Jasper Washington

Jasper H. Washington was born on September 13, 18961 in Dunbar, Pennsylvania2—a town of about 1,400 people in Fayette County in the southwestern part of the state—to Jasper W. Washington, aged 31, and Sidna or Sidney Emma Washington, aged 26.3

His father, Jasper W., was born in 1865 in Virginia,4 right about when the Civil War officially began to dismantle the institution of slavery. Numbers favor the likelihood that his family had lived an enslaved life as Virginia had a slave population of about half a million5and only about 58,000 free Black residents.6 Later census reports listed the senior Jasper’s birthplace as West Virginia7—which could well be as West Virginia split off from Virginia in 1863, just two years before his birth, and these terms may have been used interchangeably.

The Washington family—like numerous other Black families from the South—ultimately moved northward, ending up in Pennsylvania. In 1887, the senior Jasper married Sidney Mills on Christmas Day in Dunbar.8

The loss of 1890 census records eliminated a historical touchpoint with the Washington family. But, in 1900,9 the senior Jasper worked as a day laborer, supporting his wife and children while renting a home in Dunbar. Census documents listed both Jasper and Sidney as people who could read and write.

By 1910, Jasper labored in the coke works.10 People frequently worked at this type of job in Dunbar, located in the Connellsville Coke Region. Huge numbers of coke ovens existed there at that time, including “Hill Farm, Ferguson, Atlas, Mahoning, Watt, and Uniondale”11 that supplied raw material to the town’s iron industry. In fact, in 1899, nearly 20,000 coke ovens existed in the county, with at least 50 in Dunbar,12 about one for every 28 residents.

At this time, the Washington household included seven children. Eighteen-year-old Amelia worked as a seamstress from their home while 12-year-old Jasper did odd jobs as a laborer while also attending school until graduated from Connellsville High School. Eleven-year-old Henry, 9-year-old Emma, 7-year-old Joseph, and 5-year-old Howard attended school while 1-year-old Edith was at home with Sidney.13 Older children who had already moved out included William (who eventually moved to Canada) and Carrie and Nellie.

Besides attending school and performing odd jobs, young, strong Jasper also played on one or more of the region’s mining company baseball teams where the men competed against one another to break up the tedium of the week.

Charley Walker, who later became the batboy and then the president of the Homestead Grays, recalled one such game around 1917. Played in Greensburg, Charley’s team won 2-1, spearheaded by a no-hit game pitched by Jasper Washington and caught by a “boy” named Estep, a stranger whom Walker and Washington’s team picked up, being short a player.

As far as the scored run, in the ninth inning with two men out, the batter popped a fly ball to center, an easy catch for Budd Brown. Players rushed up to Jasper and Estep to congratulate them on their no-hit, no-run win. Meanwhile, the center fielder dropped the ball, and the batter gleefully raced around the bases to score. The next batter grounded out to the shortstop, and the game ended. “Think of us,” Walker said, “playing a game like that with a fellow behind the plate we didn’t know.”14

Shortly after, Jasper enlisted in the 304th Stevedore Regiment on September 30, 1917.15 This was five months after the United States entered into World War I.

The Department of Defense noted how more than 380,000 Black soldiers served in the U.S. Army with about 200,000 of them going to Europe. This included Jasper who went to France. More than half of the Black men sent to Europe served in “labor and stevedore battalions. These troops performed essential duties for the American Expeditionary Force, building roads, bridges and trenches in support of the front-line battles.”16 Jasper served through July 18, 1919, honorably discharged.17

Safely returning home without injury, Jasper moved back in with his parents and siblings, which now included his 8-year-old brother, Mills, and 5-year-old sister Georgianna.18 After the war, he worked as a coal miner. His father and brother Henry toiled at a coal drawer operation while his mother worked as the proprietress of a restaurant. Another family member, Joseph, worked as a laborer.

Jasper married a woman named Carolyn although details are scant, including when this happened. She was 10 years younger than he was, born in Kentucky, and they don’t appear to have had any children.

