Lee Daney

Baseball fans have become acquainted with the story of outfielder Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, whose major-league career consisted of playing two innings of one game without an at-bat for the New York Giants in 1905, primarily via the 1989 film Field of Dreams. In the history of America’s national pastime, there have been many players whose major-league tenures were so short as to be a mere sip of coffee rather than the cup used as a metaphor for most brief careers. Pitcher Lee Daney, a member of the Choctaw Nation, became the mound equivalent to Graham when he pitched one inning in the second game of a doubleheader for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928.

Daney’s May 25 debut occurred in a low-leverage situation, with the A’s trailing 9-2 in the top of the ninth. Nonetheless, it was a baptism of fire in which the 23-year-old hurler faced four members of the 1927 Murderer’s Row New York Yankees – Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. Far from quaking with fear, though, Daney acquitted himself splendidly, allowing only a leadoff double to Ruth. However, he was a member of a team with seven future Hall of Famers of its own that also had World Series aspirations, and he soon found himself sold to the Bloomington (Illinois) Bloomers of the Three-I League. The A’s finished in second place behind the Yankees in the American League in 1928, but the team made three consecutive trips to the World Series from 1929 to 1931, winning two championships. Meanwhile, Daney toiled in the minors and for semipro teams until 1941, but never pitched for a major-league squad again.

Arthur Lee Daney was born on July 9, 1904, in Talihina, Oklahoma, as the seventh of Daniel Daney and Rebecca (Anderson) Daney’s nine children. Lee, as he was called, also had five half-siblings from his father’s first marriage, who were all at least 18 years older than he was. Daniel Daney was a full-blooded Choctaw who owned a large farm that he leased to sharecroppers while he preached as a minister in the Methodist Church. Daney recalled that his father could not speak English well and preached in his native Choctaw. However, his mother, who was half-Choctaw and half-Irish, did not want Daniel to speak his native language with their children because she thought it would make it difficult for Lee and his siblings to learn English.1 The conflict over which language to speak in the home foreshadowed the prejudices and stereotypes that Daney had to deal with as a Native American in the early twentieth century, though he maintained an indomitable spirit that empowered him to enjoy his long life.

Daney developed an interest in baseball by watching the Talihina town team play. He became determined to play ball himself, and recounted, “One day I was fooling around the house, and I came across a brand-new pair of Dad’s socks. I unraveled one of the socks and had enough string to wind a good tight ball. When Dad found the sock put to this use, it wasn’t any fun – but I 

still had the ball.”2 Daney and his brother Joe, who was two years older, attended Jones Academy in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, and formed the school’s battery for a time. He remembered learning how to doctor a baseball – an act that was not illegal at the time – from an opposing pitcher who had played professional ball and asserted that his “hopping pitches … worked out all right for me.”3

In 1923 Daney enrolled at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, one of the schools that the US government had built to educate and assimilate Native Americans into the majority White culture. The school was known nationwide for its successful football team, which Daney wanted to join. However, after the coach, Dick Handley, told him that he was too small – 5-feet-11 and 165 pounds – he pitched for the baseball team instead.4

Daney not only honed his pitching skills at Haskell, but his time there also provides insight into some aspects of Native American life during that period. He was 19 years old when he enrolled at the school in 1923, but he was only in the eighth grade. In early February 1924, it was reported that Daney, still 19, and two classmates, ages 18 and 17, had run away from the school. The trio had been heading to Wichita by foot, and they were apprehended in Pomona, Kansas, while “hanging around the railroad station apparently waiting for a freight to come along.”5 Although he was a 19-year-old adult, as a Native American he did not have the same freedom of movement that non-Natives had since he was still a citizen of the Choctaw Nation. That circumstance soon changed when the federal government passed the Indian Citizenship Act on June 2, 1924, which stipulated that all Natives were now American citizens without having to meet the previous requirements of either joining a branch of the US armed forces or giving up tribal citizenship/affiliation and assimilating into mainstream culture.6

Shortly after the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, on June 15, Daney again left Haskell Institute on foot. This time, however, he was one of eight students who had agreed to walk home “[i]n order that they might donate the sum that otherwise might be used for railroad fare” to Haskell’s fund-raising drive for “the erection of a modern athletic field and Stadium at the Indian School.”7 The distance Daney had to walk was approximately 377 miles.

