Neil, who played for the Monarchs, said the tournament was one of the best ever.

"I'd played white teams before," he said. "But the Denver Post Tournament was one of the best."

He said players didn't think of the tournament as a milestone in history at the time.

"I don't think we thought about black and white as much, as far as everyone was concerned."

Marcelle worked as a laborer for a while and continued to drink, Sanford said. He was estranged from his family, although his son, Ziggy, a former Southern University basketball star, also played in the Negro Leagues.

Marcelle died penniless on June 12, 1949, two weeks before his 54th birthday. His death certificate lists the cause of death as heart disease.

"His drinking caught up with him," Sanford said.

Marcelle was buried in Denver's Riverside Cemetery in an unmarked pauper's grave.

Sanford, a mortgage banker who formerly lived in New Orleans, said he'd heard about Marcelle during his studies of the Negro Leagues.

When he heard he was buried in an unmarked grave, Sanford started an effort that involved the Zephyrs, a minor league team that later moved from Denver to New Orleans, and the Colorado Rockies and culminated with a ceremony on June 1, 1991, where Marcelle's tombstone was unveiled.

The tombstone bears a quote from O'Neil: "Baseball's best Thirdbaseman brought professional baseball to Colorado."

"I was glad to see they did this for Ollie," O'Neil said. "He was out there in an unmarked grave."

[JACKIE42]

http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction30/photographs/38311.jpg

"Toward the twilight of that institution we know as the Negro Leagues, there emerged a nine called the Cleveland Buckeyes. Well actually, they didn't 'emerge,' but instead they were shifted from their long-successful tenure in Cincinnati. The latter-day Buckeyes first took the field in 1943, and actually enjoyed a couple good seasons on the strength of such superstars as Quincy Trouppe and Sam Jethro. But, as enlightenment pervaded Major League Baseball in the late '40's, so suffered the continuation of Negro League baseball in general, and the Cleveland Buckeyes took down their tent early in 1950".

[538280]

Great pennant, Jackie! Keeping with the theme of team memerobilia, here is a Memphis Red Sox hat:

http://www.pitchblackbaseball.com/images/caps/memphisbig.jpg

[538280]

A New York Cubans hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/New-York-Cubans-cap-L.jpg

[538280]

Detroit Stars hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Detroit-Stars-cap-L.jpg

[Mattingly]

More great photos. I also like the cap pictures as well.

Jackie42, I happened across the article on Marcelle: http://lafourche.com/sports/ghost.htm

[538280]

New York Black Yankees hat:

http://www.onlinesports.com/images/hg-97byb.gif

[538280]

Indianapolis ABCs hat:

http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/photos/iabcff_thumb.jpg

[538280]

Chicago American Giants hat:

http://www.negroleagueshop.com/prod_images_large/cagff.jpg

[JACKIE42]

http://photos.liveauctioneers.com/houses/robertedwardauctions/650/0218_1_md.jpg

1929, features Negro League all-star and Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Wells. . At the time this card was issued, Wells was a young shortstop playing for the St. Louis Stars of the Negro League. Wells led the league in hitting in 1929, batting .400, and again in 1930, averaging .409. The card identifies Wells along the base as "W. Wells" and also gives his position ("Short Stop") in white lettering.

[538280]

Indianapolis Clowns hat:

http://www.aaregistry.com/eimage/IndianapolisClownsCap1930(NNL).gif

[538280]

Homestead Grays hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Homestead-Grays-cap-L.jpg

[538280]

The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords:

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/education/units/images/1935_crawfords.jpg

[538280]

Pittsburgh Crawfords hat:

http://www.negroleagueshop.com/prod_images_large/33_crawfords_flex.jpg

[538280]

Brooklyn Royal Giants hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Brooklyn-Royal-Giants-cap-L.jpg

Question, Jackie, do you remember ever going to a Brooklyn Royal Giants game? Did you watch them play?

[538280]

Hilldale Daisies logo:

http://www.nlbpa.com/HilldaleLogo.gif

[538280]

Baltimore Elite Giants hat:

http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/photos/begff_thumb.jpg

[538280]

St.Louis Stars hat autographed by Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe:

http://www.pitchblackbaseball.com/images/caps/stloubig.jpg

[538280]

1911 New York Lincoln Giants:

http://www.nlbpa.com/LincolnGiants_1911.jpg

"New York Lincoln Giants, 1911 from their inaugural season. The Lincoln Giants were one of early Negro League baseball's greatest and most legendary teams. This club is credited with a 108-12 record in 1911, winning the first of three straight eastern championships. "Copyright 1911 by C. Mason Photo, N.Y." in the lower left. This team was managed by Sol White (center), and includes HOFer John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, (.475 average in 1911), Dick "Cannonball" Redding, Spot Poles, Louis Santop, Grant "Home Run" Johnson, and Dan McClellan (who threw the first perfect game in black baseball history for the 1903 Cuban X Giants). Half of this roster came from two other noted early teams, the 1903-04 Cuban X Giants and the 1905-06 Philadelphia Giants"

from www.nlbpa.com

[538280]

Cleveland Buckeyes hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Cleveland-Buckeyes-cap-L.jpg

[538280]

Birmingham Black Barons hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Birmingham-Black-Barons-cap-L.jpg

[JACKIE42]

Birmingham Black Barons hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Birmingham-Black-Barons-cap-L.jpg

And the hat poster strikes again. If you keep this up, you should change your username to " Harry The Hat". Just joking.

[538280]

And the hat poster strikes again. If you keep this up, you should change your username to " Harry The Hat". Just joking.

Here's another one, Jackie, the Kansas City Monarchs:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Kansas-City-Monarchs-cap-L.jpg

[JACKIE42]

Here's another one, Jackie, the Kansas City Monarchs:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Kansas-City-Monarchs-cap-L.jpg

Did you know that there was a player with the nickname " Harry The Hat". For extra points what was his full name, and who did he play for.

[538280]

Did you know that there was a player with the nickname " Harry The Hat". For extra points what was his full name, and who did he play for.