In July 1921, authorities arrested Sidney and the senior Jasper at a restaurant—likely the one where she worked—when raiding the establishment for violating Prohibition laws. Authorities had responded to the outraged sermons by Reverend Scott of the Connellsville United Presbyterian Church, arresting 23 people. All but four paid a $1,000 bond, including both Washingtons, and the court quickly dropped charges against the senior Jasper.19

Young Jasper had recently experienced substantial news of his own. A veteran of sandlot baseball, the Homestead Grays signed him in 192120, and he would go on to play with the team for 11 seasons. He primarily played first base but, being a versatile player, he played other positions, as needed. In one Latrobe game, he pitched a no-hitter (which seems to be different from the one remembered by Walker).21

Six feet, three inches tall, Washington weighed 230 pounds and had, according to Bill Nunn of the Pittsburgh Courier, “a pair of the biggest hands in baseball, a powerful arm, and a mighty bat.” He performed “colorful work” with a “fighting heart” and a “good nature.”22 

During his first year with the Grays, Washington played in six games as a shortstop. He had five hits out of 23 at-bats, including one double, for a batting average of .217 with two RBIs.

In 1922, he played two games at third base for the Grays, having three hits out of seven at-bats, including a double and two RBIs. Washington also played for the Pittsburgh Keystones that year, covering third base in 32 games with 122 at-bats and 39 hits for a batting average of .320, 15 runs scored, six doubles, a triple, a home run, and 22 RBIs.

He didn’t play as much during the next four years—or at least in as many recorded games— but seems to have served as a first baseman. In 1924, Washington played six games at first base with 23 at-bats. His six hits included one double with an RBI and a batting average of .261. He also stole three bases. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlighted one game where Washington hit a single, stole second and third base, and scored the game’s first run on an error.23

In 1925, he only played two recorded games with six at-bats, according to Seamheads.com, getting a double and two RBIs for a batting average of .333. He also stole one base. Not all accomplishments made it into official recounting, though, with a May article in the New Pittsburgh Courier sharing how one of his home runs reached the flagpole.24

As a partial explanation for playing fewer games, in June that year, he suffered from internal injuries when sliding into home, and he needed to recover in a Pittsburgh hospital. Noted as a third baseman who batted cleanup for the Grays, a newspaper article reported that he wouldn’t play for two weeks.25

In March 1926, Washington was back in full form, playing in a Florida league on the Breakers team. When his team was down by one run, the “old dependable Jap Washington . . . the burly third sacker smashed a beautiful line drive over second, scoring the tieing (sic) and the winning run.”26 That same month, a routine fly ball by Washington turned into a two-run homer when the wind carried the ball away.27

In April of 1926, the Grays needed to travel to Roanoke, Virginia for a game, going in four automobiles. On their way, they stopped at Washington’s parents’ home, visiting for several hours. That year, Washington played in three recorded games with the team, having nine at-bats with one hit and one RBI.

Just four months after the team visited the Washington family, in August 1926, father Jasper W. Washington died with his obituary calling him “one of the best-known colored residents of the tri-town community.” He had been employed by W.J. Rainey, Inc. at Paul Works and had also “conducted a restaurant.”28 Jasper the son was also well known by this time; after listing his mother as a survivor, the obituary read: “Jasper, Jr., of Homestead, player on the Homestead Grays” along with William, Canada; Mrs. Earl White, Scottdale; Mrs. Carl Locket, Carrie, Emma, Florence, Joseph, Howard, Henry, and Mills.”29

The following month, Washington was back at play with the Daily Courier reporting on a two-day streak: on day one, Washington hit a game-winning two-run homer against the Beaver Falls Elks before getting two hits and a scored run during the following day’s game “It’s no doubt,” the article read, “he can sock the apple.”30

In February 1927 in Florida, Washington was playing first base for the Breakers when he got called as a relief pitcher to pinch-pitch, and he “proved unhittable.”31 In the Florida league that year, Washington banged the fifth most hits and the most home runs.32 He also hit a game-winning triple.33

In 1927 with the Grays, Washington played in 7 recorded games, batting 27 times and getting 6 hits, including a double and an RBI.

