Emery Adams was born in the vicinity of Collierville, Tennessee, on October 10, 1911, according to his 1940 military registration card. Collierville is about 20 miles from Memphis. Based partly on the censuses from 1900 to 1920, his parents were farmers named Sam and Polly. Sam’s entry in the 1900 census stated that he was born in South Carolina during 1845 and thus 16 years prior to the Civil War. He was presumably a slave well into his teens. Sam would have been 66 when Emery was born. Polly was much younger, reportedly born in 1870 in Mississippi.

The 1910 census indicated that it was the second marriage for both of Emery’s parents. In early 1899, a Memphis newspaper noted that a “Colored” couple, Sam Adams and Polly Williams, had obtained a license to be married.5 However, her death record and Emery’s 1948 certificate of marriage, among other documents accessible via genealogical websites, identified Polly’s maiden name as Butler. Emery apparently had at least five half-siblings born before 1900 and was the youngest of at least four children born to Sam and Polly. In the 1910 census, Polly was reported to have given birth to five children, of whom four were still living.

In the 1920 census, Emery and his two brothers, ages 12 and 13, were all reported as attending school. In the 1940 census, it was stated that Emery had completed one year of high school. A history of Collierville focusing on civil rights noted that a school for Black children opened in Collierville during the 1920s.6 It was rarely mentioned in Memphis’s daily newspapers, but the “Collierville Industrial School, a negro institution,” existed by the summer of 1923, if not earlier.7 It was called the Collierville Industrial Junior High in an article five years later, about its students’ participation in the “eighteenth annual negro Tri-State Fair.”8

Census records show the township’s population in 1920 and 1930 hovered around 1,000.9 During that decade, farming operations in the Collierville area began to shift dramatically, as boll weevil beetles began to devastate cotton crops. Over just a few years, up to 1929, the number of dairies in Collierville jumped from a handful to several hundred.10 Sam Adams was identified as a farmer up to the time he died.

The elder Adams’s Certificate of Death, accessible via genealogical websites, indicates that he died in nearby Germantown on February 9, 1929. In the following year’s census the Adams household comprised Polly, Emery, and one of his brothers. Polly was still listed as a farmer, while Emery’s occupation was farm helper.

Emery Adams got married on July 8, 1930, in the county of his birth. The marriage license reported his bride’s name as Emma Bell Hull. They were husband and wife for no more than six years. The couple apparently had one child together, a girl named Virginia, also known as Annie Virginia. She was reportedly born September 1, 1933.11

However, Emery’s obituary noted that he was also survived by a son, Emery Jr. Two Social Security records agree that Junior’s birthday was August 8, but one showed 1932 and the other 1933. Though Emery Jr. was likely older than Virginia, he was born to a different mother, Lula M. Craft. Because her mother was also named Lula, Junior’s mother was often called Mary or Mattie instead. She and Emery Senior might never have married one another.12

Emery Adams turned 20 years old during the autumn of 1931, and six months later he was pitching for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro Southern League. Though it seems very likely that he had considerable baseball experience prior to 1932, there might be no records in existence documenting any of that. The Red Sox received decent coverage in newspapers during 1931, but dailies in that city rarely mentioned any Black semipro or amateur teams.13 Among more than 30 players on the Red Sox at some point during 1931, none was named Adams.14

The NSL was generally considered Black baseball’s top minor league for much of its existence, but for the 1932 season it is considered to have been a “major league,” a status officially recognized by Major League Baseball in 2020.15 For just that one season, the NSL included two prominent Northern teams, the Chicago American Giants and the Indianapolis ABCs, plus a short-lived club in Columbus, Ohio. In fact, in the second game of a preseason doubleheader at home on April 17, Adams shut out Chicago, 3-0, in a game limited to five innings so the visitors could catch a train. He gave up just two singles, walked one batter, and struck out four.16

Emery Adams made his regular-season debut as a pro on May 1, 1932, in a doubleheader against the first-place Monroe (Louisiana) Monarchs. He was 20 years old. He started the seven-inning second game, and in the bottom of the third frame his team gave him a 3-0 lead. The only other scoring was a pair of runs by Monroe in the top of the fifth. Details of that inning aren’t available, except that Adams retired just one batter before being replaced by a reliever. He struck out two Monarchs and yielded only two hits, but his three walks may have contributed to Monroe’s threat in that fifth frame. (Also, each of Memphis’ middle infielders made an error at some point, and the home team’s catcher was charged with a passed ball.) Adams did contribute a little on offense: Though he was hitless in one at-bat, he stole a base and scored a run.17

As the 1932 season unfolded, only Harry Cunningham and player-manager Goose Curry logged more innings than Adams as starting pitchers for Memphis, based on seamheads.com data as of 2024. He started 10 of 11 games, completed four, and had a 4-3 record.18 He was on the wrong end of a shutout at least twice, in May and in July.19

Memphis’s stats in the Seamheads database jump to 1937 because the NSL reverted to minor-league status after 1932. In 1937 the Red Sox joined the Negro American League. However, from 1933 to 1936, William J. Plott’s painstaking history of the NSL listed Emery Adams on the club’s roster only in 1935, though in 1936 the club did have a pitcher named Adams (first name unrecorded) during April, if not later.20 The 1933-1934 and 1936 gaps in Adams’s personal record might be explained by Memphis newspaper reports about legal action against a local man (or men) named Emery Adams.

On February 6, 1933, “Emery Adams, negro,” was prosecuted for “assault to murder, because of a fusillade of shots fired at W.B. Sandlin, marshal of Germantown, Dec. 21.” In the end, he “pleaded guilty to assault to commit second degree murder, not more than three years at the penal farm.”21 Though Adams was mentioned often during 1935 as a member of the Memphis Red Sox, that name instead showed up in local legal news in 1936, from April 25 into October. A companion of Adams received a 10-year prison sentence for the shooting death of another Black man named Martin Hill, but Adams himself, “who was jointly accused of the crime, was found not guilty by a jury in Judge Tom W. Harsh’s criminal court.”22 Assuming this relieved defendant was the Red Sox pitcher, then he celebrated his freedom the following month by getting married. His wife was the former Floyd Myers (an uncommon first name for a woman, but the November 22 marital record accessible via genealogical websites isn’t the only place it was rendered that way).

“Statistically, the 1935 season was the worst ever” for the NSL, Plott insisted, because “results of any kind were found for only 33 league games.” Plott said Bill Howard was the winning pitcher in all seven Memphis wins he’d located, but on June 30, Adams had an impressive victory in the second game of a doubleheader (following a win by Howard): He shut out the Claybrook (Arkansas) Tigers in a seven-inning contest, 1-0. Overall, Memphis did well enough to qualify for a postseason playoff series, which it lost to Claybrook.23

Adams pitched a few times against Claybrook in September. On September 1 Claybrook took both games of a doubleheader “to claim the National semipro championship,” as reported by the Chicago Defender. In defeat, “Adams, the Memphis hurler, had a fair day on the hill, tossing the apple by the batters for strikeouts in usual manner.”24

Coverage later in the month indicates the doubleheader was part of a seven-game series to determine the NSL championship. Adams relieved in both games of a doubleheader in Claybrook on September 8, which the teams split.25 The teams had each won three games by September 15, when nearly 3,000 fans in Memphis attended the finale, which the home team lost, 5-2.26

Another mystery relating to Adams during the 1935 season was whether he was the Bill Adams who was with Claybrook briefly. If so, he was in the front row of a team photo that season.27 “Bill” was a secondary nickname for Emery Adams, though possibly not otherwise in print prior to 1941.28

Regardless, September ended on a high note for Adams, when he pitched in the very first North-South Classic all-star game. It was played on September 29, at Memphis’s Russwood Park before 3,800 fans. Adams pitched the final two innings for the South, against a lineup that included future Hall of Famers Cool Papa Bell leading off and Oscar Charleston batting cleanup. Adams allowed just one hit and was the only hurler on either team not to yield a run.29

On April 15, 1936, a preview of a game against the Monroe Monarchs mentioned Adams as one of two Memphis pitchers. On April 26 Adams was Memphis’s reliever against a Black team visiting from Omaha.30 It was two mornings earlier when the aforementioned Martin Hill, a Black man residing in Germantown, was shot to death by an unknown person. At some point within a month Adams and a companion were formally accused, but clearly not prior to his team’s game on the 26th.31 Though he was found not guilty in October, Adams may have been jailed for about half of that year due to the serious nature of the charge.32

As noted previously, for the 1937 season the Memphis Red Sox switched from the NSL to the NAL. Adams hurled a complete-game 7-6 victory at home against the Chicago American Giants on Opening Day, May 9. That gave the Red Sox a split of a doubleheader.33

As of 2024 the Seamheads database had data for 20 Memphis games in 1937, only one of which was a victory by Adams (in four appearances). However, in addition to that Opening Day win, brief newspaper coverage indicates he had a complete-game win vs. Indianapolis on May 17 and beat the St. Louis Stars later that month.34 Also not documented in Seamheads is a game in August when he helped beat Birmingham by swatting a 10th-inning double (although he didn’t pitch).35

A preview of a game late that month said “Adam [sic] hurled for the New Orleans Black Pelicans before joining Memphis.” Unclear was whether that meant before he first joined Memphis in 1932, or before he rejoined the club much more recently.36 Regardless, searches for a pitcher named Adams on that club prior to mid-1937 were fruitless.

To date, the Seamheads database shows just one game in 1938 for Adams, a four-inning relief outing for the Red Sox. In fact, that game was a preseason exhibition at home on April 3, a 7-3 loss to the Homestead Grays. The Atlanta Daily World printed a batter-by-batter account, though it wasn’t clear in which middle inning Adams entered the game. He was mentioned again in a preview on April 16, but might not have been with the Red Sox during the regular season.37 One distinct possibility is that he was injured. Another explanation is that he was making steady money at another job: Memphis’s 1938 and 1939 city directories show him as employed by the Memphis Power and Light Company.

In any case, in 1939 Emery Adams played his first games in the second Negro National League, as a member of the Baltimore Elite Giants. As of 2024 the Seamheads database has documented five games pitched by Adams during that regular season, including two victories, plus a playoff loss. Using different criteria, the timeline for SABR’s book on the 1939 Elite Giants identified 19 games for Adams from May through August (though at least six were nonleague contests).38

A high point for Adams during the season’s first half was in June 12 in Indianapolis, against the Homestead Grays, reportedly the league’s preseason favorite. It certainly helped that the famous Josh Gibson was unavailable due to a bruised hip, “but Adams, ace right-hander for the Giants, refused to allow the Champs a chance to get a line on his famed smoke ball.” He struck out 11 Grays on the way to a 7-3 win for Baltimore.39

Not long before the NNL playoffs, Adams notched a complete-game win at home against the New York Cubans on August 27. It was the seven-inning nightcap of a doubleheader, and the final score was 8-4.40 He then started the first game of a best-of-five playoff series against the Newark Eagles on September 6, at the opposition’s Ruppert Stadium. After the top of the fourth inning, Adams and his teammates led 5-0, but Newark scored eight runs by the end of the sixth inning and ultimately won, 8-6.41 The Seamheads entry for this game shows Adams having retired one batter in the sixth before exiting. He was charged with giving up seven runs, five earned. There’s no record of Adams playing in the championship series against the Grays, but on September 24 the Elites became the NNL champs.42 Though Adams pitched a half-dozen more seasons in the NNL, there’s no indication that he ever appeared in another playoff game.

In the 1940 census, Emery and Floyd Adams were living in Memphis in the home of her mother, at 2563 Spottswood Avenue, near a very large railroad yard. Adams earned his nickname of Ace that year. The Seamheads database shows him as having won 12 games and lost five for the Elite Giants.

In June he tossed a 6-0 shutout against the Philadelphia Stars in a doubleheader’s seven-inning nightcap, and his nine-inning shutout against the New York Cubans about a week into September won the Ruppert Memorial Cup for the Elites again.43 In between those two high points, he was the only Baltimore pitcher named to the East team’s roster for the East-West Classic in August, though he didn’t play.44

The peak of Adams’ career might have come shortly after the 1940 season. At New Orleans’ Pelican Stadium on October 1, he sparkled for multiple scoreless innings as the starting pitcher in the Negro Leagues’ sixth North-South Classic all-star game, though sources disagree on whether he pitched the first four or five innings. Regardless, the game wasn’t decided until the ninth, when his North teammates scored once to break a 1-1 tie.45

Adams was on the Cienfuegos club in Cuba’s winter league during 1940-1941, but he couldn’t approximate his success of recent months. In 14 games, he had a record of 2-6.46 In fact, a passenger list accessible via genealogical websites shows Memphis resident Emery Adams (born October 10, 1911) as having sailed from Havana to Miami on January 2, 1941. At least three Cienfuegos teammates made the same trip on January 20.

The 1941 season was the second of Adams’s career for which the Seamheads database has documented considerable success. Though data is available for fewer games, his winning percentage with a record of 7-3 for Baltimore was comparable to that of 1940, with three shutouts documented in 1941 compared with two the prior season. One 1941 shutout was pitched on July 12 against the Newark Eagles and another on September 1 against the Black Yankees.47

Adams’s 1942 season was largely unremarkable until a five-game “do-or-die series” with the Philadelphia Stars at the end of the season, which found the Elites hanging onto pennant hopes. Adams lost games in relief on September 6 and 7, and thus ended Baltimore’s season.48

During spring training in 1943, the Baltimore Afro-American’s sports editor, Art Carter, reported that Adams was “on the market as trade material.” And by early May he’d been purchased by the Black Yankees.49 Adams had at least four awful starts before the end of June, in which he pitched no more than five innings yet gave up 7 to 13 runs, Not surprisingly, he was called upon to pitch much less from July onward, but instead was frequently in New York’s lineups as an outfielder. The Philadelphia Stars borrowed him as their starting pitcher on September 12, but he was back in New York’s outfield within 10 days.50 In fact, it was reported on September 20 that his batting average of .350 was the best among the Black Yankees.51

Less than three months into 1944, Emery Adams’ life took a dramatic shift. US Army enlistment records accessible online show him having started military service on March 27. The military registration card he’d completed back in 1940 included a handwritten note specifying that he received an honorable discharge on September 9, 1944. Vaguely, the stated reason was “a lack of adaptability for military service.”52 If Adams played a little pro ball in the weeks after his discharge, it might have gone unreported.

Adams returned to the Black Yankees for the 1945 season, but was rarely used as a pitcher. In February of 1946, Adams was to be on a team projected to tour the Pacific for three months, playing against military ballclubs. The announced leader as Joe Lillard, a Black halfback for the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals in 1932 and 1933, who’d helmed such a tour in Asia a year earlier. Very shortly after the 1946 trip was announced, it was “postponed indefinitely.”53 Adams then saw minimal action that season with New York, and likewise in 1947. That was apparently the extent of his pro career.

In 1948 Adams married for (at least) the third time. A Delaware certificate of marriage accessible via genealogical websites shows him marrying Irene Geter of New York City on March 21. The document presumably had a few details wrong (e.g., he’d been single, it was his first marriage, and he was born in Delaware), but his birthdate matched. In the 1950 census, the couple was living near a relative of hers in New York City, and he was employed as an inspector at a television factory.

Emery and Irene presumably divorced by mid-1952, because in October of that year she was identified by her maiden name, Geter, in a newspaper article detailing how she was swindled out thousands of dollars a few months after a personal-injury lawsuit. In June, attorneys won her $40,000 for a leg amputation that resulted from a bus accident, and after their fees and court expenses, she took home $15,000. A con man cheated her out of that entire amount, though police did catch him.54

Emery Adams died “suddenly” in New York on January 22, 1955. His obituary published in Memphis mentioned that he was survived by daughter Virginia and son Emery Junior. There was no mention of any spouse, and his two surviving grandchildren were unnamed. (Of course, his daughter and son could have had additional children after his death.) He was survived by a sister and three brothers, all of whom were named with their places of residence. The funeral director was back in Collierville.55

Almost 60 years after his death, Adams was reportedly the central figure in an auction of a “Negro League game-used uniform,” which had “E. Adams” written in marker near the manufacturers’ tag. Grey Flannel Auctions of Scottsdale, Arizona, attributed it to Adams, and dated it in the mid-1930s. However, the tag identified the producer of this Memphis Pros jersey as Lawson-Cavette, a Memphis sporting-goods firm that had changed its name from Lawson-Getz during the summer of 1948. This would seem to indicate that for at least one season after leaving the Black Yankees, Adams went back home to play more baseball. At the time, he couldn’t possibly have imagined that this jersey would have been purchased at the end of 2014 for $1,420.56

Sources

Information about Adams’s personal life is from Ancestry.com (Library Edition) and FamilySearch.org.

Except when contemporary coverage of games is cited in endnotes, the sources for his statistics and individual game performances are the Seamheads database, starting at https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=adams01eme and the Retrosheet website, starting at https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=adams01eme.

Notes

1 For example, he was called “Ace” in the preseason article, “Elites to Open Against Stars,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 11, 1940: 21.

2 See https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=adams01eme. In 1940 and 1941, Adams was the only pitcher to start more than six games each season for Baltimore, as of research up to 2024.

3 “Homers May Decide East-West Classic,” Chicago Defender, August 17, 1940: 24. See also https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1940/B08180ASW1940.htm.

4 See https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1940/B10010SAS1940.htm.

5 “Licensed to Wed,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 18, 1899: 7.

6 Collierville Community Justice, “We Can’t Understand Collierville’s Present Without Understanding Collierville’s Past,” https://www.colliervillejustice.org/history. This history reported no race-related incidents in the twentieth century until the mid-1960s.

7 “County Fighting Malaria,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 30, 1923: 8.

8 “Negro Fair Promises Best Show Yet Held,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 25, 1928: 14. The school was occasionally mentioned in articles published by Black newspapers, such as “Popular Teacher Bids Farewell to Classroom as Cupid Beckons,” Atlanta Daily World, September 21, 1936: 3.

9 See https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33973538v1ch09.pdf at page 1022.

10 Town of Collierville, “Collierville the Dairy Town,” https://www.colliervilletn.gov/government/town-departments/morton-museum/exhibitions/collierville-the-dairy-town.

11 In particular, see “Death Notices,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 26, 1955: 30. Emma’s Certificate of Death in 1953, which identified her by widower husband’s surname of Allen, said she was the daughter of Jim Hull and Rosie Green. She was using her mother’s surname in the 1940 census and was Mrs. Allen by the 1950 census, both of which included daughter Virginia in her household. As of 2024, an Ancestry.com family tree for Emma B. Hull identified three of her children, namely Willie Mae Franklin, Rosie Lee Gray, and Roscoe Lindsey. The latter’s obituary in 1981 reported that he was survived by Willie Mae Franklin and Rosie Lee, plus a third married sister, Mrs. Annie Virginia Beard. See “Deaths,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 21, 1981: 16. The Beard family tree on Ancestry.com identified Adams as her maiden name and said she had been born in Germantown on September 1, 1933, information that quite possibly came from the woman herself.

12 “Death Notices,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 26, 1955: 30. See also two Social Security Applications and Claims Index entries for Emery Adams Jr., accessible via genealogical websites. In the 1940 census near Memphis, he is presumably “Emory Byas,” 6-year-old brother of Katy May Byas, son of 23-year-old Mary Byas, and grandson of 55-year-old Lula Craft, the head of that household. Another half-sister’s obituary mentioned being survived by two brothers, “Emery Adams and Charles Byas.” See “Mary G. Williams,” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), October 22, 1997: D-6.

13 For example, when the Red Sox scheduled an exhibition game against the Chisca Hotel Bears, one Memphis paper said the latter was “probably the best negro amateur club in the city.” However, there seems to be no record of any Memphis daily actually reporting on any of that team’s games. See “Red Sox to Play Bears,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 19, 1931: 15. (It’s likely the game wasn’t played that day, based on “Chicks, Barons Rained Out; Kelly vs. Edwards Today,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 20, 1931: 16). For a rare example of a Black amateur game that received publicity as well as some coverage in Memphis dailies that year, see “Negro Barbes Lose,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 15, 1931: 15.

14 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015), 217.

15 Anthony Castrovince, “MLB adds Negro Leagues to Official Records,” December 16, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/negro-leagues-given-major-league-status-for-baseball-records-stats.

16 “Red Sox Win Two More from Chicago; Open Season Friday,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 18, 1932: 9.

17 “Red Sox Win Two Games from Monroe; End Series Today.”

18 See https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=adams01eme; click on “MRS” next to 1932 for the team’s record.

19 Holsey Drake, “Montgomery Had a Word for Memphis Reds,” Atlanta Daily World, May 15, 1932: 5. “Memphis Red Sox 9 Split 2 with Monroe,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 1, 1932: 7. The latter shutout ended 1-0.

20 Plott, 222, 224, 225-226, and 227. “Red Sox Play Monroe,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 15, 1936: 19. “Memphians Down Omaha Negro Club,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 27, 1936: 13.

21 “Auto Theft Trials Will Open Tomorrow,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 5, 1933: 20. “News in the Courts,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 7, 1933: 16.

22 “News of the Courts,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 27, 1936: 25. News of the Courts,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 18, 1936: 27. “Negro Sent to Prison,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 23, 1936: 21.

23 Plott, 133-134. “Claybrook Loses Pair to Memphis,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 1, 1935: 14.

24 Robert Ratcliffe, “Arkansas 9 Cops Semi-Pro Baseball Title,” Chicago Defender, September 7, 1935: 14.

25 “Negro Red Sox Split Two,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 9, 1935: 11.

26 “Clay Brooks in 5 to 2 Victory,” Chicago Defender, September 21, 1935: 15. This article identified all dates, locations, and results of the series, though it didn’t report the final scores. The Defender might have provided the most detailed coverage, but it left readers with a minor mystery. “The Red Sox were forced to use two pitchers,” that weekly noted, the second of whom was Howard. “Five errors by [Red] Longley, Sox second baseman, and wild pitching by Adams accounted for three of the Tiger scores,” the paper added. However, the line score’s battery for Memphis instead listed its starting pitcher as R. Jones, not Adams. One possibility is that Jones did start and Memphis used two relievers, not just two pitchers all told. However, player-manager Ruben Jones wasn’t known at all as a pitcher, so the inclusion of him in the battery was most likely just a mistake.

27 For the 1935 Claybrook Tigers’ photo that included a Bill Adams, see http://arkbaseball.com/tiki-index.php?page=Claybrook+Tigers.

28 Adams was called Bill in “Stars Wopped by Elites,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 10, 1941: 1.

29 See https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1935/B09290SAS1935.htm, though it doesn’t appear to align completely with the box score that accompanied the brief account, “North Downs South in All-Star Battle,” Commercial Appeal, September 30, 1935: 13.

30 “Red Sox Play Monroe,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 15, 1936: 19. “Memphians Down Omaha Negro Club,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 27, 1936: 13.

31 “Negro Slain,” Commercial Appeal, April 25, 1936: 5. “News of the Courts,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 27, 1936: 25.

32 “Negro Sent to Prison,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 23, 1936: 21.

33 “Red Sox Split Two with Chicago Team,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 10, 1937: 11.

34 “Memphis Red Sox Win,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 18, 1937: 16. “Memphis Is Too Much for St. Louis 9,” Chicago Defender, May 29, 1937: 13.

35 “Memphis Wins,” Chicago Defender, August 14, 1937: 22.

36 “Negro Teams Meet Monday,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, August 28, 1937: 15.

37 “Josh Gibson Two Home Runs Wellmaker’s Hurling Beats Memphis Red Sox, 7 To 3,” Atlanta Daily World, April 5, 1938: 5. Sam R. Brown, “Philly Stars Meet Redsox,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 16, 1938: 16.

38 Bill Nowlin, “1939 Baltimore Elite Giants Timeline,” The 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants (Phoenix: SABR, 2024).

39 “Grays Bow 7-3 to Baltimore With Gibson Out of Line-up,” Indianapolis Recorder, June 17, 1939: 14.

40 Ralph F. Boyd, “Elites and Cubans Split Twin Bill,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 2, 1939: 23.

41 “Mule Suttles Slugs Hard,” Newark Evening News, September 7, 1939.

42 “Elites Win, 2-0, in Colored Final,” New York Daily News, September 25, 1939: 40. Adams did remain with the Elites after the Newark series, having started an exhibition game midway through the championship series. See John G. Palmer, “Bushwicks, Met. Champions, Win From Negro League Champs, 3 to [sic],” Brooklyn Citizen, September 20, 1939: 6. To complete that headline, the score was 3-1. Palmer reported Adams’s first name as Cliff.

43 “Box Scores,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 13, 1940: 11. “Grays Win Over Memphis, 3-1,” New York Daily News September 9, 1940: 40. For details about the Ruppert Cup, see a few paragraphs into an article by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library Associate Bill Francis, “Negro Leagues Photos Now Available Online through Pastime,” https://baseballhall.org/discover/negro-leagues-photos-now-available-on-pastime.

44 See Note 3.

45 See https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1940/B10010SAS1940.htm (which shows Adams as having stolen a base). At least one article said Adams pitched five innings. See Hayward Jackson, “Mackey’s Single Helps North Beat South, 2-1,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 12, 1940: 18. At least one box score also showed he pitched five innings. See “North Wins 2-1 Game From South in N. Orleans,” Chicago Defender, October 12, 1940: 24. However, the box score accompanying the latter incorrectly called Adams the winning pitcher, while omitting that actual pitcher of record, Baltimore teammate Bud Barbee. At least one preview of this game stated, incorrectly, that Adams had earlier started that summer’s East-West Classic, but he didn’t pitch in it at all. Contrast https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1940/B08180ASW1940.htm with Hayward Jackson, “North-South Baseball Classic for Crescent City October 1,” Atlanta Daily World, September 21, 1940: 5.

46 Jorge S. Figueredo, Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2003), 239.

47 Details relating to the two shutouts are available via https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1941/Padame1011941.htm. In contrast to Adams’s Seamheads line for 1941, the Retrosheet list for Adams in 1941 currently shows him with only two shutouts and only five regular-season wins (plus an exhibition win against the Birmingham Black Barons on August 11). Conversely, Retrosheet shows him with two regular-season losses plus two in exhibition games.

48 “Elite Hurlers Face Tough Task in Philly Series,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 5, 1942: 25. “Grays Win NNL Flag; Elites Split,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 8, 1942: 19. See also the September 6 and 7 entries at https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1942/Padame1011942.htm.

49 Art Carter, “Adds to Elites’ Problems as Camp Opens,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 17, 1943: 24. “Baseball Bits,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 8, 1943: 26. The latter article called him “John (Ace) Adams.”

50 See his Pitching Log outings of May 15, May 25, June 20, and June 24 at https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/A/Padame101.htm. His Batting Log is also accessible there. According to a profile posted online by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research, citing author John Holway, Adams also lost a game for Philadelphia in 1940, in addition to 1943. However, no such game has been logged by Seamheads or Retrosheet. See Dr. Layton Revel, “Forgotten Heroes: Roy ‘Red’ Parnell,” 2018, at http://www.cnlbr.org/Portals/0/Hero/Roy_Parnell%202019-10.pdf .

51 “Black Yanks Here for Tilt Tomorrow With Memphis Nine,” Muskogee (Oklahoma) Times-Democrat, September 20, 1943: 11.

52 A little more specifically, it’s possible he was labeled with some sort of “personality disorder,” as was another veteran of that war as described in a published case, at https://www.va.gov/vetapp08/files2/0816194.txt.

53 “Joe Lillard to Take Negro Ball Club on USO-Camp Show Tour,” Cleveland Call and Post, February 2, 1946: 8B. “Delay Star Nine’s Overseas Tour,” Baltimore Afro-American, February 2, 1946: 22.

54 “Woman Swindled – 15Gs,” New York Amsterdam News, October 25, 1952: 1.

55 “Dead,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, January 26, 1955: 23. His obituary in Memphis dailies (see Notes 11 and 12) spelled his first name as “Emory.” His daughter was identified as “Mrs. Virginia Moore” but attempts to determine the first name of her husband then have been unsuccessful. However, in 2008, she became the widow of longtime Memphis resident George Beard Sr.; see “Deaths,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 6, 2008: DSA4. Around 1970, Emery Junior was married to the former Alma Jean Arnold, according to Perry O. Withers, “50th Wedding Anniversary,” Tri-State Defender (Memphis), August 1, 1970: 8.

56 See https://greyflannelauctions.com/Mid_1930s_Memphis_Pros_Negro_League_Game_Used_Unif-LOT33011.aspx. It’s quite possible the Memphis Pros baseball club was never mentioned in local newspapers.

The short stint with the Elite Giants was typical of a life in which Boone pursued diverse vocations, different women, and employment with various semipro and professional baseball clubs. After Boone’s playing career and third marriage both ended, his wanderlust merged with alcoholism and contributed to his violent demise at the youthful age of 47.

Oscar Boone was born on March 28, 1911, in Cameron, Texas, to Jesse and Willie (Hammonds) Boone. Jesse, a farmer, and Willie had married on December 26, 1909, but their union turned out to be short-lived, and Oscar was their only child. Willie Boone’s mother, Malinda (Williams) Hammonds,1 and brother, Bradford Hammonds Jr., lived with the Boones at the time of the 1910 census; oddly, Malinda, was listed as a “hired woman” rather than a relative.

After Jesse and Willie Boone divorced, Oscar lived with Malinda in the town of Mart, about 48 miles north of Cameron and 18 miles east of Waco.2 Oscar’s illiterate 62-year-old grandmother, who was twice widowed and had suffered the death of 12 of her children, now worked as a “common laborer” while raising him. His uncle, Bradford Jr., worked in the city of Ranger, 183 miles northwest of Mart, and inadvertently was counted twice in the 1920 census as he split his time between residences in both places. Bradford Jr. met an untimely death by gunshot in Ranger on January 4, 1931, while Oscar was in the US Army.3 Both of Oscar’s parents eventually remarried, but there is no evidence that they played any further role in his upbringing or adult life.

Boone no doubt saw the Army as a way out of the poverty and negative circumstances that had afflicted the members of his immediate family. The 1930 census shows that he was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. At the time, this installation was home to the 10th Cavalry “Buffalo Soldiers,” the Army’s famed all-Black cavalry corps, of which Boone was a member.4 Boone carried on the tradition of the Buffalo Soldiers as outstanding riders, which was evidenced by the fact that “Pvt. Boone, F troop, on Mouse” had placed second in “jumping for privates” in the 10th Cavalry horse show on June 16, 1930.5

In addition to riding pursuits, Boone also honed his baseball skills as a member of Fort Huachuca’s segregated all-Black team. At 5-feet-8 and 170 pounds, the fact that Boone became a catcher by trade in the Negro Leagues and semipro ball is rather surprising. During his time as a member of the Fort Huachuca team in 1930 and 1931, he split his playing time between third base and shortstop.6 On August 10, 1930, Boone had a stellar day with a 4-for-5 line at the plate that included two solo home runs as well as five putouts and five assists at shortstop. His performance went for naught, though, as the Nogales Internationals scored two runs in the ninth to edge Fort Huachuca, 6-5.7

Boone was honorably discharged from the Army on August 31, 1936. He moved to San Angelo, Texas, which was home to Fort Concho, a deactivated Army post that also once had housed the 10th Cavalry’s Buffalo Soldiers in the late nineteenth century.8 Boone found employment at the Cactus Hotel, and he joined the San Angelo Black Sheepherders baseball team in 1938.

