May 17, 1942: Barney Brown wins one, loses one in doubleheader for Philadelphia Stars

Barney Brown experienced the agony of defeat and thrill of victory in the span of a few hours.

The 34-year-old Brown was touted as “one of the best pitchers in the Negro ranks”1 as he made his return to the Negro Leagues after pitching three seasons in Mexico.2 Fans readied to see him start the first game for the Philadelphia Stars in a May 17, 1942, Negro National League doubleheader against the Newark Eagles3 at Norfolk, Virginia’s Tar Park.4 Three days earlier, Brown had thrown a five-hit shutout in an exhibition game against the New York Cubans on May 14 in Camden, New Jersey.5

Opposing Brown in the first game of the May 17 doubleheader, which began at 2 PM,6 was 23-year-old lefty Jimmy Hill. Hill had pitched in Newark’s home opener at Ruppert Stadium on May 3, which the Eagles lost to the Homestead Grays, 3-2.7

A game preview listed Newark’s outfielders as Monte Irvin in center field, James Brown in left, and Ed Stone in right,8 but Roy Parnell started in center in the first game and Irvin is not mentioned in postgame coverage for either game. If Irvin did play in this game, it may have been his last with the Eagles before jumping to Mexico.9

Barney Brown, called “the best southpaw in Negro baseball,”10 didn’t have it against the Eagles—at least, not in the first game. In front of an estimated 2,000 fans,11 he gave up seven runs on eight hits while getting just three outs; Parnell was called in as a reliever. Adding injury to insult, catcher Clarence Palm had a finger injured by a foul tip in the second inning and had to leave the game, replaced behind the plate by pitcher Joe Fillmore.

As Lem Graves Jr. summarized in Norfolk’s Journal and Guide, “[o]ffering absolutely nothing but a big fat ball to hit, Parnell was blasted all over the lot by the Eagles,”12 who scored in every inning but the third, sixth, and ninth. The Eagles pounded out 19 runs on 17 hits and “seven nicely timed errors” by the Stars. Stone and Lennie Pearson each homered twice, and Ray Dandridge homered before leaving the game with an injury.13

While the outcome was never much in doubt, Hill was “unusually wild,”14 walking seven and allowing four runs, three unearned, through four innings. He was replaced by Leniel Hooker, who didn’t allow another run the rest of the way, but the sloppy game convinced many fans not to stick around for the nightcap.

“A lot of folks left after the first game,” Graves wrote. “You can’t much blame them. That 19 to 4 trouncing that the Newark Eagles handed the Philadelphia All-Stars was enough to make any man lose faith in baseball as a sport.

“But then there are some fans who understand the peculiar nature of this national pasttime [sic] and they stayed around for the nightcap. Brother, they saw a ball game.”15

The second game was scheduled for seven innings, as the second game of Negro League doubleheaders routinely were. Getting the start for the Eagles was 25-year-old right-hander Leon Day, in the prime of his Hall of Fame career. Brown returned to the mound for the Stars.16

Over the first 6½ innings, neither pitcher allowed a run. “Day, using nothing but a blazing fast ball which dipped slightly as it neared the receiver, and Brown, working the corners with an assortment of stuff, had things well under control,” reported Graves.17

In the bottom of the seventh, Newark loaded the bases with two outs after a double by Brown; a passed ball by Fillmore, the pitcher pressed into catching duties after the injury to Palm in the first game; a walk to Stone, who had homered twice in the first game; and an intentional walk to future Hall of Famer Willie Wells. That brought up light-hitting catcher Leon Ruffin,18 who popped out to send the seven-inning game into extra innings.

Both starters were still in the game, and Brown, batting for himself to lead off the top of the eighth, drew a walk off Day. That brought up Philly’s leadoff hitter, player-manager Homer “Goose” Curry. Anticipating a bunt, Newark third baseman Clarence Isreal charged toward home plate.

“He was right but Curry tapped the ball just over the incoming Israel’s [sic] head and Brown went down to second as Curry beat out the throw,” wrote Graves.19

What followed was the type of slick defensive play that earned Wells the nickname of “The Devil” from his frustrated opponents. With Parnell at the plate, Wells guessed the Eagles were running a “bunt-and-run” play. Before Day pitched, Wells dashed to second base as if to take a pickoff throw, bluffing Brown back to the bag. Instead Day delivered the pitch, and Parnell indeed bunted, the ball landing in front of home plate. Ruffin pounced on it and looked up to see Brown and Curry both at second base.20 He threw to third to force Brown for the first out of the inning.