A June 25, 1927 headline blared praise: ‘Jap’ Washington’s Hitting and Brilliant Mound Work of Gray ‘Aces’ Big Features. In the article, the writer noted:

 “The one member of the team . . . who has been shining brightly is Jap Washington, first sacker. The manner in which he has been hammering the ball has been sensational and there does not seem to be any signs of a letdown. The big first baseman’s hitting has been one of the features of the startling advance made by Posey’s team. And extra base hits are beginning to be a common thing for him. He slams out two and three-base hits now, seemingly as a sort of habit and judging from the way he has been poling the ball, he will soon be approaching the 500 mark. And what makes him all the more valuable is that his fielding has kept pace with his batting.”34

Another article shows how underreported Negro League game statistics really were. According to “Jap Washington Leading Way for Negro Athletes,” the newspaper notes how, by this point in the season, he’d already played in 56 games with more than 100 hits, many of them for extra bases, including four home runs. One game, he got a triple and a homer; in another, he got two doubles and a triple.35

On July 30, 1927, the Grays won 3-2 with Washington hitting the winning home run over the left-field wall right before rain ended the game. In the fourth inning, he had already driven in one of the other two runs.36

In August 1927, in an article titled “‘Jap’ Washington Being Compared Favorably With Greatest Sluggers in Diamond History,” Washington’s defensive skills received praise as he “knew all the answers at the initial station” of first base. He also contributed via his “hitting and mean looks.” Balls hit to him didn’t stand a chance as he “dug them out of the dirt with the ease of an experienced ditch-digger. He reached, stretched, scooped and snatched his way to a perfect day on the initial bag Sunday.” Elsewhere his first-base skills were noted in a description of “the greatest infields of all times.”37

Another headline around this time read “‘Jap’ Washington Convinces Blasé New York That He Ranks As One of the Best Firstbasemen in The Country.”38

Sadly, in February 1928, family members found their mother Sidney Emma dead in bed of a heart attack. The obituary noted that Jasper was “wintering in Miami, Fla” and that Sidney had 13 surviving children.39 The following day, an article mentioned that Jasper sent word that he could not attend the funeral because the team was amid spring training.40

In 1928 with the Grays, Washington got up to bat 65 times in 18 games. Six of his 22 hits were doubles with one triple and one homer; he hit 10 RBIs.

In 1928 and 1929, he also played in Cuba with 106 recorded at-bats and 28 hits for an average of .264. This included three doubles, two triples, and a stolen base.

The 1929 season was his busiest recorded one as he played in 44 games with the Grays with 157 at-bats. He banged out 53 hits: nine doubles, two triples, one home run, and 36 RBIs. That June, he and six teammates received injuries when their car hit a pole, but Washington escaped fairly unscathed.41 This is also the year that the Grays briefly served as a team in the American Negro League.

No data appears for his 1930 season when the Grays returned to independent league play and won their first Negro League Championship.

In 1931, team leader Cumberland “Cum” Posey revamped his team, including Washington at the start of their big season. By this point, Washington was 34 years old and—although he worked out with the club—early in the season people wondered if he would play with the team. By June, Washington was playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.42

He only played two recorded games with the Grays that season with five at-bats where he chalked up a double and RBI. He also played with games at first base with the Crawfords that season; in 30 at-bats, he got four singles, two doubles, and four RBIs for a batting average of .200.  

The year 1932 saw Washington playing for both the Homestead Grays and the Newark Browns. For the Grays, he participated in 18 games with 70 at-bats. He chalked up 10 runs and 18 hits, including 8 doubles, a triple, and 13 RBIs for a .257 batting average. Although records don’t list a position for the Newark Browns, he played 4 games with 16 at-bats and 4 hits for a batting average of .250 with 3 runs scored and one RBI.

According to Seamheads, Washington played 131 games in total for the Homestead Grays along with 32 with the Pittsburgh Keystones, 8 games with the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and 4 with the Newark Browns. Additionally, in 1926, 1927, and 1928, Washington played a total of 14 exhibition games against teams of American League All-Stars. This totalled 189 recorded games in which he chalked up 213 hits, including 46 doubles, 5 triples, 5 homers, and 116 RBIs. His lifetime batting average for the Grays, Keystones, Crawfords, and Browns combined came in at .300. In American League All-Stars games, he hit for a .373 batting average (19-for-51) with 8 RBIs.

After his baseball career ended, Washington judged boxing matches and served on the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. The 1950 census showed him living in Pittsburgh and working as a clerk/salesman in a grocery store but didn’t list any employment for Carolyn.43

Jasper Washington died on February 16, 196044 at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the age of 63 after an illness,45 and he was buried at Allegheny Cemetery. When he died, he had been working at First National Bank located at Fifth and Wood. Survived by his widow, Carolyn, and nine of his siblings, his obituary stated that he’d played every infield position with the Grays.