Harry Walker, and he played mostly for the Cardinals.

[JACKIE42]

Harry Walker, and he played mostly for the Cardinals.

Here's some interesting stuff, about Harry, and his brother, who we loved in Brooklyn.

The son of major league pitcher Ewart "Dixie" Walker and brother of 1944 NL batting champ Fred "Dixie" Walker, Harry is the only player to win a NL batting title playing for two teams in the same season (and the Walker brothers are the only major league siblings to each win a batting average crown). Harry was hitting .200 through May 3, 1947 when the Cardinals traded him to the Phillies. He pounded the ball for a .371 average the rest of the way to finish at .363. It was to be his only outstanding season.

It was Walker who, in Game Seven of the 1946 WS, drove in Enos Slaughter from first base with the winning run to defeat the Red Sox. He was called Harry the Hat because, at the plate, he would adjust his cap after every pitch. As a result of his tugging, he went through 20 caps a season. He became a manager, taking over the Cardinals from Eddie Stanky for most of 1955 and pinch hitting nine times. He managed Pittsburgh from 1965 through mid-1967 (twice bringing them in third) and Houston from 1968 through late 1972. He continued in baseball as a batting coach. (JK)


http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/W/Walker_Harry.stm

[538280]

Effa Manley, the most influential women in black baseball:

http://www.negroleaguestore.com/images/Effa_manley.jpg

Here is a good article about her:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/mlb_negro_leagues_story.jsp?story=effa_manley

[JACKIE42]

http://images.mastronet.com/images/Auction31/photographs/40476h.jpg

[538280]

Jackie,

When you were young growing up in Brooklyn, did you ever watch the Brooklyn Royal Giants? If so, do you remember any of their players?

[538280]

Atlanta Black Crackers hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Atlanta-Black-Crackers-cap-L.jpg

[538280]

Baltimore Black Sox hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Baltimore-Black-Sox-cap-L.jpg

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Cuban Stars hat:

http://www.negroleagueshop.com/prod_images_large/cubanstars_sepia.jpg

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Philadelphia Stars hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Philadelphia-Stars-cap-L.jpg

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Newark Eagles hat:

http://www.itsablackthang.com/images/Negro-League-Baseball/Newark-Eagles-cap-L.jpg

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Nashville Elite Giants logo:

http://outoftheshadows.net/Images/NashvilleEliteGiants.GIF

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http://www.nlbpa.com/Broadside_june43.jpg

1943 Broadside. The Zulu Cannibal Giants were formed in 1938, a concept inspired by the war in Ethiopia. Hoping to draw a white fan following, the team would get into role while playing in grass skirts, painted faces, and even bare feet. This team was home to some of the best talent in the Negro League, among them the likes of Howard Easterling and Buck O’Neil.
from nlbpa.com (http://www.nlbpa.com)

[JACKIE42]

Jackie,

When you were young growing up in Brooklyn, did you ever watch the Brooklyn Royal Giants? If so, do you remember any of their players?

No I never did.

[WJackman]

For those interested, there was a team called the Zulu Cannibal Giants that periodically played in New England in the late 20s and early 30s. I have no idea if it was the same organization.

The Lincoln Giants were up in New England in the late summer of 1928 for a five game series with the southeastern Massachusetts based Philadelphia Colored Giants which the Philly squad took 3-2. In the spring of 1929 the Brooklyn Cuban Giants came up to play a five-game set with the Philly Giants. That series went 4-1 to the Massachusetts team. I have come up with several photos that I have lifted from microfilm though the quality is very inferior to one ones Jackie has posted her.

[JACKIE42]

http://photos.liveauctioneers.com/houses/robertedwardauctions/650/0221_1_md.jpg

1945

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Ben Taylor:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/photo/history/negro_leagues/player/index_taylor_ben.jpg

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Ticket to the 1947 Negro World Series between the New York Cubans and Cleveland Buckeyes:

http://www.nlbpa.com/1947_WS_Ticket.jpg

You can see it cost two dollars. Boy, have times changed!

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Alejandro Crespo:

http://www.nlbpa.com/crespo_alejandro_photo.jpg

Crespo was an infielder who played on and off for the Cuban Stars of the Eastern Colored League (and the independent clubs) from 1918 to 1933. In he also played for the Gilkerson Union Giants and barnstormed..

Crespo is considered as one of the better players to play in the Cuban professional baseball league and is a member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.

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John Donaldson:

http://www.nlbpa.com/Donaldson_John.jpg

John was precise pitcher with nasty curve ball. He was one of the greatest left-handed Negro League pitchers. John Henry Lloyd considered him as the toughest pitcher that he ever faced. John’s career spanned 22 years.

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Jud "Boojum" Wilson:

http://www.nlbpa.com/Wilson_Jud.jpg

Jud’s career spanned from 1922 to 1945. He played all infield positions, and even played some outfield and managed.

Wilson was feared as a hitter and was known for his willingness to fight, any time, anywhere. In John Holway's Blackball Stars, Wilson's best friend, Jake Stephens, claimed, "The minute he saw an umpire, he became a maniac." A story in which Jud broke up a knife fight in the showers is also recounted. Several versions of a tale involving Wilson dangling Stephens out of a window by the ankles many stories about the sidewalk have made their way down through the years.

Jud got his nickname "Boojum" because that was the noise his line drives made when they hit the outfield walls. Satchel Paige claimed that Jud and Chino Smith were the two toughest outs he ever faced.

While records are sketchy, Wilson had one of the best batting averages in the Negro Leagues, and he also hit for power. His lifetime statistics in the Negro Leagues show a batting average of .345.

Wilson was one of the best hitters in baseball history. He led the league in hitting with a .373 average in the 1923 season, and went on to post a lifetime average in the Negro Leagues of .345. Wilson also recorded the highest lifetime average in the Cuban Winter Leagues, .372 for six seasons, including batting titles of .403 in '25-'26 and .441 in '27-8 playing for Havana.