In 1925 Daney returned to the school and its baseball team. On April 30, against St. Mary’s College, “Daney started on the mound for Haskell, and pitched very good ball for four and a half innings, when he became troubled with a lame arm.”8 Haskell won the game 4-1, but Daney did not pitch again until May 11. On that date, he “went the full route, allowing seven hits”9 in a 6-2 triumph over William Jewell College, demonstrating that his arm was healed. After Haskell’s season ended, Daney pitched for the semipro Nebraska Indians team that played games throughout the Midwest. In an August 18 game preview, a newspaper article noted that “[n]ine full blood Indians comprise [the] lineup of [the] visiting aggregation. Among them are several from Haskell Institute. Their two pitching mainstays are Curtis Riko, an Ottawomie [sic], and Chief Whitehorn, a Choctaw.”10 Chief Whitehorn was none other than Lee Daney, who pitched under both names from this point forward in his baseball career.

In the summer of 1926, Daney plied his pitching trade for the Wetumka Drillers11 and Quinton Indians, two semipro squads from Oklahoma. Even though Oklahoma consisted primarily of Native American lands, the hometown Quinton Times nevertheless referred to the Indians team as “[manager] Phil Fronkier’s Savages”12 in an article about a three-game series the squad had just played against the Muskogee Veterans Hospital Team. The names and stereotypes became more prevalent in the newspapers as Daney’s career progressed.

Daney was with the Nebraska Indians in 1927 when the team was merged into the All-Nations squad from Kansas City, Missouri. The team had the same name and multicultural lineup as Kansas City Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson’s former All-Nations teams, but Wilkinson had disbanded his group at the conclusion of the 1925 season. This new All-Nations squad “feature[d] ‘shadow ball’ and many clown antics,”13 and thus was a precursor to Black teams such as the Zulu Cannibal Giants and Indianapolis Clowns that became better known for combining baseball with such “entertainment” activities. On May 1 “Chief Whitehorn of the All Nations struck out fourteen men and allowed but four hits” in a 2-1 victory against the Crick Lumber Company of Independence, Missouri.14

Regarding his time with the All-Nations team in 1927, Daney recollected, “We had a good season, but the team wound up broke.”15 However, Daney’s pitching had gained notice and he became a member of the Concordia (Kansas) Travelers team, which won that year’s prestigious Denver Post Tournament, a top semipro competition. Daney made his debut in relief, under his Chief Whitehorn name, in a 9-0 shutout against Denver’s own Powers-Behen team. The Denver Post noted, “The Chief breezed thru five innings and showed a variety of slants. Nine of the locals were third-strike victims and only three bingles, one an infield scratch, were made off Whitehorn.”16 Ray Quincey [sic], who had attended spring training with the St. Louis Cardinals that year but had been “farmed” to Vicksburg (Mississippi), won the championship game for the Travelers, 10-6.17 Concordia was the first and, as it turned out after the final tourney in 1947, the only team from Kansas ever to win the event.18 Decades later, Daney proudly, but also humbly, reflected on the fact that “[his] pitching had something to do with it.”19

Another event that had brought Daney joy was his marriage to Marguerite Anna Ridling. As Daney recalled, “The year before, I met a schoolteacher in Quinton, Oklahoma. Before we left for Denver, I wrote her and told her I now had good prospects and if she would say yes, I was willing to say yes, too.”20 The couple married on June 23, 1927, and their union endured until Marguerite’s death in January 1984.21 They had three children – two daughters, Wanda Lee and Drucilla, and a son, Donald.

Daney’s prospects became even better after he impressed Philadelphia Athletics scout and coach Ira Thomas so much that he signed Daney during the tournament.22 Connie Mack had been looking for a replacement for Charles Albert “Chief” Bender, the future Hall of Famer, ever since the Native American had thrown his last pitch for the Athletics in 1917,23 and Thomas thought he had found Mack’s man in Daney. As spring training began in 1928, one news article heralded Daney’s arrival with every stereotype available:

“All Indians may be chiefs in baseball[,] but Daney has the stature and the mien that one associates with the tribal head of a redskin nation. High cheek bones, an aquiline nose, straight, blue-black hair, skin the color of dull copper, makes his face an unmistakable one. The heritage of the Choctaw nation is in his build, the lithe grace of his carriage, the frankness of his eye. It would be easy to picture him stamping a war dance around a campfire clearing in a forest and framing his lips as he emitted a blood-curdling whoop of the warpath.”24