One of the articles announcing his death noted that he was “one of the many stars of that fabulous club who could have made the grade in the major leagues if there had been no color line in his time. He was a good hitter in a cast of sluggers.” The article refers to the Grays as one of the “corking good Negro teams.”46

After Washington died, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriter Brute Kramer shared a story about Washington. Kramer had managed a team of former high school stars from the area. Pleased with their wins in the season so far, they decided to challenge the Homestead Grays. “Cum Posey, cagy manager and supreme bossman of the Grays, ever eager to fatten the coffers at Braddock, where his club always drew capacity audiences no matter what the opposition, accepted the bid with alacrity.”47

Kramer then started to worry. He consulted with Thayer “Heavy” Torreyson, where he “poured out our troubled mind.” In response, Torreyson, “looking us up and down with a jaundiced eye from, what seemed to us, his mastodonic height, he bellowed epithets of dumbness at us a mile a minute.”48 

Torreyson, “who knew all of the old tricks, and invented many of the new ones,”49 sent them off on an errand: to buy six dozen baseballs about six weeks before the big game at Edgar Thompson Field that Torreyson stored in the freezer. On game day, they therefore had wet baseballs to use.

When Washington came to the plate, though, he hit a ball towards left field before turning to Posey and saying, “Boss, those danged balls are wet.”50 This led to arguments between the two teams. In the seventh inning, Kramer’s team was winning, 7-3, but then Washington came to bat again, this time with bases loaded.

The umpire asked for more balls, and the Grays kept fouling them off, hitting them over nearby railroad tracks until only dry balls remained. Washington then hit a homer with a dry ball, taking four steps along the first base line before pausing and telling Posey that “The dry ones are in now.”51 After hitting seven straight out-of-the-park home runs, the Grays won, 17-7.

Kramer had consulted with Torreyson because of his and his brother Frank’s baseball experience. Frank J. Torreyson had played semipro ball in Pennsylvania and managed Tri-State League teams. In 1892, he became the owner of a Pittsburgh team in the Pennsylvania State League, but he moved the team to Wilkes-Barre in July where he hoped for better attendance. When the Wheeling (West Virginia) Nailers of the Interstate League went on strike for lack of payment in 1897, the league gave the team to Torreyson as a form of settlement.

Frank’s brother, Thayer, played second base in the Pennsylvania State and Atlantic Leagues, performing well until he gained too much weight. Earning the nickname of Heavy, he began playing for his brother Frank, serving as captain and sharing in team ownership.

Jasper Washington may not have possessed the lasting star power that some of his teammates did. Instead, his contributions have faded. However, Hall of Famer Honus Wagner was quoted as saying that “Oscar Charleston, Jasper ‘Jap’ Washington, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson could have made the grade easily had they been accepted,” putting Washington in highly esteemed company.52

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Seamheads.com.

Photo credit

Jasper Washington, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 Although some sources say or suggest that Jasper Washington was born in 1897 or 1898, this is the date listed on the Application for Burial of Honorably Discharged Deceased Soldier and on his tombstone.

2 “Jasper Washington.” Society for American Baseball Research. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jasper-washington/ The census lists his birthplace as PA.

3 “Sidna Washington,” 1910 U.S. Census. Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/118816078

4 “J. Washington.” 1880 U.S. Census. Family Search. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC5X-BRJ?lang=en

5 “Shaping the Constitution: Resources from the Library of Virginia and the Library of Congress,” Virginia Slave Population Map, 1860 https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/oc/stc/entries/virginia-slave-population-map-1860

6 “Free Blacks During the Civil War,” Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/free-blacks-during-the-civil-war

7  “Jasper Washington Jr..” 1910 U.S. Census. Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/118816080

8 “Jasper Washington,” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2489/records/36971

9 Jasper Washington, Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7602/records/52117018

10 “Sidna Washington,” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/118816078

11 Dunbar Historical Society. https://www.dunbarhistoricalsociety.org/dunbar-s-history

12 Dunbar Historical Society. https://www.dunbarhistoricalsociety.org/dunbar-s-history

13 Sidna Washington. 1910 U.S. Census. Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4449306_01056?ssrc=&usePUB=true&pId=118816078

14 Charles E. Pendleton, “Grays’ Prexy,” New Pittsburgh Courier, March 7, 1931: 14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138089098