Although the Black Sheepherders were a semipro squad, Boone found himself among several people who, like him, were to become members of teams in the major Negro Leagues. In fact, manager Ruben Jones had already skippered the Birmingham Black Barons in 1927 and went on to take the reins of the Memphis Red Sox in 1940. One teammate, Norman “Bobby” Robinson, who also joined the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1939, later became best known for a consequence that resulted from an injury he suffered. In 1948 Robinson was the starting center fielder for Birmingham until he stepped into a hole and broke a leg. His injury opened the door for a 17-year-old phenom, Willie Mays, to take over his job in center field.9

In late June, the Black Sheepherders briefly assumed an identity as a team from the state of Kansas as the squad attempted to qualify for the fourth annual National Baseball Congress World Series to be held in Wichita. The Emporia Gazette explained:

The Sheepherder team is originally from San Angeles [sic], Texas, and is qualifying through the Kansas semi-pro tournament at Wichita for the National Semi-pro baseball tourney because the Texas program bars colored teams. The team was sent to Emporia by Frank Kice, state baseball commissioner. The Sheepherders finished in third place in the 1936 Kansas Semi-pro tournament and are reported to have an even better ball club this year.10

On July 1, at Emporia’s Summers Field, the Kansas City Black Sheepherders, as the press often called them, defeated the Emporia Bakers, 9-2, in an exhibition game prior to the state tournament at Wichita.11

The Sheepherders started the tournament with a bang as they steamrolled Oswego, 13-1,12 and Wellington, 19-1, with Boone going 4-for-5 at the plate and scoring four runs in the latter contest.13 Although the Sheepherders “established themselves as one of the hardest hitting clubs in the tourney,”14 the team’s pitching was also dominant. On July 19, with Boone as his catcher, Schoolboy Walker struck out 15 batters, including 11 in a row at one point, in a 9-2 triumph over the Topeka Barber-Wreckers.15

In its July 21 edition, the Wichita Eagle noted, “This is the first year in the history of the tournament when a negro club has been one of the potential champions. A win tonight for the Sheepherders would make them prohibitive favorites to enter the championship game to decide the 1938 title.”16 It was not to be, however, as the Wichita Water Company dealt the Sheepherders an 8-1 defeat on July 23 to qualify for the championship game against the Solomon Candy squad; the Watermen defeated Solomon to recapture the tournament title they had last held in 1935.17 The Sheepherders played Chanute for third place but lost that game as well, dashing any hope they had of qualifying for the NBC World Series.18

The Sheepherders reverted to their San Angelo identity and barnstormed back to Texas. On July 26 they took out their frustrations against the Seminole (Oklahoma) Redbirds in a 14-5 victory that ended the locals’ eight-game winning streak. The local press contrasted the play of the two teams, noting, “In a tilt that saw the negro team take advantage of every possible play, the Redbirds plodded along giving a fair showing that looked almost weak in comparison with the sparkling game of the Sheepherders.”19 Boone went 3-for-5 and scored one of San Angelo’s runs. The Sheepherders had battered starting pitcher Leroy Witcher, having arrived too early in the week to face Oklahoma A&M student and Redbirds hurler Allie Reynolds,20 who became a six-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees.

Boone’s performance with San Angelo resulted in a position with the Negro American League’s Atlanta Black Crackers at the outset of the 1939 season. The Black Crackers held spring training in Atlanta, which gave the press and fans a close-up look at the players. In late March, columnist Lucius “Melancholy” Jones raved, “Catcher Oscar Boone, the 200-pound mask and mitt man from San Angelo, Texas, had fans watching the workout on the BTWHS athletic field spellbound with his sensational first day’s form.”21 The Atlanta Daily World profiled Boone in its “A Cracker a Day” series on April 22 and described him as “a quiet unassuming chap with plenty of courage and natural ability.”22 The paper added that Boone “has been playing professionally for 6 years from New York to Texas and knows what the game is all about.”23

Although Boone had to battle through some minor injuries he suffered in spring exhibition games, he was still one of the team’s top performers. On April 25, he was batting .518, which was second only to right fielder Donald Reeves’ .552 mark.24 Boone and Reeves’ performances were the highlights, however, as the team itself scuffled and lost most of its preseason games. Then, in early May, it was reported that “[a]fter more than a month’s training, the Atlanta Black Crackers, whose franchise has been moved to Indianapolis, Ind., in the negro American league [sic], will meet the Cleveland Bears at Ponce de Leon park tonight starting at 8 o’clock.”25

Despite the purported move to Indianapolis, which was an attempt to create financial stability for the franchise, the Atlanta Black Crackers-Indianapolis ABCs team of 1939 continued to use Atlanta’s Ponce de Leon Park as its home field. As a result, the NAL expelled the Black Crackers from the league at its midseason meetings. John H. Harden, the team’s owner, protested the NAL’s decision, stating that “the Indianapolis park was not available for rental on June 18, the day set aside by the league for him to open there.”26 He also “inferred that the Indianapolis ball park officials had told him that he wouldn’t be able to rent the place at all for games during the season.”27

Harden’s protests effected no change, and the Black Crackers ended their abbreviated season with a 6-10 record in NAL play and were 7-19 against all Negro League opponents. The team’s expulsion from the NAL also cost Boone and first baseman Red Moore spots on the West All-Stars team for the annual East-West Game that was scheduled to be played on August 6 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.28 Moore had led the Black Crackers with a .434 batting average in 15 NAL games while Boone had been second with a .358 average in 16 games. More importantly, Atlanta’s players now had to find employment with new teams for the remainder of the 1939 season.

On July 22 the Chicago Defender reported that the Baltimore Elite Giants had sold first baseman Jim West to the Philadelphia Stars and catcher Biz Mackey to the Newark Eagles. In a follow-up move by Baltimore, the paper reported that “[t]he Elites will get five players from the Atlanta Crackers. The five are: ‘Red’ Moore, first baseman; Tom Butts, shortstop; Ed Dixon, pitcher; Felix Evans, pitcher, and Oscar Brown [sic], catcher.”29

As the backup to Campanella, Boone found himself relegated to playing mostly in exhibition games.30 He appeared in only three NNL2 games and managed a lone pinch-hit RBI single in a losing cause against the Newark Eagles in the first game of a July 23 doubleheader at Washington’s Griffith Stadium.31 Although Boone had played at an all-star level with Atlanta, his .143 batting average in his limited league appearances for Baltimore resulted in his being left off the team’s postseason rosters against the Newark Eagles and Homestead Grays. It was an unfortunate ending to a season that had started out so promisingly for Boone’s baseball career.

Another event that occurred during Boone’s time in Atlanta, which may or may not have been happier than his brief tenure with the Elite Giants, was his marriage to Josie Goodwin. However, the origins of the bride as well as her fate, or the fate of her union with Boone, remain unsolved mysteries.32 When Boone filled out a World War II draft registration card in October 1940, he was back at his job with the Cactus Hotel in San Angelo and listed his cousin, Margie Simpson, as his contact person.

Before returning to Texas late in 1940, Boone had spent the early part of spring training with the Birmingham Black Barons and then had played for the Ethiopian Clowns most of the year.33 Legendary manager Candy Jim Taylor led the Black Barons that season and, while he did not retain Boone in Birmingham, he brought him north to the Windy City the following year when he took over as skipper of the Chicago American Giants.

Although the Clowns were renowned for the use of stereotyped “African” names and the antics they performed to entertain crowds, the team’s players were seasoned professionals who also played for other Negro League teams over the course of their careers. After the Clowns swept a doubleheader from the American Giants, the Chicago Defender wrote:

The Ethiopian Clowns of Miami, Fla., Hunter Campbell, manager, put on their shadow ball stunt and some other things which gave the slim crowd a good laugh – and then the visitors put on an exhibition of ball playing worth going miles to see. They trimmed the Giants in a double bill, 4 to 2 in nine innings and 8 to 3 in seven.

Although the players all use Ethiopian names, the Defender learned that the boys know their baseball. Their victory in a series with the Crawfords on the spring training tour was no fluke.34

The Defender also noted that “Oscar Boone caught the first encounter,” and the box score indicates that his “Ethiopian name” was “Tarzan.” Three of his former 1939 Black Crackers teammates – Spencer Davis, Eddie Dixon, and Felix “Chin” Evans – were members of the 1940 Ethiopian Clowns as well.35

The barnstorming Clowns were such a formidable foe that, at one point from July to early August, the team won 27 consecutive games.36 Team owner Syd Pollock decided that the Clowns would play a return engagement in the prestigious Denver Post Tournament to vie for the $10,000 prize. The team had participated in the tournament for the first time in 1939 and had finished in fifth place.37

The Clowns opened the tourney in style as they clobbered the Lead-Deadwood (South Dakota) team, 15-1. However, the tables were turned in the next game against the 1939 champion Champlin Refiners from Enid (Oklahoma) as the Clowns suffered a 9-1 defeat. The team recovered from that thumping to emerge victorious over Englewood (Colorado), 6-5, and the Coors Brewers (Oklahoma), 8-6, as it tried to reach the final round.38

The Clowns’ next match was against the Mt. Pleasant (Texas) team in what the Denver Post called “one of the wildest and most exciting games in the history of the Little World Series.”39 Boone, as Tarzan, struck a pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the ninth that tied the score, 6-6, but Mt. Pleasant came back with four runs in the top of the 10th inning to win, 10-6. The loss eliminated the Clowns from the tourney, and the team had to settle for a sixth-place finish.40

Before the 1941 baseball season, Boone embarked upon another short-term marriage as he wed Bessie Clark on April 1. Once again, there are gaps in public records about his bride, and her exact origins and fate remain unknown. The couple was wed in Schleicher County, which lies directly south of Tom Green County, where San Angelo is located. Divorce proceedings began in February 1942 and were finalized in September 1942.41 Although the reason for the brevity of Boone’s second marriage is unknown, one of two possible scenarios seems likely: 1) Immediately after the wedding, Boone went north to play for the Chicago American Giants, and it is possible that his new bride was unhappy with this arrangement; or 2) Boone had trouble staying faithful as may be evidenced by the fact that he married Maybelle Carson in Dallas on October 19, 1942, which was only one month after his divorce from Clark was final.42

Whatever the circumstances of Boone’s personal life entailed, Candy Jim Taylor lured him to Chicago to split the catching duties with Pepper Bassett in 1941.43 Boone regained the batting form he had displayed in Atlanta in 1939 as he batted .367 in NAL games that year while Bassett hit at only a .214 clip. Even so, Bassett was a well-known and popular veteran who had initially gained fame as “the Rocking-Chair Catcher,” and he was voted to be the starting backstop for the West team in that season’s East-West All-Star Game; the lesser-known Boone finished fifth in the voting for the West’s catchers.44 As for the team, the American Giants finished dead last in the six-team NAL with a league record of 16-29-2 and an overall ledger of 18-31-2.

After the 1941 season, Boone’s baseball career began to wind down. In the spring of 1942, newspapers from different parts of the country gave contradictory accounts of his whereabouts: one had him back with the Sheepherders, another claimed that he was to play in a single exhibition game for the Baltimore Elite Giants, while a third claimed he was returning to the Chicago American Giants.45 Despite these varied reports, San Angelo’s 1942 city directory lists Boone as a bartender at the Harlem Inn, and there is no evidence of his participation in any baseball games that year.

Documentation does exist, however, for his marriage to Maybelle Carson in October 1942. Maybelle’s maiden name was Callahan, and she was the widow of George W. Carson, with whom she had one daughter, Maenelle. The Carsons lived on Third Street within a block of Boone’s cousin, Maggie Simpson. Since Boone had been living with Simpson when he filled out his World War II draft registration in 1940, he may have been acquainted with the Carson family for some time. Whatever intrigue may or may not have existed between Oscar Boone and Maybelle Carson, their marriage is the best-documented of Boone’s three unions, and both their fates are known.

In 1943, the couple moved to Tucson, Arizona, about 57 miles northwest of Fort Huachuca. Boone apparently was unable to settle in one place for long, whether by nature, necessity, or both. He continued to travel, and he played in occasional semipro ballgames while looking for other work.46 At the time of the 1950 census, Boone was working for a railroad in La Platte, Nebraska, and lived in the workers’ camp while Maybelle remained in Tucson. Boone followed this lifestyle for the remainder of his days as Maybelle, after learning of Oscar’s death, reported to authorities that the couple had divorced in 1953 and that Oscar had been “bumming around riding freight trains and working here and there ever since.”47

Boone had been working and renting a room in Eloy, Arizona, 55 miles northwest of Tucson, when his life reached its tragic and violent end on October 12, 1958. A brief article in Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star reported that Boone’s body had been found “in a dry wash under a railroad bridge east of Eloy.”48 Deputy Cotton Doss of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office had received a call regarding a dead body. He discovered Boone “lying partly on his right side [and] face down in the sand” and noted that “[h]is head was hit on the side of the face and on the back of [the] head two or more times.”49 Boone was identified via his Social Security card, which was found in a small wallet on his person, and a police arrest card with a photo of Boone from an incident that had occurred earlier that year.

Boone had gained a reputation in Eloy as “a heavy drinker of wine,” and a post-mortem blood test showed that he had been heavily intoxicated at the time he was killed, leading the sheriff’s investigators to assert, “Also[,] after finding out how much alcohol Boone had in his body[,] he may have and probably was passed out when he was murdered, the blood alcohol test showed 0.56%.”50

Investigators pursued numerous theories and interviewed several suspects. Of particular interest initially was a man named C.J. Wright, whom Boone had stabbed that January in the assault that had occasioned his arrest. Wright was alleged to have made threats that he would retaliate against Boone, but all his acquaintances averred that he had moved to Phoenix after being released from the hospital. One investigator stated that “the location of the murder and [modus operandi] makes me believe it is the type of crime most common among the Indians of this area.” However, none of the “several Indian suspects” who were questioned could be placed at the scene of the crime. The investigation stalled and the lead investigator on the case conceded in a one-week follow-up report, “We have had no real leads in this case[,] but we have checked out several rumors all this week but to no avail.”51

News of Boone’s death quickly reached Maybelle in Tucson, likely through a mutual acquaintance, and she phoned the sheriff’s office in Eloy to inform them that Oscar was her ex-husband. She also saw to it that Oscar was buried in the US Military Veterans section of the Eloy Park Memorial Cemetery. Maybelle Boone died in Tucson on November 24, 1967, and is interred in San Antonio, Texas.52 The Boones had no children together, but Maybelle was survived by her daughter, Maenelle (Carson) Fleming, who also lived in Tucson.

Sources

Except where otherwise indicated, all player statistics and team records were taken from Seamheads.com.

Ancestry.com was consulted for US Census information, military records, and birth, marriage, and death records.

Oscar Boone’s murder report, autopsy results, and blood test results were obtained from the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Notes

1 Oscar Boone’s family tree is complex and difficult to trace; however, sufficient documentation exists to confirm that Malinda Williams was Oscar’s maternal grandmother. Malinda apparently had been once widowed before she embarked upon her second marriage to Bradford Hammonds with whom she had Willie (Oscar’s mother), Bradford Jr., and a daughter named Laura before her second husband also died. After Bradford Hammonds Sr.’s death, Malinda again reverted to her maiden name, Williams, in official records; Bradford Jr.’s death certificate confirms Malinda’s maiden name to have been Williams. Malinda and her parents were from Alabama and, given her approximate birth year of 1858 and the fact that she could neither read nor write (per multiple censuses), it is quite possible that they were former slaves who had obtained freedom after the Civil War. Whether or not that was the case, Malinda’s life was filled with hardships. In addition to being twice widowed, the 1910 census states that she had given birth to 16 children, only four of whom still were living at that time.

2 On Ancestry.com, Boone is listed as “Asken Bearns” in the 1920 US Census; this is the result of both the census-taker’s sloppy handwriting and the reliance on modern computer programs to read handwritten documents. A closer inspection of the original scanned census document showed that “Asken Bearns” might be “Oscar Boone,” and additional research into Boone’s family history established that this was indeed the fact.

3 Bradford Hammonds Jr.’s death certificate does not indicate whether his death was a homicide, suicide, or an accidental shooting.

4 U.S. Army, “History of Fort Huachuca,” https://home.army.mil/huachuca/index.php/about/history, accessed July 1, 2023.

5 “Fort Huachuca,” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), June 19, 1930: 8.

6 “Internationals Win Their 22nd Consecutive Victory,” Arizona Daily Star, August 4, 1930: 7; “Rails Outclass Fort Huachuca Soldiers, 14 to 3,” Arizona Daily Star, July 6, 1931: 7.

7 “Internationals Triumph Over Soldiers,” Arizona Daily Star, August 11, 1930: 6.

8 “Fort Concho, National Historic Landmark,” https://fortconcho.com/, accessed July 1, 2023.

9 Bob LeMoine, “Bobby Robinson,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bobby-robinson/#_edn12, accessed July 1, 2023.

10 “Bakers to Play Fast Colored Team Friday/Game with Texas Sheepherders to Start at 6:10 at Summers Field,” Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, June 30, 1938: 13.

11 “Bakers Beaten by Texans, to Face Abilene/Game at Summers Field Sunday – Sheepherders Win by 9 to 2,” Emporia Gazette, July 2, 1938: 7.

12 “Herders Look Good in Winning,” Wichita Eagle, July 12, 1938: 6.

13 “Sheepherders in Slugging Form,” Wichita Eagle, July 13, 1938: 9.

14 “Sheepherders in Slugging Form.”

15 “Sheepherders in Two Big Innings Trounce Topeka,” Wichita Eagle, July 20, 1938: 12: “Just Among Us Folk,” San Angelo Evening Standard, July 20, 1938: 10.

16 “Two Featured Games Will Feature ‘Old Timers’ Tonight,” Wichita Eagle, July 21, 1938: 8.

17 “Watermen Move into Finals of State Tourney,” Wichita Eagle, July 24, 1938: 11; “Tonight Is Final Night at Tourney,” Wichita Eagle, July 24, 1938: 11.

18 “Only One Kansas Team Assured of National Chance,” Wichita Eagle, July 26, 1938: 7.

19 “Negro Team Ends Birds’ Eight-Game Streak, 14-5/Allie Reynolds Will Get Starting Call for Cushing Contest Here Friday,” Seminole Producer, July 27, 1938: 6. Oklahoma A&M University was renamed Oklahoma State University in 1958.

20 Royse Parr, “Allie Reynolds,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/allie-reynolds/, accessed July 1, 2023.

21 Lucius “Melancholy” Jones, “Slants on Sports/Donald Reeves Arrives, Ready to Don Crax Uniform; Oscar Boone, New 200 Pound Catcher, Thrills Crowd,” Atlanta Daily World, March 25, 1939: 5. Either Boone had temporarily bulked up or Jones overestimated/overstated his weight: Boone’s WWII draft registration, filled out in October 1940, listed his weight as 170 pounds. The abbreviation “BTWHS” denotes Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta.

22 “A Cracker a Day,” Atlanta Daily World, April 22, 1939: 5.

23 “A Cracker a Day.” The claim about Boone playing in New York is in reference to his brief stint as a second-string catcher with the Mohawk Giants of Schenectady, New York, as that team made a swing through the South in April 1938. See “Mohawk Giants Schedule Eight Games in South,” Glens Falls (New York) Post Star, April 6, 1938: 9; however, there is no evidence that Boone spent any time with the team in New York state.

24 Lucius “Melancholy” Jones, “Slants on Sports/Catcher Oscar Boone Had All but Stolen Donald Reeves’ Batting Lead Through Sunday’s Game,” Atlanta Daily World, April 25, 1939: A5.

25 “Black Crackers to Play Tonight,” Atlanta Constitution, May 8, 1939: 13.

26 Lucius “Melancholy” Jones, “Black Crax Out of Negro American League!/Slants on Sports/Atlanta Baseball at Crossroads After League Expels Black Crackers; Harden Charges Club Was ‘Railroaded,’” Atlanta Daily World, June 26, 1939: 5.

27 Jones, “Black Crax Out of Negro American League!”

28 “East-West Officials Lament Red Moore’s Fate: Seventh Annual Sepia All-Star Game to be ‘Rubber’ Tilt/Red Moore, Oscar Boone Miss Chance to Play in Colorful East-West Classic in Comiskey Park, Chicago, August 6,” Atlanta Daily World, July 6, 1939: 5.

29 “Mackey to Philly – Five Atlanta Players Signed by Baltimore,” Chicago Defender (National Edition), July 22, 1939: 8.

30 See, for example: “All-Stars Drop Hot Game to Elite Giants Team 7-1,” Poughkeepsie (New York) Eagle-News, July 13, 1939: 8; “Easton East Penn Club Beats Colored Team, 8-7,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, July 20, 2023: 16; “Schwartz Repulses Baltimore Elite Giants, 3 to 2,” Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick), August 15, 1939: 10.

31 “Ex-Black Crax Keep Baltimore in League Lead/Red Moore Bats 1.000 as Elites Win 4-1; Drop Opening Tilt 4-2/Oscar Boone’s Pinch Single Scores Run in First Game, but Rally Falls Short; Pea-Eye Butts Plays in Both Tilts,” Atlanta Daily World, July 29, 1939: 5.

32 Boone’s birth year and place of birth as listed on the 1940 census do not match up with the facts, but this is hardly an unusual occurrence in census documents. Much of the information jibes with Boone’s background, and his occupation was listed as “Ball Player.” Additionally, no other man named Oscar Boone can be found in the area at that time; thus, it appears that Boone was the man who was married to Josie Goodwin. Frustratingly, neither Josie herself nor any of her family members can currently be found in any additional census or other official documents. The couple may have divorced, or one of them may have decided to leave the other without a legal divorce; another possibility is that Josie Goodwin Boone died.

33 Marion E. Jackson, “Birmingham Takes On Baltimore Sunday,” Atlanta Daily World, April 17, 1940: 5; Eulus L. Nance, “Ethiopian Clowns, Atlanta All-Stars at BTWHS Today/Donald Reeves, Oscar Boone to Be Seen in Game Here This Week,” Atlanta Daily World, April 27, 1940: 6.

34 “Ethiopians Win Two from American Giants,” Chicago Defender (National Edition), June 8, 1940: 24.

35 Lucius “Melancholy” Jones, “Slants on Sports/Erstwhile ‘Name’ Stars of Atlanta Black Crackers Now Making Headlines for Major Clubs of Negro American, National Leagues,” Atlanta Daily World, July 23, 1940: 5.

36 “Ethiopians Win 27 Straight; Eye Denver Go/Chin Evans, Oscar Boone, Spencer Davis in $10,000 Diamond Meet,” Atlanta Daily World, August 6, 1940: 5.

37 Jay Sanford, The Denver Post Tournament: A Chronicle of America’s First Integrated Professional Baseball Event (Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 2003), 90.

38 “Ethiopian Clowns Win Three, Lose One in $10,000 Denver Tourney,” Phoenix Index, August 17, 1940: 6.

39 “Mt. Pleasant Trips Clowns, 10-6, in Tenth,” Denver Post, August 11, 1940: 5-1, 5-3.

40 Sanford, 90.

41 Boone’s last name was misspelled as “Boome” in the official marriage record; however, there was no individual by that name, nor was there any other man named Oscar Boone who lacked a middle name that lived anywhere close to the San Angelo area. However, there were two women named Bessie Clark in the vicinity. One, also with no middle name (as in the marriage record), was listed as “Mulatto,” and, given the time and the place (Texas), must have been Boone’s bride, while the other also had the middle initial “B” and was identified as “White.” The “B” in Bessie B. Clark’s name did not stand for “Boone” as the initial can be found in her name prior to the date of Boone’s marriage; additional public records for Bessie B. Clark also indicate that she was a different person. For information about Oscar Boone and Bessie Clark’s 1942 divorce, see: “51st District Court (Civil Docket),” San Angelo Daily Standard, February 13, 1942: 7, and “Double Divorce Decree Granted as Total Rises,” San Angelo Standard-Times, September 23, 1942: 3.

42 Maybelle Carson did not escape misspellings of her name in official documents. Alternate spellings found are Mable, Mabel, Maebelle, Mae Bell, and Mabelle.

43 “American Giants to Use Chicago White Sox Stadium This Season/Donald Reeves, Shug Cornelius, Oscar Boone with Taylor Crew,” Atlanta Daily World, May 5, 1941: 5.

44 “Expect 50,000 at East-West Game Sun. July 27: Looks Like Paige Will Face ‘Impo’ Barnhill, New York Cubans Ace,” Chicago Defender (National Edition), July 19, 1941: 24.

45 “Black Herders and Forth Worth Panthers Tangle,” San Angelo Standard-Times, April 5, 1942: 14; “Cuban Stars, Equal of White Majors, Noted Baseball Scribes Say,” Atlanta Daily World, April 15, 1942: 5; “Chicago and Monarchs in Double Bill/American Giants Have Improved Team for League Opener,” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), May 9, 1942: 16.

46 “Black Eagles Nudge San Angelo, 4 to 2,” Abilene Reporter-News, August 25, 1947: 2.

47 “Oscar Boone Murder Case Report,” Pinal County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office, October 12, 1958.

48 “Dead Body Found Near Eloy Bridge,” Arizona Daily Star, October 13, 1958: 14.

49 “Oscar Boone Murder Case Report.”

50 “Oscar Boone Murder Case Report.”

51 “Oscar Boone Murder Case Report.”

52 “Boone, Maybelle C.,” Arizona Daily Star, November 26, 1967: 53.

Butts, known as “Pea Eye” in his hometown, was one of the Negro Leagues’ outstanding shortstops, selected for East-West All-Star Games in eight years between 1942 and 1953.3 During his 11 seasons with the Baltimore Elite Giants, the club won the 1939 Negro National League II (NNL2) championship, and the 1949 Negro American League (NAL) title.

Thomas Lee Butts was born on August 27, 1919, in Sparta, Georgia. His parents, Asbury and Mollie (Eagle) Butts, already had a son, Robert. Sparta, about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta in Hancock County, had fewer than 2,000 residents, and Asbury labored on a farm. Asbury’s grandfather Berry had been enslaved in the same county.4 By the 1930 census, Tom’s family, including his younger sisters, Anna and Christine, had moved to Atlanta, where his father worked at a packing plant.

In the summer of 1935, the Atlanta Daily World noticed the 15-year-old Butts with the semipro Atlanta Red Caps. The newspaper noted, “Butts … played a sensational brand of ball at second sack and time and time again brought the fans to their feet in wild acclaim for some startling catch or throw.”5 Years later, after Butts made his mark in professional baseball, the paper recalled his teen gridiron exploits, reminding its readers, “His feats in football, according to the story tellers, were in the class of John Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Achilles, Alexander and other unbeatables of fact and fiction.”6

In 1935, Butts’ last year at David T. Howard Junior High School, he was named Atlanta’s second team All-City quarterback. (Howard’s coach and athletic director, “Chicken” Charlie Clark, had pitched in the Negro Leagues.7) Butts’ brother, Robert, a center at Booker T. Washington High School (BTWHS), made the first team.8

The taller Robert – 5-feet-11, according to military records – was an outfielder when he and Tom played baseball for the 1936 Red Caps.9 That fall, the brothers were football teammates at BTWHS. Robert was nicknamed “Pea Eye.” The local press occasionally confused the two brothers for one another.

Pea Eye remained a football star at BTWHS, leading the Bulldogs to the 1937 Southeastern Inter-Scholastic championship as a sophomore.10 One of his performances earned him praise as “a coach’s dream” and “the canny little triple-threated field general.”11 His future was in professional baseball, though. After his hometown Atlanta Black Crackers started slowly in 1938, he joined the NAL club in June.

On July 1, the Daily World hailed Tom Butts, 18, as “one of the most discussed youngsters in the game,” noting, “He was called the greatest shortstop to appear in Memphis thus far in 1938. He made impossible chances look quite easy.”12

Butts recalled years later how his teammates reacted after one opposing player knocked him down with a hard slide: “That started a rhubarb because they all wanted to protect me. I was sort of the prize star, and I was younger, too.”13

During an August sweep of the league’s first-half champion Memphis Red Sox, the Daily World reported, “In the opening game, (Butts) tripled to left center to score Red Moore and injected more life and spirit in the Atlanta team. During the same series, he made a perfect throw to Joe] Greene at the plate to nab Cowan] Hyde and cut off a run.”14

Atlanta won 11 consecutive games to clinch the NAL’s second-half title.15 The first two games of the best-of-seven championship series were to be played in Memphis, the third in Birmingham, Alabama, and Game Four was scheduled to be “Butts’ Night” in Atlanta.16

Atlanta lost the opener, 6-1, but Butts scored their only run and notched one of their five hits against Ted Radcliffe.17 After the Black Crackers lost the second contest, 11-6, bad weather canceled the September 20 game in Birmingham.18 Because the (White) Atlanta Crackers were hosting the Class A-1 Southern Association finals, Ponce de Leon Park was unavailable on Wednesday and Thursday, and a high-school football game was booked there on Friday.19 The NAL playoffs were postponed until a Sunday doubleheader, but the Daily World noted, “Plans for Butts’ Day are still going along smoothly and his classmates at Booker Washington high are rallying behind the idea to make the young phenom supremely happy.”20

On Friday afternoon, Butts quarterbacked BTWHS to a 28-6 victory over Tuskegee High.21 However, the same page of the newspaper that described the action reported that the NAL championship series would not resume. It was noted that “[t]he Red Sox feel that they cannot win in Atlanta and that they won’t be treated ‘right.’ Thus they disbanded and are scattered to the wind by the decree of their owner.”22 To recover some revenue, the Black Crackers swept an otherwise meaningless twin bill from the Birmingham Black Barons.23 At the NAL meeting in December, the Red Sox were officially declared the champions.24

The following spring, journalist Ric Roberts observed, “Watching [Butts], you get the idea that before your very eyes cavorts a real ball player. 5,000 youngsters come and go for every single Butts.”25

The Black Crackers agreed to have a second “home” city in 1939 – closer to most of their Midwest-based NAL opponents. As part of the deal, they would play as the Indianapolis ABC’s.26 But while the team was on the season-opening road trip, club owner John Harden learned that they would not be permitted to use the ballpark in Indianapolis, so he shifted operations back to Atlanta before the June 14 home opener.27 A June 21 headline read “Black Crax No Longer Indianapolis ABC’s.”28 But the June 26 Daily World reported, “Black Crax Out of Negro American League.” At the NAL’s midseason meeting, a majority of the other owners voted to expel Harden’s team for failing to play as the ABC’s.29

Less than two weeks later, the Baltimore Elite Giants of the NNL2 announced that they had acquired Butts and four of his teammates: first baseman Moore, catcher Oscar Boone, and pitchers Ed Dixon and Felix Evans.30 “We got on the train to Baltimore that night, and that was one of the biggest thrills I ever had,” Butts said. “Big town, big buildings – at the time Atlanta didn’t have anything like that.”31

On July 9 at Oriole Park, Butts debuted in the Elites’ doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia Stars.32 He recalled that he made three throwing errors and admitted feeling nervous to manager-third baseman Felton Snow. “[Snow] said, “‘Aw, come on, “Cool Breeze” – that’s where I got the name of Cool Breeze, right there – ‘don’t be nervous, you can do it.’ He gave me a big lift there.”33

Butts roomed with Roy Campanella, a 17-year-old catcher whom he called “Pooch.” “[Campanella] was a talker,” Butts said. “You know, you just can’t go to sleep. … He would talk me to sleep.”34

When the Elite Giants played in the Deep South in early August, an Atlanta paper explained, “Butts is not on the present road trip. His leg is in a cast[,] and he is with Negro National League President (and Elites owner) Tom Wilson’s home in Nashville. … The classy young shortstop was injured in sliding in a game against a white team last week.”35

Butts was back in action by August 13, when he went 3-for-5 with a stolen base in Baltimore’s 11-1 victory over the New York Cubans at Yankee Stadium.36 Yankee Stadium “looked like a hotel from the outside, it didn’t look like a baseball park,” he said. “But after all these bad fields, that was a good one. And after that, every time they said New York, I was ready.”37

The Elites qualified for the NNL2’s semifinal playoffs and beat the Newark Eagles, three games to one. Baltimore advanced to the championship series but dropped the opener, 2-1, to the Homestead Grays in Philadelphia. The Grays’ second run scored when Butts juggled a potential first-inning-ending double-play grounder off the bat of Buck Leonard and recorded just one out.38 The Elites won the next three contests and finished off the Grays with a 2-0 victory at Yankee Stadium on September 24. Butts batted .333 (5-for-15) in the series. After he posed alongside the Ruppert Cup trophy with his teammates, he appeared in the game between NNL2 players and White minor leaguers later that afternoon.39

Baltimore placed second behind the Grays in 1940. In 55 official NNL2 games, Butts hit .284, with 44 runs scored and 34 RBIs. His 4-for-4 performance in the second game of a July 28 doubleheader at Yankee Stadium helped the Elites defeat the Grays, 15-6, and evidenced his development as a hitter.40 Butts credited veteran George Scales, who had returned to the Elites that season. “The more you swing, the less you hit the ball. You just get on base, walk, anything,” he recalled Scales saying. “I choked up on my bat, cut down on my swing, and started to get those hits.”41

Scales also helped the shortstop to improve his defense. Butts explained, “George Scales was a great teacher … a little hard on you, but if you’d listen you could learn a lot. I used to have trouble coming in on slow balls. … He drilled me until I finally caught on to it.”42

Prior to the 1941 campaign, one writer observed, “Tommy Butts … was rated the top shortfielder in the league on the All-NNL team for 1940. … He has a magnificent pair of hands, a great arm and is improving constantly as a hitter.”43 That summer, he was called Pee Wee for the first time in print.44 It was an homage to future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, who was in his first season as a full-time Brooklyn Dodgers starter.45

Although Butts batted just .185 in 59 official games in 1941, he edged out the New York Cubans’ Horacio Martínez as the first-team shortstop on Cum Posey’s 18th annual All-American baseball team. “Butts can now be placed in a class with Jake Stevens [sic], Dick] Lundy, Willie] Wells and other greats,” Posey wrote.46

Following a fight between fans after the Elites’ 1942 home opener that caused minor damage to Oriole Park, the team lost access to the facility, and Bugle Field became their primary home ballpark.47 “The infield was so rotted that shortstop Pee Wee Butts once took a bad hop between the eyes, called time, picked up the ball and heaved it over the left-field fence,” noted a Baltimore Sun retrospective.48 Butts said, “I used to go out myself and look for bad spots before I’d start playing. The ground was pretty bad, just a little too sandy.”49

Butts helped the Elite Giants beat the Grays, 1-0, at Bugle Field on July 10. His seventh-inning RBI single off Roy Partlow produced the only score, and his ninth-inning throw cut down the potential tying run at home plate. With two runners on and one out, a drive by the Grays’ Ray Brown hit a high-tension wire above the diamond and caromed to Baltimore center fielder Henry Kimbro. Butts’ relay to catcher Bob Clarke nailed Josh Gibson attempting to score from second base, and Baltimore sealed the victory one batter later.50

When right-hander Leon Day of the visiting Newark Eagles struck out 18 Elites on July 31,1942, Butts’ leadoff single was the only hit allowed by the future Hall of Famer.51 That summer Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis insisted that the White majors had no rule prohibiting teams from signing Black players. Detroit-based sportswriter Russ Cowans had already named Butts among the 10 Negro Leaguers (and others) who could help big-league teams.52 Grays manager Vic Harris also included Butts on his list of NNL2 stars who could likely succeed in the majors.53 The New York Daily News reported, “[Butts] is another Pee Wee Reese – except that he hits better. He gets the ball away fast and has a terrific whip, sometimes throwing men out from behind third base.”54 Butts was an East squad reserve for the prestigious East-West All-Star Game at Comiskey Park, but he did not see action.55

Heading into a pair of season-ending doubleheaders against Philadelphia, the Elites had a chance to win the NNL2 pennant and meet the NAL champion Kansas City Monarchs in the revived Negro World Series. But Baltimore split both twin bills and finished behind the Grays.56 The Elites’ chances were hampered by the absence of Campanella, who had jumped to a team in Mexico.57

When Campanella remained in the Mexican League in 1943, Butts joined him in the Industriales de Monterrey’s lineup. The team finished with a league-best 53-37 record. Butts teamed with Cuban second baseman Herberto Blanco up the middle and batted .248 with one homer and nine steals in 80 games.