Ty Cobb, who was playing out the final season of his career with the Athletics, indulged the “all Indians may be chiefs in baseball” attitude when he gave Daney the nickname “Chief Cool ’Em Off.” At that time, the “Chief” part of the moniker was largely ignored, and the “Cool ’Em Off” name was intended to be complimentary as Cobb intimated that was what Daney would do to opposing hitters. Daney had fond memories of Cobb and stated that the legendary batsman “continually asked [him] to tell stories about Indians.”25

Daney experienced an up-and-down spring training in Florida. In his debut, on March 8 against the International League’s Baltimore Orioles, he pitched the fourth through sixth innings and surrendered six hits and two walks that resulted in six Baltimore tallies in a 14-4 loss.26

Four days later, during an Athletics practice session, the Philadelphia Inquirer asserted:

“Although he said nothing about it, Daney has had a sore arm and was unable to let loose out on the mound. But today was different.

“He flashed a ‘Sinker,’ a ball that started for the batters [sic] head, then shot downward, at the same time breaking over the corner of the plate. Tris] Speaker, Joe] Hauser, Sammy] Hale and others fell prey to this puzzler which is similar to the famous ‘Sinker’ thrown by Wilcy Moore of the Yankees.”27

Daney’s “Sinker” did not fool the Orioles in a March 21 rematch any more than it had done the first time. He was tagged for two hits, gave up a walk, and uncorked a wild pitch as Baltimore scored two runs against him in 1⅔ innings of work. After the Orioles’ 10-2 triumph, one reporter mocked Mack’s team, writing, “The Athletics did not look like major leaguers or play like them.”28

On April 10, one day before Opening Day, the Athletics played an exhibition game against the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park. Daney pitched the final three innings of the Athletics’ 2-1 win, and allowed the Phillies to score their lone run in the eighth inning.29 Another six weeks passed before Mack sent Daney to the mound in a game again.

Daney’s lone regular-season appearance in a major-league game took place on May 25 at Shibe Park. The Yankees had defeated the A’s, 4-2, in the first game of a doubleheader and now had a 9-2 lead entering the ninth inning of the nightcap. The Philadelphia Inquirer described Daney’s simultaneous debut and coda:

“The Yanks were blanked in the ninth. Lee Daney, Choctaw Indian[,] had his Major League christening as a pitcher and his first opponent was no other than Babe Ruth, who dropped a double in short centre.

“[Center fielder Mule] Haas crashed into the scoreboard to catch Gehrig’s long liner. Daney stopped Meusel’s savage shot and threw him out. Then Lazzeri lined to [shortstop Joe] Boley.”30

Ruth’s double notwithstanding, Daney had put on a fine performance and surely thought that he had earned further appearances as the season continued.

On June 1 Daney was the starting pitcher for the Athletics in an exhibition game against the International League champion Buffalo Bisons in Buffalo. He threw the first four innings and allowed two runs, departing with a 5-2 lead in a game that Philadelphia won, 11-3.31 Three days later, he was sold to the Bloomington (Illinois) Bloomers of the Class-B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (Three-I) League.32

As Daney looked back on his short tenure with the A’s over 40 years later, he conceded, “I did not succeed Chief Bender. It was too big and too fast a jump.”33 The press, too, commented on Daney’s departure from Philadelphia and on the lack of Native Americans in baseball:

“In writing about the big Indians of baseball[,] you have to reminisce a bit. Their glory is all in the past. Louis Sockalexis, Chief Meyers, Charles Albert Bender, even Jim Thorpe have folded their blankets and stolen away from the big league tepee. And there are none to take their vacant places.

“We would almost have forgotten them ourself [sic] if the Athletics hadn’t tried out an Indian pitcher this spring. He was scarcely a ghost of the mighty Bender of the same team and has disappeared in the direction of the bush. But Bender is still pitching in the minors.”34

Bender was managing in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Richmond, Virginia, in 1928. Daney was the Native American player who continued to pitch in the minors for another decade-plus.

Daney spent the remainder of the 1928 season with Bloomington until he was loaned to the Springfield Senators in mid-August when the Bloomers had to make a roster cut to get down to the player limit.35 He finished with a cumulative 3-9 record for the two Three-I squads.

