Introduction: From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes

From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes is the eighth in a series of SABR Digital Library books about the great Negro League teams of the first half of the twentieth century.

Until the emergence of the Buckeyes in 1942, no Negro League team formed in Cleveland survived more than a year. The timely combination of business manager Wilbur Hayes’ business acumen and owner Ernie Wright’s financial backing offered more than sufficient traction for the team to gain a foothold in the Forest City and establish its presence throughout the 1940s, even in the face of the challenges of the World War II years. The team would also gain some prominence with a couple of Negro American League pennants and its 1945 Negro League World Series triumph. However, things changed for the Buckeyes, as they did for all Negro League teams, after Jackie Robinson broke the White major-league color barrier in 1947 and the slow trickle of Black ballplayers into the American and National Leagues began. By 1949 Hayes, having bought out Wright, sought to mitigate the team’s financial losses by moving it to Louisville. This effort failed, and the team moved back to Cleveland, only to still fail as fans shifted their allegiance to American and National League teams (and their minor-league affiliates), where the more promising Black ballplayers were now situated.

The high-water mark for the Buckeyes was undoubtedly 1945, when they won the Negro American League title and then, against all odds, defeated the perennial Negro National League champion Homestead Grays four games to none in the Negro League World Series.

This book provides a detailed account of the Buckeyes with essays about the players and the team officials who led the team to its World Series triumph. A complete season timeline, the story of League Park and Cleveland Stadium, where the Buckeyes played, the cultural context of the time, and articles about some standout games are also included. Biographies range from those for Wright and Hayes to Cleveland’s standout players – Sam Jethroe, Archie Ware, Willie Grace, and Eugene Bremer – as well as player-manager Quincy Trouppe and the many position and role players the team employed. All offer an in-depth window into the makeup of the team and the journey each of these players was on, not only in 1945, but through their entire careers.

In addition to the players with biographies published in this book, a handful of players were identified in The Negro Leagues Book (1994), edited by Dick Clark and Larry Lester, as well as in James A. Riley’s extensive work, The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues, or on Seamheads, as having appeared at some point with the Buckeyes in 1945. There are few if any details on most of these players; the transient nature of players led to their ephemeral appearances on the roster or even just the occasional bench warming at best in any given year. As in prior books about the great Negro League teams, we note it is inevitable that we find players who cannot be identified or about whom we can find no evidence of their participation in the year on which the book is focused.

The following individuals have been omitted from this book for such reasons. That said, while they do not merit stand-alone essays, and their appearance in a 1945 Buckeyes game is in fact uncertain, we honor them by this listing and hope that a future researcher might unearth more details about their lives and baseball careers.