Wilson was a star on four championship teams in a six year period between 1929 and 1934 (the '29 Baltimore Black Sox, the '31 Homestead Grays, the '32 Crawfords, and the '34 Phila Stars.) Satchel Paige considered him one to be one of the top two hitters he ever faced in the Negro Leagues (which is not surprising as Wilson hit .375 lifetime against Paige.)

In the photo at the right, Jud Wilson is in his Baltimore Black Sox uniform in 1923, the first year of the Eastern Colored League. This photo originates from the archives of the Baltimore Afro-American.

[JACKIE42]

http://www.africanamericans.com/images2/JudyJohnson.jpg

Judy Johnson

[JACKIE42]

http://www.thedeadballera.com/Photos/gibsonjoshphoto2.jpg

Josh Gibson.

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Spottswood Poles:

http://www.chicagohs.org/AOTM/Feb98/graphics/4poles.jpg

Born: Nov. 7, 1889
Died: Sept. 12, 1962

Spottswood Poles, called the black Ty Cobb, won five battle stars and a purple heart in World War I with the 369th Infantry (Harlem Hell Fighters) while attached to the French Army.

He broke into professional black baseball as the center fielder and lead off hitter for the powerful 1909 Philadelphia Giants. He moved on the New York Lincoln Giants in 1911, where he batted .440 for the season and stole 41 bases in only 60 games. He hit .398 in 1912, .414 in 1913, and .487 in 1914.

With the Lincoln club in the 10 game 1915 black championship, Poles batted only .205, but because of his speed and base running ability scored 11 runs. In a 15 year Negro League career, Poles is credited with a .400 lifetime batting average and a .319 average for the four winter seasons he spent in Cuba. He is also credited with a .610 batting average in exhibition games against major league competition, many of which took place while Poles was in Cuba.

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Jimmie Crutchfield:

http://www.pitchblackbaseball.com/images/jimmiecrutchfield.jpg

The 5'7" 150-lb righthanded-hitting Crutchfield was an excellent bat-handler, a fast runner, and a reliable outfielder.

He batted .286 his rookie year for the 1930 Birmingham Black Barons, and in 1931 he moved to the Indianapolis ABC's and batted .330, believed to be his career high.

When the financially troubled ABC's were unable to pay most of their players, Crutchfield jumped to the Pittsburgh Crawfords, with whom he stayed for five years, making the squad for the East-West all-star game three times.

He played for the Newark Eagles in 1937and Crutchfield made the all-star team in 1941 as a member of the Chicago American Giants.

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I heard Jackie isn't coming here anymore unless he patches things up with Dodger Deb. I will keep this going for him. I hope he doesn't delete his pictures on this thread, because he has been deleting a lot of his pictures in the Brooklyn Dodgers forum. Hopefully he leaves these alone.

Anyway, the pictures and profiles will continue. Hopefully Jackie will also be able to contribute soon.

Quincy Trouppe:

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/photos/Trouppe_Quincy.jpg

Trouppe was an all-star Negro League catcher who also performed in the Mexican League, Canadian Provincial League, and for the crack semi-pro Bismarck, ND club.

He played 14 winters in Latin America and barnstormed with black all-star teams playing white major leaguers. In the twilight of his career, he appeared in 6 games for the 1952 Cleveland Indians and 84 games for their Triple-A farm club.

A lifetime .300 hitter, he batted as high as .352 for Chicago in the 1948 Negro American League. He started for the West in five all-star games, four as a catcher in 1945-48.

He managed the Cleveland Buckeyes to NAL titles in 1945 and 1947. He was also a nationally recognized amateur boxer who won a major heavyweight tournament title in 1936

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Willard Brown:

http://www.nlbpa.com/brown_willard.jpg

WILLARD BROWN

In July 1947 the St. Louis Browns were the worst team in major league baseball. In hopes of improving their fortunes, the Browns purchased the contracts of Henry Thompson and Willard Brown from the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs. The St. Louis Gazette-Democrat called the move "an eyebrow-lifting experiment." Thompson and Brown became the first black teammates in the major leagues. The move provoked a mixed response in a city many considered part of the South.

Brown, 36 at the time, lasted 21 games with the St. Louis Browns and was released after batting .179. He became the first black American Leaguer to hit a home run during his short stay with the last-place team. He returned to the Negro League and batted .374 with 18 homers in 1948 and .317 in 1949, ending his Negro League career with a .355 batting average.

Willard Brown had already spent a legendary career as one of the best players in the Negro Leagues. A powerful and fast slugger with a 40-ounce bat, Brown had grown up in Shreveport, Louisiana and had once been the Monarchs' spring training bat boy. He played his first games for the Monarchs in 1935.

Willard Brown let his bat speak for him in the winter following his release from the Browns. In the Puerto Rican Winter League, Brown hit 27 home runs while winning the league's Triple Crown. He won the Negro American League batting title in 1951 with a .417 average. In 22 years of professional baseball, Willard Brown hit for a combined average of .305 including .352 in the Negro Leagues. He is often considered the best home run hitter not included in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Rickwood Field:

http://www.nlbpa.com/rickwood3.jpg

This is the oldest baseball park in America. Rickwood Field was the passionate pursuit of a young Birmingham industrialist, Rick Woodward.

Woodward soon opened Rickwood Field up to another Birmingham team: the Birmingham Black Barons. African-American baseball fans could now go to Rickwood and watch "their" own team play at home, in a prestigious ballpark famous throughout the baseball leagues.

Woodward allowed the Black Barons to play every other week at Rickwood; the white Barons team would play on the alternating week.

Despite the inclusion of the Black Barons, race relations were not rosy at Rickwood. Black fans were allowed to attend white Barons' games, but could not sit with white fans. African-American fans sat in a separate set of stands behind the outer right field wall.

Every other Sunday, though, the roles reversed. When the Black Barons played, the African-American fans flooded the park. Black fans filled the park; they sometimes had to set up extra bleachers on the grass inside the outfield walls just to accompany all of the fans. Any white fans who showed up to watch the great baseball being played by the Black Barons and their opponents found themselves sitting in the separate set of bleachers past right field, just where African-American fans had to sit during Barons' games.