In 1929 Daney’s 15-10 record and 2.79 ERA for the Bloomers gained him acknowledgment as the “ace of the Bloomington staff.”36 Then, in early September, a headline announced, “Indian Goes to Indians,” as he joined the American Association’s Indianapolis Indians. Not only did the press tend to indulge in stereotypes about Native Americans, but now the papers did not bother to discover Daney’s correct tribal affiliation and identified him as Cherokee rather than Choctaw.37 He found less success in the Hoosier State as he posted a 0-4 record and an inflated 7.50 ERA.

The 1930 season found Daney leading a nomadic existence as he began the year with Indianapolis, spent most of July with the Chattanooga Lookouts, and then finished the season with the Springfield Senators. Perhaps due in part to the extensive travel, success eluded Daney that year. He was 2-4 with an 8.33 ERA with Indianapolis, 4-5 with a 5.82 ERA with Springfield, and spent such a brief time with Chattanooga that no official statistics are available.

Daney’s almost-forgotten stint with Chattanooga came about when the Lookouts’ manager, Joe Engel, who had recently scouted Daney, purchased him from Indianapolis. As was ever the case, the press engaged in stereotypes about Daney’s heritage with the headline, “Engel Buys Cherokee [sic] Indian Hurler to Help in Scalping Memphis Tribe.”38 News articles show that, in his brief time in Tennessee, Daney pitched to a 1-2 record for the Lookouts before he was returned to Indianapolis.39 Soon thereafter, he was back in Springfield.

In his memoir, Daney noted that, after the Great Depression began, “baseball, especially in the smaller leagues, was hard hit.”40 The Depression’s deleterious effect on attendance already was in evidence when Daney started for Springfield in a game at Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 30. A Springfield reporter provided a humorous description of the “crowd”:

“Danny Clark’s Solons presented a private showing of their wares yesterday afternoon, turning back the Tots from Terre Haute in a brisk 8 to 3 encounter before a grandstand jammed almost to capacity with empty seats.

“In fact, the athletes were actually lonesome and conversed freely with the multitude – all three of them – in the boxes back of third base.”

. . .

“Lee Daney was the Solon flinger yesterday and a real flinger, too, after the first canto. Apparently self conscious before the mob of vacant chairs, the athletes started out as if to kick the game all over the place. Two hits, two walks, an error, a passed ball and some other bits of bum baseball netted two runs.”41

As the Depression continued, there was no longer any humor in the effects it had on American society, including the national pastime, and it greatly limited the opportunities for minor-league ballplayers.

Daney persevered and went to spring training in Florida with Indianapolis in 1931. He got to test his mettle against top competition once more as the Indians played numerous exhibition games against major-league teams. Although Daney performed well in both starting and relief roles,42 none of the opposing squads gave him a second chance at a career in the majors. Thus, he spent the first two months of the season with Indianapolis, where he was 2-6 with a 4.50 ERA. On June 4, it was reported that the Indians had purchased infielder Frank Sigafoos from the Cincinnati Reds and that Daney was being sent to the Peoria Tractors, a Reds farm team in the Three-I League, as part of the deal.43

Daney did not fare any better with Peoria than he had with Indianapolis as he pitched to a 7-11 record with a 4.33 ERA. He did victimize the Terre Haute Tots again as he struck out 13 batters in a 7-5 complete-game triumph on July 13.44 Three days later, in a game against Danville, “A near riot resulted in the third inning when Umpire Davis ejected Pitcher Daney of Peoria because of a heated protest over a changed decision. Fans swarmed out on the field, but none was hurt.”45 Later in life, Daney reflected upon his temper, writing, “[W]hen I started out, I was known as a hot head. Whenever something happened that didn’t seem just right, I would blow my stack. But it didn’t take the umpires long to catch on and after a while, every time I opened my mouth, I was either fined or run out of the ball park. So I toned down.”46

Prior to the 1932 season, Daney was once again under contract with Indianapolis. However, the Indians sent him to the Knoxville (Tennessee) Smokies in February.47 It ended up being a short stay. After spending spring training with Knoxville, Daney was returned to Indianapolis prior to Opening Day so that the Smokies would be down to the roster limit required by the 