In 1944 Butts and Campanella were both back with the Elite Giants. As the East-West All-Star Game approached, Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American wrote, “The brilliant Tommy Butts of the Baltimore Elite Giants can easily be the choice for the shortstop berth, mainly because he is just about the cleanest fielding infielder in Negro baseball at the moment and, too, because there is no better sacrifice man around than the Georgia cracker-jack.”58 (Three years later, Lacy reported, “Pee Wee Butts hates to be called Tommy.”59) With 46,247 in attendance at Comiskey Park on August 13, Butts started and went 0-for-2 in the East’s 7-4 defeat.60

After the Grays retained their NNL2 championship. Butts went to the Puerto Rican Winter League in 1944-45 and hit .237 in 76 at-bats with the Indios de Mayagüez.61

During training camp before Baltimore’s 1945 campaign. Butts underwent an appendectomy.62 He soon returned to action, but he was not selected for the East-West All-Star Game for the only time in a seven-season (1944-1950) span. The Elites also failed to dethrone the Grays. That fall the Elites increased their winning streak against the White Baltimore Orioles of the International League to six consecutive games. Butts keyed a 3-1 victory with a first-inning RBI triple against Walt Masterson, a righty with big-league experience whom the Orioles had brought in to pitch the October 7 contest.63

Sixteen days later, the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Negro League infielder Jackie Robinson to a minor-league contract. Although Robinson received most of the headlines for his play with their International League affiliate in Montreal in 1946, Brooklyn also signed three other African Americans that offseason. Pitcher Johnny Wright spent the bulk of the season with Class-C Trois-Rivieres, Quebéc, while Campanella and right-hander Don Newcombe played for the Dodgers’ Class-B farm club in Nashua, New Hampshire.

The Newark Eagles, featuring future Hall of Famers Larry Doby and Monte Irvin, won the 1946 NNL2 pennant and Negro World Series. Butts earned a return to the East-West All-Star Game with his best season to that point: .315 with 7 triples in a league-leading 64 games. That fall the Afro-American said an exhibition against a team of major-league all-stars would be “Kimbro-Butts Day,” noting, “Baltimoreans will do a long-delayed honor to the Elites’ most diligent pair of workmen.”64

In 1947 Butts produced his personal best slash line: .351/.391/.459 in 59 games. “I never was a curve ball hitter, but if someone tried to sneak a fast ball, I’d get a little hit,” was how he described his approach. “They always said I hit high balls. They said I hit them off my cap bill.”65 He was elected to start the East-West All-Star Game and went 0-for-2 in front of 48,112 and “a galaxy of major league scouts” in attendance at Comiskey Park.66

Butts played winter ball in Cuba for the Alacranes del Almendares in 1947-48.67 “Adolph Luque in Cuba rated Butts even better than Rizzuto,” recalled Lennie Pearson, another Negro Leaguer who played in the Cuban circuit. Pearson added, “He could go behind second base better than any man I ever saw in my life.”68 Butts also impressed former major-league catcher and coach Mike González, the manager of the champion Leones del Habana. The Baltimore Afro-American reported, “Gonzales [sic] said that Butts is the ‘best I’ve ever seen’ and the old National Leaguer has seen most of the top flight performers.”69

Although the Negro Leagues had lost more players to the formerly segregated majors by the summer of 1948, Philadelphia Stars manager Oscar Charleston opined, “There is still plenty of big league material left, like Tommy Butts.”70 One of the circuit’s budding stars was Butts’ double-play partner, second baseman Junior Gilliam, who had joined the Elite Giants as a 17-year-old in 1946. “I don’t know what kind of credit Junior Gilliam might give anybody, but Butts worked with him just like he was his own son and developed him into one of the top infielders in the Negro National League,” remarked one opponent, Chico Renfroe.71

“Gilliam was a quiet guy, but when he got on the field he had more pep than you’d think he had. He could make a team go. … He was really a baseball nut,” said Butts. Although he insisted that Scales deserved recognition for making Gilliam a switch-hitter and second baseman, Butts acknowledged. “[Gilliam] was a little younger than I was, and the fellows told me to keep my eye on him, don’t let him go running around.”72

During Butts and Gilliam’s second full season as a keystone duo in 1948, Lacy wrote, “Both are timely hitters if not great hitters. Both are fast, aggressive base-runners and offer serious threats to the opposition whenever they’re on the base-paths. Between them, they have four of the best hands in baseball and their throwing arms, particularly Butts’s, are not to be toyed with.”73 Baltimore advanced to the NNL2 championship series but lost to Homestead.

In June, Butts had been suspended for 10 days and fined $100 by NNL2 President John H. Johnson after an uncharacteristic incident at Yankee Stadium on May 30, 1948.74 After Butts’ liner to left field was caught on one hop by New York Cubans left fielder Cleveland Clark, umpire Julio Hernández ruled it a clean catch. Incensed, Butts struck the umpire twice – knocking him down – and jumped on him. “This marks the first time [Butts] has ever been in a dispute with an umpire,” reported the Afro-American. “A quiet personality, he seldom takes issue with an umpire’s decisions, despite the fact that teammates say there any many occasions when he would be justified in doing so.”75

There is no evidence that the incident hampered Butts’ major-league prospects.76 That summer Lacy wrote, “Had he been fortunate enough to possess about 10 more pounds, Butts would have been one of the first NNL players sought by the major league outfit. But with only 146 pounds on his frame – wringing wet – Butts is much too small to serve effectively as a major league shortstop. This, to the writer’s way of thinking, and this alone has kept him from being a big league player today.”77

In the 80-game 1948-1949 Puerto Rican Winter League campaign. Butts hit .312 with 61 runs scored for the Cangrejeros de Santurce.78 That team also lost in the championship series.

The NNL2 ceased operations before the 1949 season, but the Elite Giants joined the NAL and carried on. Before the Chicago White Sox signed White infielder Jim Baumer to a $50,000 “bonus baby” contract on June 2, White Sox GM Frank Lane inquired about Butts.79 Another report said a Triple-A Pacific Coast League club expressed interest but signed Parnell Woods instead because the Elite Giants wanted too much money.80 Butts remained with Baltimore, started another East-West All-Star Game, and led the circuit’s shortstops in fielding.81 Unlike many of his contemporaries, who left their gloves on the field when their team was at bat, Lacy noted, “Butts … is superstitious, he … carts it all the way to the front of his dugout.”82

The Elite Giants swept the Chicago American Giants in four games to win the 1949 NAL title. The clinching 4-2 victory at Comiskey Park was scoreless until the top of the sixth inning, when Butts led off with an opposite-field single and scored on Lennie Pearson’s double.83

After hitting just .221 in 280 at-bats for Santurce in winter ball, Butts returned to Baltimore in 1950 for what proved to be his final season with the Elite Giants. Bugle Field had been demolished, so Opening Day marked the first game between two Black teams at Memorial Stadium. Butts walked and scored twice against Philadelphia, including the decisive run in the bottom of the ninth on Gilliam’s RBI.84 Butts was elected an East-West All-Star Game starter again, but his Elite Giants career ended on September 3 when he was one of four players suspended by manager Kimbro before the club’s home finale. Although their teammates had voted to accept business manager Dick Powell’s proposal to remain on salary through Labor Day, Butts and three others refused to dress unless they received a percentage of the gate instead.85

Butts played for the Winnipeg Buffaloes of the semipro Manitoba-Dakota (ManDak) League in 1951. The team, managed by future Hall of Famer Willie Wells, was defeated in the circuit’s championship series. “I didn’t want to go back, it was too cold up there,” Butts said.86

In 1952 three former Elite Giants – Butts, pitcher Al Wilmore, and second baseman Fleming Reedy – became the Philadelphia Athletics organization’s first African American players.87 Butts and Wilmore were signed by scout Judy Johnson.88 After spring training in Savannah, Georgia, the trio was assigned to the Lincoln (Nebraska) A’s in the Class-A Western League. (Reedy lasted 11 seasons in the minors, but arm problems derailed Wilmore.) Butts hit just .170 in 47 games. When Lincoln tried to demote him to Class B that summer, Butts returned to the NAL instead. Later, he explained that he could tell his skills were slipping, and he did not think it would be fair to block a younger player.89 Butts joined the Birmingham Black Barons and saw action in the 1952 NAL championship series, won by the Indianapolis Clowns club that featured 18-year-old shortstop Henry Aaron.90

Gilliam debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953 and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award. “It broke Butts up when Gilliam went up to the big leagues and he didn’t,” said Pearson. “He wasn’t too old for the majors. But he loved life, and when I say he loved life, I mean he loved life, especially women. After a game, Butts had a tendency to go off on the town, while Gilliam would stay around and listen to the old-timers talk and soak up that knowledge of baseball.”91

Although Butts was voted a starter for one final East-West All-Star Game that summer, when the Black Barons played in Atlanta, the Daily World observed, “Good living, good time, good pay have taken their toll on Butts. He is now in the twilight of a brilliant career. … The shuddering hardships of barnstorming competition have wrecked the splendid promise.”92

In 1954 Butts saw action with the Black Barons and the Memphis Red Sox. In 1955 he appeared in 28 games in the Class-B Big State League, batting .265 for the Texas City Texans. Three of Butts’ former Baltimore teammates contributed to the Brooklyn Dodgers team that won its only World Series that fall. Pitcher Joe Black won his only decision before he was traded in June, Gilliam started at second base, and Campanella was the NL MVP.

A 1960 Atlanta directory listed Butts as a helper for a metal fabrication company. He married Dorothy Butler, a Baltimorean, and fathered four children: Jean, Thomas, Retta, and Norma.93

When Negro Leagues historian John Holway interviewed him in 1970, Butts said attending an old-timers’ game in Atlanta the previous year had been “a big thrill.”94 Butts described reuniting with Johnny Logan, a former Puerto Rican League teammate who told him that he still appeared to be in shape. “Yeah, I’m in shape, but I can’t do anything now,” he replied. Butts also shared how he had visited Campanella in New York since a January 1958 car accident had left his old roommate paralyzed.95

Tom Butts was 53 when he died on December 30, 1972, in Atlanta. He is buried in the city’s South-View Cemetery, the final resting place for many prominent African Americans, including civil rights icons Julian Bond and John Lewis, sports greats Henry Aaron and Walt Bellamy, and Martin Luther King Sr.

Joe Black named Butts the first-team shortstop on his all-time Black all-star team in 1969.96 Later, Black reflected, “Players like Leon Day, Pee Wee Butts, Larry Doby, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, those guys could play. … They had credentials for the Hall of Fame.”97 When Black uttered those words in 1992, only Gibson and Leonard had been enshrined in Cooperstown, but Butts was the only player he named who had not been so honored as of 2024.

“If I’d been 10 years younger, I think I could have made the major leagues,” Butts told Holway. “If the doors had opened up a little earlier, I think I’d have done pretty good.”98

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.ancestry.com, www.baseball-reference.com, www.retrosheet.org, https://sabr.org/bioproject, and https://seamheads.com/blog/.

Tom Butts’ Puerto Rican Winter League statistics are from https://beisbol101.com/jugador/tommy-butts/

Notes

1 Tom Holcomb, “‘We Were Trailblazers for Jackie Robinson,’” Atlanta Constitution, June 27, 1997: E7.

2 John Holway, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. 1992), 327.

3 In addition to Butts’ four East-West All-Star Game seasons (1944, both 1946 contests, 1947, 1948) reflected by Baseball Reference in March 2023, he was a reserve – but did not play – in the 1942 contest. Butts also started East-West All-Star Games in 1949, 1950, and 1953, but the post-1948 Negro Leagues were not retroactively deemed major leagues.

4 In a 1937 “Ex-Slave Interview” for the Federal Writers Project, Berry’s sister Carrie said her family had labored on Ben Bass’s plantation. (According to military records, Bass’s Confederate Army unit surrendered with General Robert E. Lee’s forces at Appomattox Court House in Virginia in 1865.) After gaining their freedom, Carrie described how they initially remained there as low-wage workers before moving from farm to farm as renters. Aunt Carrie Mason, “Ex-Slave Interview” written by Estelle G. Burke, Federal Writers’ Project July 7, 1937, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/6227:1944?ssrc=pt&tid=171658784&pid=362378020616. (Subscription service, last accessed February 26, 2023).

5 Sam McKibben, “Atlanta Red Caps Take 5-1 Slugging,” Atlanta Daily World, July 27, 1935: 5.

6 Marion E. Jackson, “Sports of the World,” Atlanta Daily World, June 19, 1953: 7.

7 Ric Roberts, “‘Chicken’ Charlie Clark Affords Real Story for Ambitious Young Men,” Atlanta Daily World, August 9, 1936: 2.

8 Sam McKibben, “McKibben Lists All City Prep Eleven,” Atlanta Daily World, December 8, 1935: 5.

9 Sam McKibben, “Semi-pro Outfits to Commence Activities,” Atlanta Daily World, May 4, 1936: 5.

10 “‘Pea-Eye’ Butts Will Be Honored by BTWHS Folk,” Atlanta Daily World, September 16, 1938: 5.

11 Lucius Jones, “Atlanta Preps Wins Brilliant ‘Intersectional’ Tilt, 29-13,” Atlanta Daily World, December 5, 1937: 1.

12 “BTWHS Grid Star, Butts, Newest Black Crax Phenom,” Atlanta Daily World, July 1, 1938: 5.

13 Holway, 331.

14 “‘Pea-Eye’ Butts Will Be Honored by BTWHS Folk.”

15 “Black Crackers Clinch Second Half Pennant,” Atlanta Daily World, September 9, 1938: 11.

16 “Butts Night to Honor Black Crax Star,” Atlanta Daily World, September 18, 1938: 8.

17 “Memphis Leads in Playoff for Championship,” Chicago Defender, September 24, 1938: 8.

18 Scott News Syndicate, “Bad Weather Prevents Third Game,” Atlanta Daily World, September 21, 1938: 5.

19 Roy White, “Purples Meet Monroe Aggies Friday Night,” Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1938: 10.

20 “Black Crackers to Face Memphis at Ponce de Leon Sunday, Sept. 25,” Atlanta Daily World, September 21, 1938: 5.

21 “4,000 See BTWHS Rip Tuskegee High, 28-6,” Atlanta Daily World, September 24, 1938: 5.

22 “Sunday Set Aside as Day to Help Our Black Crax Boys,” Atlanta Daily World, September 24, 1938: 5.

23 “Black Crax Nip Black Barons in Pair, 5-3, 4-3,” Atlanta Daily World, September 26, 1938: 5.

24 “Memphis Gets 1938 American League Pennant,” Chicago Defender, December 17, 1938: 9.

25 Ric Roberts, “Shortstop Thomas Butts,” Atlanta Daily World, March 24, 1939: 5.

26 Louisville was the initial city the Black Crackers agreed to represent, but they settled on Indianapolis after securing the use of a ballpark in Louisville became an issue. Scott News Syndicate, “Atlanta Changed Hands,” Atlanta Daily Work, May 10, 1939: 5.

27 Lucius Jones, “Black Crax Win, 2-0; Show Again 3 p.m.,” Atlanta Daily World, June 15, 1939: 5.

28 “Black Crax No Longer Indianapolis ABC’s,” Atlanta Daily World, June 21, 1939: 5.

29 Lucius “Melancholy” Jones, “Black Crax Out of Negro American League,” Atlanta Daily World, June 26, 1939: 5.

30 “Five Atlanta Players Signed by Baltimore,” Chicago Defender, July 22, 1939: 8.

31 Holway, 332.

32 “Elites Take Lead in Second Half,” Afro-American, July 15, 1939: 21.

33 Holway, 332.

34 Holway, 329.

35 Holway, 332.

36 “Metropolitan Teams Bow in Double Bill,” Norfolk (Virginia) New Journal and Guide, August 19, 1939: 19.

37 Holway, 333.

38 “Partlow Bests Byrd as Grays Win Opener, 2-1,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 23, 1939: 1.

39 “Baltimore Whips Homestead Grays for Title,” Chicago Defender, September 30, 1939: 9.

40 Art Carter, “Elites, Grays Split Double-Header,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 3, 1940: 19.

41 Holway, 333.

42 Holway, 333.

43 Ed Perry, “Cash Lures Big League Overlords,” Norfolk New Journal and Guide, April 19, 1941: 13.

44 “Baltimore Elites Only Club to Beat Bushies Twice, Play,” New York Amsterdam Star-News, July 19, 1941: 18.

45 Holcomb, “‘We Were Trailblazers for Jackie Robinson.’”

46 Cum Posey, “Posey’s 18th All-American Baseball Team,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 25, 1941: 17.

47 Robert V. Leffler Jr., “The History of Black Baseball in Baltimore from 1913 to 1951,” master’s thesis, Morgan State University, 1974: 87. Cited in Bob Luke, The Baltimore Elite Giants (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 70.

48 Bill Glauber, “Elite Giants: The Pride of Baltimore Baseball History,” Baltimore Sun, April 29, 1990: 1A.

49 Holway, 332.

50 Art Carter, “Gaines Hurls 4-Hit Ball as Grays Are Blanked, 1-0,” Afro-American, July 11, 1942: 22.

51 “Elites Drop 3 Straight as Grays Take Twin Bill,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 1, 1942: 23.

52 Russ J. Cowans, “Sports Chatter,” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), June 6, 1942: 16.

53 Ric Roberts, “Vic Harris Says Build Own Baseball Leagues,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 8, 1942: 23.

54 Lester Rose, “Major Prospects,” New York Daily News, August 16, 1942: 34.

55 “Negro East-West Game Today May Attract 40,000,” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1942: B2. Another account published the previous day suggested that Butts could see action. Associated Negro Press, “Pea Eye Butts May Get Try,” Phoenix Index, August 15, 1942: 6.

56 “Grays Win NNL Flag; Play K.C.’s,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 12, 1942: 23.

57 “Roy Campanella Jumps Elite Giants; Said to be Playing in Mexico,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 12, 1942: 14.

58 Sam Lacy, “Looking ’Em Over,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 5, 1944: 18.

59 Sam Lacy, “From A to Z,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 13, 1947: 12.

60 Harold Jackson, “46,000 See West Win All-Star Classic, 7-4,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 19, 1944: 18.

61 “Tommy Butts,” Béisbol 101, https://beisbol101.com/jugador/tommy-butts/ (last accessed March 13, 2023).

62 “Baltimore-Black Yankees at Stadium Sunday,” New York Amsterdam News, May 19, 1945: 8B.

63 The article describes Butts’ hit as a triple, but it is recorded as a double in the box score. “Orioles Humbled 3-1, 4-3 by Balto. Elite Giants,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 13, 1945: 22.

64 Sam Lacy, “Looking ’Em Over,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 12, 1946: 17.

65 Holway, 333.

66 “West’s 5-2 Win Makes It 3 in a Row Over the East,” Norfolk New Journal and Guide, August 2, 1947: 14.

67 “Negro Leaguers in Cuban Winter League,” Center for Negro League Baseball Research, http://www.cnlbr.org/Portals/0/RL/Negro%20Leaguers%20in%20Cuban%20Winter%20League.pdf (last accessed March 18, 2023).

68 Holway, 327.

69 “Giants Seek Local Player, Bid Aspirants to Try Out,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 17, 1948: 27.

70 Norvin (Rip) Collins, “Still ‘Plenty of Negro Baseball Prospects,” Wilmington (Delaware) Journal-Every Evening July 14, 1948: 28.

71 Holway, 328.

72 Holway, 335.

73 Sam Lacy, “NNL’s Keystone Kuties Bonded by Close Friendship,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 4, 1948: 8.

74 Scott News Syndicate, “Negro National League Meeting Set for June 23,” Atlanta Daily World, June 12, 1948: 5.

75 Sam Lacy, “Butts Suspended, Fined $100 for Fight,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 5, 1948: 9.

76 In an August 2023 note to the author Frederick Bush added that Philadelphia Stars catcher Bill Cash likely didn’t make it into what was then considered Organized Baseball because of his run-in with an umpire in Leon Day’s Opening Day no-hitter earlier that season. Owners like Effa Manley and reporters like Wendell Smith were convinced that such behavior was detrimental to a player’s chances at playing in the minors or majors.

77 Lacy, “NNL’s Keystone Kuties Bonded by Close Friendship.”

78 “Tommy Butts.”

79 Sam Lacy, “From A to Z,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 11, 1949: C4.

80 The article identifies the PCL team as the San Diego Padres, but Woods signed with Oakland Oaks. Wendell Smith, “Louis Made Writers Look Good,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 18, 1949: 22.

81 “Lenny Pigg Officially Designated Champion Batter of the NAL,” Chicago Defender, December 24, 1949: 14.

82 Sam Lacy, “From A to Z,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 10, 1949: 16.

83 R.S. Simmons, “Elite Giants Sweep Series for American League Championship,” Atlanta Daily World, September 28, 1949: 5.

84 “10,000 Watch Elites Open NAL Season,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 13, 1950: 18.

85 The players suspended with Butts were John Coleman, Ed Finney, and Al Wilmore. “Ban 4 Elites After Strike,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 9, 1950: 17.

86 Holway, 337.

87 Bill Bowens, “Three Former Elite Giants Crack Tradition in Georgia,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 19, 1952: 16.

88 Al Cartwright, “Judy Johnson Catches Two for A’s,” Wilmington Journal-Every Evening, March 7, 1952: 21.

89 Holway, 337.

90 “Flags Fly and So Do Fists at Negro League World Series,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 7, 1952: 10.

91 Holway, 328.

92 Jackson, “Sports of the World.”

93 “Funeral Notices,” Atlanta Constitution, January 5, 1973: 6C.

94 Holway, 328.

95 Holway, 328.

96 Joe Black, “Ex-Dodger Joe Black Picks All-time All Star Black Team,” Chicago Defender, August 9, 1969: 45.

97 Tom Haudricourt, “Negro League Players Get Overdue Tribute,” Milwaukee Sentinel, June 19, 1992: 6B.

98 Holway, 329.

A Negro League ballplayer had no greater testimonial to his individual play than selection to the annual East-West All-Star Game. Of those who were pitchers, only three appeared in seven or more games. Leon Day led the way with nine, followed by Hilton Smith with seven. Bill Byrd also pitched in seven and was selected for two more games, one of which he appeared in as a pinch-hitter and the other in which he was not called on to play. Day and Smith are Baseball Hall of Famers. However, while devotees of Black baseball of the day knew how good Byrd was, playing outside the limelight of the showcase teams in the Negro Leagues has obscured his greatness. The fact is that Byrd’s career certainly showed him to be Hall of Fame-worthy as well, and his story underscores that claim.

The Byrd family was a part of the Great Migration, living in Canton, Georgia, where William was born on July 15, 1907, and then relocating to Columbus, Ohio, for a better life when he was 12 years old. Not much is known about Byrd’s parents, Robert and Ovelle (Blake). Byrd himself completed the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s player profile form in 1973 and listed eight years of elementary education in both Canton, Georgia, and Riley, Alabama (the latter an apparent way station for the Byrd family on their way to Ohio).2 Byrd lists no high school in Ohio, but a later newspaper reference ties him to East High School in Columbus.3

Byrd later reminisced about his love for baseball as a kid. “I never had training, never had a teacher,” he told historian John Holway.4 Another biography of Byrd sheds light on his youthful penchant for the game: “According to legend, Bill honed his baseball skills by throwing rocks and hitting rocks with a tree limb that he had fashioned into a baseball bat.5 Simply put, his development as a ballplayer came on the sandlots.

Byrd’s connection to Columbus gave him exposure to the higher levels of Black baseball. Byrd played on a team called the Columbus Turfs in 1932, a member of the Negro Southern League. In his history of the NSL, William J. Plott noted:

The Columbus Turf Team was announced as a new league member in early July. The Ohio team was to play its first game on Saturday, July 16, at Neil Park [in Columbus], the home of the city’s white American Association Team. … It was reported that the Turf Club, sometimes called the Turf Stars, was bringing “colored professional baseball to Columbus” for the first time in ten years.6

Some of the players on the roster that season alongside Byrd were Satchel Paige, Dennis Gilchrist, C.B. “Clarence” Griffin, John Kerner, Alphonso “Duke” Lattimore, Sam Warmack, and Roy Williams; however, actual box scores have not yet been found.7

The Turfs’ play in the NSL may offer insight into how Byrd eventually became known to Tom Wilson, owner of the Nashville Elite Giants, the franchise for which Byrd would play nearly all of his career.

The Elite Giants are very much the story of Wilson, their founder and longtime owner. Wilson was born in Atlanta in the late 1880s. (His birth year is disputed.) His family moved to Nashville to further their education and became doctors. Because of their successful careers, the Wilsons became part of the Black middle class, from which the young Wilson benefited in terms of the social standing and financial wherewithal that came with it.8 Wilson’s business acumen and entrepreneurial pursuits included baseball, and he formed the Nashville Standard Giants in 1920.

Plott’s history of the NSL lists a team called the Nashville White Sox as a charter member of the league in 1920, run and managed by Marshall Garrett, one of Wilson’s business partners. In 1921 the Nashville franchise became the Elite Giants, previously Wilson’s Standard Giants. The NSL struggled early to find its footing. After its first four seasons, the league suspended play in 1924 and 1925, and again in 1928 and 1930. Through 1931, when the league did operate, Nashville won the title four times. In 1930 Wilson orchestrated the Elite Giants’ elevation to the top-tier Negro National League. That team, however, struggled at the gate and finished poorly, and Wilson, always looking for a more viable financial setting, relocated the team north to Cleveland as the Cubs in 1931. A history of “Black Baseball in Depression Cleveland” noted that “Wilson more than likely moved his club from Nashville to Cleveland in an attempt to make a profit off the black population in Cleveland by way of the numbers game.”9 Although this might have been true, the larger African American population in Cleveland in 1930 was probably greater justification for the relocation (72,000 in Cleveland vs. 43,200 in Nashville, providing a bigger population to draw on for Elite games.)10

With the demise of the first, Rube Foster-founded NNL in 1931, the NSL ascended to “major” league status as the only premier Black Ball league left standing at the time. Wilson brought the team back to Nashville for the 1932 NSL season, and his squad, which won the league’s second-half championship, participated in the so-called Dixie Series against the first-half champion Chicago American Giants. The American Giants prevailed over Nashville in seven games. The Elite Giants remained in the NSL for two more years, but with the ongoing economic uncertainty at the height of the Depression, Wilson moved the franchise again. At first, he took his team to Detroit11 in 1935 to join the new Negro National League II (NNL2). However, after he was unable to arrange a lease on Hamtramck Field, he abruptly relocated to greener pastures in Columbus early that season.

Meanwhile, after his stint with the Turfs in 1932, the now 25-year-old Byrd surfaced on Columbus’s first entry in the NNL2 in the league’s 1933 inaugural year. The Blue Birds12 had been one of five affiliate teams in 1931, the last season of the first NNL, and now were a charter member of the reconstituted NNL2. However, the franchise struggled, so Gus Greenlee, president of the league, “moved the Columbus ball club to Cleveland [as the Giants] in hopes of making a profit.”13 A comparison of the rosters of both teams shows several of the Blue Birds making the move to Cleveland.

Records for Byrd in 1933 list 13 appearances as a pitcher with the Blue Birds (including 11 starts with a 3-8 record), but no records are available with him on the Cleveland squad that finished the season and then folded.

Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe and Roosevelt Davis were Byrd’s teammates on the 1933 Blue Birds, and Byrd credited Davis with teaching him how to throw the spitter.14 Byrd bounced around Depression baseball in his early professional years, and “[a]fter the Blue Birds folded that autumn, he went to the last place Cleveland Red Sox.”15 In 1934 the NNL2 tried to resuscitate a presence in Cleveland under what might have been league-appointed ownership of Prentice Byrd (no relation to Bill Byrd) and Dr. E.L. Langrum. The new owners hired Negro League veteran Bobby Williams as manager.16

The migration of Blue Birds/Giants players to the new Red Sox team saw Byrd joining “several of his Blue Bird teammates (Ameal Brooks, Roosevelt Davis, Kermit Dial, Dennis Gilchrist, Clarence Griffin, Wilson “Frog” Redus, and Roy Williams) on the new team.17 The second iteration of Cleveland’s entry in the league fared as poorly as the Cleveland Giants had, and it too was one and done in the league after playing to a 3-22 record. Byrd’s 2-8 record for the NNL’s cellar-dwelling team, along with an ERA of 6.90, was lackluster at best, but his adopted hometown of Columbus offered him another shot in 1935 with the arrival of the Elite Giants from Nashville via Detroit.