Marvin Barker hit into a force play, with Parnell out at second. That put runners on the corners with two out for the formidable Bus Clarkson,21 who had started the season with Newark.22 He was intentionally walked to set up the force at any base.

With pinch-hitter Bud Barbee at the plate, the trick that Wells had played on Philadelphia to help get the first out of the inning was now used against him. Per Graves: “The All-Stars’ Barker took a very long lead off of second. On every pitch, he stood more than halfway around to third. This temptation finally got the best of Willie Wells, who wanted badly to retire that side. He finally bit for the bait. Scooting back of second he called for a throw from Pitcher Day. Curry, who directed the play, had a sizeable lead off third and, the minute Day whirled for the throw, he cut for home.”23

Rather than turning back to second base, where he could be tagged out before Curry crossed the plate, Barker raced toward third. Wells threw home, but it was in the dirt, and Curry was safe.

Barbee then delivered a two-run single, followed by a single by Gene Benson. A third straight single, this one from Jim West, knocked in the fourth run of the inning.

Brown retired the Eagles in order in the bottom of the eighth, with Mule Suttles grounding out to end it.

“With all the drama of a four-bell movie masterpiece,24 Barney Brown, who had been knocked out of the box in the opener by the big Newark bats, absolutely handcuffed those same heavy hitters in the finale, winning 4-0,” Graves wrote.25

The loss was one of just two suffered by Day with the Eagles in 1942, who went 8-2 with a 1.80 ERA in 85 innings.26 Brown ended the season 8-10 with a 2.91 ERA in 154⅔ innings.27

Three months later, Brown and Day were teammates in the 10th annual East-West Game, held August 16-18 in Comiskey Park. Brown entered in the seventh inning of the first game but was pulled after allowing two-out singles to Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell. Day took over and didn’t allow another hit to preserve the 5-2 victory.

The Eagles finished the 1942 season 16-18 in Negro National League games in 1942, and 40-40 overall; the Stars were 19-22 in league play, 38-38 overall.28

Day and Brown had another memorable matchup on May 5, 1946, Opening Day at Ruppert Stadium. Just as in this one, the two aces matched each other zero for zero over the first five frames, but the Eagles finally scored a pair in the bottom of the sixth. Brown didn’t allow another run, but it was enough as Day threw a no-hit shutout.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Barney Brown, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and Seamheads.

https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=brown01bar

Game 1: https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1942/B05171NW21942.htm

Game 2: https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1942/B05172NW21942.htm

Notes

1 “Philadelphia Stars Worry Bushwicks,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 22, 1942: 14. Brown, known for his screwball, was an All-Star with the New York Black Yankees in 1937 and 1938, and would be again with the Philadelphia Stars in 1942 and 1946. In 1938, Jimmy Powers of the New York Daily News had Barney Brown and Ray Brown as the starting pitchers on a dream team combining Negro Leaguers and New York Giants players. (He also had Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Pat Patterson, Ray Dandridge (erroneously calling him Dick Dandridge, but identifying him as the third baseman of the Newark Eagles), and Sam Bankhead, along with Giants players Harry Danning, Dick Bartell, Jo-Jo Moore, and Mel Ott.) Jimmy Powers, “The Powerhouse” column, New York Daily News, September 5, 1938: 33.

2 John G. Palmer, “Bushwicks to Face a Strong Team Sunday,” Brooklyn Citizen, April 22, 1942: 6. “Brown has been in Mexico the last three years where he hung up a mighty fine record. War conditions make it impossible for him to return there. He returned two weeks ago from Puerto Rico where he played in the Winter League and ran up a streak of twelve straight wins.”

3 The same two teams had played a doubleheader the previous day in Philadelphia, with the Eagles beating the Stars in the first game, 8-0; the Stars won the second game, 4-1.

4 Officially known as High Rock Park, then Myers Field, it was the home stadium of the Norfolk Tars, the New York Yankees’ Class B farm team. Contemporary newspaper accounts refer to the site as Tar Park.

5 “Phila. Stars Down Cuban Tossers, 6-0,” Evening Courier (Camden, N.J.), May 15, 1942: 28. Brown’s first appearance of the season in a league game came May 10, as a reliever in a slugfest with the Baltimore Elite Giants at Terrapin Park. He took the loss after giving up two runs on four hits and seven walks in 5⅔ innings in a 9-8 win for the Elite Giants. Roy Campanella of the Elite Giants, age 20, delivered the game-winning hit in the 10th inning.

6 “Negro Teams Play Twin Bill Here Today, 2 o’Clock,” Norfolk (Virginia) Virginian-Pilot, May 17, 1942: 21.