Southern League.48 It was the same scenario he had encountered with Bloomington toward the end of the 1928 season, but this time there was one notable difference: as soon as Daney was returned to Indianapolis, the Indians released him.49 He found employment with Springfield for the first part of May before that team released him as well. He then was picked up by the Quincy Indians, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, toward the end of the month, but his time there was as brief as his stay with Springfield had been.50

As the season progressed, so did Daney’s travels and travails. In July, he moved to northeastern Pennsylvania, where he joined the Hazelton Mountaineers, with the local press noting that he was being “accompanied here by his wife and little papoose [Wanda Lee].”51 Daney had “a most impressive debut” for Hazelton in a 6-3 victory against the Elmira Red Wings on July 5; however, as the team’s fortunes took a downturn, so did Daney’s, and he was released yet again before the end of the month.52

Believing his days in professional baseball to be at an end, Daney took his family back to his home state of Oklahoma, where he now moved back into semipro ball. In 1933 he still led a peripatetic existence, but it was confined to one state rather than large swaths of the country. Daney played for teams from Wetumka (the Harjoche Indians, as player-manager), Wilburton, McAlester, and Quinton (where he had met his wife a few years earlier).53 The next season he settled in with the Hugo (Oklahoma) team, first as a pitcher-right fielder and later as player-manager.54

In 1935 Daney pitched for the Pampa (Texas) Roadrunners, sponsored by the Danciger Oil & Refining Company. The Roadrunners were a powerful semipro squad, and Daney made his return to the Denver Post Tournament with the team. The competition began inauspiciously for Daney on August 5 as he surrendered six runs in 4⅔ innings in a 6-5 loss to the Colorado Ice team.55 Six days later, however, Daney turned in the finest of all his tournament appearances in a game against the Denver White Elephants, a formidable all-Black team. The Denver Post extolled Daney’s stellar performance:

“White Elephants’ week in Wonderland was over Monday, their dream shattered by two tornados from Texas. …

“The Pachyderms, the toast of Denver’s Negro colony after their triumphs over Enid, Okla., and Los Angeles, came into the tourney like elephants and went out like mice. They started their ups-and-downs by trampling Gering, Neb., 26-3, and bowed out with a coating of whitewash.

“The wielder of the calcimine brush was Lee Daney, 30-year-old [sic] Indian chief, who had his day of days Sunday.

“Chief Whitehorn, as he is known on the reservation, weaved a spell of impotency around the black bats with a medicine man mixture of speed, change of pace, control and headwork.”56

The Roadrunners’ 7-0 triumph over the White Elephants was the high point for Pampa, which posted a strong third-place finish in the 1935 tournament.57

Daney was back with Pampa in 1936, and the Roadrunners again competed in the Denver Post Tournament in August. Pampa finished in fifth place,58 which still earned the team’s players a share of the cash prizes, but, as the Pampa Daily News noted, “Loss of Lee Daney in the first game probably cost the Road Runners a place higher in the money.” Daney had “pulled the muscles on his left side between the lower ribs and Denver physicians expressed doubt if he would pitch again this season.”59

Daney not only recovered within a month, but he was on the mound and scored victories against some of Pampa’s most prominent opponents. On September 2, in his first start since the Denver tourney, he hurled a 13-8 victory over the Mexico City Aztecas. Daney had weakened as the game progressed and, although he took the mound in the top of the ninth, he called for relief help after having allowed the final two Aztecas runs.60 After this game there was great fanfare about coming visits from the Kansas City Monarchs and the Denver Post Tournament champion Negro League All-Stars in mid-September. Daney was expected to pitch one of the two games against the Monarchs, but heavy rain caused their cancellation.61 Daney grew stronger as the month progressed and on September 21 he led Pampa to a 14-2 triumph over the Hawaiian All Stars. After Pampa’s starting pitcher, Childers, threw his first six pitches for balls, Daney entered the game and went the distance for the win.62

In 1937 Daney found employment with the Blackwell Oil Company and played semipro ball for the Seminole (Oklahoma) Redbirds. It was a low-key summer on the baseball diamond for Daney, but in the fall he had an unusual off-field incident. On November 18, it was reported that Marguerite Daney had asked the county sheriff and highway patrol to search for Lee, who had disappeared after leaving for Muskogee on business six days earlier. According to the press, “Fears that Daney may have become an amnesia victim were believed possible because of an accident he suffered a short time ago. He was struck on the head while engaged in oil field duties.”63 Although there were no further reports regarding Daney’s whereabouts, he turned up again, was fine, and picked up where he had left off in business and baseball.