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http://www.nlbpa.com/AllStarBball.jpg

Baseball from the Negro Leagues East-West all-star game of 1937. Buck Leonard, first baseman for the Homestead Grays, hit a home run to help the East win, 7-2, and kept this baseball as a souvenir of the game.

In 1947, when racial integration of major-league baseball effectively ended the need for the Negro Leagues, this baseball became a piece of history. Leonard, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, saved this ball for nearly forty-five years before finally donating it to the Smithsonian in 1981.

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Jose Mendez (also known as "The Black Diamond"):

http://www.nlbpa.com/Mendez_Jose.jpg

Negro League teams played for: Brooklyn Royal Giants (1908), Cuban Stars (1909-12), All Nations (1912-17), Chicago American Giants (1918), Detroit Stars (1919), Kansas City Monarchs (1920-26)

Positions: Pitcher, Shortstop, Second Baseman, Third Baseman, Outfielder, Manager HEIGHT: 5’8" WEIGHT: 155 lbs.

José Méndez was perhaps the first Latino baseball legend ever. In his homeland of Cuba, they called him "El Diamante Negro," The Black Diamond.

Barred from the major leagues because of his dark skin, The Black Diamond nonetheless sparkled in Cuban baseball and the Negro Leagues in the United States. During the first quarter of the 20th century, there was no better pitcher. That was the opinion of many, including the great major league manager John McGraw. .It was in Cuba that El Diamante Negro regularly beat the greatest major league pitchers in exhibition games. Sometimes, when Méndez walked into restaurants in Cuba, people stood up and clapped.

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Ray Brown:

http://www.nlbpa.com/Brown_Raymond_photo.jpg

Ray Brown played for Cum Posey's Homestead Grays from 1932-45 and married Posey's daughter before moving on to Mexico (1946-49) and the Canadian Provincial League (1950-53).

He started the 1935 East-West all-star game, threw a no-hitter for Santa Clara (Cuban Winter League) in 1936, and pitched them to the 1938 Cuban crown. He was 9-3 for the 1944 Black World Champion Homestead Grays, and threw a one-hit shutout in the World Series.

In 1945, he had a seven-inning perfect game for the Grays. He helped Sherbrooke to the 1951 Provincial title with an 11-10 record and a 3.31 ERA.

A good batter who switch-hit at times, he often played the outfield and pinch hit. He was one of five players mentioned as being of major league caliber in a 1938 wire sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates by The Pittsburgh Courier. The other four were Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, and Satchel Paige.

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Alex Pompez:

http://www.nlbpa.com/Pompez_Alejandro.jpg

Alejandro ‘Alex’ Pompez, a black Cuban American who owned the New York Cubans for the duration of the Negro National League. He also served as Vice President of the Negro National League.

Pompez was at one time a “numbers broker” and one of the wealthiest men in Harlem, but by the 40's had "gone straight" and concentrated on his New York Cubans. In 1947, the New York Cubans won the Negro World Series, but Pompez could see the writing on the wall, and realized that the Negro Leagues had seen their best days.

The following year, he arranged for his Cubans to be a farm club for the major league New York Giants. Giants owner, Horace Stoneham tapped into Pompez's knowledge of the Caribbean, and was able to sign many Latin players such as Orlando Cepeda, Pedro Ramos, Camilo Pascual and Tony Oliva through Pompez. One player that eluded Pompez’s scouting efforts - on June 7, 1950, Alex Pompez submitted a report recommending the signing of a right-handed pitched named Fidel Castro!

Alex Pomez has been elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame and was a member of the Hall of Fame’s special committee for the Negro Leagues.

[Cubano100%]

You can click the link to read the article and see pictures!http://campello.tripod.com/firstblackinbaseball.html


Before El Duque There was Luque
and Before Robinson There was Estalella

By F. Lennox Campello
This is a summary of a book currently being finished by the author. All words are copyright 2000-2003 by the author.

We all owe a tremendous debt to Jackie Robinson. Not only because of Major League baseball integration, but more importantly, because of the significant advancement of race relations worldwide that was the real aftermath of his actions during and after his baseball career. His sacrifices must never be forgotten or diminished, and Robinson was and will always be a hero, not just for Americans, but for mankind.

Also important, and rarely discussed, are the Latin American baseball players, some of African ancestry, who played in the Majors before Robinson. These men, like Robinson, were often showered with abuses and insults, and like Robinson, were required to ignore these insults, but unlike Robinson, have now faded into forgotten pages of baseball history. I believe that these men played a crucial part in paving the way for Robinson. I also believe that they helped Branch Rickey to gather the courage to break officially the color line. And equally important, they helped the other team owners and white baseball players to accept African-Americans and other players of color, into the Major Leagues.

This story is all about the Cubans, and the American confusion between race and ethnicity and the racist notion of the "one drop rule." At the heart of the story is the fact that Caucasian Cubans who could prove pure European ancestry were allowed to play in the United States, and many American white players played professional winter baseball in Cuba. In Cuba professional baseball was fully integrated (curiously though, amateur Cuban baseball was segregated and only white Cubans could play in amateur teams). As a result of this background, American baseball team owners saw first-hand many great Cuban players of all shades and races play in Cuba, and some of the more enterprising ones began to test the limits and patience of a racist society by introducing some of them to the US public many years before Robinson. But let us first review a little history.

Enter Baseball

Although Cuban baseball legend has it that the native "Taino" Indians really invented the sport, baseball started to happen in Cuba around 1865. It was then that American students studying in the island taught fellow Cuban students how to play the sport. The game spread quickly, mostly due to the fact that the sons of wealthy Cuban families usually studied in American universities, where baseball was also spreading quite rapidly. Apparently the first organized baseball game in Cuba took place on December 27, 1874, when the Havana team beat the Matanzas team 51-9 at "El Palmar del Junco" baseball field. One of the Havana players was named Esteban Bellan, a catcher who was the first Cuban and the first Latin American to play major league baseball. Bellan learned how to play baseball while he was a student at Fordham University from 1863-1868.