It is uncertain whether Wilson and his protégés remembered Byrd from the 1932 NSL season, but his modest beginning with the Columbus Elite Giants in 1935, in which he played alongside a reasonably stable lineup from the prior year, offered a foundation for his future success with that itinerant franchise.

And itinerant they continued to be, playing only one year in Columbus. In 1936 Wilson moved the team again, this time to Washington, DC, having arranged a deal with Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith to lease Griffith Stadium for the Elite Giants’ use. Manager Candy Jim Taylor, in a guest column for the Pittsburgh Courier in the spring of 1936, captured the move:

The Nashville Elite Giants, to be known as the Washington Elites for the 1936 season, started training Saturday. … Tom Wilson, owner of the Elite Giants, has been in baseball for about 20 years and for the last few years his club has been in the Negro National League. He promised Washington fans the same kind of club that he has put on the field in the last few years, and from the looks of things now it will be a first division club. … The pitching staff looks to be the best in the league. Bob Griffith, the schoolboy wonder heads the staff. Andy] Porter the speed ball wonder, sick most of last season, is reported to be in fine shape, Byrd, the big side arm boy from Columbus, Jim Willis, the only veteran on the staff, seems to be ready for a great season. Tom] Glover, southpaw with the club for a while last year will be back. Of the new men, Red Howard, from Memphis … will round out the rotation. Biz Mackey, the old warhorse … will be number one man behind the bat with his ability to handle pitchers.18

Having been promised a first-division team, Washington fans witnessed a slow start by the Elite Giants, but the team won the second-half crown, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the playoffs. Byrd, Jim Willis, and Bob Griffith anchored the Elite Giants’ rotation, with Byrd tossing the most innings and finishing with a 9-4 record and a 3.38 ERA. The other members of Taylor’s pitching staff did not fare as well (the team’s ERA was a voluminous 4.88), and the Washington squad did not play .500 ball.

The Elite Giants reprised their time in Washington with a second season in 1937. Managed now by Mackey, Washington finished 23-36 in league play, a distant fifth to the champion Homestead Grays. Byrd had three batterymates – Mackey, Nish Williams, and 15-year-old Roy Campanella. Records for the year show that Byrd regressed on the mound. The team’s two subpar years in Washington did not do much to build fan support or a financial grounding for the team and it was no surprise that Wilson found justification to relocate once again. In fact, the team played some of its schedule at Oriole Park in Baltimore after Wilson was unable to reach an agreement with Griffith on hosting a full slate of games at Griffith Stadium. In early 1938 the Baltimore Afro-American reported:

It is almost a certainty that the Elite Giants, for the last two years representatives of Washington, DC, in the Negro National League, will be transferred to Baltimore this season. [According to Tom Wilson, Elite Giants owner] “Only a slight hitch remains to be ironed out [regarding stadium usage]. … Last year we lost money from operating from Washington. I sincerely feel Baltimore far superior to Washington as a baseball town. … It has been a long time since Baltimore has had a regular league team and I feel the people there need one and will support one.”19

Wilson and his partners “at last found adequate community support” in Baltimore.20 The city had a sizable African American population (growing from 142,000 in 1930 to 225,000 in 1950 and to nearly a third of the population). The team’s ballpark (Bugle Field) was situated in an East Baltimore working-class neighborhood, not far from the Old West neighborhood in the west-central part of town that middle-class Blacks called home.21 According to Luke, “Baltimore, with its large and growing black population and large black middle class, was just the kind of city Wilson needed for his baseball team.”22

The now Baltimore Elite Giants performed promisingly in their new setting. Managed by George Scales, Baltimore finished third, well behind the Grays and Philadelphia Stars. There was some debate about the final standings, but this was often the case as the NNL2 had limited resources to maintain accurate records. Baltimore assembled a core team that year with players who populated the roster over the next few years: a pitching rotation of Byrd, Andy Porter, School Boy Griffith, and Jonas Gaines; a lineup with veterans Henry Kimbo, Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright, and Bill Hoskins in the outfield; James West, Sammy Hughes, Felton Snow, and Hoss Walker in the infield; and the tandem of veteran Mackey and the young Campanella behind the plate. Despite finishing well behind league-leading Homestead with its future Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, and Ray Brown, “Tom Wilson decided to keep the Elites in Baltimore. The box office had been good to him even if the team’s won-loss record had disappointed.”23

The 1939 season finally put the Elites on the Black baseball map. The team returned substantially the same lineup as in 1938, but with Felton Snow as manager and Andy Porter and School Boy Griffith having left for Mexico. Midseason pickup Pee Wee Butts was a plus and the rotation of Byrd, Gaines, Willie Hubert, Emery Adams, and Tom Glover was good enough to keep the team competitive. It was an atypical year for the league as the first- and second-half champion Grays and Elites did not play in a championship series. Instead, the top four teams engaged in a playoff. After the Grays defeated Philadelphia and Baltimore survived Newark, the winners played a five-game series. Byrd, the team’s regular-season workhorse with the most wins, won Game Four of the series with the Grays despite giving up 15 hits (including three singles and a homer to Josh Gibson) in a 10-5 outcome that tied the series at two games apiece and set the stage for the winner-take-all Game Five. Baltimore won the game, 2-0, behind the pitching of Gaines and Hubert.24 The Baltimore Afro-American averred, “Climaxing an uphill campaign in a blaze of glory, the Baltimore Elite Giants won the Negro National League baseball championship … by turning back the Homestead Grays.”25

Except for a one-year sojourn to Venezuela, Byrd centered his offseason play in a single Caribbean destination, Puerto Rico. Byrd journeyed to Puerto Rico for three successive winters (1939-1940, 1940-1941, and 1941-1942). The Puerto Rico Winter League had been inaugurated the year before Byrd’s first appearance and became what now is “the longest continually running winter league in the Western Hemisphere.”26 Each owner in the six-team league was “determined to win the all-important inaugural winter league championship, and they set about to staff their rosters with the best players they could find. There was a flurry of activity over the summer of 1938 as the owners went on a recruiting campaign from New York to Caracas, with briefcases full of money.”27 And Negro League ballplayers were prime recruits. Despite competition from Cuba, with its longstanding winter play, “the owners were able to attract several Negro Leaguers to their first season, including George Scales, Dick Seay, Jimmy Crutchfield,” and others. 28 

The Puerto Rico Winter League’s success in its first year led to a more lucrative recruitment of Negro League ballplayers in 1939-1940. Signings included Satchel Paige, Ray Brown, Leon Day, Josh Gibson, Dick Seay, Roy Partlow, and Bill Byrd.29 How Byrd surfaced in Puerto Rico is unclear, but the Negro League fraternity was such that those signed in Puerto Rico often informed their team owners about other players to consider for their squads. Byrd ended up on Santurce that winter with fellow Negro Leaguers Josh Gibson, who managed the team, and Dick Seay.30

Byrd tossed a blistering 229 innings in the league his first year and pitched to a record of 15-10 record with a 1.97 ERA.31 Santurce finished at 26-29, with Byrd starting nearly half of the Crabbers’ games, and finished fourth in the eight-team league.32

January 7, 1940, marked a game for the ages between two Negro League hurlers battling under Caribbean skies. Leon Day, pitching for Aguadilla, was Byrd’s mound opponent. Aguadilla scored one run in the first and Santurce countered with one in the fourth. Then “Byrd and Day settled down to a long Sunday afternoon in the sun. The goose eggs piled up inning after inning until the sun set in the west and the umpire called the game on account of darkness. The final score of the 18-inning game was 1-1, and Leon Day had struck out 19 batters over the course of the day.”33

The financial attraction of Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Venezuela in these years was compounded by the inability of the Negro National and American Leagues to pay their players well and “to standardize and enforce the contracts and agreements between owner and player which were often easily broken at the convenience of either party.”34 The difference in wages between the Negro Leagues and the Caribbean was a big deal. Ed Harris of the Philadelphia Tribune “viewed player jumps as inevitable, as some players were not even ‘getting the wages they would on WPA [Works Progress Administration].’”35 Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier noted that “[b]all players are always going to go where they make the most money. Right now, Mexico [and Puerto Rico] is the place. Efforts to stop this have been unsuccessful and will be until the moguls here get together and organize a league with a solid foundation.”36 Chester Washington, also of the Courier, noted “that in this so-called Land of Opportunity how tragic it was that the greatest home run hitter in the game today – Josh Gibson – had to leave his native America to make a lucrative living in far-away Venezuela just because the Negro League can’t afford to pay him the salary he’s worth and the major leagues bar him because he is black.”37

Immediately after his time in the Puerto Rican Winter League in 1939-1940, Byrd was enticed to play for Venezuela’s Centauros de Maracaibo. Records for the 13-15-game season that spring are sparse, but it is known that Josh Gibson, Luis Aparico Sr., and Pedro “Perucho” Cepeda also played for the Centauros. Other Negro Leaguers were lured to Venezuela, including Satchel Paige, Ray Dandridge, and Leon Day. Apparently, Byrd’s time in Venezuela also served as a honeymoon for him and his new wife, Hazel, as they both embarked upon a second marriage.38

When Bill Byrd returned to the United States after his time in Venezuela, he was asked why he had chosen to go to South America to play ball. He responded, “They treat you better down there. They pay your way down. Get you an apartment and pay you pretty well. … They roll out the red carpet for you.”39 This was a common reaction. As Negro League historian Leslie Heaphy has noted, “Whether the Negro League players traveled south during the summer or winter they went because baseball was popular, they loved the game, they needed the extra money, and Latin American fans looked up them as heroes.”40

The increasing exodus of many star players to Puerto Rico and Mexico led to a ban issued by Negro League owners in 1940:

Aware of the potential for disaster during 1940, the two league presidents [J.B. Martin (NAL) and Tom Wilson (NNL)] agreed that any player jumping to a foreign locale would be suspended for three years, and all league clubs would be barred from playing independent teams using or competing against the suspended players.41

El Maestro,42 as Byrd was called in Puerto Rico, had to pitch in the Winter League without his spitter, his bread-and-butter pitch. It was outlawed. Gene Benson, a fellow Negro Leaguer and Byrd’s occasional winter season roommate, remarked to Holway that without the spitter, “I didn’t see no difference. He still blinded us – he threw the ball right past us. He had everything else he needed: threw a hard, good curveball. Shoot, very few teams beat Bill.”43 Even so, Buck Leonard remarked that Byrd would occasionally try to get away with throwing it: “Byrd was cutting heads right and left with that spitter. … Byrd would throw a high pitch over the batter’s head and while everyone watched the ball, Bill hastily put his fingers to his mouth.”44

Much is made of the 6-foot-1 right-hander as a spitballer. According to Luke, “Byrd chewed slippery elm; a soft greenish bark, to help his ball do tricks.45 However, Byrd recounted to Holway:

I threw almost everything: knuckler, slow knuckler, fast knuckler, curve, slider. I had good control … a good fastball overhand. I’d get a guy set up and then throw it. … [And Byrd insisted] I hated the spitter … they made me throw it. … [Candy Jim Taylor told him] if you’re gonna throw it, fake it.” The fear that Byrd might use his spitter … made his other pitches more effective.46

Since Byrd had been banned by the NNL2, Baltimore was without his talents in 1940,47 but the Elites managed to finish second, 3½ games behind the Homestead Grays in the six-team league. Meanwhile, Byrd made his way back to Puerto Rico for a second season, this time with Caguas. The Caguas owners broke the bank that winter to sign Negro League talent, and their investment paid dividends. Caguas won the first-half championship and Santurce the second half to set the stage for a seven-game championship series that ended up being a back-and-forth affair. Byrd lost 1-0 to Santurce’s Ray Brown in Game One, but Caguas won Game Two. A week later, Byrd beat Brown and then Santurce took Game Four. When the series resumed several days later, Byrd was again on the short end of a duel with Brown in Game Five, but Roy Campanella bailed out Caguas to take Game Six the next day. Game Seven immediately followed Game Six and Byrd and Brown dueled for a third time. In the finale Byrd turned in a 6-2 complete-game win to capture the series for Caguas.48

The presence of Byrd and his peers in Puerto Rico and Mexico adversely impacted the NNL2 and NAL, which missed many of their marquee players in 1940. By early 1941, the owners reconsidered their position to ban players who journeyed south, and according to the New York Age:

The] … smart play the owners made was lifting the ban imposed on star players who had “jumped” the country for more lucrative jobs in Mexico, Porto Rico, and Venezuela. These players, whose ranks include some of the biggest names in Negro baseball, will now be allowed to return to the league upon payment of a $100 fine. Since nearly all the team owners are thirsting for the return of such drawing cards as Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, they will probably be willing to pay the fines for the players of their choice.49

For the Baltimore Elite Giants, despite a decent 1940 season, getting Byrd back (he agreed to pay the $100 fine imposed by the league) made a difference as the Grays and Elites outpaced the rest of the NNL2 in 1941.50

Byrd played one more year in Puerto Rico, 1941-1942, again for Caguas. The team could not repeat its 1940-1941 championship season and finished tied for fifth despite Byrd’s 10 wins. His Puerto Rican swan song ended with his selection to the league’s North All-Star team, his second all-star designation after similar recognition the year before.51

Byrd’s return to the NNL2 after his one-year ban was a remarkable one. Deservedly chosen for that year’s All-Star Game, he compiled a 9-3 record with an ERA of 2.23 against league competition. The Elites lost the first-half pennant to their nemesis, the Grays. Although Baltimore finished ahead of Homestead in the second half, the team now trailed the New York Cubans and missed out on the playoffs. Byrd’s batterymate, Roy Campanella, had a breakout year for Baltimore that provided a hint of things to come in his career. Byrd’s season was punctuated by a 3-2 win against the Memphis Red Sox in July in which he threw no-hit ball through the first eight innings and, purportedly, a three-strikeout “immaculate inning” in the third, fanning the three Red Sox batters he faced with the minimum nine pitches.52

In what was a recurring theme in the 1940s, the Grays again bested the second-place Elite Giants in 1942. Over the next five years, from 1943 to 1947, Baltimore finished fifth, fourth, third, second, and fourth, well behind perennial pennant winners Homestead, and then Newark in 1946 and the New York Cubans in 1947. During those years, Byrd toiled in workmanlike fashion for the Elites, in a rotation that variously included Andy Porter, Jonas Gaines, Tom Glover, Bill Harvey, Bill Burns, and a young Joe Black.

In 1942 Byrd famously beaned Newark Eagles player-manager Willie Wells. The Pittsburgh Courier wrote:

The Jersey team had some … bad luck in the eighth when their player manager Willie Wells, was struck in the temple by a pitched ball from the hand of Bill Byrd, who relieved Porter on the mound. Wells suffered a slight concussion, but soon regained consciousness in the dressing room.53

The story is worth recounting because the incident allegedly led to Wells visiting a local construction site before his next game to obtain and modify a hard hat for use when batting.54 Thus, Wells became the first Negro League player to use a batting helmet.

Ironically, one of Byrd’s worst years in that stretch was 1944, the year in which he was chosen for both All-Star games. In 1945 Wild Bill Wright returned from his extended time in Mexico and along with Henry Kimbro, Roy Campanella, Bill Hoskins, and Norman “Bobby” Robinson, made for a solid lineup, with the team finishing second in league batting.

Even in his later 30s, Byrd still had gas in the tank. His league win totals from 1942 to 1947 were 10, 10, 6, 11, 4, and 8. With NNL2 play amounting to around 60 games per season, Byrd’s career totals, if adjusted to a 162-game schedule, would have averaged 19 to 20 wins per season.

Negro League all-star teams commonly barnstormed against White teams after the regular season ended. In fact, “the Black and White all-stars met regularly in Baltimore [and elsewhere] to make some extra money barnstorming every Friday and Sunday until the weather got too cold. ‘We had a good draw, white and black [Byrd said]. We all had a good time, no arguments, no fussing, nothing like that. Just nice baseball, friendly. I enjoyed playing them.’”55 In 1945 Byrd played for Mackey’s All-Stars in a five-game series against the White Charlie Dressen’s All-Stars. The latter included the likes of Ralph Branca, Virgil Trucks, Red Barrett, and Eddie Stanky. Alongside Byrd were Don Newcombe, Roy Partlow, Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella, Johnny Davis, and Willie Wells.56

In 1947 the breaking of the color barrier was the beginning of the end for the Negro Leagues. “Official” statistics from the Howe News Bureau are available for numerous seasons after 1948, but cannot be fully corroborated by box scores. A new problem arose in that “players like Bill Byrd and Henry Kimbro were two of the many Negro League players who were considered to be too old to be viable candidates to be signed by ‘organized’ baseball. Byrd and Kimbro’s decision was real easy – return to the Baltimore Elite Giants because they didn’t have any other real options.”57 Byrd pitched well for Baltimore in 1947,58 a season marked by Tom Wilson’s death and the transfer of Elite Giants ownership to Vernon Green. Bob Romby was the ace of the staff and, along with Byrd, the rotation included Jonas Gaines, Amos Watson, and Joe Black. Kimbro was the league’s premier hitter. Baltimore finished in third place behind the New York Cubans and Newark Eagles.

Byrd was 10-4 with a 1.75 ERA in NNL2 games in 1948, belying his 40 years. Baltimore won the first-half championship in the last year of the NNL2 but lost to second-half Homestead for a chance to play NAL winner Birmingham in the final Negro League World Series. In the best-of-five series with the Grays, Elites manager Hoss Walker opted to open with Lefty Gaines over Byrd. Gaines lasted 3⅔ innings, giving up five runs in the eventual 6-0 defeat to Homestead. Byrd pitched 5⅓ innings to mop up the game, giving up three hits and a single tally in the top of the ninth. Two days later, on September 16, the Grays captured Game Two – also at Bugle Field – by a 6-2 score, with Joe Black taking the loss for the Elites. The two teams played to a 4-4 tie in Game Three the next day; the game was suspended because of Baltimore’s 11:15 P.M. curfew. Byrd came back two days later to pitch a complete-game 11-3 win. However, the league subsequently declared the 4-4 game to be a forfeit by Baltimore since the team had used stalling tactics in the ninth inning that were intended to ensure that any Grays tallies in that inning would not be counted. The forfeit gave the Grays the series.59

The 1949 season offered the shrinking Negro League fan base glimpses of the Byrd of yesteryear as he pitched to a 12-3 record with a 3.50 ERA.60 The Elites were now a member franchise of the NAL as the NNL2 had folded after the 1948 season. Baltimore won the second-half championship and played the first-half champion Chicago American Giants for the league crown. Baltimore swept Chicago in four games, with Byrd starting Game One and pitching a 9-1 win.61

Byrd’s final year, 1950, saw him play sparingly for the Elites. The organized Black leagues were slowly imploding with fan interest moving to the American and National Leagues and their minor-league systems, which now incorporated the next generation of Black ballplayers. Not long into the season, Baltimore’s owner Richard Powell (now in charge after Vernon Green’s death) released Byrd, who for the rest of the season became player-manager for an independent team in Baltimore, the Negro League All Stars.62

Toward the end of his career, Byrd showed up in a few box scores for other teams, notably the Philadelphia Stars. Why Byrd was with the Stars in June 1944 on the winning end of a 13-0, three-hit, seven-strikeout complete game against the NAL Cincinnati Clowns is uncertain. The Philadelphia Inquirer referenced Byrd in the story “as a right hander from the Baltimore Elite Giants.”63

Byrd was selected for the East-West All-Star Classic nine times, pitching in seven, pinch-hitting in one, and appearing on the roster in another. He first appeared in 1936 (August 23 in Chicago’s Comiskey Park) as a Washington Elite Giant, pitching the middle three innings in a winning cause for the East, 10-2, striking out four and giving up an unearned run.

Byrd was selected for and started both games in 1939, a testimony to his superlative season for Baltimore. In Game One in Chicago (August 6), he pitched three innings with a strikeout, a walk, and two hits allowed. He left the game with a 2-0 lead, but Roy Partlow gave up three runs in the late innings as the East lost the game 4-2. Three weeks later at Yankee Stadium (August 27), Byrd gave up a run in three innings and left the game ahead, 5-1, in a game that the East won, 10-2.

Byrd missed out on the 1940 all-star game due to the ban on players who had started the season in Venezuela. In 1941 he pitched a scoreless ninth as the East won, 8-3, at Comiskey Park on July 27. In 1942 the Cleveland Call Post listed the East and West rosters, noting four Elite Giants: Gaines, Byrd, Kimbro, and Wright. Only Wright and Gaines entered the game.64

In 1944’s August 13 contest in Chicago, Byrd shut out the West in his two innings pitched (the eighth and ninth) but it was mop-up duty as the East lost, 7-4. In 1945 Byrd pinch-hit for the Grays’ Roy Welmaker in the ninth, was walked by Kansas City’s Booker McDaniel, and scored one of the East’s five runs that inning, but that was not enough in a 9-6 loss.65 Byrd’s turn as a pinch-hitter was no fluke. Holway recounted, “Like many other black pitchers, Bill was a threat at bat as well. He pitched righthanded but batted left or right. The left side was his strong side. … Byrd played in the outfield between starts.”66

The 1946 games marked Byrd’s last selections to the East-West Classic (despite another lackluster regular season in which he finished 4-7 with a 4.48 ERA). In Washington on August 15, Byrd threw the middle three innings. He entered the game to stop a West rally, and the East mounted a comeback to win, 6-3, with Byrd as the winning pitcher. In his worst stint in All-Star play, Byrd pitched 1⅓ innings at Comiskey Park three days later and gave up all four runs the West scored in its 4-1 triumph.67

Byrd’s All-Star legacy had him tied for second with most games pitched (7); tied for the most wins with two along with Dan Bankhead and Satchel Paige; third with most innings pitched (16 over seven games), and fifth-most strikeouts at 10.68

The collapse of the Negro Leagues on the heels of the gradual integration of the National and American Leagues and their minor leagues foreclosed any further baseball pursuits for Byrd (now in his 40s) save for the occasional semipro game. He found work in Philadelphia at General Electric as a stockman and retired in his 60.69 After a prolonged bout with cancer, Byrd died at the age of 83 at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.70

The Baltimore Sun’s Bill Glauber captured the essence of Bill Byrd, his career, and legacy, writing, “Bill Byrd was a pitcher who threw spitballs and a pioneer who helped pave the way for the integration of baseball. Others were more charismatic, and brought greater talent to the game, but Byrd was a seemingly indestructible master who became the symbol of the Baltimore Elite Giants during a Negro League career that spanned two decades.” One of the winningest pitchers in Negro League history, “he also will be remembered as a teacher of future major-leaguers Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam, and Joe Black.”71 So important was Byrd held in the esteem of younger ballplayers that he was known as “Daddy.”72  

Byrd finished his career with a 108-69 record (.610) with a 3.34 ERA in Negro League play. According to one statistical analysis, Byrd is the best pitcher of the Negro League’s final decade not currently enshrined in Cooperstown:

Byrd’s lifetime winning percentage was in excess of .600 from 1932 to 1950, during which he had only one losing season. His career WAR of 33.4 through 1948 is higher than that of four other Negro League Hall of Fame pitchers, including contemporaries Leon Day and Hilton Smith. … According to Seamheads, he accumulated the ninth highest number of wins of any pitcher in official American Negro League games, even though Byrd often pitched for lesser teams. As his teammate Roy Campanella put it when arguing for Byrd’s admission to the Hall of Fame, “He was a good pitcher, and he was good for a long time.”73

Byrd’s 12-3 1949 season which, while not official yet,74 further augments his career numbers. Holway’s examination of Byrd led him to consider Byrd “Cy Young”-worthy in 1942, 1948, and 1949 (Holway’s George Stovey award). Byrd was a finalist in the 2006 voting for the Negro League class inducted that year.75 Others may deservedly have been chosen for the Hall before him, but greater awareness of his career as the Elite Giants’ rotation anchor speaks to his ultimate merit. Asked about his career and whether he was bitter over not having a chance to play in the White major leagues, Byrd said, “No. Well, I did the best I could.”76

Sources

Except where otherwise noted, all cited statistics are from Seamheads.com.

Notes

1 Bill Glauber, “Bill Byrd, Negro Leaguer, Dies at 83/Baltimore Pitcher Trained Big Leaguers,” Baltimore Sun, January 7, 1991.

2 Baseball Hall of Fame player profile, received January 1973, included in the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s player file.

3 “Byrd to Play Here Friday,” Columbus Dispatch, May 31, 1945.

4 John Holway, “The Original Baltimore Byrd,” Baseball Research Journal 19 (1990): 24.

5 Dr. Layton Revel, “Forgotten Heroes: Bill Byrd,” http://www.cnlbr.org/Portals/0/Hero/422255%20Center%20for%20Negro%20League%20Baseball_Bill%20Byrd.pdf, accessed July 6, 2023.

6 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2015), 98.

7 Revel, 4.

8 Andrea Williams, “Tom Wilson, Black Baseball and Nashville’s Connection to the Negro Leagues,” nashvillescene.com, 3. Last accessed on May 29, 2023.

9 Thomas E. Pfundstein, “Black Baseball in Cleveland, 1920–1950,” Unpublished MA thesis, John Carroll University, 1996. Special thanks to the Cuyahoga County Public Library for their help in confirming this source.

10 See these websites that provide the estimated African American population in Nashville and Cleveland, respectively: Black Bottom | Tennessee Encyclopedia and AFRICAN AMERICANS | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.

11 California Eagle, March 29, 1935: 7. The article states that “The Negro Baseball association has its plans all set now for the season. The roster will be the Philadelphia Stars, Chicago American Giants, Newark Dodgers, New York Cubans, Brooklyn Eagles, Pittsburg Crawfords, and the Detroit Elite Giants.”

12 Perhaps a derivative name from the Columbus Red Birds of the American Association, which was similarly organized in 1931.

13 “Black Baseball in Cleveland,” 13.

14 Holway, 24. This same accolade is due Davis for his tutoring of Chet Brewer, who also threw a spitter.

15 Holway, 24.

16 “Black Baseball in Cleveland,” 16.

17 Revel, 6.

18 Candy Jim Taylor, “Mackey to Catch for Crack D.C. Ball Club,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 18, 1936: 15.

19 “May Transfer Elite Giants from Washington to Balto,” Baltimore Afro-American, February 5, 1938.

20 Bob Luke, The Baltimore Elite Giants (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 16.

21 Luke, 18-19.

22 Luke, 23.

23 Luke, 42.

24 Luke 43-51. Also “Homestead Grays, Elites Divide Pair,” Chicago Defender, September 23, 1939: 8.

25 As quoted in Luke, 51-52.

26 William F. McNeil, Black Baseball Out of Season: Pay for Play Outside the Negro Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2007), 117.

27 McNeil, 117.

28 McNeil, 117.

29 McNeil, 121.

30 Winter League rules capped international players at no more than three for each team.

31 Thomas E. Van Hyning, The Santurce Crabbers: Sixty Seasons of Puerto Rican Winter League Ball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1999), 214.

32 Van Hyning, 201.

33 McNeil, 120.

34 Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 90.

35 Lanctot, 91.

36 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1941: 17.

37 Chester Washington, “Sez Ches,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 18, 1940: 16.

38 Holway, 26.

39 Revel, 21.

40 Leslie A. Heaphy, The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2003), 168.

41 Lanctot, 90.

42 Heaphy, 169.

43 Holway, 23.

44 Holway, 24.

45 Luke, 37-38.

46 Holway, 24.

47 The Elite Giants also lost Wild Bill Wright and Tom Glover to Mexico; see Luke, 59.

48 Van Hyning 13-14.

49 Buster Miller, “The Sports Parade,” New York Age, March 22, 1941: 11.

50 Luke, 63.

51 McNeil, 123.

52 “Elites Shade Memphis Red Sox,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 26, 1941: 19. See also Revel, 21.

53 “12,000 Witness Stadium Classic,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 11, 1942: 16.

54 James A. Riley, Dandy, Day, and the Devil (Cocoa, Florida: TK Publishers, 1987), 112.

55 Holway, 26.

56 McNeil, 105.

57 Revel, 31.

58 Byrd was Baltimore’s Opening Day starter that year, pitching a complete-game victory in a 20-4 defeat of the Philadelphia Stars on May 3 in Philadelphia. Luke, 105.

59 Baltimore’s papers covered the series in detail. “Elite Giants Bow, 6-0, to Homestead Grays,” Baltimore Sun, September 15, 1948: 23. “Homestead Nine Beats Elites Again in Playoff,” Baltimore Sun, September 17, 1948: 17. “Grays and Elites Play 4-4 Tie in Series Game,” Baltimore Sun, September 18, 1948: 11. “Elites Test Homestead,” Baltimore Evening Sun, September 18, 1948: 9. “Elites Top Homestead in Playoff Test, 11-3,” Baltimore Sun, September 20, 1948: 13. “League Upholds Grays Protest,” Baltimore Sun, September 21, 1948: 20. “Elites Lose by Forfeit,” Baltimore Evening Sun, September 21, 1948: 27.

60 “Official 1949 NAL Pitching Records,” Center for Negro League Baseball Research, http://www.cnlbr.org/Portals/0/Stats/NAL%201949/NAL1949.pdf, accessed July 11, 2023.

61 “Elites Take NAL Title in Four Straight,” Chicago Defender, October 1, 1949: 15.

62 Luke, 128.

63 “Stars Defeat Clowns 13-0,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 6, 1944: 40.

64 “Satch Paige, Josh Gibson at Stadium on August 18,” Cleveland Call Post, August 15, 1942.

65Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 230.

66 Holway, 24.

67 Lester, 82, 125, 130, 155, 186, 216, 230, 249, 255.

68 Lester, 479-480.

69 Holway, 27.

70 “William (Bill) Byrd; Pitcher, 83,” New York Times, January 9, 1991: D21.

71 Bill Glauber, “Bill Byrd, Negro Leaguer, Dies at 83 Baltimore Pitcher Trained Big Leaguers,” Baltimore Sun, January 7, 1991. 

72 Roy Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), 66.

73 Steven R. Greenes, Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame: The Case for Inducting 24 Overlooked Ballplayers (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2020), 146-47.

74 Official Negro League statistics as of 2023 reflected only certain leagues/seasons from 1920 to 1948 as being “major league.”

75 Greenes, 149.

76 Holway, 27.

Roy Campanella was the sixth acknowledged Black player to appear in the major leagues in the twentieth century, debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Campanella went on to become the second Black player, after Robinson, to win a major-league Most Valuable Player award, and eventually became the second Black Hall of Famer, again following in Robinson’s footsteps. Campanella, however, holds the distinction of being the first Black player to capture two MVP awards, and at the time of his death in June 1993 he was the only Black player to own three MVP trophies.

Campanella spent his entire big-league career with the Dodgers, taking over as their regular catcher during the 1948 campaign and serving in that capacity through 1957, the franchise’s last season in Brooklyn. In those years the Dodgers won five National League pennants and a world championship. Prejudice and tragedy limited his major-league career to a mere 10 seasons, the color of his skin delaying his debut until he was 26 years old, and an automobile accident prematurely ending his playing days at the age of 35.

In fact, Campanella made the fewest major-league plate appearances of any Hall of Fame position player. Yet statistical guru Bill James rated him the third-best catcher of all time behind top-ranked Yogi Berra and runner-up Johnny Bench, ahead of such stalwarts as Mickey Cochrane, Carlton Fisk, Bill Dickey, and Gabby Hartnett.