7 “Homestead Grays Win Opener from Newark Eagles Before 1,700,” The New York Age, May 9, 1942: 11. Hill had a shutout through 7⅓ innings but was pulled after allowing two men to reach in the eighth. Day came on to face Josh Gibson, who hit a three-run home run into the left field bleachers.

8 “Negro Teams Play Twin Bill Here Today, 2 o’Clock.”

9 The Baltimore Afro-American recounts Irvin’s five-hit performance in the doubleheader against the New York Cubans on May 10. “Monte Irvin Batting Ace for Newark,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 16, 1942: 22. A photo caption in the Journal and Guide on May 23, 1942, reports that Irvin “left the Eagles last week” to play in Mexico. Photo Caption, Norfolk (Virginia) Journal and Guide, May 23, 1942: 13.

10 “Black Yankees Play Bushwicks in Pair Today,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 14, 1942: 29.

11 “Eagles, Stars Divide,” Virginia Pilot, May 18, 1942: 9. The newspaper called it “a gathering of some 2,000 fans.”

12 Lem Graves Jr., “Newark and Philadelphia Split Double Bill,” Norfolk New Journal and Guide, May 23, 1942: 13.

13 The nature of Dandridge’s injury was not disclosed, but he didn’t play in the second game. A game preview in the Camden (New Jersey) Evening Courier on May 26, 1942, didn’t mention an injury and said Dandridge would be playing second base. Photo Caption, Camden (New Jersey) Evening Courier, May 26, 1942: 19.

14 Graves.

15 Graves.

16 The Virginia Pilot game preview had Day as the starter for the Eagles in the first game and Hill in the second (they started in the opposite order) but did not list Philadelphia’s likely starters, so it’s unknown who had been scheduled to pitch the second game of the doubleheader. In the team’s next recorded doubleheader, on May 23, Brown pitched the first game and Terris McDuffie the second game. But in the previous day’s doubleheader on May 16, McDuffie had pitched nine innings in the first game of a doubleheader and then 3⅔ innings to close out the second. (Barbee had pitched the first two innings, followed by Fillmore for 1⅓ innings.) The next recorded doubleheader was June 7, with Brown pitching the first game and Fillmore the second. It’s possible Fillmore was to pitch the second game on May 17 but was pressed into service as the catcher for both games following the injury to Palm, requiring Brown to return to the mound. According to his (incomplete) pitching game logs on Retrosheet.org, it was the only time in Brown’s career he started both ends of a doubleheader.

17 Graves. Play-by-play for the first six innings isn’t available; Graves wrote simply that the two teams “battled for six long innings with nary a score for either side.”

18 Paul Hofmann, “Leon Ruffin,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/leon-ruffin/, accessed September 6, 2026. “Ruffin’s defensive skills were legendary,” Hofmann wrote, but “the right-handed-hitting Ruffin was a light hitter with little power.” He hit .208/.268/.248 in 832 career plate appearances in the Negro Leagues; in 1942, .239/.308/.266 in 122 plate appearances.

19 Graves.

20 Graves wrote that Curry actually ran past Brown at second base, but apparently the umpires didn’t notice, as Curry was not called out on the play.

21 Clarkson hit .313/.398/.534 in 727 career plate appearances in the Negro Leagues. Two months after this game, on July 27, 1942, Clarkson hit “the longest four base blow” in the history of Norfolk’s Myers Field. “Josh Gibson contributed two round trippers to the total on his first two trips to the plate, one cruising high, wide, and handsome over the Gruen Clock in left center field. But it was Bus Clarkson’s four base blow with two mates aboard in the first inning that broke all existing park records as it cleared the center field fence just about two yards to the right of the flagpole and still rising when last seen by the local fans.” Len Graves Jr., “Philly Stars Outslug Grays to Win, 11 to 8,” Journal and Guide, August 1, 1942: A14.

22 “Negro Teams Play Twin Bill Here Today, 2 O’Clock.” “One of the leading hitters, property of Newark early in the season, will give Newark most trouble it is expected. He is Bus Clarkson, a shortstop, from Wilberforce University. Because the Newark club was so unusually strong in the infield this year, the Eagles management decided to trade Clarkton [sic] for Leon Ruffin and undisclosed amount of cash.”

23 Graves.

24 Syndicated columnist Jimmie Fidler was famous during this era for his movie rating system, giving four bells to films he liked.

25 Graves.

26 Leon Day player page for 1942, Seamheads.com.

27 Barney Brown player page for 1942, Seamheads.com.

28 “1942 Season: Negro National League II,” Seamheads.com.