During his time at Fordham, Bellan played for the newly created Fordham Rose Hill Baseball Club. This was the team that history tells us played the first ever nine-man team college baseball game in the United States against St. Francis Xavier College on November 3, 1859. In 1868 Bellan began to play for the Unions of Morrisania, an upstate New York team. A year later he joined the Troy Haymakers for whom he played third base until 1872. In 1871 the Haymakers had joined the National Association, which became the National League in 1876. The Haymakers later became the New York Giants, now the San Francisco Giants. Later on Bellan was instrumental, both as a player and manager, in establishing professional baseball in Cuba in 1878. He died in 1932.

As early as 1889, the US Major Leagues showed interest in Cuban players, when the legendary John McGraw, who visited Cuba regularly and eventually kept a permanent apartment in Havana, tried to sign a Cuban player named Antonio Maria Garcia (nicknamed "The Englishman" apparently because he was so fair of hair, eyes and skin). Garcia declined, since he was making a higher salary playing in Cuba.

In 1900, a Cuban player named Luis Padron (who as a pitcher had lead the Cuban league in wins and also in hits) was asked to try out with the Chicago White Sox. However, when doubts as to his racial purity were raised, the White Sox immediately released him and he never played. A couple of years later, John McGraw brought to the US a Cuban player named Luis "Anguilla" Bustamante, who he called "the perfect short stop." Unfortunately for Bustamante, who was half black, his timing was off by half a century. Hearing of Bustamante's prowess, around 1903-4, Clark Griffith, then with the New York Highlanders (later the Yankees), had Bustamante brought up for a try-out. As soon as Griffith saw Bustamante, according to Angel Torres, author of "The Baseball Bible," Griffith ended the try-out and simply said: "Too chocolate."

Let's now move the clock forward to 1910, when four Cubans debut in the Minor Leagues: Armando Marsans, Rafael Almeida, Alfredo Cabrera and a second chance for Luis Padron. They play for the New Britain Class B team of the Connecticut League and a year later Marsans and Almeida begin to play for Cincinnati, and that's truly when the issue of race becomes a question in the mind of ignorant racists.

As published in the Cincinnati Tribune on June 23, 1911: The Reds have signed two players from the Connecticut league who have Spanish blood in their veins and are very dark skinned. As soon as the news spread that the Reds were negotiating for the Cubans a protest went up from the fans against introducing Cuban talent into the ranks of the major leagues.

Cuban baseball legend has it that when August Herrmann, the president and owner of the Cincinnati Reds, went to the train station to meet them, he gasped when he saw two young black men come out of the train, and that he even approached them first. But they were not the Cubans. The two Cubans had an escort who had brought them to Cincinnati, and he in turn approached and spoke to a shaky Herrmann, who then met the Cubans for the first time. Herrmann was pleased and relieved about their appearance. They were not, as it was incorrectly reported in the next day's paper, "small and swarthy in complexion," "practically no effects of the tropical heat and sun." The Reds appeased the alarmed fans by assuring them that both of these players were of pure European blood. In fact, this was true, as according to Cuban sources and accounts of the times, Marsans was the son of Catalan immigrants to Cuba, and Almeida the son of Portuguese immigrants. This case of first generation Cubans was not that unusual in Cuba during the 1800s (both of them had been born in 1887) and even more after the Spanish-American War. The new nation had just achieved independence from Spain in 1898, and was in the midst of receiving large immigration waves from Europe. The large numbers of immigrants so alarmed native-born Cubans, that afraid that they would be outnumbered by European immigrants, Cuba severely curtailed immigration in the 1930s. In fact, according to Hugh Thomas, in the first decade of the 1900s alone, nearly 200,000 European immigrants arrived in Cuba. Considering that the 1899 census noted that there were around 1.5 million people in the island, this immigration wave, together with significant immigration by Chinese and Eastern European Jews in the 1920s, had a significant impact on Cuban society and ethnic diversity.

To make matters worse for Marsans and Almeida, it was customary with Cuban and other Latin American players, regardless of race, to play in the US Negro Leagues. In doing so, players could play year round: summer in the US and winter in Cuba. Both Marsans and Almeida had earlier played in the Negro Leagues.

This probably complicated things for Herrmann, and to further appease the fans, the Reds required that both Cubans bring notarized paperwork from the Cuban authorities, certifying that Marsans and Almeida were indeed white of unmixed blood. Eventually the Cincinnati press must have been convinced of the racial purity of the Cubans, as a story appeared indicating that the Cubans were "two of the purest bars of Castille soap that ever floated to these shores." It is ironic that neither of the two Cubans was actually of any Castillian ancestry, but Catalan and Portuguese. It is also ironic, and erroneous, that several instances in recent books about Cuban baseball, by American authors, claim that either Marsans or Almeida was half black (and thus the first black person to play in the MLB). However, Cuban sources, such as Gonzalez Echavarria and Angel Torres, as well as the Cuban press of the time, clearly agree that both Marsans and Almeida were "blancos." The unofficial honor of being the first player of evident African ancestry would fall on the broad shoulders of another Cuban a couple of decades later.

Cubans will also tell you that Marsans had accompanied Almeida as an interpreter, but when the Reds also tested him out, he ended up being the better player of the two and was also signed. Almeida played for the Reds for three years and Marsans ended up playing for many years for Cincinnati, St. Louis and the New York Yankees. In 1924 he also became the first Latin American to manage a professional US team, when he became the manager of the Elmira team.

The uniquely American cultural ignorance about the difference between ethnicity and race continues to this day (especially when dealing with whom we now refer to as "Latinos" or "Hispanics"), as Marsans and Almeida are still often referred to in articles and magazines as "light-skinned Cubans." It is as if the fact that they were born in a Caribbean island had somehow mutated their racial ancestry. Although the abuse heaped upon them by newspapers, fans and other players eventually diminished, these two Cuban men played a key role in cracking open the race door, which would not open fully for many years later.