Baseball-Reference.com lists Campanella’s height at 5-feet-9 and his playing weight at 190 pounds, which may have been close to the truth when he started out. The 1954 Baseball Almanac and the 1955 Who’s Who in Baseball list him at 205 pounds, which was still probably a generously low estimate considering that Campy himself pegged his weight at 215 to 220 pounds shortly before he signed with the Dodgers. Roger Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer, likened Campanella to a little sumo wrestler.1 Despite his roly-poly appearance, the squatty catcher was extremely muscular with massive arms and a bulky torso. At the plate he was a dead pull hitter with a distinct uppercut. He was graceful behind the dish, supplementing surprising agility with a cannon-like arm. He was considered an astute handler of pitchers, both White and Black – knowing when to provide encouragement and when to provide a good kick in the butt.  

Roy was also tough as nails. As a Negro Leaguer, he purportedly caught four games in one day – an early doubleheader in Cincinnati and a twi-nighter in Middletown, Ohio.2 And he claimed to have caught three doubleheaders in one day in winter ball.3 He endured repeated injuries to his fingers, hands, and legs – occupational hazards of working behind the bat – but in his last appearance he established a since-broken National League record for durability by catching at least 100 games in nine straight seasons, a remarkable achievement prior to the new generation of catcher’s mitts that allow receivers to protect their throwing hand by catching one-handed.   

The popular catcher was often described as gentle, unassuming, jovial, and full of life. He was a cheerleader, almost childlike in his enthusiasm. Although Campy and Jackie Robinson were teammates for nine years when there were only a handful of other Black major leaguers, they were not particularly close. In fact, there were even a few well-publicized feuds over the years. Robinson was sometimes frustrated with Campanella’s reluctance to help carry the banner for their race. “There’s a little Uncle Tom in Roy,” he once remarked.4

Despite their differences, however, Campy deeply respected Jackie and fully appreciated the sacrifices he’d made. “Jackie made things easy for us,” he said. “[Because of him] I’m just another guy playing baseball.”5 

Roy Campanella was born on November 19, 1921, in Philadelphia. He had no known middle name. At the time of Roy’s birth his family lived in the Germantown section of the city, but they moved to an integrated section in the northern part of the city known as Nicetown when Roy was 7 years old. He was the product of an interracial marriage, an African-American mother and a father of Sicilian descent – something of a novelty in those days. He attended Gillespie Junior High and Simon Gratz High School, although he left high school before graduating. Growing up, the light-complexioned youngster was tauntingly called “half-breed” by kids of both races, which helped him develop into a pretty good scrapper. In fact, he briefly fought as a Golden Gloves boxer. Roy, the baby of the family, had three older siblings. His brother, Lawrence, about 10 years older, wasn’t around very much when Roy was growing up. His sisters, Gladys and Doris, were both excellent female athletes.  

John Campanella, Roy’s father, made his living selling vegetables and fish out of a truck and later operated a grocery store while Roy’s mother, Ida, ran the household. Growing up in the middle of the Depression, Roy had to work as a youngster. He helped his father, sold newspapers, shined shoes, and had a milk route as a teenager.  

Through high school Roy attended integrated schools and played for integrated football, basketball, and baseball teams. Blacks were in the minority, but he was invariably chosen as the team captain, whatever the sport. Though he participated in other sports, baseball was his passion. He watched many a game at nearby Shibe Park from the top of an adjacent building. By the time he entered high school, he’d abandoned his early aspirations to be an architect and was determined to be a professional baseball player.  

Gradually word of his prowess on the diamond spread. While in high school, he was reportedly offered an opportunity to work out with the Phillies, but the club rescinded the invitation when they discovered he was Black.  

At the tender age of 15 in 1937, Campanella began his professional baseball career with a top-notch semipro team, the Bacharach Giants. Mama Campanella didn’t want her baby to play pro ball with grown men, but when they promised to pay him more for a weekend of catching than his father made in a week, a compromise was reached. Despite his youth, Campanella performed so impressively for the Bacharach Giants that the Washington Elite Giants of the Negro National League soon signed him to spell veteran receiver and manager Biz Mackey on weekends. Roy was an indifferent student to begin with, but after he spent his summer vacation barnstorming with the Elite Giants, schoolwork could no longer hold his attention.

After he turned 16, Roy quit school to play full time for the renamed Baltimore Elite Giants. In 1939 the precocious 17-year-old youngster took over the regular catching chores after Mackey was traded to the Newark Eagles in mid-season and helped lead the Giants to playoff victories over the Eagles and Homestead Grays. His hitting improved and he began showing more power in 1940, and was soon challenging the legendary Josh Gibson’s status as the best catcher in Negro baseball. While still a teenager, he caught the entire 1941 Negro League East-West All-Star Game for the East, winning MVP honors for his excellent defensive work.  

Campanella had married a Nicetown girl, Bernice Ray, in 1939 and they had two girls. With three dependents his draft status was 3-A when World War II broke out, so he was never called for active duty, although he was required to work in war-related industry for a time.   

During the 1942 Negro League season, Campanella jumped to the Monterrey Sultans of the Mexican League after a contract dispute with the Elite Giants. He remained in Mexico for the 1943 season before returning to Baltimore for the 1944 and 1945 campaigns. Though he regained his All-Star status, he deferred to Josh Gibson in the 1944 game, playing a few innings at third base. But he was back behind the plate for the 1945 Classic.

In October 1945 Campanella caught for a Black all-star team organized by Effa Manley against a squad of major leaguers managed by Charlie Dressen in a five-game exhibition series at Ebbets Field. Dressen, a Dodgers coach at the time, approached Campanella during the series to arrange a meeting with Dodgers general manager and part-owner Branch Rickey later that month. Campanella spent four hours listening to Rickey, whom he later described as “the talkingest man I ever did see,” and politely declined when Rickey asked if he was interested in playing in the Brooklyn organization.6 Campy thought he was being recruited for the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, a new Negro League outfit that Rickey was supposedly starting. A few days later, however, he ran into Jackie Robinson in a Harlem hotel. After Robinson confidentially told him he’d already signed with the Dodgers, Campy realized that Rickey had been talking about a career in Organized Baseball for him. Afraid that he’d blown his shot at the big leagues, he fired off a telegram to Rickey indicating his interest in playing for the Dodgers just before leaving on a barnstorming tour through South America.   

The 1946 spring-training season was already under way by the time Campanella returned from South America and reported to the Dodgers office in Brooklyn. The Dodgers didn’t quite know what to do with him or pitcher Don Newcombe, another Negro League star they’d signed. Robinson and former Homestead Grays hurler Johnny Wright were already slated for Montreal, and most of the organization’s other minor-league franchises were located in the South or the Midwest. They tried to send Campanella and Newcombe to Danville of the Class-B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (Three I) League, but the circuit wouldn’t accept Black players. The Dodgers then checked with their Nashua, New Hampshire, farm club in the New England League, a lesser regarded Class-B circuit, where young general manager Buzzie Bavasi welcomed the opportunity to add two such talented Black players to their roster.

Like most of the first generation of Black players to cross the color line, Campanella took a steep pay cut to enter Organized Baseball and was forced to start at a level far below his ability. A top star in the Negro leagues, he found himself competing against a bunch of inexperienced kids, most of whom would never rise above Class-A ball. Furthermore, he would be making only $185 a month for six months in the minors rather than the $600 a month he’d been earning with the Baltimore Elite Giants.   

With Nashua in 1946, Campanella hit .290 and drove in 96 runs to win the New England League MVP award. Early in the season, Nashua manager Walter Alston, who doubled as the club’s first baseman, asked Campy to take over the team for him if he ever got tossed out of a game. His reasoning was that Roy was older than most of the players and they respected and liked him. Sure enough, in a June contest Alston was ejected in the sixth inning and Campy became the first Black man to manage in Organized Baseball. Moreover, his strategic move resulted in a comeback victory when he called on the hard-hitting Newcombe to pinch-hit and was rewarded with a clutch home run.  

Roy’s experience in Nashua also changed his parents’ life. Fences around the New England League were virtually unreachable, and a local poultry farmer offered 100 baby chicks for every Nashua home run. At the end of the season, Campy collected 1,400 chicks as reward for his 14 homers (a team-leading 13 in the regular season and one in the playoffs). He had them shipped to his father, who promptly began a farming business on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  

Campanella went to spring training with the Dodgers in Havana before the 1947 season. He was listed on the Montreal roster, along with Robinson, Newcombe, and Roy Partlow, a left-handed pitcher. Robinson, of course, was promoted to the Dodgers, Newcombe was sent back to Nashua, and Partlow was released, leaving Campanella the only Black player in the International League. That season, while Robinson was burning up the basepaths as the first Black player in the majors in the twentieth century, Campanella starred in the International League. Veteran catcher Paul Richards, managing the Buffalo Bisons called him “the best catcher in the business – major or minor leagues.”7 With his extensive Negro League experience and an excellent Triple-A season under his belt, the 26-year-old receiver was ready for major-league duty.  

Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Dodgers weren’t yet ready for him. Brooklyn’s regular catcher was Bruce Edwards, who in 1947 posted an excellent .295 batting mark, drove in 80 runs, and finished fourth in National League MVP balloting, the highest ranking of any Dodger. In addition, Edwards was a fine defensive backstop and was almost two years younger than Campy.

According to popular legend, Rickey wanted Campanella to break the racial barrier in the American Association, the Midwestern Triple-A circuit, before he became established with the Dodgers. Therefore, he attempted to conceal Campanella’s skills from the press by carrying him on the preseason roster as an outfield candidate – a position for which Campanella was clearly ill-suited. A less Machiavellian, but plausible, explanation might be that Rickey didn’t want to cause dissension or put too much pressure on Campanella by competing with the popular Edwards. Whatever the reason, the Dodgers brought Campanella to camp as an outfielder and even tried him out at third base.  

But Edwards had injured his arm in the offseason, and it failed to come around in the spring of 1948. Manager Leo Durocher, back in command of the Dodgers after a year’s suspension, fully appreciated Campanella’s talents and wanted to insert him behind the plate in place of the injured Edwards. But Rickey did not want to put the rookie catcher’s skills on display. The issue apparently became a source of friction between Durocher and Rickey.  

Though Campanella broke camp with the Dodgers, the plan was to send him down to their St. Paul American Association farm club when rosters had to be trimmed to 25 players on May 15. He made his big-league debut against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on Opening Day. Gil Hodges, who hadn’t made the move to first base yet, started behind the plate in place of Edwards, but went out for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh. In the bottom half of the inning, Campanella took over behind the plate with the Dodgers down 6-5. With ace reliever Hugh Casey on the mound, the Giants went scoreless for the final three innings while the Dodgers scored two runs to win the game. Campanella got to the plate in the top of the eighth inning and was promptly drilled by Giants reliever Ken Trinkle – the type of welcome that many more Black hitters would receive in the early days of baseball’s integration era.

Campanella made his second big-league appearance three days later, replacing Hodges to finish up a 10-2 Phillies blowout. Then on April 27, after a pair of losses, Durocher defied Rickey and started Campy at catcher in Boston. He went hitless but acquitted himself well behind the plate. Though Brooklyn lost, wildman Rex Barney held the Braves to three runs with Campanella calling the pitches. Rickey was reportedly incensed and ordered Durocher not to use Campanella behind the plate again. This time Durocher complied. Campy warmed the bench until he was farmed out to St. Paul on May 15.  

The American Association’s first Black player broke the league’s color barrier with a disastrous performance, going hitless and fanning twice in four at-bats, and making an error on a pickoff attempt. But he was soon terrorizing the opposition. In 35 games, Campy batted .325, slammed 13 homers, and drove in 39 runs, forcing the struggling Dodgers to recall him.

When Campanella joined the Dodgers’ lineup on July 2, 1948, the defending National League champions had lost five straight and were languishing in sixth place with a 27-34 record. From that point on they won 57 while losing 36, a .613 pace – better than the .595 overall winning percentage posted by the pennant-winning Braves. Even more remarkable was the fact that the Dodgers won 50 of the 73 games that Campanella started after his recall, an incredible .685 mark. His installation behind the plate was the last in a series of moves orchestrated by Durocher to turn the club around. Three days earlier Gil Hodges, who had acquitted himself well behind the plate filling in for the injured Edwards, was shifted to first base, allowing Jackie Robinson to move over to his natural second-base position. Unfortunately for Durocher, he didn’t stay around long enough to enjoy the results, as he left the Dodgers to take over the reins of the New York Giants a week after Campanella’s recall.

For his rookie year, Campanella batted .258 with 9 homers in 83 games and led National League catchers in percentage of runners caught stealing. He even garnered eight points in the MVP voting despite playing only half the season.

In 1949 Campanella hit .287 with 22 home runs and 82 runs batted in, cementing his hold on the Dodgers’ first-string catching job. During the campaign, Don Newcombe was called up from the minors, combining with Campanella to form the major leagues’ first Black battery. The pair had developed an excellent rapport at Nashua three years earlier and, under Roy’s expert handling, the volatile young flamethrower quickly became the ace of the staff. Both Campanella and Newcombe made the 1949 National League All-Star squad, joining Robinson and Cleveland’s Larry Doby in becoming baseball’s first Black All-Stars. Campanella replaced starting catcher Andy Seminick in the fourth inning and went the rest of the way, beginning a streak in which he would catch every All-Star inning for the National League until Smoky Burgess relieved him in the eighth inning of the 1954 contest. Campanella also displayed his toughness later in the 1949 season when, after a beaning by Bill Werle of the Pirates, he rejected the doctor’s recommendation to take a few days off and rejoined the lineup the next day.

Campanella upped his homer total to 31 in 1950 and batted .281, firmly establishing himself as the best catcher in the National League, if not all of major-league baseball. He caught all 14 innings in that summer’s All-Star Game. In September he suffered a compound fracture from a foul tip off his right thumb and missed starting 11 consecutive games behind the plate – the Dodgers dropping seven of them. Campy’s absence probably cost Brooklyn the pennant as they ended up losing to the Phillies on the last day of the season to finish two games off the pace.  

In spring training before the 1951 season, Campy took another foul tip on his right thumb that chipped the bone and forced him to play in pain all year. Later, a beaning by Turk Lown of the Cubs sent him to the hospital for five days with a concussion and he experienced dizziness for weeks thereafter. Nevertheless, he batted a career-high .325 with 33 homers and 108 runs batted in, and finished third in the league in doubles, slugging, and OPS. On the last day of the regular season, which ended in a tie between the Dodgers and the New York Giants, Campanella aggravated a leg injury he had received in a collision at home plate a few days earlier. He gamely struggled through the first game of the three-game playoff series, but realized he was hurting the team and sat out the last two contests. It’s widely believed that if Campanella had been behind the plate for the third game, he would have been able to nurse his pal Newcombe through the ninth inning – and Bobby Thomson would never have come to the plate to hit his historic pennant-winning home run. In MVP voting Campanella beat out Stan Musial of the Cardinals for the National League award. In the American League Yogi Berra of the Yankees captured his first MVP award. It was the first year in history that catchers won the annual award in both leagues.  

Campanella followed his brilliant 1951 campaign with a disappointing performance in 1952. After he had endured numerous minor injuries early in the season, a foul tip chipped a bone in his left elbow in July. He played with the injury for 10 days before his arm had to be placed in a cast for nearly two weeks. His season average fell to .269 and he hit only 22 home runs. In the Dodgers’ seven-game World Series loss to the Yankees, he managed only six singles.

In 1953 Campanella reported to spring training in great shape and stayed remarkably healthy through the season. And what a great season it was! He batted .312 and his 41 home runs and league-leading 142 RBIs established all-time highs for major-league catchers that stood until 1970. Campanella’s home-run total was the third-highest in the league and he ranked third in slugging and fourth in OPS as he led the Dodgers to their second straight National League pennant. But in the first game of the World Series, Allie Reynolds of the Yankees hit him on the hand with a pitch and he was unable to properly grip the bat through the club’s second straight Series defeat. His second National League MVP award, however, was a foregone conclusion.   

In spring training before the 1954 campaign, Campanella injured his left wrist and hand when he slid awkwardly trying to break up a double play. The bone on the heel of his hand was fractured and pieces that chipped off were impinging on the nerve. Surgery was recommended, but Campanella tried to play with the painful condition. He finally agreed to an operation in early   May. Initial estimates put the recovery time at eight to 10 weeks, but Campy returned to action in less than a month. Numbness in the hand bothered him all year, however, resulting in a dismal .207 batting average with 19 homers. Campanella’s value to the Dodgers, even at less than full strength, was demonstrated by the fact that the club posted a .623 winning percentage for the 106 games he started, compared with .542 without him. At season’s end, the Dodgers trailed the Giants by five games. Insult was added to injury when their crosstown rivals defeated the Cleveland Indians to capture the world-championship banner that had proved so elusive to the Dodgers. After the season Campanella submitted to further surgery on the hand to remove scar tissue and repair nerve damage.  

It was feared that Campanella’s hand injuries could mean the end of his career, or at least drastically curb his productivity. But the 33-year-old veteran made a miraculous comeback in 1955. At midseason he was leading the league in hitting when he was hit on the left kneecap by a foul tip that broke a bone spur loose from his patella. The knee was in a cast for more than two weeks and he missed his first All-Star Game since 1949, although he was picked for the team. Nevertheless, Campy was still challenging for the batting title late in the season, when the rigors of catching every day caused his hands to start bothering him again and his hitting fell off. He still finished with a .318 batting average, slammed 32 home runs, and knocked in 107 runs, despite sitting out more than 30 games. He again drove the Dodgers to the National League pennant, and led them to victory over the Yankees in the World Series. In National League MVP balloting he prevailed for a third time. In the American League, Yogi Berra also captured his third MVP trophy. Four years after Campy and Yogi became the first catchers to win MVP honors in the same season, they became the second and last duo to accomplish the feat (through the 2022 season).  

But thousands of games behind the bat had taken a toll, and Campanella’s 1956 season was ruined by more hand problems. His twice-operated-on glove hand, which had begun tormenting him again late the previous year, still ached. Then he broke his thumb when he slammed his right hand against the hitter’s bat while attempting a pickoff throw to first, an injury that bothered him all year. He ended the campaign with a .219 batting average, but still managed 20 homers as the Dodgers captured their last pennant in Brooklyn. In the World Series, another seven-game loss to the Yankees, he hit only .182 with no homers and seven strikeouts.

Campanella decided to undergo another operation after the 1956 campaign to relieve the pain in his left hand, but the Dodgers insisted that he go on their offseason exhibition tour of Japan first, which drastically cut into his recovery time. With his hands still troubling him in 1957, he missed more than 50 games and hit .242 while belting just 13 home runs, and failed to make the All-Star squad for the first time since his rookie year. Brooklyn fell to third place in the National League amid persistent rumors of a move to the West Coast. Shortly after the Dodgers’ last game, it was officially announced that the franchise would relocate to Los Angeles for the 1958 season.  

Campy loved playing in Brooklyn and like most of the Dodger veterans hated the prospect of moving. But his hands were feeling better than they had in years and he was starting to warm up to the idea of taking aim at the 295-foot left-field fence of the Los Angeles Coliseum, an oval-shaped football stadium that would serve as the club’s makeshift home field.   

But in January 1958, just before he was due to report for spring training, Campanella was permanently disabled in a traffic accident. He had successfully invested in a liquor store in central Harlem, called Roy Campanella Choice Wines and Liquors, earlier in his career and worked there in the offseason. He normally left for home in the early afternoon, but on that fateful day he’d stayed in town to plug a YMCA fund-raising drive on a local television show. The appearance was canceled, but he stayed to help close up the liquor store before leaving for his home in Glen Cove, on the North Shore of Long Island. The Chevy station wagon Campy normally drove was in the shop for repairs, and he was driving a much lighter rental car when he lost control of the vehicle on an icy street. He hit a telephone pole and the car flipped over, pinning him under the steering wheel. Roy’s neck was broken and his spinal cord was severely damaged, paralyzing him from the chest down.  

Roy Campanella, once the best catcher in the National League, if not all of major-league baseball, would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

The Dodgers continued to pay Campanella his salary while he was hospitalized for surgery and rehabilitation for almost a year after the accident. Though he never got a chance to play for the Dodgers in Los Angeles, a crowd of 93,103 fans, the largest in baseball history to that date, jammed the Los Angeles Coliseum on May 7, 1959, for a benefit exhibition game between the Yankees and Dodgers – a tribute to the former Brooklyn great.  

Campanella’s personal life began to unravel in the wake of his accident. His teenage marriage to Bernice Ray had quickly ended in divorce. With Roy away so much of the time, traveling the Negro League circuit or playing winter ball in the Caribbean, Bernice continued to live with her parents and the couple had gradually drifted apart. In 1945 Roy married Ruthe Willis, a fine athlete herself. They had two sons and a daughter together and Ruthe’s son from a previous marriage also lived with them.  

But Ruthe was unable to adjust to Roy’s physical disability. In 1960 he sued for a legal separation; a messy affair that kept the city’s tabloid press busy. In 1963 Ruthe suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 40 before a divorce was finalized. On May 5, 1964, Roy married Roxie Doles, who remained at his side for the remainder of his life.   

After enduring years of therapy, Campanella regained some use of his arms. He eventually was able to feed himself, shake hands, and even sign autographs with the aid of a device strapped to his arm, though he remained dependent on his wheelchair for mobility. Through it all he managed to maintain the positive, upbeat attitude that was his trademark and became a universal symbol of courage. In 1969, the same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he received the Bronze Medallion from the City of New York, the highest honor the city confers upon civilians, awarded for exceptional citizenship and outstanding achievement. Three years later the Dodgers retired his uniform number 39 along with Robinson’s number 42 and Sandy Koufax’s 32.

Though Campanella stayed in New York, continuing to operate his liquor store and hosting a radio sports program called “Campy’s Corner,” he remained a part of the Dodgers family. He worked in public relations, helped with scouting, and served as a special instructor and adviser at the club’s Vero Beach spring-training facility. In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles and took a job as assistant to the Dodgers’ director of community relations, Don Newcombe, his former teammate and longtime friend.

On June 26, 1993, Campanella succumbed to a heart attack in Woodland Hills, California. He lived to be 71, far exceeding the normal life expectancy for someone in his condition. In 2006 he was honored with a US postage stamp bearing his image, and later that year the Dodgers announced the creation of the Roy Campanella Award, to be given annually to the Dodger who best exemplifies Campanella’s spirit and leadership.

Roy Campanella’s lifetime batting average for 10 major-league seasons was .276 and he hit 242 home runs while driving in 856 runs in 1,215 games. His 1953 totals of 41 homers and 142 RBIs stood as single-season highs for a catcher until Johnny Bench hit 45 homers and drove in 148 runs in 1970. Bench, however, played a 162-game schedule rather than the 154 contests played in 1953, and had 86 more at-bats than Campanella.

Campanella shone just as brightly on defense. Sportswriters often referred to him as “The Cat” because of his feline-like quickness blocking stray pitches or pouncing on bunts in front of home plate. He led National League catchers five times in percentage of runners caught stealing, and his career rate of 57 percent is the best all-time among catchers who appeared in more than 100 games.

But the most revealing statistic is the three Most Valuable Player awards Campanella earned in his all-too-brief career. When he was honored for the third time, in 1955, Stan Musial was the only other National Leaguer to have accomplished the feat, while Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, and Yogi Berra were the only American Leaguers to have done so. Since then, only the names of Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Barry Bonds, Álex Rodríguez, and Albert Pujols have been added to the exclusive list.

Nonetheless, Campanella’s career is sprinkled with what-ifs. It’s fair to say that, even with the premature end to his career, Campy’s third place ranking on Bill James’s catchers list might have been higher if he hadn’t been denied the opportunity to play in the major leagues at an earlier age. It’s also probably realistic to assume that he wouldn’t have had to wait six years after gaining eligibility to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

If circumstances had been right, Campanella could have been the first Black player in the big leagues. Back in 1943, he had been invited to Forbes Field to work out for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but team president William Benswanger succumbed to peer pressure and canceled the tryout.  

And if not for the accident, Campanella might well have become the major league’s first Black manager. Before joining the Dodgers, he managed the Caracas club in the Venezuelan Winter League for a few seasons. In 1946 the 25-year-old skipper’s charges included Newcombe, Sam Jethroe, Harry Simpson, and Luis Aparicio, Sr., father of the Hall of Fame shortstop. Before his accident the Dodgers had already approached Campanella about a future coaching or managing in the minor leagues after his career ended.

In his autobiography It’s Good to Be Alive, Campanella reminisced about the happiest days of his life in Brooklyn: “That’s where I wanted to finish my playing career. I got my wish all right, but in a much different way.”8

Photo credits

SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

This article was adapted from the author’s book The Black Stars Who Made Baseball Whole: The Jackie Robinson Generation in the Major Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2004).

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and a number of other sources, including:

Campanella, Roy II, “Roy Campanella” in Cult Baseball Players, Danny Peary, ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 251-9.

Golenbock, Peter, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: Putnam’s, 1984).

James, Bill, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001).

Peterson, Robert W., Only the Ball Was White (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Carol Publishing, 1970).

The Sporting News, March 24, 1948, 22.

Clark, Dick, and Larry Lester, The Negro Leagues Book (SABR, 1994, statistical section)

Notes

1 Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 327.

2 Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt, Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1994), 28.

3 Kahn, 327.

4 Kahn, 327.

5 Moffi and Kronstadt, 27.

6 Roy Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive (New York: Dell, 1959), 109.

7 Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 223.

8 Roy Campanella, 11.

Leon was born on June 23, 1910, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he would spend most of his life. Nettie Johnson is listed as his mother, but 1930 census data notes that he was adopted and the only child in the household. His education ended after the sixth grade, and he took up work as a “boat-black”  in a shoe shop with his father, Ike.1

In his early years, Childress was more accomplished on the football field than on the baseball diamond. In 1931 he joined the “other” Nashville Elite Giants, a semipro football team. The Elite Giants football team played their home games at Wilson Park and were an extension of Tom Wilson’s baseball team. In 1932 Wilson and his business partners Dr. R.B. Jackson and Vernon Green created the Negro Southern Football League. That December, Jackson declared that the Elite Giants were “mythical” national champions due to their record. Leon Childress was listed as an “All-Southern” End on the roster.2 One of Leon’s teammates on the Elite Giants was running back Wild Bill Wright, a young outfielder on the baseball team of the same name and at the beginning of a career that spanned two decades.3

Where he began his baseball career is a bit foggier. “Childress” was a fairly common surname, with an infielder-pitcher named Childress appearing on the roster of the Little Rock Stars in 1933,4 a Guthrie Childress pitching for the Claybrook, Arkansas Tigers at the same time,5 and a set of Childress brothers playing in Texas for the San Angelo Black Sheepherders.6

In 1935 Leon Childress moved north and made the roster of the Cincinnati Tigers, a team formed by a local hero and Olympic gold medalist in track and field, DeHart Hubbard.7 Hubbard formed the Tigers in 1934 with a core of young players from the “Class A” league in the city and augmented the team with solid backups like Childress and his football teammate Charles “Dusty” Decker. The Tigers played in the Negro Southern League and the integrated Indiana-Ohio League for their first few years of existence before later joining the Negro American League.

On a barnstorming trip out west on June 28, 1936, Childress stepped in for starting catcher Josh Johnson in the second game of a doubleheader against the famed integrated Bismarck Churchills, going hitless but scoring a run in a 5-4 victory.8 On July 12 and 13, Childress was loaned to the Saskatoon Gems for a series against the Tigers along with Porter Moss, Ewing Russell, Jerry Gibson, and Sonny Harris. Childress had only one hit in eight at-bats for the Gems as the Tigers swept all three games.9 Aside from photographs, the accounts of these appearances are the only evidence of his time in Cincinnati. When the Tigers joined the Negro American League in 1937, Childress was no longer on the club and disappeared from high-level baseball again.

In 1939 Childress appears to have been captured by John Mosley in two separate photos of the Philadelphia Stars but did not appear in any documented games and was possibly released before the regular season began.10

By the summer, Childress was in uniform with the Baltimore Elite Giants, backing up Roy Campanella and appearing in a team photo at Oriole Park next to recent acquisition Red Moore.11 Childress is not credited with any league appearances but “the recruit from Nashville” remained on the team for “emergency duty behind the plate” through the end of the season.12 It may be reasonable to speculate that while his playing time was limited, Childress’s value to the team was indispensable in other duties to include driving the bus, managing equipment, and catching in the bullpen. After the Elites won the Jacob Ruppert Cup, the team posed for a photograph at Yankee Stadium with the trophy. Childress is clearly visible in the photo between Emery “Ace” Adams and Wild Bill Wright.13 One of his only documented appearances for the Elites occurred a few days earlier on September 20, when he went 0-for-3 at the plate and committed an error and two passed balls in a 3-1 loss to the Brooklyn Bushwicks.14

Out of a big-league job in 1940, Childress returned home to Nashville and fell back to earth. In September he was arrested and charged with loitering, vagrancy, and a lottery violation.15 It should be noted, however, that in the Jim Crow South, vagrancy was a trumped-up charge aimed at punishing Black people for being unemployed or homeless. This practice stretched back to the post-Reconstruction days, with laws in many places coming off the books only in recent years.16

That fall, Childress registered for the military draft, a year before the United States’ entry into World War II. His residence is listed at Eighth Street, the same address listed in his arrest report. His occupation was described as “unemployed.”

Childress’s activities in 1941 are unknown, but in 1942 he reappeared in the spotlight. On New Year’s Day, he returned to the gridiron and played end and quarterback for the Nashville Pros against the Southern All-Stars in the second annual “Steel Bowl” game in Birmingham, Alabama. The Pros were an independent club that came into the matchup advertised as winners of 29 of their last 30 games, while their opponent was made up of college stars from several Black colleges in the region.17 Childress was part of a “desperate passing attack that netted two touchdowns” in the last minutes of a 26-13 loss.18

In the spring of 1942, Childress returned to the baseball diamond. The Louisville and Nashville railroad company sponsored an independent team called the Nashville L&N Stars, often shortened to just “Nashville Stars” and sometimes referred to as the “Railroaders” in the press. Childress joined the club as their starting catcher and manager. In May 1942 the Nashville Tennessean reported that Childress and teammate Jim Willis were leaving for the Army,19 but he was still managing and playing on August 12 when the Stars traveled to Cincinnati for a doubleheader against the Clowns.20

In 1943 Childress took over the managerial reins of the Nashville Black Vols, a separate club from the Stars.21 Childress was no longer playing regularly but was described by the Atlanta Daily World as a “good hitter and fence buster.”22 In an uncommon stance of a Negro League team operating a minor-league affiliate, the Black Vols were owned by Elite Giants magnate Tom Wilson, who regularly shuttled players between the two clubs. In February 1944, his draft number was called, but he was designated as 4F, or physically unfit for service.23

Childress was still on the roster for the Black Vols in 1945 as they joined the resurrected Negro Southern League but was replaced as skipper by veteran Bill Perkins. The Black Vols finished behind the Atlanta Black Crackers in both halves of the season and went through at least three other managers – Bill Perkins, Granville Lyons, and Judge “Dusty” Owens. Childress split catching duties with Perkins throughout the season and appeared on the mound at least once. Box scores and complete statistics have yet to be found for any of the NSL’s games in 1945.24 In 1946 Childress was no longer with Nashville (now rebranded as the Cubs) and presumably out of professional baseball for good.

On May 10, 1948, he married Frances Mattie Mayberry of Williamson, Tennessee. Childress took a job as a mail handler for the post office, where he worked for at least a decade, according to census records. He remained active in the Nashville baseball scene into the 1960s on the coaching staff of the amateur Elite Giants in the Capital City League. In 1962 he was named to the staff of the league’s all-star team. 25

Just six years later, on September 21, 1968, Childress was reportedly at a bus stop in Nashville when he was approached by police officers and violently arrested for vagrancy. After he questioned why he was being arrested, he was beaten at the police station and denied medical care, resulting in permanent hearing loss. Childress filed a $50,000 lawsuit against Nashville police officer William B. McCullough, who was later fired and charged for a separate incident in which he allegedly beat a suspect in an alleyway.26 The result of the suit was never published.