15 Application for Burial of Honorably Discharged Deceased Soldier.

16 Army Col. Richard Goldenberg. African American Troops Fought to Fight in World War I. U.S. Department of War. February 1, 2018. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/1429624/african-american-troops-fought-to-fight-in-world-war-i/

17 Application for Burial of Honorably Discharged Deceased Soldier.

18 1920 U.S. Census. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRF3-N4R

19 “Liquor Hearings Before Alderman Are Finished Up,” Daily Courier (Connellsville, Pennsylvania), July 15, 1921: 1.https://www.newspapers.com/image/38248605/ 

20 George Von Benko, “MEMORY LANE: Hidden figures: Jasper Washington,” Herald-Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), May 12, 2024.

https://www.heraldstandard.com/new_today/2024/may/12/memory-lane-hidden-figures-jasper-washington/

21 Van Benko. See also “The 1925 Homestead Grays,” Baseball History Daily.com, June 18, 2021 https://baseballhistorydaily.com/2021/06/18/the-1925-homestead-grays/

22 Van Benko.

23 “Beckwith Stars,” Pittsburg Post-Gazette, April 20, 1924: 29. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85853594/

24 “Batting Orgy in Early Stages of Game Keeps Steelers Out in Front,” New Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1925: 12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138083222

25 “Jap Washington, Homestead Gray Player, Injured,” Daily Courier, June 10, 1925: 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/41824798/

26 “‘Jap’ Washington Delivers As Poinciana Nine Wins In Great Ninth Inning Rally,” New Pittsburgh Courier, March 13, 1926: 13. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1136924870/

27 “Ball Clubs in Florida Stage 5-5 Draw Game,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 6, 1926: 10 https://www.newspapers.com/image/1135359439/

28 “Grim Reaper: Jasper Washington,” Daily Courier, August 13, 1926: 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/41771050/     

29  “Grim Reaper: Jasper Washington.”

30 Daily Courier, September 10, 1926: 13. https://www.newspapers.com/image/41777104/

31 “Breakers Leading in Fla. Series,” New Pittsburgh Courier, February 19, 1927: 18. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138084309/

32 “‘Jap’ Washington Is Leading in Home Runs in Florida League,” New Pittsburgh Courier, February 13, 1926: 11. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1136924805

33 “All-Stars Defeated By Grays,” Pittsburgh Press, April 17, 1927: 54. https://www.newspapers.com/image/146203684/

34 “‘Jap’ Washington’s Hitting and Brilliant Mound Work of Gray ‘Aces’,” New Pittsburgh Courier, June 25, 1927: 16. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138087306

35 “Jap Washington Leading Way for Negro Athletes,” Daily Courier, June 28, 1927: 7. https://www.newspapers.com/image/41833906/

36 “Homestead Grays Topple Beaver Falls Elks, 3-2,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 31, 1927: 23. https://www.newspapers.com/image/86459720/

37 “‘Jap’ Washington Being Compared Favorably With Greatest Sluggers in Diamond History,” New Pittsburgh Courier, July 2, 1927: 17. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138087445/

38 “’Jap’ Washington Convinces Blasé New York That He Ranks As One of the Best Firstbasemen in The Country,” New Pittsburgh Courier, August 20, 1927: 16. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138088418/

39 “Mrs. Jasper Washington,” Daily Courier, February 20, 1928: 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/41802205

40 “Mrs. Jasper Washington,” Daily Courier, February 21, 1928: 6. https://www.newspapers.co m/image/41802517.

41 “Homestead Grays Are Injured in Accident,” Altoona Mirror, June 27, 1929: 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/17563233/

42 Phil S. Dixon, Phil Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles/The 1931 Homestead Grays, Volume 1 (Xlibris Corporation, 2009): 46, 131.

43 1950 Census. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/242181618

44 Jasper Washington. Find-A-Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122300322/jasper-washington

45 “Jap Washington, Former Grays Star, Succumbs,” New Pittsburgh Courier. February 27, 1960: 26. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40045366/

46 “Jap Washington and the Grays,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, February 18, 1960: 22. https://www.newspapers.com/image/524387781/

47 Brute Kramer, “Good Old Days With the Grays!,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 19, 1960: 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/88360864/

48 Kramer.

49 Kramer.

50 Kramer.

51 Kramer.

52 “The 1925 Homestead Grays,” Baseball History Daily.com, June 18, 2021.