In 1912, Miguel Angel Gonzalez made his debut with the Boston Braves, and had a batting average above 300 for the four years that he played (1915-18) for the St. Louis Cardinals. Gonzalez spent 17 years in the majors, and also played for the Reds and Chicago Cubs.

But Gonzalez's true contribution to the story is more profound than his modest .253 career batting average. In 1934, with his playing days over, he was hired as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1938 he was the interim manager for the Cardinals, becoming the first Latin American manager ever in the Major Leagues. He was fired in 1946 as a result of the famous controversy between MLB and Mexican baseball. Gonzalez is also one of the patriarchs of Cuban baseball, as he managed or controlled the legendary Cuban baseball team Havana Reds from 1914 until the end of professional baseball in Cuba in 1960.

Gonzalez tenure as both a coach in the US Major Leagues (in the photo we see Gonzalez (left) with manager Frankie Frisch and coach Buzzie Wares in the 1930s St. Louis Gas House Gang) as well as the Cuban professional leagues, had a profound impact on the constant flow of both Cuban players up north, and white American players to join integrated Cuban teams during the winter. This unique opportunity in Cuba for black and white American players, together with Cubans and other Latin Americans, to share a baseball diamond, was crucial to the eventual integration of MLB, and Gonzalez must be credited for his very important part in this tortured effort.

Enter Adolfo "Dolf" Luque

But the true patriarch and legendary superman of Cuban baseball, was without a doubt, Adolfo Luque, known in the US as Dolph or Dolf Luque. Much has been written about Luque and his impact on Cuban baseball (none better that Roberto Gonzalez Echavarria's The Pride of Havana). However, I believe that Luque's contribution to how US owners, fans, newscasters and players viewed Latin American players, as well as his outgoing, aggressive personality, and ability to float back and forth between professional Cuban and American baseball at all levels of organization, delivered a key ingredient for the eventual breaking of the race barrier.

Luque was the first true Latin American star of the Major Leagues. He won nearly 200 games, played in nine World Series, and in 1918 had an astonishing 27 and 8 record with a 1.93 ERA while playing with the Cincinnati Reds. He was also a man who did not take insults from anyone, and according to Gonzalez Echavarria, he was a "snarling, vulgar, cursing, aggressive pug, who, although small at five-seven, was always ready to fight." These characteristics served Luque well in the racist environment of the early 20th century MLB. Although he was very fair and blue-eyed, and no one could distinguish him from the other white players until he opened his mouth, Luque was nonetheless the butt of many racial insults, to which he usually responded with brutal beanballs. Once, while pitching for Cincinnati, Luque heard insults coming from the Giants' dugout. The fiery Cuban charged the dugout and punched Casey Stengel in the mouth (Stengel later claimed it wasn't him who had called Luque a "Cuban ******," but it was the man seated next to him, Bill Cunningham). The police sent Luque back to his bench, but his Cincinnati teammates took over the fighting to restore Luque's honor, and a near riot began. In the chaos of the fighting, Luque grabbed a bat and headed back to the Giants dugout. Order was finally restored and both Luque and Stengel were ejected. It was not the first time that the aggressive Luque had taken matters into his own hands, for earlier in his career he had also fired a ball into his own dugout and chased one of his own teammates with an ice pick.

Luque died in 1957, after playing in the Majors from 1914-1935. After his playing career ended, he returned and began coaching in 1941 in the US Major Leagues and also managed several teams in the Cuban League (he even pitched in a game in 1946, when he was pushing 55) as well as many other teams in Latin America.

Adolfo Luque's overall impact upon the world of professional baseball certainly merits his inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where many lesser players of his era are included. As his New York Times obituary testifies to, Luque was a respected coach in the Major Leagues, and like Gonzalez, had a significant part in helping to establish Latin American players as part of the national game. Because of his temper, Luque also commanded a respect, sometimes out of fear, that also played a key part in the acceptance of Latin American players, and helped immeasurably in paving the road for Robinson and all the others who followed in his steps. As Hemingway wrote in The Old Man and the Sea: "Who is the greatest manager, really, Luque or Mike Gonzalez? -- I think they are equal."

Between 1911 and 1929, seventeen Cuban-born Caucasian players played in the Major Leagues and many more, both black and white, in the Negro Leagues. Somehow, along the line, and probably helped by the full acceptance by MLB of players and coaches like Gonzalez and Luque, and clearly assisted by the exposure of American owners, white players and managers to Cuban baseball players, the pedigree requirement for obvious "whiteness" was discarded. As a result, in 1935, a Cuban of clearly defined African features makes his debut with the Washington Senators.

Enter Roberto "Tarzan" Estalella
There exists a fairy tale perception in the United States of a Cuban society that is a fully integrated, equal society where race doesn't matter, and everyone lives in a happy melting pot where the races mix and blend and racism is not a problem. Nothing could be further from the truth, even today (especially with the revival of tourism), and while many advances have been made for racial equality in Cuba, this perception diminishes the suffering and pain that Afro-Cubans, like African-Americans, have had to endure for centuries. Cuba even had a race war in 1912, in which thousands of Afro-Cuban militants, demanding equal rights, were massacred in a matter of weeks by the Cuban Army. This genocide was the most dramatic example of how white Cuban rulers responded to demands for racial equality at the same time that Marsans and Almeida were playing in the Major Leagues.

As Roberto Gonzalez Echavarria eloquently discusses in his book The Pride of Havana), Cuban baseball was curiously integrated at the professional level while being racially segregated at the amateur level. The image to the left says it all: It is the 1914 amateur team of the Central Soledad, a sugar mill plant near Guantanamo. The vast majority of Central Soledad's people were black Cubans, many of Jamaican and Haitian ancestry, and yet not one black man is represented in the team.

The Cuban baseball racial paradox is perhaps inexplicable to Americans, but made perfect sense in the racist Cuban society of the 20th century, which even allowed a President of mixed blood (the tyrant Fulgencio Batista) to take over the government in 1933, and yet refused him membership into the Havana Yacht Club, which only allowed white members.