On July 30, 1976, at 66 years old, Leon Childress died in an unnamed Nashville hospital of an undisclosed illness. He was survived by his wife, Frances; six children; and nine grandchildren.27 Frances died in 2002 at 80 years old. Perhaps Childress’s lineage is best defined on the football field: His son Jerome played football for Tennessee State University, and his grandsons Ahmad and Gary played for Alabama and Clemson respectively.28 Another grandson, O.J. Childress, played linebacker in the NFL for the Giants.29 Boogie Wolf Childress may not have been a household name outside of his hometown, but his contributions and legacy as an athlete, manager, husband, and father reverberate through generations.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Ancestry.com to gather biographical data including birth, death, marriage, and military service information.

Notes    

1 While listed as “boat-black” in census data, this may have been a typographical error. His actual job title was likely a “bootblack,” a profession frequently held by older male children at the time.

2 “Nashville Elite Giants Claim National Pro Football Title,” Nashville Banner, December 24, 1932: 15.

3 “Elite Giants to Engage Soldiers,” Nashville Banner, December 4, 1932: 14.

4 William Plott, The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2015), 222.

5 Claybrook’s Tigers Show Form in Win,” Chicago Defender, August 5, 1933: 9.

6 “Black Hubbers Meet 2 Teams at Local Park,” Lubbock (Texas) Morning Avalanche, June 19, 1937: 2.

7 Chi “ldress is identified in team photographs with the Tigers as both “Wolf” and “Wolf Childers” – a common shortening and misspelling that appeared to follow him throughout his career. Phil Dixon and Patrick Hannigan, The Negro Baseball Leagues, 1867-1955: A Photographic History (Mattituck, New York: Amereon House, 1992), 164.

8 “Bismarck, Cincinnati Tigers Split Week-End Series,” Bismarck (North Dakota) Tribune, June 29, 1936: 8.

9 “Gems Drop Both Games,” Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Star-Phoenix, July 16, 1936: 10.

10 In Mosley’s photographs of the Philadelphia Stars, the club is wearing the Baseball Centennial patch that was worn across all of baseball for a single season, dating the photo to 1939. John Mosley, “Philadelphia Stars Player,” Temple University Digital Collections, https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p15037coll17/id/213/rec/32, accessed December 13, 2023.

11 Childress is simply identified as “Wolf C” in handwriting on the photograph. Bill Stetka, “Celebrating Negro Leagues Day in Maryland,” MLB.com, https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/celebrating-negro-leagues-day-in-maryland, accessed December 13, 2023.

12 “Elites to Play Grays for Championship,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 16, 1939: 23.

13 In this photograph, Childress is simply identified by his nickname of “Boogie Wolf.” Bob Luke, The Baltimore Elite Giants: Sport and Society in the Age of Negro League Baseball (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 51.

14 “Bushwicks Nip Elite Giants in Arclight Finale,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 21, 1939: 21.  

15 “Lottery Violation,” Nashville Tennessean, September 15, 1940: 10.

16 Charles Gallagher and Cameron Lippard, Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2014), 145.

17 “Football,” Birmingham News, December 30, 1941: 17.

18 Childress was identified by “Wolf Childers” in some accounts of this game. “Steel Bowl Result,” Chicago Defender, January 10, 1942: 22.

19 “Castleman May Forgo Pro Career,” Nashville Tennessean May 17, 1942: 39.

20 “Clowns Card Double Bill,” Cincinnati Post, August 12, 1942: 12.

21 The Black Vols were renamed the Cubs in 1946 and had a rare meeting with the Stars in August of 1946. Childress was on neither club at the time. “Nashville Cubs, Stars Tangle in Twin Bill,” Nashville Tennessean, August 30, 1946: 36.

22 J.C. Chunn, “Nashville Black Vols and Atlanta Black Crackers Meet Tonight at Ponce De Leon,” Atlanta Daily World, June 24, 1943: 5.

23 “Board 9 Lists Classifications,” Nashville Banner, February 17, 1944: 2.

24 Plott, The Negro Southern League, 230.

25 “Capital Stars Feature Searcy vs. Tri-State,” Nashville Tennessean, July 20, 1962: 17.

26 “Nashville Man Seeks 50,000 in Damage Suit,” Elizabethton (Tennessee) Star, September 23, 1969: 1.

27 “Childress, Leon (Boogie Wolf),” Nashville Tennessean, August 1, 1976: 70.

28 Chip Cirillo, “All Everything,” Nashville Tennessean, August 14, 1999: 27.

29 “O.J. Childress Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College,” Pro Football Reference, https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/ChilO.20.htm, accessed December 16, 2023.

Homer Curry was born in Mexia, Texas, about 30 miles east of Waco, on May 19, 1905. He was the third child of five and the third son of parents Ben and Myrtie (Rhodes) Curry. His father farmed a family plot of land in the area.2 By that time, as well, Texas was developing what became a rich baseball tradition. Waco had produced Andrew “Rube” Foster, the father of the first Negro National League in 1920. Other notable alumni from the region included Louis Santop, pitcher Cyclone Joe Williams, and Crush Holloway. That impressive roster was augmented by a legion of leagues and city teams that equaled their White contemporaries in both talent and local enthusiasm.

Although there is not much documentation of Curry’s early life, given his professional success, it is almost certain that he not only played the game in central Texas, but played it well. While he completed only the fifth grade in school, he was clearly a gifted athlete.3 His baseball anonymity expired in 1928, when at age 23 he joined the Cleveland Tigers and hit .352 as a pitcher and occasional outfielder. The Tigers were Cleveland’s entry in the Negro National League that year, but their ownership was somewhat unstable and the team finished last with a 20-59 record.4 It was likely the paucity of talent on the squad that created an opportunity for the young Texan to crack into the big leagues.

At 6-feet-2 and 180 pounds, Curry was a natural power hitter, and his OPS+ of 131 clearly established his baseball bona fides, despite his relatively young age of 23. He batted left-handed and pitched right-handed. On the mound, Curry threw 125⅔ innings that rookie year but allowed an ERA of 4.66, and his ERA+ left him just below league average.

From Cleveland, Curry moved on to work for the Memphis Red Sox beginning in 1929. He remained with the team through 1930, pitching and playing the field, then returned for the 1932 and 1937 seasons, and again in 1949-1950 and 1953-1955 in the surviving Negro American League. In Memphis in 1930, he was named one of the two regular starting pitchers, but the results were not optimal. There is some question as to his actual won-lost record that season, with various sources listing it at either 4-3 or 5-3, but his ability in the field, as a two-way player, largely ensured him of a spot on the roster. 

There is not a great deal of information available about Curry’s wife. Marie (Miles) Curry was born in west Tennessee in approximately 1906, and Curry likely met her during his time in Memphis. While they never had children, they had a lifelong marriage. The relationship fostered a bond between player and city that also lasted until Curry’s death.

Curry was, as some biographers have described utility players in the early days of the organized Negro leagues, a bit of a figurative baseball tumbleweed, moving from town to town and team to team in search of a roster spot and a paycheck. In 1932 he spent time with Memphis as player and manager, and by then was locally acknowledged as a terrific outfielder. For 1933 he moved to the Nashville Elite Giants. He played well there and earned a number of favorable mentions in the press. One 1933 article referred to him as “fleet footed … the class of the league when it comes to the outfield.”5 In 1936 the team moved to the mid-Atlantic region of the country, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, and Curry made the move as well. That season he played well enough to lead all outfielders in voting for the 1936 East-West All Star Game in Chicago. Still, despite garnering more votes than luminous contemporaries like Cool Papa Bell and Jimmie Crutchfield, Curry did not appear in the game.6

But there were other, unfortunately memorable moments as well. As historian Brent Kelley wrote about one particular one in his 1995 book Voices From the Negro Leagues, relating an anecdote from Henry Kimbro: “[Luis Tiant, he of an incredibly deceptive screwball] was pitching for the Cuban Stars, Fred McCreary was umpiring, Goose Curry was the hitter. Tiant went up and down and grunted and throwed the ball and Goose Curry swung and said ‘Jesus Christ! Man, how’d I miss it?!’ Fred McCreary said, ‘I oughtta call you out. That man throwed to first base.’”7 There is no record of the play in the newspapers, but Kimbro swore it to be true.

Curry took the helm as player-manager for Memphis for part of the 1937 season, yet even with the new responsibilities, he excelled at the plate. That year his OPS of .952 equated to an OPS+ of 160, his career high. He spent 1938 with the New York Black Yankees. At age 33, he was credited with seven league appearances as an outfielder with New York, pitching in three as well, but his OPS+ declined to 111. The following year, 1939, he was primarily an outfielder, and he split time between New York and the Baltimore Elite Giants, batting .343 and posting a terrific OPS+ of 151 for the full season.8 Curry’s bona fides as a hitter were unquestioned. His fielding prowess, though, was even more exciting.

In one particularly memorable game in 1939, Josh Gibson launched what appeared to be at least a triple, perhaps even home run number 60 for the year, in Pittsburgh:

“It was a beautiful fly,” the Pittsburgh Courier reported, “and the fast-stepping Josh had rounded second and was heading toward third before the ball hit the fence. It looked like a sure homer. But suddenly someone flashed into the picture back there between the fence and the ball. It was the New York Black Yankees’ fleet outfielder, Homer ‘Goose’ Curry. He galloped back there like a wild colt on a rampage. … His speed made him collide with the fence. He hit the wall and bounced away like a rubber ball. Then he straightened up and leaped in the air. The ball dropped near the fence and landed in Curry’s glove. It bounced out of his mitt. It was a dramatic moment. Then he made a second dive for the bounding sphere in an attempt to retrieve it. His snatch was sure. He grabbed it and held tight. It was a great catch. We’ve seen many a big league game out at the Pirates park, but never a more thrilling catch than ‘Goose’ Curry’s. … It terminated a Homestead rally and the Grays’ goose was ‘cooked.’”9

That year, 1939, as well, Curry was selected as a coach for the East team in the East-West All Star Game.10 Overall the year was a grand success for the outfielder. He did not pitch at all that season for Baltimore, at least in league play, but his two appearances in the outfield earned him a permanent spot in the championship lore of the city.

The 1940 season was split between the Black Yankees and the Elite Giants after Curry was sold to Baltimore in midseason.11 Curry remained with the Elites through 1941. Between those two seasons, Curry did make a trip to the West Coast for winter ball. His 1940 draft registration card confirms that he was residing in Los Angeles at that time, working for Tom Wilson and the Elite Giants, but also married to wife Marie, who was still in Memphis.12 Curry was spending the winter of 1940-41 playing in the California Winter League on the Baltimore squad alongside Henry Kimbro, Biz Mackey, and Felton Snow, among others. Although other winter leagues, such as the one in Puerto Rico, had robbed the California variant of some of its baseball luster, it was still a terrifically competitive environment. In nine league games, Curry was credited with three doubles and a home run in 29 at-bats and posted a .379 average for the interim season.13

Back on the diamond in 1941, Curry played mostly in the outfield, and logged a .304 average and an OPS+ of 133. Even at his advancing age (36), he reached what became career highs in plate appearances (255) and at-bats (214), and swiped seven bases as well. In February 1942 Curry changed professional lanes and accepted the job as manager of the Philadelphia Stars.14 According to the Baltimore Afro-American, “Curry is popular throughout the league and best known for his scrappy, enthusiastic leadership.” According to news reports, the only reason that Baltimore owner Tom Wilson agreed to the transaction was that Stars owner Ed Bolden promised to name Curry the manager as well as outfielder.15

Curry was the player-manager of the Stars from 1942 to 1947. In 1942, at age 37, he batted .285. Curry was seen as a successful manager, even if the records do not support that claim with much vigor. He was also unafraid of conflict. As Riley wrote:

As the Stars’ playing manager in 1946, he was involved in a brouhaha during the Newark Eagles’ ace Leon Day’s opening day no-hitter against his club. The incident began when the umpire called the Eagles’ Larry Doby safe on a close play at the plate.  Stars’ catcher Bill Cash was infuriated and knocked the arbiter to the ground. Curry, who was already moving in from his position in right field to voice his objection to the call, arrived in time to kick the felled umpire while he was still on the ground. A riot ensued, with fans spilling out of the stands, necessitating the use of mounted police to clear the field.16

Overall, Curry is credited with a 203-207-11 record over his six seasons managing the Stars, and the fact that Ed Bolden continued to rehire Curry each year is testament to the confidence Curry earned from players and peers. But managers are hired to be fired, says the conventional wisdom of generations of writers, and in December 1947, Bolden fired Curry. That none other than the legendary Oscar Charleston took his place did not particularly ease the blow.17

Curry’s formal time in the recognized Negro leagues (including the first and second National Leagues, the American League, and the Southern) ended after that 1947 season. He was a lifetime .301 hitter with a career OPS of .825 and an OPS+ of 124. In contrast with James Riley’s introduction of the player earlier, Goose Curry was much more than a “good contact hitter” with “good speed.” He was a lethal hitter for the greater part of 20 years, and in his age-42 season, as player-manager of the Stars, he logged 8 hits in 17 at-bats. He could pitch, but not at the same level as he slugged. His career ERA+ of 81 was 19 percent below the league averages of his time, and his lifetime won-lost record of 26-39 was similarly pedestrian.

When the second Negro National League folded after the 1948 season, Curry headed back south, managing and playing for the Atlanta Black Crackers.18 Proving that he was not yet too old to swing a bat, not quite ready for the rocking chair, Curry impressed the locals in a May 1949 game against Chattanooga with a dramatic ninth-inning grand slam that produced a 7-6 Atlanta win.19 As if that were not sufficient, Curry also homered in the nightcap as his contribution to the 3-1 win and the doubleheader sweep.

Curry spent the succeeding years managing several teams throughout the South, including the Memphis Red Sox, the Louisville Black Colonels, the Birmingham Black Barons, and again the Memphis Red Sox (now of the four-team Negro American League).20 In 1956, his final season in the Negro Leagues, he managed the West team in the East-West Game.21 After his playing days ended, Curry did some scouting and coaching for the Memphis Red Soxand never strayed too far from the game.22

On March 30, 1974, Homer Curry died following a long illness, two months before his 69th birthday.23 He is buried at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Memphis.24

Sources

All baseball statistics are derived from various web pages on the Seamheads.com site.

Photo credit: Homer “Goose” Curry, Temple University, John W. Mosley Collection.

Notes

1 James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1994), 220.

2 1920 United States Federal Census: Texas/Limestone (County)/Justice Precinct 4/District 0090, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4392085_00204?pId=112958570 

3 1940 U.S. Census/Memphis City/Ward 51/Block 19 (April 1940). https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/38243281:2442?tid=&pid=&queryId=c386cf307dd641b156ba2927238dbbe2&_phsrc=heb12&_phstart=successSource.

4 “Cleveland Tigers (Baseball), in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History curated by Case Western Reserve University. Online: https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/cleveland-tigers-baseball. 

5 “Memphis Tops Southern Ball League,” Chicago Defender (National edition), May 20, 1933: 8. 

6 Larry Lester. Black Baseball’s National Showcase (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 93.

7 Brent P. Kelley, Voices from the Negro Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1998), 59.

8 “Black Yanks Leave for Carolinas: New Faces on Harlem Ball Club,” Chicago Defender, April 15, 1939.

9 Chester L. Washington, “‘Sez Ches’: Josh Caught in the Act,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 20, 1939: 16.

10 “The East Pits Its Best Against West Again Sunday: Teams Are Bolstered for Game; East’s Second Sacker from Beale Avenue,”  Chicago Defender, August 26, 1939: 9.

11 J. Blow, “Western League Gets Satchel Paige: Baltim’re Gets Bud Barbee, ‘Goose’ Curry; Manleys Lose Paige after June Meeting of Two Negro Leagues,” New York Amsterdam News, June 29, 1940. 

12 Homer Curry, United States form D.S.S. Form 1, dtd. October 16, 1940.

13 “California Winter League (1940-1941),” Center for Negro League Baseball Research (CNLBR), online: http://www.cnlbr.org/Portals/0/Stats/CWL/1940s/California%20Winter%20League%20(1940-41).pdf.

14 “Curry New Manager of Philly Stars,” Baltimore Afro-American, February 21, 1942: 23.

15 “Philly Stars Manager,” Chicago Defender, July 25, 1942: 20.

16 Riley, 220.

17 Dusty Ballard, “Oscar Charleston Signed to Manage Stars for 1948 Season: Goose Curry Receives Unconditional Release,” Philadelphia Tribune, December 23, 1947: 11.

18 “Black Crax Work Overtime for Opener Against Black Yankees,” Atlanta Daily World, March 21, 1948: 7.

19 “Black Crackers Beat Choo Choos on Curry’s 9th Inning Homerun,” Atlanta Daily World, May 26, 1948: 5.

20 Russ J. Cowans. “The Goose Made a Mistake,” Chicago Defender, September 1, 1956: 18.

21 “Curry, Steele NAL Managers,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 28, 1956: 15.

22 “Birmingham Giants in Tryouts,” Chicago Daily Defender, March 15, 1956: 21.

23 “Goose Curry Dies,” Northwest Arkansas Times (Fayetteville), April 4, 1974: 2.

24 “Homer Curry,” Find-a-grave online: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255315864/homer-curry#source.

Dixon’s family had roots in Georgia and North Carolina before settling in the Florida panhandle. Dixon’s grandfather and father worked primarily in turpentine factories. The family’s heritage of toiling in the pine tree products industry was prophetic given that Dixon’s baseball career was built around two products that are related to turpentine distilling – rosin bags and pine tar.

Dixon grew up in a large household filled with siblings, half-siblings, extended family members, and boarders. He had three sisters and two brothers, none of whom played organized sports. He was the eldest of John and Gertrude Dixon’s three sons. “Eddie Lee” was his official given name. But he was not the only “Ed” in the family. His second-youngest brother was Edward Julian Dixon. When Eddie Lee was a child, his family left Bonifay and moved 100 miles west to Pensacola, where he would spend the bulk of his adult life.

Dixon attended high school in Pensacola. Newspaper coverage of African American high-school sports in those years was scant, but if Dixon played high-school baseball, it was likely at the segregated Booker T. Washington Colored High School in West Pensacola. Washington Colored High had an interscholastic baseball team as early as 1931.1 If Dixon didn’t play baseball in high school, he could have gained some experience with one of several Pensacola city-league or semipro nines in the region including the Pensacola Beach Combers, Pensacola Black Sox, and the St. Joseph Athletics.2

Did Dixon play collegiate baseball before signing his first professional baseball contract? According to Atlanta Daily World sports columnist Chico Renfroe, Dixon, along with Roy Lee “Jack” Thornton, Chip “Tiny” Smith, Henry Thomas “Red” Hadley, Bill Cooper, and James “Sleeky” Reese, all played for the Morris Brown College Wolverines before turning pro with the Atlanta Black Crackers.3 Morris Brown College was founded in Atlanta in 1881 and fielded a baseball team as early as 1897.4 During the 1930s, Morris Brown College’s diamond also served as the home field for some Atlanta Black Crackers games.5 Details regarding Dixon’s days as a Morris Brown College Wolverine are minimal and conflicting. For example, at the end of the 1938 baseball season, it was reported that he was enrolled at Morris Brown College.6 But according to the 1940 Census and his Army records, Dixon’s education was limited to four years of high school. It is likely that Dixon did attend Morris Brown and possibly played baseball there, but it is unlikely that he was a college graduate.

In the spring of 1938, while working at a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Florida, Dixon was recruited by the Atlanta Black Crackers.7 Many of the CCC camps had baseball teams that crossed bats with local nines, but published accounts of these games are scarce.8 Dixon may have been scouted during the Black Crackers’ spring-training stop in Orlando, Florida, in April 1938.9 It is unlikely that Dixon enjoyed nearly instant success as a pitcher in the NAL in 1938 without some prior amateur or semipro experience. But according to Dixon’s Black Crackers teammate James “Red” Moore, Dixon was a “surprise ace,” and “someone no one had heard of who came in throwing the ball hard and striking people out.”10 In 1920, before Dixon was old enough to play professional baseball, the Pensacola Giants played their first season in the Negro Southern League.11 It was rare for newspapers to include the names of any of the players let alone include line or box scores. There is no doubt that Dixon was pitching somewhere in Florida prior to his debut in professional baseball, but the lack of published accounts of those performances leaves a blank page in his résumé.

Dixon’s 1938 spring-training camp debut with the Atlanta Black Crackers in Columbus, Georgia, drew favorable reviews, like this one:

“Among the pitchers, ‘Bullet Joe’ Dixon looks best. His fast curves and explosive speed had the U.S. Army team shut out, 15-0, when he retired to the shower at the close of the sixth inning Wednesday afternoon. He fanned 12 men and had such gilt-edge control that not one man was able to work him for a base on balls. Invariably he never threw more than two balls to any batter and gave up just one lone hit. He certainly looked impressive.”12

When the Black Crackers left Columbus for more preseason competition in Atlanta, Dixon continued to impress as both a starter and as a reliever in spite of the lack of offensive and/or defensive support from his teammates. At the end of April 1938, Dixon was on the short end of the Black Crackers’ 8-4 loss to the Homestead Grays, the 1937 National Negro League champions, but the rookie Dixon was not entirely to blame. As Daily World sportswriter Lucius Jones noted, “Dixon, Atlanta starting hurler, worked seven innings, giving up six hits and five runs, but five errors were made behind him and three of the runs were unearned.”13 The rookie right-hander from Pensacola enjoyed his first taste of victory in a Black Crackers’ uniform on May 12, 1938 when Atlanta defeated the Birmingham Black Barons, 2-0, at home at Ponce de Leon Park in their opening game as members of the NAL. Atlanta manager Nish Williams tapped Telosh Howard as his starter against Birmingham’s Charles Blackmon. Williams’s decision to pull Howard in the seventh inning and send the rookie Dixon to the mound was an unpopular decision with the hometown crowd. According to Daily World sportswriter Ric Roberts:

“Manager Nish Williams … motioned Howard to the showers and gave the ball to ‘Bullet’ Dixon. This gesture was against the second-guesses of the entire throng of 2,500 paying guests who would have retained Howard in the face of the latter’s smart elbowing to that point. As things turned out, Manager Williams did himself a masterpiece in this business of substitution. All Dixon did with his lightening-fast [sic] curves and fireball was retire the next 8 consecutive batters and personally run down Owens in a chase off third base. Dixon fanned the hard hitting David] Whatley and Blackmon on burning fast ball pitching.14

After Dixon’s dazzling debut against the Black Barons in mid-May, he fell to earth like a spent bottle rocket. He pitched in relief in two losing efforts against Birmingham during which he “got the real fire baptism in his four innings during which his offerings were combed for 8 clean hits.”15 The early reviews were in. Dixon had potential but not necessarily as a starter, and he was as green as grass.

“[Dixon’s] burning fast ball was invincible Thursday afternoon as he sat 8 batters down in a row, giving no hits and no bases on balls,” an Atlanta scribe wrote. “The management thinks the rookie from Pensacola, Fla., may get somewhere in 1938 but they can’t rush him too fast. He still has to learn ‘how to pitch.’ Right now he’s throwing them past the hitters on sheer power. When he collects his share of cunning all of the American League clubs will hate to see him in there.16

The first half of the Black Crackers’ 1938 season was less than stellar, and Dixon’s star was not yet shining. Ric Roberts assessed the team at midseason in July with this lament: “Old Misfortune took a full stock at the best year Atlanta ever knew. The team started to down grade and there came arguments and misunderstandings. Man after man was given the gate and new ones added.”17  

Roberts may have been a little premature in predicting the terminal condition of the Black Crackers’ 1938 season. Dixon and his teammates eventually found their grooves and helped Atlanta salvage what could have been a disastrous year. Their fortunes also improved when Gabby Kemp replaced Nish Williams as manager.18 Dixon started to live up to his nickname – “Bullet Dixon,” with his fiery fastball that neutralized opposing players’ bats. For example, in a game at the end of July, Dixon notched 13 strikeouts as the Black Crackers vanquished the Fort Benning nine 11-2.19 In mid-August, Dixon’s record in 1938 mirrored the score against Fort Benning: 11 wins and 2 losses, albeit only a handful of those games were played against Negro League opponents.20 According to Seamheads, when the regular season closed in mid-September, Dixon appeared in 23 games for the Black Crackers and chalked up five wins against three losses.21

By the end of September 1938, the Black Crackers had won the NAL second-half crown and were on a collision course with the Memphis Red Sox for the NAL championship. The playoffs were marred by controversy over the legitimacy of the teams’ overall records, a potential tie with the Chicago American Giants, and league bureaucracy. But in the end it was determined that Atlanta would play Memphis for the championship.22 It was the first time an Atlanta Negro League baseball team won a pennant.23 Memphis dealt the Black Crackers a case of the blues by winning the first two games, 6-1 and 11-6.24 Atlanta’s Felix “Chin” Evans took the first loss on the chin, but Dixon did not pitch. In the second game of the series, Dixon came in as a reliever and walked four and struck out one. But Dixon’s dinger was not enough to lift Atlanta over the Red Sox, and the Black Crackers found themselves 0-2.

The series then shifted to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Black Crackers were unable to secure dates at Ponce de Leon Park due to the White Atlanta Crackers playing their playoff games at the same time.25 But the final battle at Rickwood was scratched. The Black Crackers failed to show up in Birmingham and forfeited the games to the Memphis Red Sox.26 The Black Crackers defaulted the championship to the Memphis Red Sox.27 Ultimately, a disagreement over the distribution of gate receipts resulted in the abandonment of the series.28

But perhaps the Black Crackers had other things on their minds. Just days after their twin losses to the Red Sox, at least four of the Black Crackers, including Dixon, Kemp, Evans, and Tommy “Pea Eye” Butts, tried out for football at Atlanta’s Morris Brown College and Morehouse College.29 If Dixon desired to trade in his pitcher’s glove for a halfback’s helmet and gallop on the gridiron for the Morris Brown Wolverines, it was not to be.30 Only Evans, who was a football and baseball standout for the Morehouse College Maroon Tigers, made the cut.31 Just a few weeks later, Dixon was back to work on the mound, barnstorming for the Atlanta Black Crackers in a losing effort. against the Miami Ethiopian Clowns, a team he would play for in less than two years.32 In the end, Dixon’s 1938 season with Atlanta added up to a 5-3 record on the mound and a 2.92 ERA. He appeared in at least 23 games and led the Black Crackers with 55 strikeouts.

Dixon’s 1939 season was bookended with lows and highs. He began the season with the Atlanta Black Crackers. He left Pensacola for Atlanta in early March for the team’s spring workouts at Booker T. Washington High School.33 Traveling with Dixon were two other pitchers, Lawrence “Tee” Mitchell, and a burly right-hander named “Johnson,” whose name did not appear on the Black Crackers’ roster for the season opener in late April.34

Prospects for the Black Crackers were high given the previous season’s second-half NAL title. Hopes were similarly lofty for Dixon, who was touted as “one of the finest pitchers in the country and, with a few runs … can really ‘go to bed.’”35 Dixon was also touted for his ability to keep baserunners honest because “Dixon insists on respect and gets it.”36 Before the start of the 1939 season, Daily World sports scribe Ric Roberts touted Dixon as “about the steadiest hurler on the Cracker staff in 1938,” and he was “destined to become one of the greatest pitchers” and that Dixon was “ready to go all the time with no hint of arm trouble ever affecting his condition.”37 In a preseason interview with Roberts, Dixon named the Kansas City Monarchs as the “hardest American League team to beat” and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe as “the toughest batter in the league to fool or get out.”38 Dixon told Roberts that Oklahoma City was the “greatest baseball town in the country,” and that the “biggest thrill” of his career to date was “when he pitched the Crax to a 9-2 victory over the Kansas City Monarchs in their own lot.”39

Roberts’ prognostications for Dixon’s career, and for the hurler’s prospects for the immediate future, however, did not prove to be particularly accurate. Just days after his interview with Roberts, Dixon had a “disastrous day” on the mound in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the Black Crackers, bearing the brunt of a 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Elite Giants in a game strewn with errors by the Crackers.40 Dixon, who was described as a “chunky righthanded hurler,” saw seven innings of shutout ball spoiled by Atlanta’s bumbling defense.41

It was a rough start for Dixon’s 1939 season with the Black Crackers. Within a week of the loss to the Elite Giants in Chattanooga, Dixon and the Atlanta nine were hammered at home, 11-1, by the Homestead Grays at Ponce de Leon Park.42 Dixon came into the game in relief of Black Crackers rookie southpaw Henry Clay “Lefty” Richburg.43 Richburg gave up three runs in the first inning.44 Dixon fared no better. He gifted the Grays with eight notches on the scoreboard, four of which came in the form of a grand slam off the bat of Buck Leonard, who came to the plate after Dixon intentionally walked Josh Gibson to load the bases.45

In giving Gibson a pass, opined a sportswriter, “Pitcher Dixon then lived to realize his mistake. He worked on Buck Leonard, crack first-sacker of the Grays, with a fast one that he made just a trifle too good. The massive keystone man [sic] lifted it all the way to the last tier of the signboards in right field, then jogged around the bases to score behind Whatley, [Sam] Bankhead and Gibson. When the drive first left Leonard’s huge mace, it looked for all the world that it would clear the park fence and land on the railroad tracks. But it fell a few feet short, denting the giant New Yorker ginger ale sign.”46

Despite the hype about Dixon in 1938 by Atlanta sportswriters, his 1939 season did not meet those expectations. In early April, during an exhibition game loss to the Birmingham Acipco nine, Dixon took the mound in relief of rookie Richburg, who just sewed up three innings of scoreless ball. Dixon was not sharp, and according to Lucius Jones, “Dixon fared much worse, being touched for half of Birmingham’s runs, but it was generally known that his arm had not come around at that time.”47 Jones speculated that “[i]t might take hotter weather to restore the boy’s ‘smoke.’”48 Even before Opening Day, signs of Dixon’s arm problems were beginning to surface. The concerns about Dixon’s desire to throw only heat rather than develop a full menu of pitching options were first raised in the spring of 1938, and proved quite prescient.49 The fire behind all that smoke was already in need of kindling by Dixon after just one season in the Negro Leagues. Dixon’s repertoire was limited to a blazing fastball, a serviceable curve, and a ‘dinky’ slider.50 It was clear that Dixon had the ability to hurl the heat, but he never did quite grasp “how to pitch.”51

Dixon started the 1939 season with the Black Crackers and had a brief layover with the peripatetic Crackers in Indianapolis before safely landing in Baltimore to pitch for the Elite Giants in the second half of the 1939 season. For the nanosecond he spent in Indy, Dixon was touted to local fans as having a “baffling curve with burning speed.”52 By May, the Crackers had lost 10 of their 14 starts.53 At the end of April, Dixon’s fellow Pensacolian, rookie flinger Henry “Lefty” Richburg, was the losing pitcher of record in an 8-5 defeat in which Dixon, who was the “chief bright feature of the contest,” was stepping in at first base for an ailing Red Moore.54 A few days later, Dixon returned to the mound only to suffer a humiliating 11-0 shutout loss to the swats of Mule Suttles and his Newark Eagles.55 And as if things couldn’t get any worse for Atlanta’s bottom line, after their loss to Newark, the Crackers’ team bus was involved in an accident and several players were injured while on their way to North Carolina for a tilt with the Raleigh Grays.56 Dixon was fortunate. He was not hurt in the bus mishap and moved on with the hobbled team to Missouri where he rose to the occasion by pitching the Crackers to a 9-6 win over the St. Louis Stars and hitting what was likely the only home run in his NAL career.57 Dixon was not known for his prowess at the plate, but he did manage to accrue a middling .246 career batting average.58

In the early summer of 1939, the Black Crackers’ season was about to implode. Crackers owner John H. Harden faced deepening financial issues that he blamed on a combination of the difficulties in enticing Northern nines to trek to Atlanta to spin the turnstiles and increased transportation costs that were eating into the team’s bottom line.59 The bus accident did more than hurt some players – it helped to crash the Crackers as a business enterprise. It was becoming more challenging for Harden, who operated a service station in Atlanta, to cover team expenses and payroll.60 After a brief failed flirtation with Indianapolis, the Black Crackers reclaimed their Atlanta identity and returned to the road in June with Dixon picking up victories against the Cleveland Bears and Memphis Red Sox, the latter in which he struck out eight and had a “‘fog’ ball” that was “cracking like a buggy whip.”61

By mid-July, the Black Crackers exited the Negro American League and Harden had a fire sale on his players.62 The greatest beneficiaries of Harden’s financial hardships were the Baltimore Elite Giants, who scooped up Dixon, Butts, Evans, Moore, and Oscar Boone from the ashes.63 It was a fortunate landing for Dixon and his fellow former Crackers. The Elite Giants were in need of pitchers and defensive players and their deal for five cast-offs from the Crackers ultimately helped them capture the 1939 crown for the second half of the Negro National League season.64

It was hoped that Dixon would play a key role in meeting Baltimore’s expectations.65 It was thought that Dixon and the new additions to the Elite Giants roster were “really clicking” and were just the “sparkplug” that was needed to help Baltimore overcome their listless performances on the front end of the season and vie for the second-half crown.66 The Elite Giants did indeed benefit from the infusion of talent from the Black Crackers but Dixon’s direct contributions to Baltimore winning the second half of the season and ultimately claiming the NNL championship were minimal or nonexistent. His name did not appear in any box scores leading up to the series and he was not the starting pitcher in any of the championship games between the Elite Giants and the Homestead Grays.