• [First Name?] Breese. No reference to a Breese appears in Riley’s or Lester and Clark’s books. However, Seamheads and Retrosheet show a “Breese” (first name and any other particulars unknown) having appeared as a pinch-hitter in a Buckeyes box score in 1945. Breese went 0-for-1. Retrosheet has him in a June 20, 1945, game against the Chicago American Giants played in Muncie, Indiana, a game won by Chicago 5-4.
• Rayford Finch. Finch shows up in Retrosheet as having pitched in four exhibition games, all in April. Riley notes his play for the Louisville Buckeyes in 1949 and the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1950 as well as appearances in the ManDak League with Elmwood in 1950 and 1951 and then Winnipeg in 1952. Riley also noted that Finch’s “last season in organized baseball was with Danville in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League in 1953, when he managed only a 1-2 ledger.” He was born on July 12, 1924, in Glascock County, Georgia, and died on May 20, 1956, at the age of 31, place of death unknown.1
• Jefferson Guiwn (or Guinn). Guiwn may have appeared for the Buckeyes in 1945, as suggested by Clark and Lester, but neither Seamheads nor Retrosheet has a record of him in their database. Both Riley and Clark and Lester show him playing as a catcher in the 1943-1944 seasons, as a wartime reserve.2 There is no information about his origins, birth, or death.
• Nap Gulley. A left-handed pitcher and outfielder, Gulley played throughout most of the 1940s. He was born on August 29, 1924, in Huttig, Arkansas. Riley wrote, “This lefthanded hurler had a good fastball, but his ‘out pitch’ was an overhand drop-curveball.”3 Seamheads does not show him as having played for the Buckeyes in 1945, but Clark and Lester and also Riley do.4 Retrosheet identifies four games in which Gulley appeared, from mid-April to mid-May. Gulley started an April 13 game against the New York Cubans in Fort Worth, Texas, giving up six runs in four innings. He appeared in three subsequent games, all against the Chicago American Giants. Seamheads captures his play in 1943 for the Buckeyes and then time with the Newark Eagles in 1947. He died on August 21, 1999, in Skokie, Illinois, at the age of 74.
• Lovell Harden. Lovell “Big Pitch” Harden was a right-handed pitcher born in Lauderdale, Mississippi, on December 17, 1917. Seamheads captures his limited play in 1944 and 1945 for a total of four games over both years. However, Retrosheet identifies 17 games in 1945 in which Harden appeared – eight exhibition games and nine regular-season games in which he either started or relieved. His only other season in the Negro Leagues was 1944, when he pitched in 18 games for the Buckeyes. He died in Erie, Pennsylvania, on November 15, 1996.
• Phelbert Lawson. Right-handed pitcher Lawson shows up in Seamheads as having started one game and thrown two-thirds of an inning for Cleveland in 1945. He was relieved by Satchel Davis, who finished the game on August 1, 1945, against the Baltimore Elite Giants in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The game ended in a 5-5 tie. He walked two, struck out one, and gave up two runs, both earned, with a home run. The math was not kind; it led to a 27.00 ERA. Lawson was born in Washington, Virginia, on October 22, 1919, and died in Canton, Ohio, on January 5, 2001. His one-game appearance for the Buckeyes is his only recorded time in the Negro Leagues.
• Willie McCarey. There is no record of McCarey in Seamheads for 1945, but he is captured in 1944 as having pitched in three games, one for the Buckeyes in which he picked up a win in relief despite giving up three runs in four innings. He also appeared in two games for the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns. There is also no record of his birth or death. Riley wrote, “A wartime player, he appeared briefly with the Cleveland Buckeyes, but his playing time was severely restricted.”5
• George (or Al) Minor. Minor had a good stint with the Buckeyes, first appearing with them in 1944 through 1948. Although Riley states that he played in 1945, Seamheads’ depiction of his time with the team includes only 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1948. Box scores yet to be uncovered may find a 1945 connection. His career stats, primarily as a center fielder, show a batting average of .317 and an OPS of .773. Riley notes that Minor “stayed with the [Buckeyes] franchise when the ballclub relocated in Louisville in 1949, his last year in the Negro Leagues.”6
• Jesse S. Williams. Jesse Sheron Williams was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on February 5, 1923, and came up through the ranks, primarily as a catcher. He also played shortstop and in the outfield. According to Riley, Williams “was signed off the Dayton, Ohio, sandlots in 1944 by the Cleveland Buckeyes. After being traded to the Chicago American Giants, he was released and signed again by the Buckeyes as a utility man for the next three years.”7 A switch-hitter, he appeared in five games, as referenced by Seamheads, and batted a paltry .133. However, Retrosheet identified 13 games in which Williams played, eight regular-season games (against Kansas City, Birmingham, Memphis, and Chicago) and five exhibitions. Williams died in Chicago on January 31, 1996.
• Jesse F. Williams. Not to be confused with Jesse Sheron Williams, Jesse F. also played for the Buckeyes, but records so far identify only his play (as a catcher) in 1944 and 1947 for certain. He may well have fit Riley’s description as a “wartime reserve.” He could have filled in when needed for the Buckeyes in 1945, but so far no records have been found. No other information on him is currently available.

Research has uncovered a very unusual item from 1945 – a 12-page booklet on that year’s Cleveland Buckeyes team. We have reprinted six of those pages here, featuring team members and management. The remainder of the booklet is comprised of advertisements for local businesses. The booklet can be seen in its entirety as part of the Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery, housed at the library’s Sports Research Center, located in the main branch downtown.8

This book and those in the series that have preceded it have been made possible by over two dozen SABR members who have collaboratively and diligently researched and written each article. A difficult task in compiling a book like this continues to be the collection of photos of as many as possible of those portrayed in it. Some of the more obscure players pose challenges and we are grateful for the efforts of those who have been able to help in finding visual representations.

We express our thanks to the tireless efforts of our fact-checker, Carl Riechers, and copy editor, Len Levin. They have served in these capacities in earlier books in the series and are consummate professionals at what they do. And just to let everyone know, another book in this series is already in the works – the 1931 Homestead Grays, considered one of the greatest Negro League teams ever. We hope you enjoy yet another window on Black Baseball’s past – the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes.

THOMAS KERN was born and raised in Southwest Pennsylvania. Listening to the mellifluous voices of Bob Prince and Jim Woods in his youth, how could one not become a lifelong Pirates fan? He now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and sees the Pirates, Nationals, and Orioles as often as possible. He is a SABR member dating back to 1984. With a love and appreciation for Negro League Baseball in addition to the Pirates, he has written SABR bios for the 1979 Pirates and Clemente books and has completed bios for Leon Day, John Henry Lloyd, Willie Foster, Judy Johnson, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Louis Santop, Andy Cooper, Double Duty Radcliffe, and others.

 

Notes

1 James A. Riley, Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994), 283.

2 Riley 342; Dick Clark and Larry Lester, eds., The Negro Leagues Book (Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 1994), 137.

3 Riley, 343.

4 Riley, 342.

5 Riley, 527.

6 Riley, 554.

7 Riley, 852.

8 The full booklet may be viewed online at: https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll27/id/182/rec/5