But in professional Cuban baseball, black and white Cuban players, together with black and white professional American players and newscasters, as well as visiting US Major League teams, played in curious indifference to the racial division of baseball in the United States, and clearly showed Americans that black players - both Cuban and American - could play on an equal level to the MLB visitors.

[B]Roberto Estalella was a handsome, powerful man, and his muscular appearance earned him the nickname "Tarzan." He was also a man of evident African features, who in Cuba would not have been called black, but perhaps mulatto, or in the Cuban slang "jabao," which is the equivalent of the term "high yellow" used by African Americans to describe a light skinned person with some African ancestry, although in Cuba, "jabao" is not a pejorative or derogatory term.
Estalella's professional US career started with Albany in 1934 and then he played for nine seasons with the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia A's and also for other Minor League teams in the Deep South (he played for Charlotte and he also led the Piedmont League in batting two years in a row in 1937 and 1938). He would have played many more years, but he was one of the players fined by MLB for his part in the Mexican League fiasco of the 1940s.

What tribulations Estalella must have endured! He was no blue-eyed Luque, able to blend in visually, and certainly in the Deep South, no one was fooled by the owners' claim that Estalella was not black but Cuban. But the spectacular deception worked, at least on paper, and this talented athlete thus became the first man of recognizable African ancestry to play Major League Baseball in the US. Were there players before Estalella who had some African blood? Probably, as race mixing was not a unique Cuban phenomenon, and there are many instances of "white" American players with African features being passed as "Indian" and being abused by fans and other players (in fact, recent DNA studies show that as many as 50 million white Americans have a black ancestor in their family tree).

Babe Ruth was perhaps the most famous example of this point. "Ruth was racially insulted so often that many people assumed that he was indeed partly black and that at some point in time he, or an immediate ancestor, had managed to cross the color line," wrote Ruth biographer Robert W. Creamer. "Even players in the Negro baseball leagues that flourished then believed this and generally wished the Babe, whom they considered a secret brother, well in his conquest of white baseball."

While there's no evidence that Ruth had any black ancestors, the racist American belief that any possibility of African blood immediately makes the person "black" was disregarded in the case of Estalella, and later in the case of Tomas de la Cruz, another Cuban player of obvious African ancestry who played for Cincinnati in 1944, as well as a Cuban of Chinese ancestry, Manuel "Chino" Hidalgo, who was signed by the Senators and played in the Minor Leagues, but never broke into the majors. Hidalgo was probably the first man of Asian ancestry to play in organized professional baseball in the US.

Another Cuban baseball legend is the story of Branch Rickey and black Cuban player, Silvio Garcia. If we are to believe many Cuban stories of the times, Branch Rickey started to seriously consider that the best strategy to break the color barrier would be by bringing a black Cuban player to the major leagues. His initial choice was a very good Cuban shortstop, Silvio García. According to Edel Casas, the noted Cuban baseball historian, Rickey met with García in Havana in 1945 to explore the possibility of bringing Garcia to the Dodgers. As he would later do with Robinson, Rickey interviewed García and asked him: "What would you do if a white American slapped your face?" García's response was succint and sincere. "I kill him," he answered. Needless to say, García was never a choice after that.

In 1947, after Robinson finally broke the racial barrier for African-Americans, many black Cubans followed in his steps, in many cases becoming the first black players in many MLB teams. None of these was greater than Orestes Miñoso, called "Minnie" in the United States. On April 19, 1949 Miñoso made his debut with the Cleveland Indians, and became the first black Cuban and Afro Latin American to play major league baseball. He collected 1,963 hits in his career and became the second major leaguer to play in five different decades. However, like their American colleagues, many other earlier great black Cubans, such as the legendary Martin Dihigo, now in the Hall of Fame, never had a chance to play in the Majors.

It is thanks to the forgotten accomplishments of white Cuban players such as Gonzalez and Luque, and the hidden sacrifices of Cubans of color like Estalella and de la Cruz, and to the final smashing of the color barrier, accomplishments and sacrifices by Robinson, that many of today's stars of color from Latin America, Asia and the United States owe their success. Great black Latin American players of all nationalities, such as "El Duque" Hernandez, Tony Oliva, the great Roberto Clemente and the record-breaking king of the long ball, Sammy Sosa are still breaking new barriers and records even in the 21st century, but they stand of the shoulders of those brave men who played in a brutal field where race was used as a weapon to diminish and destroy.

And perhaps there is no link more brilliant to this past than Roberto Estalella's grandson, Bobby, who carries the great baseball tradition of this unheralded hero of the past.


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[ecc]

I am researching Bill Mellor, 1874-1940, Baltimore Orioles 1902, for the Burrillville, RI, High School Athletic Hall of Fame. From Mellor's obit I understand he managed the East Douglas team in the 1920's, perhaps finishing that career in 1929. I have not yet been able to locate archives releative to this team. Am most interested, Jackie, in that 1929 photo of Jackman with the team, and the reference to Lefty Grove and Wes Farrell in East Douglas in 1927. I am interested to know if any such photos have been posted on-line, and any archival sources you know concerning the East Douglas team and the Blackstone Valley Industrial League.

Ecc


Jackie,

Thanks. The HOF has about a dozen photos of Jackman; most taken late in his life.

My favorite is the East Douglas team of the semi-pro East Douglas, Massachusetts team in the Blackstone Valley League. The photo apparently was taken in 1929 and Jackman is the only non-white in the photo. He is standing next to teammate Hank Greenberg.

Both Wes Ferrell and Lefty Grove pitched for the East Douglas team in 1927, though at different times. Ferrell was a college kid playing there for the summer before signing with the Indians. Grove pitched a post-season game there for big bucks.

There has been a game located that Ferrell pitched against the Philadelphia Colored Giants in the summer of 1927. Ferrell was working for Jesse Burkett's Town Talk team out of Worcester, Massachusetts. Ferrell pitched and won, 5-1. Jackman did not pitch in that game, but played in the outfield.