In the weeks leading up to the final series, he was rarely mentioned in game results, and toward the end of August, one newspaper published a list of the Elites’ roster and placed Dixon last among all Baltimore’s pitchers.67 In the days leading up to the first game of the series, the Baltimore Afro-American did not include Dixon in a list of potential starters for the Elites but did name him as a member of the bullpen.68 And on the eve of the opening game, the Afro-American did not even list Dixon among the six Baltimore pitchers in a “probable line-up.”69

Dixon’s contributions to Baltimore’s 1939 NNL championship games are unclear. It is possible that he made some appearances in relief, but he was not a starter. Why didn’t the once highly touted fireballer Dixon not get the call? Likely his arm was toast even before the championship series started.70 “Bullet” Dixon was shooting blanks. He appeared in just eight games for the Black Crackers and rang up a 4.88 ERA. Dixon’s stats are absent from 1939 Elite Giants totals on Seamheads.com. Dixon’s waning effectiveness in 1939 would be confirmed when his NNL career abruptly ended in the spring of 1940. In the end, the Elite Giants defeated the Homestead Grays and received the Jacob Ruppert Memorial trophy in Yankee Stadium from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who said as he passed the hardware to the victors, “I hope I may live to see Colored players in both of the major leagues.”71 In 1947, two years prior to his death, Bill Robinson’s wish was granted when Jackie Robinson started for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Larry Doby signed with the Cleveland Indians.

Despite his lack of contributions to the Elite Giants’ 1939 championship season, and the questions regarding the soundness of his arm, on March 31, 1940, Dixon reported to Baltimore’s spring-training camp in New Orleans.72 In the spring of 1940, Dixon’s name appeared at the end of a list of Baltimore’s available pitchers.73 His arm fell asleep in the fall of 1939, but it woke up from a long winter’s nap in the spring of 1940. In April he made an effective relief appearance during a 13-2 drubbing by the New York Black Yankees, holding the opposition to two hits in three innings.74 Dixon’s performance drew comparisons to his days as a “fireball wizard” for the Atlanta Black Crackers, but the magic proved momentary.75 On April 7 he was the second of three hurlers used by the Elite Giants in a spring-training game against the Memphis Red Sox at Pelican Stadium, and he struggled.76 He manned the mound for 2 2/3 innings, copping one strikeout and while gifting six runs to Memphis in a 15-1 loss.77

The following day, Dixon, along with manager Felton Snow and three Elites teammates; William “Big Bill” Hoskins,” Sammy Hughes, and Woodrow “Woody” Williams, were enumerated in New Orleans by the US Census Bureau. Although the enumerator made several errors and corrections on Dixon’s 1940 Census page, all five were boarding at Washington R. Butler’s Hotel Theresa on South Rampart Street. Given the area’s connections to baseball and Black enterprises, it is not surprising that at least five members of the Elite Giants chose the Hotel Theresa as their New Orleans spring-training base. When Dixon and his fellow Elite Giants resided at the Hotel Theresa, South Rampart Street was situated in the “‘main stem’ or center of Negro sporting and business endeavors.”78

Dixon’s season with the 1940 Baltimore Elite Giants appears to have ended not long before it started. By the end of April, his name was no longer routinely mentioned as part of Baltimore’s hurling staff, and when it did appear as a member of the Elite Giants, he was usually the last name on the list of veteran pitchers.79 Dixon was absent from Baltimore’s roster from May through early June with the exception of his name being mistakenly included as “Tom Dixon,” one of the “topnotch hurlers who helped carry the Elite Giants to the title last year.”80 The last time Dixon appeared in a possible lineup for the Elite Giants was on July 17, 1940, when he was named as part of Baltimore’s roster in a game against the Lloyd A.C. nine of Chester, Pennsylvania.81 Dixon never had a chance to take the mound. The game was rained out.82 Dixon’s career with the Elite Giants ended with a thud. He made just one appearance on the hill for Baltimore in 1940 and was dinged for six runs in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Dixon’s departure from the Elite Giants in July 1940 went unnoticed by the press but he did briefly continue his baseball career with another team, promoter Syd Pollock’s traveling Miami Ethiopian Clowns.83 Dixon joined the Clowns and found himself barnstorming with former Atlanta Black Cracker teammates Spencer Davis, Evans, and Boone.84 Dixon’s tenure with the Ethiopian Clowns is difficult to assess given that the Clowns played under pseudonyms that masked their identities with such stage names as “Selassie,” “Wahoo,” and even “Tarzan.”85 Although some Ethiopian Clowns players’ stage names have been decoded, Dixon’s has not. But given the likely poor state of his arm, and that he made little or no impact on the Elite Giants’ 1940 season from spring training through the early summer, it is likely that Dixon’s professional baseball career ended in the summer of 1940 by clowning with the Miami squad.

On October 16, 1940, Dixon registered for the draft in Pensacola. He was 24 years old and described as a “Negro,” with brown eyes, black hair, with a “Light” complexion. He stood 5-feet 6-inches tall and weighed 167 pounds. Dixon was employed at Farrow’s Café and Pure Oil Service Station in Pensacola that was owned by Dixon’s sister’s husband and his sister’s mother-in-law. In the summer of 1942, Dixon married Jimmie Lee Harris in Pensacola. The following year, during World War II, he enlisted in the US Army at Camp Blanding in Starke, Florida. At the time of his enlistment, he stated that his education was limited to “4 years of high school,” and made no mention of attending college. This is consistent with the education attainment information he provided in the 1940 and 1950 Censuses, which conflicts with newspaper accounts of his enrollment at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Dixon served in the Army Quartermaster Corps. After completing his service, he was discharged at the rank of sergeant and returned to Pensacola and answered a different call – the siren sound of the baseball diamond.

This time it was to local Pensacola semi-pro leagues. In 1946 he managed the Pensacola Pepsi-Cola All-Stars.86 The Pepsi-Cola team was organized in 1945 after being mothballed for several years during World War II and was much improved by the addition of veterans who were also good ballplayers.87 Dixon had at least one familiar face on the roster, Henry Richburg, with whom he played on the Black Crackers during Richburg’s brief residency with the Atlanta team in 1939.88 Richburg was in his second season with the Pepsi-Colas when he reunited with Dixon.89 The All-Stars were a local semipro club. Their opponents included the Birmingham Stars and the Mobile Prichard Athletics.90

After their stint with the All-Stars, Dixon and Richburg migrated to the Pensacola Sea Gulls in 1951.91 While managing the Sea Gulls, Dixon exchanged his manager’s cap for a player’s bat and managed to hit at least one homer for the Gulls in the spring of 1951, a rare feat for Dixon, who was not known for his prowess at the plate.92 After Dixon moved on from the Sea Gulls, at least one of the Gulls graduated from the local semipros to a career in the major leagues – shortstop Johnny Lewis, who played for and later became the first African American coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.93

Two years later, Dixon managed a different local aggregation, the Gulf Power softball team.94 Dixon’s shift to softball from baseball reflected changes to the Pensacola sports landscape. By the early 1950s, softball leagues were gaining in popularity and local games were drawing as many as 60,000 fans per season.95 By 1955, there were three “Negro softball leagues” in the city.96 That same year, interest in Pensacola softball leagues was described as “summer madness,” with 855 players on 59 slow-pitch and fast-pitch teams.97 No doubt that softball’s expansion came at the expense of men’s baseball leagues, both semipro and amateur. Dixon’s baseball managerial acumen, however, was easily transferred to softball, and his squad won the first half of the Commercial League 1953 season.98 Dixon’s diamond days ended with the Gulf Power softball team. After 1953, his name no longer appeared in local baseball or softball reporting.

After he returned to civilian life in the mid-1940s. Dixon and his wife lived with his in-laws’ extended-family household in Pensacola through the early 1950s. When not on a local diamond, Dixon’s day job was as a grocery warehouse worker, while his wife, Jimmie Lee, owned the Dixon Smoke Shop. Dixon also earned extra money when he enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1947 and retained his World War II rank of sergeant.99

After Dixon’s father died in 1956, he and Jimmie Lee left Pensacola for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dixon found work in construction and his wife became an elementary-school teacher. There were no published reports of his participation in any locally organized sports. But his personal life was changing. In 1961 Dixon’s mother, Gertrude Richardson, died in Pensacola, and he became a father when his only child, Carl Dixon, was born.

Eddie Lee Dixon died on July 8, 1993, in Fort Lauderdale “after a brief illness.”100 His death notices were carried in Pensacola and Fort Lauderdale newspapers.101 According to his obituary, he was survived by his wife, son, one grandson, three sisters, three brothers, and one adopted sister.102 The obituary gave his name as “Eddie L. ‘Mount’ Dixon,” although the meaning of the nickname was not explained. Nor was there any mention of his baseball career in either of his death notices. Dixon was credited, however, with involvement in several community groups and was a “faithful member” of the Mt. Olive Baptist Church where he served as a chaplain and as a member of the choir.103 Dixon was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens Central in Fort Lauderdale with a marker honoring his World War II Army service.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to express her heartfelt appreciation for the wisdom, good humor, generosity, encouragement, and expert editing of the late Frederick C. Bush, who assisted with the early research for this chapter.

Sources

Unless otherwise indicated, all Negro League statistics and records were sourced from Seamheads.com and baseball-reference.com. Ancestry.com was used to access census, birth, death, marriage, military, immigration, and other genealogical and public records.

Notes

1 “Negro High School Plays Here Today,” Pensacola Journal, April 30, 1931: 2.

2 “Crack Negro Teams Will Clash Today,” Pensacola Journal, May 6, 1934: 11; “Negro Ball Club Is Off for Jax,” Pensacola Journal, July 9, 1934: 3; “Negro Clubs Battle Today,” Pensacola Journal, August 12, 1934: 10.

3 Chico Renfroe, “Sports of the World,” Atlanta Daily World, March 3, 1991: 8.

4 “What the Negro Is Doing,” Atlanta Constitution, April 25, 1897: 8.

5 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2015), 8.

6 Ric Roberts, “Kemp, Dixon, Evans in Local Grid Try-Outs,” Atlanta Daily World, September 23, 1938: 5.

7 Ric Roberts, “A Black Cracker a Day,” Atlanta Daily World, April 16, 1939: 8.

8 Jerrell H. Shofner, “Roosevelt’s ‘Tree Army’: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Florida,” Florida Historical Quarterly, Apr. 1987, Vol. 65, No. 4, pp. 433-456.

9 “Atlanta Negro Team Plays Here Monday,” Orlando Evening Star, April 16, 1938: 5; “Black Crackers to Play Sunday,” Atlanta Journal, April 22, 1938: 15.

10 Todd Halcomb, “Year of the Black Crackers,” Atlanta Constitution, June 27, 1997: E7.

11 Plott, 10.

12 “Donald Reeves, ‘Bullet Joe’ Dixon in Impressive Form at Columbus Camp,” Atlanta Daily World, April 15, 1938: 5.

13 Lucius Jones, “Black Crackers Beaten in Final Game with Homestead Grays Tuesday, 8-4,” Atlanta Daily World, April 27, 1938: 5.

14 Ric Roberts, “Crackers Win Opener,” Atlanta Daily World, May 13, 1938: 1.

15 “Black Crackers Gain Odd Game in Baron Series by Winning First Game, 7 to 3,” Atlanta Daily World, May 16, 1938: 5.

16 “Ex-Black Baron Pitchers Mitchell and ‘Red’ Howard Want Chance at Ex-Mates,” Atlanta Daily World, May 14, 1938: 5.

17 Ric Roberts, “Most Promising Black Cracker Year Turns Out to Be Most Lamentable,” Atlanta Daily World, July 6, 1938: 5.

18 “Black Crackers Hold ‘Moore Day,’” Atlanta Journal, July 31, 1938: 16.

19 Allen Edward Joyce, The Atlanta Black Crackers, thesis, Emory University, 1975: 60.

20 “Atlanta Crackers Play Chairs Thursday Night,” Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press, August 3, 1938: 10.

21 Presumably using different criteria, Ric Roberts reported Dixon appearing in 31 games with a record of 16-4. See Roberts, April 16, 1939: 8.

22 “American Giants Split,” Chicago Tribune, September 6, 1938: 25; Joyce, 65-66.

23 “Black Crackers Win Second Half,” Atlanta Journal, September 18, 1938: 18.

24 “Memphis Leads in Playoff for Championship,” Chicago Defender, September 24, 1938: 8.

25 “Red Sox Take Second from Black Crackers,” Atlanta Daily World, September 20, 1938: 5; “Red Sox Win Another,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 20, 1938: 13.

26 Sam Brown, “Memphis Red Sox to Meet Atlanta This Sunday,” Atlanta Daily World, March 24, 1938: 5.

27 “Black Crackers Play Birmingham Sunday,” Atlanta Constitution, September 24, 1938: 22.

28 Todd Holcomb, “Year of the Black Crackers,” Atlanta Constitution, June 27, 1997: E7.

29 Ric Roberts, “Kemp, Dixon, Evans in Local Grid Try-Outs,” Atlanta Daily World, September 23, 1938: 5.

30 Ric Roberts, “Red Sox Take Second from Black Crackers.”

31 Chico Renfroe, “Sports of the World,” Atlanta Daily World, February 9, 1990: 5.

32 “Clowns Shut Out Atlanta Club, 5-0,” Miami News, October 5, 1938: 8.

33 Ric Roberts, “Atlanta Black Crax Regard Promising Baseball Campaign,” Atlanta Daily World, March 7, 1939: 5; Lucius Jones, “Slant on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, March 21, 1939: 5.

34 Lucius Jones, “Slant on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, March 16, 1939: 5; “Black Crackers Play Here Soon,” Macon (Georgia) News, April 25, 1939: 14.

35 Lucius Jones, March 21, 1939: 5.

36 Lucius Jones, “Slant on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, March 22, 1939: 5.

37 Ric Roberts, April 16, 1939: 8.

38 Ric Roberts, April 16, 1939: 8.

39 Ric Roberts, April 16, 1939: 8.

40 Lucius Jones, “Slants on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, April 18, 1939: 5.

41 Lucius Jones, April 18, 1939: 5.

42 Lucius Jones, “Champions Trim Black Crax, 11-1,” Atlanta Daily World, April 22, 1939: 5.

43 Henry Richburg, like Dixon, lived in Pensacola. The surname errors may have resulted from confusing Henry Richburg with Lance Richbourg, also from Florida, who played eight seasons in the White majors between 1921 and 1932, including stints with Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, the Boston Braves, and the Chicago Cubs. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Henry Richbourg [sic] appeared in three games for the Black Crackers in 1939, twice as a starter, and was charged with one official loss. His hefty 8.64 ERA did nothing to enhance his résumé and helps to explain his very brief tenure in the Negro Leagues. But Richburg continued to play baseball after exiting the Atlanta bullpen. After World War II, Richburg and Dixon reunited and played for the Pensacola Sea Gulls during the early 1950s.

44 Lucius Jones, “Champions Trim Black Crax, 11-1,” Atlanta Daily World, April 22, 1939: 5.

45 “Champions Trim Black Crax, 11-1.”

46 “Champions Trim Black Crax, 11-1.”

47 Lucius Jones, “Black Crax Seek Second Straight Victory,” Atlanta Daily World, April 8, 1939: 5.

48 “Black Crax Seek Second Straight Victory.”

49 “Ex-Black Baron Pitchers Mitchell and ‘Red’ Howard Want Chance at Ex-Mates,” Atlanta Daily World, May 14, 1938: 5.

50 James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994), 238.

51 “Ex-Black Baron Pitchers Mitchell and ‘Red’ Howard Want Chance at Ex-Mates.”

52 “Meet the Boys,” Indianapolis Recorder, April 20, 1939: 14.

53 Lucius Jones, “Slants on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, May 1, 1939: 5.

54 “Slants on Sports,” May 1, 1939: 5.

55 “Suttles Pounds Ball Hard as ABC’s Fall to Newark,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 6, 1939: 15.

56 “Negro Teams Play,” Raleigh (North Carolina) News and Observer, May 6, 1939: 6.

57 Black Crax Win First League Contest 9-6,” Atlanta Daily World, May 16, 1939: 5.

58 Riley, 238.

59 Joyce, The Atlanta Black Crackers, 73.

60 Riley, 353.

61 “Black Crackers Play Memphis,” Atlanta Journal, June 18, 1939: 15; Lucius Jones, “Atlanta, Memphis Play Twin Bill Today,” Atlanta Daily World, June 18, 1939: 8.

62 Joyce, The Atlanta Black Crackers, 74.

63 “Elites Training in New Orleans,” New York Amsterdam News, April 20, 1940: 18.

64 “Five Atlanta Players Signed by Baltimore,” Chicago Defender, July 22, 1939: 8.

65 “Elites, Cubans on 4-Team Twin Bill,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 5, 1939: 18.

66 Lucius Jones, “Donald Reeves Signs with Chicago Ball Club,” Atlanta Daily World, August 6, 1939: 8; “Beating the Gun,” Phoenix (Arizona) Index, August 19, 1939: 3.

67 “So You’ll Know Them,” Warren (Pennsylvania) Times-Mirror, August 23, 1939: 8.

68 “10,000 Expected When Elites Meet Eagles Sunday,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 9, 1939: 23; Art Carter, “From the Bench,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 9, 1939: 23; “Elites to Play Grays for Championship,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 16, 1939: 23.

69 “Elites to Play Grays for Championship.”

70 Todd Holcomb, “Year of the Black Crackers,” Atlanta Constitution, June 27, 1997: E7.

71 Al Baker, “Sport,” Boston Guardian, September 30, 1939: 7.

72 Cum Posey, “Posey’s Points,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 13, 1940: 16.

73 Posey.

74 “New York Black Yanks Rout Baltimore Elite Giants 13-2,” Phoenix Index, April 6, 1940: 5.

75 “New York Black Yanks Rout Baltimore Elite Giants 13-2.”

76 “Negro Ball Clubs Split Twin Bill Before 5000 Fans,” New Orleans States, April 9, 1940: 23.

77 “Negro Ball Clubs Split Twin Bill Before 5000 Fans.”

78 John E. Rousseau, “‘Ramp Is Gone … Ain’t What It Used to Be,’ Declares Old Timer,” Louisiana Weekly (New Orleans), March 13, 1965: 4.

79 Cum Posey, “Posey’s Points,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 13, 1940: 16.

80 “Elite Giants and Lloyd A.C. in Rubber Game this Evening,” Chester (Pennsylvania) Times, June 7, 1940: 18.

81 “National Negro League Champions Here This Evening,” Chester Times, July 17, 1940: 12.

82 “Larry File Day at Lloyd Baseball Park Tomorrow Night,” Chester Times, July 18, 1940: 22.

83 Leslie A. Heaphy, The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003), 146.

84 Lucius Jones, “Slants on Sports,” Atlanta Daily World, July 23, 1940: 5.

85 Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White (New York: Gramercy Books, 1970), 204.

86 “All-Stars to Meet Mobile Nine Today,” Pensacola Journal, September 13, 1946: 2.

87 “Pepsi-Cola Nine to Meet Clowns Thursday,” Pensacola Journal, April 9, 1945: 3; “Negro All-Stars Play Birmingham,” Pensacola News-Journal, September 1, 1946: 15.

88 “All-Stars to Meet Mobile Nine Today.”

89 “Negro Nine to Play Mobile Today,” Pensacola Journal, August 20, 1945: 3.

90 “All-Stars to Meet Mobile Nine Today”; “Pepsi-Colas Play Mobile Nine Tonight,” Pensacola Journal, September 18, 1946: 2.

91 “Sea Gulls Down Mobile Bear Nine,” Pensacola Journal, May 21, 1951: 2.

92 “Sea Gulls Down Mobile Bear Nine.”

93 “Before Jackie Robinson: Playing Ball for the Fun of It,” Pensacola News Journal, July 30, 1989: C-1, C-10.

94 Gulf Power Plays All-Stars Friday,” Pensacola Journal, June 17, 1953: 10.

95 “City Softball Leagues Start ‘Biggest Year’ Monday Night,” Pensacola Journal, May 1, 1955: 13.

96 “Negro Softball Meeting Tonight,” Pensacola Journal, March 24, 1955: 16.

97 “City Softball Leagues Start ‘Biggest Year’ Monday Night.”

98 Gulf Power Plays All-Stars Friday,” Pensacola Journal, June 17, 1953: 10.

99 “11 Vets Enlist in Army Reserves,” Pensacola News-Journal, March 30, 1947: 14.

100 “Death Notices,” Pensacola News Journal, July 12, 1993: 10; “Obituaries,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), July 13, 1993: 4B.

101 “Death Notices,” Pensacola News Journal, July 12, 1993: 10.

102 “Obituaries,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, July 13, 1993: 4B.

103 “Obituaries.”

The discussions continue to this day. What would have happened if those denied the opportunity had been given the chance to play at the highest level of baseball before 1947? We have had glimpses of such players, often long past their prime.

In 1951, in a barnstorming game in Alabama, Jonas Gaines took the mound and played on a team with AL/NL Black players, some of whom, like Willie Mays were young, others, like Roy Campanella, his contemporaries, each of whom had been given the opportunity to play in the AL/NL majors. Gaines never pitched in the AL/NL majors, but after this game, he continued to pitch another six seasons in a professional career that extended over 21 years (1937-1957 with a full season and parts of two others off for military service) and that had him travel from the deep South, to the urban North, to Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela, to the Northern border of the United States, to the Canadian provinces, to the Land of the Rising Sun, to the small towns near the Texas-New Mexico border.

Jonas George Gaines was born on January 9, 1915, in New Roads, Louisiana. He came from a large family. His parents were Willie and Minerva Baptiste Gaines. She had been born in 1879 and lived to the age of 96. Jonas had four sisters, Angeline, Reva, Julia (born in 1902), and Odette, and three brothers, Leon, Alonzo, and Lionel.

While attending Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jonas spent his summers pitching for the Colored YMCA Tigers team in Bogalusa, Louisiana, hurling a no-hitter on July 16, 1933, at Laurel, Mississippi, when he was only 18 years old.1 The following spring, after pitching another no-hitter for the Bogalusa team, the left-hander traveled to Valley City, North Dakota. On May 13, in his first start for Valley City he pitched still another no-hitter, defeating New Rockford, 3-0.2

As Charles Hancock, a Valley City teammate, recalled in 1973, “We were looking for a big guy when Gaines got off the train (in Valley City), and he wasn’t. But when we got back to the hotel, he showed me some clippings from the New Orleans Picayune. He had pitched five no-hit games. (Gaines was 18 at the time). We played in Valley City the next Sunday, and he went out and pitched another no-hitter.”3

Gaines was still pitching for Valley City in 1935, and on June 26 was matched up against Satchel Paige who was pitching for Bismarck. Gaines lost a 6-1 decision and Paige struck out 17 and allowed two hits.4

Gaines returned to Louisiana in 1936 and pitched for Baton Rouge on April 12, losing a 3-0 decision to the Colored YMCA Tigers.5 But he soon headed back to North Dakota. He first pitched for the team in Page, and then he signed on with Bismarck, the defending national semipro champions. Such was the ongoing life of travel for the young Black pitcher. Pitching for Bismarck, he defeated Minot, 12-4, on June 22.6 He followed that up on July 3 by winning a one-sided game against the Aztecas, 18-4, and had two hits to help his own cause.7 At one point in the season, Bismarck put together a streak of 21 consecutive wins. The streak ended against the House of David on August 10 as Gaines lost a 3-2 decision.8

By 1937, the left-handed 5-foot-10 155-pound Gaines was with the Newark Eagles. Per Seamheads.com, the 22-year-old9 appeared in five games and was 1-1 with an 8.27 ERA. He also pitched with the Washington Elite Giants, losing his two appearances.

The Elite Giants called at least three cities home during their time in the Negro National League, and in 1938 were playing as the Nashville Elite Giants (they were also known as the Baltimore Elite Giants that season) when they barnstormed against the Red Bank Pirates in New Jersey on August 30. Gaines authored a three-hitter that night and won, 3-1. The only Red Bank run came on a fourth-inning homer by former big-leaguer Al Cuccinello.10 Seamheads.com, which does not reflect exhibitions and includes only games for which there are box scores, has Gaines appearing in just four games in 1938, going 0-1. On June 17 at Toledo, in a game for which there is no box score, he was the first of a parade of pitchers to be hammered by the Homestead Grays, the Elites losing 14-6. In the first inning he surrendered home runs to Ray Brown and Josh Gibson.11 Records are incomplete for 1938, but he appears to have been winless that season with at least two losses.

On June 10, 1939, Gaines defeated Homestead, 4-2, in the first game of a doubleheader at Forbes Field. On July 2 the Elites faced the New York Black Yankees in the second game of a four-team doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. Gaines pitched a 4-0 shutout.12 But again in 1939, there was a fair amount of barnstorming, and Gaines victimized the Brooklyn Bushwicks, 9-0, on August 18 under the lights at Dexter Park. He allowed only three hits.13

During Gaines’s time with the Elites, his battery partner was often Roy Campanella. In 1939 Campanella, though only 17 years old, was in his third season with the Elites. The two paired up against the Homestead Grays at Dexter Park on September 4, but Roy Partlow hit a grand slam in the second inning, and the Grays won 5-3.14

After the season there were two rounds of playoff games. In the first round, Baltimore faced Newark in a best-of-five series. Gaines was handed the ball on September 9 and defeated the Eagles, 11-3 in Philadelphia. The win evened the series at 1-1, and the Elites went on to subdue Newark in four games, sweeping a doubleheader in Baltimore the next day.

Baltimore faced the Homestead Grays for the NNL championship. Gaines pitched his team to a win in the second game of the series, 7-5, at Oriole Park in Baltimore before 2,800 fans on September 17.15 A week later, at Yankee Stadium, he hurled his team to a 2-0 win, allowing three hits in 7⅔ innings, to clinch the league championship.16 There was no Negro League World Series between the Negro American and National Leagues in 1939.

More than 80 years later, records are still incomplete, but Gaines appears to have won, including all appearances (regular season, postseason, all-star, and barnstorming), 10 games in 1939.

In 1940 Gaines played briefly for Los Azules de Veracruz in the Mexican League and spent most of the season with the Mexico City Reds, for whom he went 8-3 as they finished second in the league.

In 1941 he was back with Baltimore. The Elite Giants were matched up against the Bushwicks on July 20, and Gaines yielded four runs in the first inning. Thereafter, he dominated, allowing five hits over the last eight innings, and his team, led by Campanella, came back to win, 7-4.17

Not much Negro League baseball was played at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium over the years, but on August 3, 1941, Gaines, in front of 27,949 fans, bested the Grays, 6-0. He allowed only four hits and only one runner made it as far as third base.18 It was the first game involving Black players at Briggs Stadium since 1921.19 Gaines’s record for 1941 was 5-3 with a 2.39 ERA.

In spring training for the 1942 season, the Elite Giants ventured to New Orleans on April 12, where they faced the New York Cubans. Gaines did not yield a hit in the four innings he pitched. He was relieved by Bill Harvey, who completed the combined no-hitter, pitching the final three innings of the seven-inning game, with the Elite Giants winning 4-0 to close out a doubleheader sweep.20

Later in 1942, Gaines returned to Detroit and on June 14 he faced Dave Barnhill of the New York Cubans in a pitchers’ duel. Gaines pitched eight innings, allowing a pair of tainted runs. A fielding gem by Cuban Heberto Blanco robbed Gaines of a hit in the sixth inning.21 The Cubans won the game in the 12th inning, 4-2, scoring a pair of runs off Andy Porter. The culprit was Dave “Showboat” Thomas, whose double with two mates on base scored the winning runs.22

Gaines suffered his first loss of the 1942 season when, in front of 12,000 fans at Yankee Stadium in the second game of a doubleheader on June 21, he yielded a two-out ninth-inning single to familiar nemesis Thomas, which brought home the winning run in a 3-2 game.23

Gaines won five games in 1942, including a 1-0 shutout of the Homestead Grays at Baltimore’s Bugle Field on July 3. He scattered four hits and yielded seven walks (three to Josh Gibson). He had seven strikeouts.

He was the starting pitcher in the annual East-West Game at Comiskey Park on August 16. He pitched three innings and allowed one run on one hit. The East won the game in the late innings, 5-2. When Gaines completed his Hall of Fame questionnaire in July 1972, he declared this appearance his outstanding achievement in baseball.24 It was the first of two East-West appearances for Gaines in 1942. The second game was played two days later at Cleveland Stadium. Gaines pitched scoreless ball in the fourth and fifth innings as the East won, 9-2. The win went to starting pitcher Gene Smith of the New York Black Yankees.

In 1942 the drive for the integration of the big leagues intensified, although it would be another five years before the color line was broken at the major-league level. Gaines was considered a good candidate for the “big leagues.” Lester Rose, in the New York Daily News, noted that Gaines “has a swell curve and change of pace. Usual lefty deliveries just break away, but on an overhand throw, Gaines’ delivery dips, and on sidearm, it rises.”25 He was 27 years old at the time, but never got the call to the big leagues.

Gaines served in the US Army Quartermaster Corps from May 13, 1943, through December 15, 1945, attaining the rank of sergeant. In 1943 he was initially stationed at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, and hurled for its baseball squad, which was managed by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Morrie Arnovich. On July 3, 1943, his Army company moved to Bend, Oregon, where Gaines was instrumental in organizing the baseball team.26

In 1944 Gaines was with the 320th Quartermaster Service Battalion at Fort Dix in New Jersey.27 Gaines made the most of weekend passes, hurling for the Elite Giants in 1944. He recorded four wins, losing only once, in 10 appearances. On June 11 he appeared in front of 25,500 fans in Detroit and led Baltimore to an 8-5 complete-game win. Still in the service in 1945, he had only two opportunities to pitch for the Elite Giants, both in September. On September 3, against the Homestead Grays at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, he pitched nine innings, allowing four hits, but the game was tied, 2-2, and extra innings were needed. The Grays pushed across a run in the 12th inning to win, 3-2. In a postseason exhibition at the Polo Grounds, he lost a 5-2 decision to Don Newcombe of the Newark Eagles in Newcombe’s last Negro League game. Newcombe, along with Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, signed with Branch Rickey’s Dodgers after the 1945 season.

Gaines rejoined the Elite Giants at the beginning of the 1946 season. On June 13 he sparkled, yielding only three hits in a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Stars in the second game of a doubleheader at Shibe Park.28 It was his third of four wins in the first half of the season. At Griffith Stadium on July 10, his mates staged a come-from-behind win with two ninth-inning runs as the Elite Giants defeated Philadelphia, 3-2, as 15,000 fans looked on.29

Gaines ended the season with three consecutive wins, and then traveled to Cuba, appearing in seven games for Almendares in the Cuban Winter League and posting a 1-1 record.

After the color line was broken in the previously segregated major leagues, Gaines remained on the outside looking in. He returned to the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1947. He won seven games against five losses (per Retrosheet), and his ERA was 3.68 (per Seamheads). His first win of the season came in the first game of a doubleheader against Philadelphia on June 22. Although he allowed only six hits, three Elite errors helped Philadelphia to score seven times. That was not nearly enough as the Elites scored 13 times for an easy win.30

The continued unrecognized status of the Negro Leagues was being discussed more frequently, and the name of Gaines entered the conversation. Writer Marion E. Jackson noted that when organized White Baseball recognized the Cuban Winter League as an unclassified minor league, “No move has been made to give the American Negro League and National League even a mention. Here is the paradox of baseball. Henry Kimbro, Jonas Gaines, and Lenny Pearson are members of organized baseball. Yet they are paradoxes as they are playing for such unorganized baseball teams [as perceived by the White establishment] as the Baltimore Elite Giants and Newark Eagles.”31

And Gaines continued to toil away. On August 8, when Bob Romby faltered in the first inning, Gaines came on in relief. He entered the game with two outs. Romby’s four walks had allowed the Grays to take a 2-0 first-inning lead. Gaines stopped the bleeding, striking out nine, as the Elites came back to win, 9-4. Against the Grays on August 22, Gaines once again was the victor, scattering eight hits in a complete-game 4-2 win. His start a week later produced similar results. Against the New York Black Yankees, he allowed five hits in an 8-1 win.

After the 1947 season, the Elites barnstormed, and in a game at Baltimore opposed a team of White minor leaguers. The opposition, led by Howie Moss, who had slugged 53 homers for the minor-league Baltimore Orioles (International League) that season, included four players from the Orioles. Gaines struck out 15 batters in a 2-0 win on October 3.32

Gaines returned to the Elites in 1948, and his season got off to a good start with a 9-4 win over the Grays on May 28. He won nine games and lost five during the season. His best performance of the year came in a seven-inning game against the Black Yankees. He allowed only two hits in a 4-0 shutout. At the end of the season, the Elites played the Grays for the right to advance to the Negro League World Series. The Elite Giants came up on the short end. In his only appearance in the series against the Grays, on September 14, Gaines faltered. He came out of the game in the fourth inning with his team trailing 5-0. They lost 6-0.

The Negro Leagues reorganized in 1949 and the Elite Giants were in the five-team Eastern Division of the Negro American League. They won both halves of the season and triumphed in the Negro League World Series, winning four straight games from the Chicago American Giants.

But Gaines was not part of the picture for the Elites in 1949. In April he was traded to the Houston (formerly the Newark) Eagles for Leon Day. The transplanted Eagles were not particularly competitive. They and other league teams played many of their games at neutral sites. On May 30 the Eagles and Philadelphia Stars played at Chester, Pennsylvania. Gaines pitched the entire game, yielding only five hits, but two of those hits were home runs, and Philadelphia won, 4-3.33

Not long thereafter, Gaines moved to the Philadelphia Stars. Statistics for 1949 were as of 2024 not complete, and little specific is known of Gaines’s performance in 1949, beyond the one game with Houston. Per the Howe News Bureau, he appeared in seven games and went 0-4 for Philadelphia.

After the 1949 season, Gaines played with Vargas in the Venezuelan Winter League.

In 1950 Gaines, then 35, was with Philadelphia and according to the Howe News Bureau, he appeared in nine games, pitched 39 innings and was 2-3 with a 3.46 ERA. With each passing year, coverage of Negro League games in the print media was on the decline, and the statistics were in question. Jonas Gaines and Willie Gaines each pitched for the Stars and there was confusion between the two when the statistics were compiled.

Gaines won at least four times in 1950. He won the May 14 Opening Day game against Indianapolis at Shibe Park, 2-1. Little in the way of specifics is known about the game. Two weeks later at Yankee Stadium, he defeated the Kansas City 3-0 in the first game of a three-team doubleheader.34 Another win came at another big-league ballpark. He defeated Baltimore at Griffith Stadium, 8-3, on June 25, scattering seven hits.35

Satchel Paige hooked up with Philadelphia hoping for another shot at the major leagues. On a barnstorming trip, the Stars made stops in Brooklyn and Hartford. Gaines relieved Paige in each game and was charged with a pair of losses. In Brooklyn the stars lost 1-0 to the semipro Bushwicks. Gaines entered the game in the fourth inning and yielded the decisive run.36 In Hartford, he pitched the middle innings against the semipro Hartford Indians, and absorbed the 7-3 loss.37

Gaines next won in 1950 at Baltimore on July 30. He entered the game in the fourth inning with his team trailing 4-0 and pitched six scoreless innings as the Stars came from behind to win, 10-4. In those six innings, he allowed only one hit, and he struck out seven batters.38

Gaines was again selected for the East team in the East-West Game, but first there was a trip to Toronto, where the Stars, with Paige starting, faced the Indianapolis Clowns. By the time Gaines entered the game, it was a lost cause as the Clowns won 9-4.39

In the East-West Game on August 20 (the last of his five East-West appearances), Gaines hurled scoreless ball in the sixth and seventh innings, but by then the West team had established a 5-2 lead and went on to win, 5-3.

In 1951 Gaines made his way to the Manitoba-Dakota League, a haven for Black players, and played with Minot. Statistics are not available for the 1951 Man-Dak League, but it is known that he was credited with a win on June 30 as Minot defeated Brandon, 12-4. Gaines pitched the entire game and scattered six hits.40

After the 1951 season, Gaines joined a barnstorming troupe led by Roy Campanella and took the field with Campanella, Willie Mays, Hank Thompson, Harry Simpson, and Don Newcombe as the team, with Gaines doing the pitching, defeated the Negro American League All-Stars, 6-3. Gaines pitched the seven-inning game (Newcombe played first base) and allowed seven hits while striking out six batters.41

In 1952 Gaines got a crack at White Organized Baseball with the Scranton Miners of the Eastern League, thanks to Bill Veeck. In 1951 Scranton, then affiliated with the Boston Red Sox, had no Black players. The next year, Scranton became affiliated with Veeck’s St. Louis Browns. No fewer than six Black players went to spring training with the Double-A Miners. On April 14 at Thomasville, Georgia, in an exhibition game, Gaines entered the contest in the fifth inning and pitched five hitless innings. His team lost to Pine Bluff, 8-7, but writer Joe Butler of the Scranton Times wrote that Gaines would have a spot on the team’s roster for the regular season.42

But as the team broke training, Gaines returned home to Baton Rouge and stayed there, nursing a wrenched left ankle and a bruised right knee.43 Gaines did not pitch for Scranton in 1952. He returned to the Man-Dak League for another season with Minot.44 He went 9-345 as Minot won the first of three consecutive league championships. And again, after the season he barnstormed with Roy Campanella.46 In Galveston on November 1, Gaines pitched the first seven innings in an 18-1 shellacking and received credit for the win.47 He then went to the Cuban Winter League and appeared for Cienfuegos in five games, going 1-1.

In 1953 Gaines was off to Hankyu, Japan and a season in the Japanese Pacific League. He went 14-9 with an ERA of 2.53. He was second in the league with 142 strikeouts. He was quite welcome in Japan and pictures of the three Black players on the Hankyu team (Gaines, Larry Raines, and John Britton) were painted on a building in Osaka.48 Owner Bill Veeck of the Browns had thought that playing in Japan would be a good learning experience for Gaines and Raines, who were contractually tied to the Browns organization. But by the time Gaines returned from Japan, Veeck was out of baseball, the Browns had become the Baltimore Orioles, and Gaines was on his own to find a new team. That search took him to Texas.

In 1954 Gaines was with Pampa in the Class-C West Texas-New Mexico League, where he went 16-7 and was named to the postseason all-league team. Pampa went 81-54 and finished in first place. Gaines had one shutout during the season. It came on July 24 against Albuquerque.49 In the postseason playoffs, Pampa eliminated Abilene in the first round and went up against Clovis in the finals, Gaines, who had lost two close decisions in the playoffs (one against Abilene and the other against Clovis), was handed the ball one last time on September 23 and came through with a 3-2 win as Pampa won the best-of-seven series in six games.50

In 1955 Gaines was back in the Man-Dak League, this time with the Bismarck Barons. His first win of the season came on June 2 when Bismarck defeated Williston, 5-4. In the game, former Negro League catcher Bill Cash, who was Gaines’s batterymate, hit a home run.51 On July 17 Gaines cruised to a two-hit 2-0 shutout over Minot.52 Bismarck, with Gaines posting an 8-3 record, went on to win the regular-season championship. However, the Barons could not get past the first round of the playoffs, losing the best-of-seven series in five games to Dickinson.

In 1956, at age 41, Gaines was still hurling, this time with the Carlsbad Potashers of the Class-B Southwestern League. He compiled a 9-7 record and returned to go 6-10 in 1957, his final season.

In the following decade, as the remaining Negro League teams were in their final decline, the names of Gaines and most of his fellow teammates were largely forgotten. But that was about to change. In his induction speech at Cooperstown, Ted Williams called for recognition and enshrinement of Negro League players. Although Gaines has not been inducted as of 2024, his name has consistently surfaced as former Negro League players and officials remembered the largely forgotten days of the Negro Leagues.

In 1985 former Elite Giants teammate Riley Stewart remembered Gaines as “the first pitcher to show me how to throw a change of pace.”53

On June 28, 1997, Gaines was one of seven living Negro League players from Louisiana to be honored at a Braves game in Atlanta. On that day, Louisiana Governor Mike Foster proclaimed the day as Negro Leagues Baseball Players Day.54

After his playing days, Gaines worked in the alteration department at the D.H. Holmes department store in Baton Rouge. He never married. He died on August 6, 1998, in Baker, Louisiana. He is buried at Port Hudson National Cemetery in Zachary, Louisiana.55

Acknowledgments

The author is particularly grateful to Frederick Bush for finding sources for this story and to Cassidy Lent of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for articles and information from the Jonas Gaines file at the Giamatti Research Center.

Sources

In addition to the sources cites in the Notes, the author used Retrosheet.org, Seamheads.com, and Baseball-Reference.com.

Where won-lost records are available in Retrosheet.org, Retrosheet figures were used as they take into consideration all games. Seamheads uses only games for which box-score information is available.

Other sources used:

Glauber, Bill. “Elite Giants: Great Players, Even Greater Personalities,” Baltimore Sun, April 30, 1990: 1C, 6C.

Johnson, Lloyd, and Miles Wolff, editors. Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Third Edition (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007).

Lester, Larry. Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game 1933-1962, Expanded Version (Kansas City: Noir-Tech Research, 2020).

Snider, Steve (United Press International). “Baseball Shrine Forgets Top Black League Stars,” Miami Herald, August 13, 1972: 4-F.

Wiebusch, John. “Gilliam Recalls Tough Life in Negro Leagues,” Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1969: III-1, 4.

Notes

1 ‘Lefty” Gaines Hurls No-Hit No-Run Game,” Bogalusa (Louisiana) Enterprise and American, July 21, 1933: 10.

2 “Valley City Wins,” Bismarck (North Dakota) Tribune, May 14, 1934: 1.

3 John M. Coates, “Hancock Looks Back Some 50 Years at Negro Baseball,” Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, February 25, 1973: C-3.

4 “Bismarck Conquers Valley City, 2 [sic] to 1,” Bismarck Tribune, June 27, 1935: 8.

5 “Colored Tigers Win Debut from Baton Rouge ‘9,’” Bogalusa (Louisiana) Enterprise and American, April 17, 1936: 8.

6 “Bismarck Trounces Valley City, 12-4, Behind a 12-Hit Bat Attack,” Bismarck Tribune, June 23, 1936: 6.

7 “Bismarck Nine Sweeps Four-Game Series with Astecas,” Bismarck Tribune, July 6, 1936: 8.

8 “Chief Nusser Halts Bismarck’s Win Streak at 21 Games,” Bismarck Tribune, August 11, 1936: 6.

9 Not long into his career, he shaved three years off his age, claiming to have been born in 1918.

10 “Pirates Bow to Elites in Three-Hitter,” Red Bank (New Jersey) Standard, August 31, 1938: 15.

11 R.S. Simmons, “Grays Beat Elites 14-2 at Toledo,” Chicago Defender, June 25, 1938: 8.

12 Buster Miller, “15,000 See Newark and Elite Giants Win 4-Team Doubleheader at Stadium,” New York Age, July 8, 1939: 8.

13 “Homesteaders in Pair with Bushwicks: Nashville Elites Down Dexter Parkers in Battle Under Arcs,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 19, 1939: 11.

14 “Partlow Steals Show as Grays Top Nashville,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 5, 1939: 15.

15 “Baltimore Bats Way to Titular Game with Grays,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 23, 1939: 16.

16 Buster Miller, “Elite Giants Top Homestead Grays to Win Ruppert Trophy,” New York Age, September 30, 1939: 8; “Elites Win, 2-0, in Colored Final,” New York Daily News, September 25, 1939: 40.

17 “Elite Giants Batter Dexters in Opener, 7-4,” New York Daily News, July 21, 1941: 34.

18 Russ Cowans, “Grays and Giants Split Two Games: Jonas Gaines Yields Four Hits in First to Blank Homestead Nine, 6-0,” Detroit Tribune, August 9, 1941: 7; “28,000 See Negro 9’s,” Detroit Times, August 4, 1941: 11.

19 “Ban at Briggs Stadium Broken After 20 Years,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 26, 1941: 19.

20 “Elite Southpaws Hurl No-Hitter,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 25, 1942: 16.

21 “Barnhill has Edge in Fine Pitching Duel,” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), June 20, 1942: 21.

22 “20,000 See Cubans Take Twin Bill from Elite Giants,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1942: 16.

23 “Grays Defeat Philadelphia Stars; Cuban(s) Down Elite Giants in Yankee Stadium Doubleheader,” New York Age, June 27, 1942: 11.

24 Jonas “Lefty” Gaines Questionnaire, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Giamatti Research Center.

25 Lester Rose, “Major Prospects,” New York Daily News, August 16, 1942: 34.

26 Art Carter, “Jonas Gaines Displays Pitching Prowess in Army,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 14, 1943: 22.

27 Jay Burrell, “Dix Gets Lefty Gaines, NNL Star,” Unidentified publication donated to National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Library by Jonas Gaines in 1972.

28 “Gray, Elite Nines Meet,” Baltimore Evening Sun, June 14, 1946: 37.

29 “Baltimore Takes NNL from Newark,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1946: 16.

30 “Elites Capture Double-Header,” Baltimore Sun, June 23, 1947: 16.

31 Marion E. Jackson, “Negro Major League Owners Worry About ‘Unofficial’ Status,” Alabama Tribune (Montgomery), August 1, 1947.

32 “Elite Giants Defeat All-Star Nine by 2-0,” Baltimore Sun, October 4, 1947: 14.

33 “2 Home Runs Enable Stars to Score Win,” Delaware County Daily Times (Chester, Pennsylvania), May 31, 1949: 13.

34 “Philly Stars Take Two; Nip Kay See 3-0, Clowns 3-1, New York Age, June 3, 1950: 27.

35 “Philadelphia Stars Top Baltimore Giants Twice,” Washington Evening Star, June 26, 1950: 11.

36 “Paige Sparkles but Dexters Glow,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 20, 1950: 20.

37 Jimmy Cunavelis, “Satch Paige Weighs Offer from Majors,” Hartford Courant, July 27, 1950: 13.

38 Thomas Skinner, “Satchel Paige and Philly Stars Win 10-4 Then Bow to Baltimore Elite Giants, 3-4,” Kansas City Call, August 4, 1950: 9.

39 Joe Perlove, “Clowns Go to Town at Satch’s Expense,” Toronto Star, August 19, 1950: 13.

40 “Mallard Club Finds Range,” Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader-Post, July 3, 1951: 17.

41 Kermit Westerholm, “Major Leaguers Defeat Minors in 6-3 Contest,” Austin (Texas) Statesman, November 2, 1951: A- 22.

42 Joe M. Butler, “Gaines Shows Class as Scranton Bows – Court Miners,” Scranton Times, April 15, 1952: 20.

43 Butler, “Baseball Miners to Appear in York Tonight,” Scranton Times, April 19, 1952: 13.

44 “Minot Mallards Nearing Title,” Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Star-Phoenix, September 3, 1952: 15.

45 Wendell Smith, “Tan Aces Head for Japan,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 14, 1953: 6.

46 Marion E. Jackson, “Campanella All-Stars Open Tour Friday; Play Atlanta Monday Night,” Alabama Tribune, October 10, 1952: 8.

47 “Roy Campanella Nine Wins, 18-1,” Shreveport Times, November 3, 1952: 17.

48 Wendell Smith, “An American Reports on Japanese Baseball,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 19, 1953: 14.

49 “Santos Hurls Hubber Finale,” Albuquerque Tribune, July 26, 1954: 16.

50 “Pampa Grabs League Title,” Abilene (Texas) Reporter News, September 24, 1954: 8.

51 “Barons Edge Oilers, 5-4,” Mandan (North Dakota) Morning Pioneer, June 3, 1955: 12.

52 “Man-Dak League, Mandan Morning Pioneer, July 18, 1955: 8.

53 Bill McIntyre, “Former Player Riley Stewart High on Black Baseball Leagues’ Talent,” Shreveport Times, February 28, 1985: 6-C.

54 “Negro Leagues Players to be Honored in State Today,” Shreveport Times, June 28, 1997: 1-C.

55 Jonas Gaines Obituary, Baton Rouge Advocate, August 11, 1998: 6.

The document further reveals that Glover was born on February 11, 1911, in Montgomery County, Alabama. His mother was Luvelia Moss, born in Montgomery, and his father was listed as Willie Glover, birthplace unknown.2 It appears that Lefty used “Moss” for the early part of his life and career. A box score from August 1, 1932, has “Lefty” Moss pitching for the semipro Atlanta Shops team against the Montgomery Grey Sox.3 However, the April 16, 1933, Montgomery Advertiser lists Tom “Lefty” Glover as a pitcher for the Montgomery Grey Sox of the Negro Southern League.4

Glover did fairly well with Montgomery, pitching a three-hitter against the Birmingham Black Barons in July and a four-hitter against the Detroit Stars in August.5 He next surfaces in late May of 1934, when Birmingham played a series of spring-training games with a tall, lanky newcomer on the mound. Called “Walter Glover” by the Birmingham press, this was actually Tom Glover, and he made an impression right out of the gate. Facing the Atlanta Black Crackers, Glover three-hit them and won 8-0.6 The southpaw then threw another shutout against the Cleveland Cubs, followed by a six-hit, 5-2 win over the Kansas City Monarchs.7 By the time the 1934 Negro Southern League season opened, Tom “Lefty” Glover was Birmingham’s best pitcher and was given the honor of being the team’s Opening Day hurler. Facing the Memphis Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader, Glover relinquished only six hits while striking out seven to win 5-4. Two weeks into the season, Birmingham’s ace disappeared, making a beeline north to join the Cleveland Red Sox of the Negro National League.8

In the spring of 1935, the Pittsburgh Courier reported that Allan Page, owner of the New Orleans Black Pelicans, had gone to great expense to create a good ballclub and that Lefty Glover was their ace.9 Once again, Glover jumped clubs, this time to the Columbus Elite Giants of the Negro National League. However, because the Elites already had a solid rotation, Glover left the team in June of 1936 and rejoined the Montgomery Grey Sox before jumping to the Birmingham Black Barons in July. He returned to the Elites in 1937 when they relocated to Washington and remained with the club when it finally settled down in Baltimore in 1938.10

By the time he rejoined the Elites, they had an above-average pitching staff anchored by Bill Byrd, Pullman Porter, and Schoolboy Griffith. Since the Negro Leagues played a short “official” season of between 40 and 60 games, three top-tier starters were a luxury. The bulk of an average Negro League team’s games were exhibitions against White semipros or other Black teams that did not count in the standings. For those games, Negro League clubs carried a couple of second-tier pitchers, and this is the role Lefty Glover filled on the Elites.

Newspaper stories described him as a speedball pitcher and curveball artist.11 For many of his games, box scores show a pitcher who recorded few strikeouts but many groundouts or fly outs, validating his mastery of a good curveball. The box scores also revealed that he typically ran out of steam around the seventh inning and sometimes had a problem with his control. The Elites apparently recognized Glover’s weakness and often pitched him in the second game of doubleheaders, which at the time were seven-inning affairs.

Because the Elites had Byrd, Porter, and Griffith, Glover’s official Negro National League record is modest; six wins and six losses for 1937-1939. His nonleague and exhibition games were not recorded.

The year 1939 marked a major milestone in Lefty Glover’s career. That summer, the Elites finished the season with a record of 21-23, good enough to be one of the four teams invited to play for the Ruppert Memorial Trophy, a championship tournament played at New York’s Yankee Stadium and named after the Yankees’ recently deceased owner, Jacob Ruppert. The Elites wound up winning the trophy, defeating the Homestead Grays, winners of the regular-season pennant that year. Winning the Ruppert Cup gave the Elites the title of “Champions,” though the Grays believed their winning the pennant gave them rights to the title. Four teams then played a postseason tournament (Elites vs. Eagles, Grays vs. Stars) with Baltimore defeating the Grays 3-1-1 to claim the season title.12

After going 1-2 in seven league games for the “Champion” Elites in 1939, Glover was invited to join an exclusive group of Blackball players in the California Winter League. This loosely organized league had been in existence since the 1920s and typically featured a couple of all-White teams made up of Los Angeles-based major and minor leaguers and one all-Black team. Over the years, the Black team boasted such future Hall of Famers as Satchel Paige, Turkey Stearnes, and Bullet Joe Rogan, along with many of Blackball’s greatest stars. Because the money was good, to be invited to play in the California Winter League meant you were deemed among the best, and in 1939 Lefty Glover made the grade.

That winter the all-Black team was called the “Philadelphia Royal Giants,” and they fielded a good cross-section of stars.13 Besides Glover, the pitching staff included Elites teammate Bill Harvey and New York Black Yankees ace Terris McDuffie. The rest of the club included Jim West at first, Jake Dunn at second, Marlin Carter at short, Hoss Walker at third, Wild Bill Wright, Mule Suttles, and Bill Hoskins in the outfield and Pepper Bassett behind the plate.14 The all-Black entry was the smart pick for winning the short season, with former Brooklyn Dodgers star Babe Herman’s White Kings team expected to come in a close second.15

On November 6, 1939, the White Kings met the Royal Giants in a doubleheader at Hollywood’s Gilmore Field. When it was over, Glover had pitched a no-hitter and gained immortality for himself in Blackball lore. True to form, he recorded just four punchouts, but his curveball allowed only three balls to leave the infield. His control stayed true as he issued just two bases on balls.16 The Royal Giants won the 1939-40 championship with a 10-6 record. Besides his no-hit masterpiece, Glover led the league with a .750 winning percentage and a 3-1 record.17 It’s at this point that Lefty Glover decided to capitalize on his fame and follow the money. In 1940 this meant south of the border.

While baseball had been played in Mexico since the 1840s, the country’s first functioning league did not start up until 1925. By 1940 the league’s leading benefactor was Jorge Pasquel, a rich importer-exporter from Monterrey and a baseball fiend. Pasquel knew that to have a thriving league he needed to import established stars to both attract fans and help native players elevate their game. Inducing the better-paid White players to come to Mexico was not feasible, but Negro League and Cuban-based players, who drew less pay and faced racial discrimination up north, was easier. Glover’s no-hit masterpiece was reported in most sports pages, making him a known commodity and ripe for Mexican League recruitment.

However, if Glover thought Mexico was going to be easier than the California Winter League, he was very wrong. Besides the best Latin players of the day, the 1940 Liga Mexicana was a veritable who’s who of Negro League superstars, including future Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Leon Day, Martin Dihigo, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Dandridge, and Willard Brown, plus almost all of Glover’s Royal Giants teammates. Against this star-studded “outsider baseball” congregation, Lefty went 8-13 in 36 games with an ERA over 5.00. He also bounced around throughout the season, playing for La Junta de Nuevo Laredo, Unión Laguna de Torreón, and Gallos de Santa Rosa, teams that finished fifth, sixth, and seventh in the seven-team league. Glover stayed in Mexico the following year, winning four and losing six for the last-place Carta Blanca de Monterrey.

Just when the Liga Mexicana was shaping up to be a haven for Negro Leaguers, World War II stepped in. Ballplayers in Mexico were instructed to return to the States to make themselves easier for their draft boards to reach and persuade to take jobs in a war-related industry. Glover returned to Baltimore and rejoined the Elite Giants.18

Throughout the summer of ’42, the Elites battled the Homestead Grays for first place in the Negro National League II, but eventually came up short. During a crucial point in the season, Baltimore lost catcher Roy Campanella to Mexico and, lacking his bat in the lineup, lost the pennant to the Grays on the last game of the season.19 Glover was the team’s third starter and had gone 5-3 with a 3.38 ERA.

The next year, 1943, both the Elite Giants and Lefty Glover underachieved, with the team falling to a distant fifth place and Glover delivering a disappointing 3-5 record. Off the field, Lefty did find success, getting married in June of that year to a woman named Gertrude.20

Despite threatening to stay out of baseball in 1944 and remain in his steel plant job, Glover stayed with the Elites but managed only a 1-2 record.21 Glover was expected to take a bigger role in the team’s rotation, with the Baltimore Afro-American reporting, “[I]ndications point to Tom Glover as the North Carolina port-sider appears to be the farthest advanced of the Elite flingers in the matter of conditioning.”22

The next season, 1945, turned out to be Lefty Glover’s Negro League swan song. Though he finished the season 4-3, the fans thought enough of Baltimore’s left-hander to vote him onto that year’s East-West All-Star Game. Glover was picked to start the game but was sent to the showers in the second inning after giving up four runs to the West team. He was charged with the loss in the West’s 9-6 win.23

According to the August 11, 1945 Afro-American, Glover gave the Negro National League the big “to-ell-with-you” and rejoined the Carta Blanca de Monterrey, going 5-1 for the remainder of the season.24 He moved farther south in 1946, first playing winter ball in Panama, where he made the Pro League all-star team and pitched against the visiting New York Yankees, then summered in Venezuela with the Pastora club.25

Glover’s jumping of his Elite Giants contract led to the Negro National League officially banishing him for five years.26 He was absent from American baseball circles until this heartbreaking item in the March 13, 1948, edition of the Baltimore Afro-American:

“Glover at Henryton

“Tom Glover, former Baltimore Elite Giants pitcher, is at Henryton Health Sanitarium and anxious to see his old Baltimore friends and fans.”27

Henryton was a segregated tuberculosis sanitarium in Marriottsville, 30 miles outside Baltimore. Though called a hospital, Henryton was basically a place of exile for TB patients rather than a treatment center.28

Inevitably, a few months later, he died, on June 7 at age 35. His obituary appeared in the Afro-American:

“Ex-Baltimore Elite Giants Hurler Dead

“BALTIMORE. Death closed the career of Thomas (Tom) Glover, former southpaw pitching star of the Baltimore Elite Giants, here Monday morning.

“Glover, who joined the Elites in 1935, saw service in the Negro National League and also performed in the leagues of Mexico, Cuba, Panama and South America. He was said to be 36 years of age.

“His most notable achievement was a no-hit, no-run game he pitched against an all-star major and minor league team on the West Coast in 1939.

“Glover is survived by his wife Gertrude. His death occurred at Henryton Sanitarium.”29

Sources

This biography was modified from the author’s original article “Lefty Glover: Requiem for a Southpaw” published in 21: The Illustrated Journal of Outsider Baseball, Volume 2 that can also be accessed online at https://studiogaryc.com/2021/04/04/lefty-glover-requiem-for-a-southpaw/.

Unless noted, Negro League and Mexican League statistics and final standings referenced are from the Seamheads Negro League Database.

Photo credit: Lefty Glover, courtesy of Gary Cieradkowski.

Notes

1 Glover’s death certificate obtained through the Maryland State Archives.

2 It has been very difficult to learn more details about Glover’s parents. Several families with the surname Moss resided in the Montgomery County, Alabama, region during the 1920 and 1930 censuses, but none appear to have been Thomas Glover’s family. The 1930 census shows a Will Glover with his wife, Flora, 20-year-old daughter, Rosa, and 19-year-old son, Tom residing in Scott, Arkansas. All four are recorded as having been born in Alabama. Will Glover’s occupation is listed as a cotton farmer and Tom Glover as a teamster in the cotton farming industry. Back in the late 1980s, some of his teammates told this author that he had grown up with different relatives, but that is unsubstantiated.

3 “Grey Sox Mill Win, 7-1; 1,200 Fans See Tilt,” Montgomery Advertiser, August 1, 1932: 6.

4 “Grey Sox Mill Battle Nashville Nine Today,” Montgomery Advertiser, April 16, 1933: 6.

5 “Glover Hurls Sox to Win Over Foxes,” Montgomery Advertiser, July 31, 1933: 6; “Grey Sox, Detroit Divide Twin Bill,” Montgomery Advertiser, August 14, 1933: 6.

6 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2015), 116-117.

7 Plott, 117.

8 Plott, 117.

9 “New Orleans Sees Two Major Nines This Week,” Chicago Defender, April 27, 1935: 16.

10 There are no known interviews with Glover, nor do any newspaper articles yet uncovered suggest why he seems to have moved switched teams so frequently.

11 “No Hit No Run Game,” Bakersfield Californian, November 6, 1939: 14; “Bob Feller to Hurl Tonight for All-Stars Against Giants,” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1939: 14.

12 See Richard J. Puerzer, “The 1939 Negro National League Championship Series: Baltimore Elite Giants vs. Homestead Grays,” in this volume.

13 “Doubleheader Marks Opening of Winter Baseball,” Van Nuys (California) News, October 5, 1939: 6.              

14 “Negro Southpaw Blanks Kings,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1939: 30.

15 “Doubleheader Marks Opening of Winter Baseball.”

16 “Negro Southpaw Blanks Kings,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1939: 30.

17 William McNeil, The California Winter League: America’s First Integrated Professional Baseball League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2002), 200.

18 “Stars Here Sunday in NNL Opener,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 5, 1942: 21.

19 One looking at the final league standings as reported on Seamheads in early 2024 sees the Elite Giants (38-27) a full 13 games behind Homestead (54-17), but Baltimore Afro-American coverage of games in the final week of the season consistently expressed a dramatic fight for the pennant. After the Elites split a doubleheader on Sunday, September 6, the newspaper wrote, “The result of the day’s activities left the Elites still a game behind the league-leading Washington Homestead Grays, with only the Labor Day twin bill remaining on the schedule.” Art Carter, “Divide Sunday Twin Bill,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 8, 1942: 19. The full-page eight-column headline on the same page proclaimed, “Grays Clinch Flag; Open World Series in D.C.,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 8, 1942: 19.

20 Art Carter “Elites Must Patch Cracking Infield,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 12, 1943: 25.

21 “Elite Giants May Lose Key Men,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 27, 1943: 18.

22 “Elites Break Even; Stage Set for Sunday Opening,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 5, 1945: 23.

23 Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 455.

24 “Defi!,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 11, 1945: 26.

25 “Yanks Flash Sock When Badly Needed,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 28, 1946: 15.

26 “Bids for 2 Berths Refused,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 23, 1946: 16.

27 “Glover at Henryton,” Baltimore Afro-American, March 13, 1948: 24.

28 Kelcie Pegher, “The Little World Series of the West,” Carroll County Times (Westminster, Maryland), June 25, 2013. https://archive.ph/20131105015410/http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/demolition-begins-at-former-henryton.

29 “Ex-Baltimore Elite Giants Hurler Dead,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 12, 1948: 9.