[E.Banks#14]

4865
Jackie Robinson - 1944 Kansas City Monarchs

[E.Banks#14]

4866
Josh Gibson on the Crawford Colored Giants

[E.Banks#14]

4867
Oscar Charleston

[E.Banks#14]

4868
Kansas City Monarchs vs. Indianapolis Clowns program

[E.Banks#14]

4869
Oscar Charleston, Rap Dixon, Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, and Jud Wilson

[E.Banks#14]

4870
Satchel Paige's "Pitchin' Man"

[E.Banks#14]

4979
Bill Foster of the Chicago American Giants following through on a pitch. A picture of some girls has been pasted to the top of the photo, possibly by Foster himself.

[E.Banks#14]

49804981
Buck Leonard's contract to play for the Mayaguez-India team in the 1940-41 Puerto Rican Winter League season

[E.Banks#14]

4983
Chicago American Giants pitching staff in 1933 or 1934 - Bill Foster, Ted Trent, Sug Cornelius, Putt Powell, and one unnamed

[E.Banks#14]

4985
Chicago American Giants 1919 team photo; Rube Foster is in a suit; Oscar Charleston is in the top row second from the right

[Dennie Cunningham]

A few notes on a couple of the other players pictured, from James A. Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of Negro Baseball Leagues (a fantastic book, BTW):

"[Walter Ball] was one of the best pitchers of the early decades of black baseball. At the end of the first decade of the century, he, Rube Foster, Dan McLellan,and Harry Buckner were considered head-and-shoulders above other moundsmen. He was a smart pitcher with good control, and made frequent use of the spitball, but was not a power pitcher. Off the field, the premier hurler was noted for his sartorial splendour, wearing tailored suits and earning a reputation as the 'swellest' dresser.

"Ball pitched for eighteen years (1906-1923), primarily on Chicago-based teams, including the Leland Giants, Chicago Giants, Chicago Union Giants, and the Chicago American Giants. He also played with the Milwaukee Giants, and was one of the first black pitchers to play in the Cuban winter league, spending three winters on the island."

"A fleet-footed, slightly bowlegged, sharp-hitting center fielder during the deadball era, Spot Poles usually batted in the leadoff position to utilize his incredible speed, which was comparable to Cool Papa Bell. Once in spring traing he was clocked under 10 seconds for the 100-yard dash. A left-handed batter, he watched the ball all the way to his bat, and consistently hit for a high average. He was also a good bunter, but despite a stocky build and arms described as massive for his size, he had only moderate power. in the field he had excellent range, good hands, and an accurate arm. An intense competitor, he was confident but not cocky in his baseball ability."

Poles played from 1909 to 1923, and remained in the game as a coach after his retirement. During World War One, he served in the US Army as a Sergeant in the 369th Infantry Division, earning five battle stars and a Purple Heart for his service in France. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

John McGraw said that Poles was one of the four black players he would pick for the major leagues if the color line was erased; Paul Robeson ranked him with Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, and Jack Johnson as one of the greatest black atheletes he had seen.
Walter Ball also pitched for the St. Cloud team of 1902, his LAST year playing with a white team. This team won the 1902 Northern LEague title.

[Dennie Cunningham]

I obtained a photo of Walter Ball playing for the 1902 St Cloud Minn. baseball team, being the only black player on the team, making it a very early intergrated team. He went on the next year playing in the pre negro leagues. Was a very dominate pitcher for his day. By the time the Negro Leagues started in 1920, his career was pretty much over..........

[Paul Wendt]

I obtained a photo of Walter Ball playing for the 1902 St Cloud Minn. baseball team, being the only black player on the team, making it a very early intergrated team. He went on the next year playing in the pre negro leagues. Was a very dominate pitcher for his day. By the time the Negro Leagues started in 1920, his career was pretty much over..........

That is also a very late integrated team. According to the list by Bob Davids (deceased), Appendix 16 in Sol White's History of Colored Baseball, U of Nebraska edition, here are the numbers of black players in Organized Baseball after 1893, known to historians about 15 years ago.

1894
New England League, 2 players on 1 team (10g and 2g)

1895
Michigan State League, 6 players on 1 team (three regulars)
Kansas State League, 1 player

1896
Kansas State League, 2 players on 2 teams
Colorado State League, 1

1897
Kansas State League, 1

1898
Kansas State League, 2 players on 2 teams

1899
Canadian League, 1 (5 games)

Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright summarize the 20th century before Jackie Robinson:
I]n the first decade of the 20th century, a player by the name of Dick Brookins played several seasons in the Wisconsin State and Western Canada Leagues from 1906-1910. The following season, Bill Thompson played for Bellows Falls, Vermont in the Twin State League. Finally, in 1916, a pitcher named Jimmy Claxton pitched in two games for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. Despite his short stint, Claxton received a baseball card, becoming the first African-American so honored.
--Weiss & Wright, "Top 100 Teams: Team #84 -- 1946 Montreal Royals" (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/top100.jsp?idx=84)
Thompson was a regular player in 1911. That story is featured in SABR's annual journal The National Pastime about ten years ago, article by Seamus Kearney.

Then Jackie Robinson in 1946.
It's a northern and western story, of course.

[Moses Fleetwood-Walker]

Another excellent post. Thank you for your contributions gentlemen.

Finally, in 1916, a pitcher named Jimmy Claxton pitched in two games for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. Despite his short stint, Claxton received a baseball card, becoming the first African-American so honored.

Does anyone know if a pic of Claxton's card is available on the net?

[Paul Wendt]

Does anyone know if a pic of Claxton's card is available on the net?

Jimmy Claxton biography at BlackAthlete.net (http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_01933.shtml)
$7200 for an original graded 3 on a 10-point scale.

Vaguely I recall that it was reproduced full-page size, as an illustration inside or on the cover of a book. But I can't place it and you know what vague means.

[Moses Fleetwood-Walker]

Jimmy Claxton biography at BlackAthlete.net (http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_01933.shtml)
$7200 for an original graded 3 on a 10-point scale.

Vaguely I recall that it was reproduced full-page size, as an illustration inside or on the cover of a book. But I can't place it and you know what vague means.

Thank you kindly sir for that link and info. Have a blessed day.