The next major change in Daney’s life occurred in 1938. On July 11, it was announced that “Lee Daney, coach and pitcher for the Holdenville [Oklahoma] baseball club, leaves tomorrow for Kanapolis [sic], N.C., where he will join the fast Kanapolis semi-pro club. Daney, Mrs. Daney and their two children [Wanda Lee and Donald] will make their home in Kanapolis where he will 

have steady employment in addition to pitching for the baseball club.”64 At 34 years of age, it is doubtful that Daney imagined going east to play ball might result in his being rediscovered by a major-league team. Instead, the job that he was offered in the textile industry,65 and the opportunity to continue to play baseball likely were more appealing than the potential dangers of the oil fields that he had already experienced. Thus, Daney finished the 1938 season with the Kannapolis team.66 A few months later, on November 16, the Daneys’ third child, Drucilla, was born.

Daney pitched for the team in Landis, a town five miles north of Kannapolis, in the spring of 1939.67 However, at the beginning of July, he joined the Statesville Owls, a member team of the Class D Tar Heel League, which was starting its inaugural season. On July 3, in his first appearance with the Owls, Daney hurled a complete game – called after eight innings because of rain – in a 9-5 win against the Shelby Nationals.68 In an example of the maxim “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” Daney’s move to North Carolina did not change the stereotypes of Native Americans that he had to endure everywhere he went. On July 6 the Statesville newspaper wrote, “Now if we can just persuade Chief Daney to bring along his tomahawk and scalp Manager Tuck McWilliams of Hickory[,] the fans’ joy will be complete. How about it, Chief?”69 Statesville finished third in the six-team league with a 56-51 record. The top four teams made the playoffs, and Statesville defeated Lenoir (61-46) before falling to first-place Gastonia (72-36) in the finals.70

The first incarnation of the Tar Heel League folded in 1940, so Daney went back to semipro baseball. He played for the Kannapolis team again in 1940 and 1941 while continuing to work as a weaver in the textile industry.71

Soon thereafter, Daney decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and, before the 1940s were over, he entered the clergy. He moved his family across the country to Tucson, Arizona, where he became a minister in the Southside Presbyterian Church.72 The fact that the church interacted with Arizona’s large Native American population no doubt held additional appeal for Daney.73

A final move brought the Daney family to the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale. Marguerite Daney died on January 15, 1984, and Lee Daney died on March 11, 1988.74 The couple are buried together in Green Acres Memorial Park in Scottsdale.

Regarding his life’s experiences, Daney reflected, “The one thing I will never forget was when I had to quit playing baseball – my only life and occupation up to that time – and to work to earn a living. … My first paycheck was $11 and the world seemed to stand still. … But my wife and I worked things out. … And through it all I have that great memory of playing with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics in the days of their great glory. And of playing with that team as Chief Whitehorn.”75

Sources

Unless otherwise indicated in the notes below,

Ancestry.com was consulted for Native American enrollment and census information, US Census information, and birth and death records.

Baseball-reference.com was consulted for player statistics and team records.

Notes

1 Arthur Lee Daney with an Introduction by Dru Paine (Arthur’s daughter), “Chief Whitehorn Threw a Fastball,” in Scottsdale Progress, March 17, 1979, reprinted on https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/Arthur_Lee_Daney.shtml, accessed May 16, 2023.

2 Daney.

3 Daney.

4 Daney.

5 “Eastern Kansas Happenings,” Parker (Kansas) Message, February 7, 1924: 1.

6 See the following for information about this legislation: https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/indian-citizenship-act-1924.pdf and http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol4/html_files/v4p1165.html, both accessed on May 17, 2023.

7 “Boys Due to Arrive Today,” Osage Journal (Pawhuska, Oklahoma), June 19, 1924: 1.

8 “Haskell’s Baseball Team Making a Good Record,” Indian Leader (Lawrence, Kansas), May 8-15, 1925: 8.

9 “Haskell’s Baseball Team Making a Good Record.”

10 “Rochelle Giants Win Sunday Game; Prime for Indians,” Rockford (Illinois) Morning Star, August 18, 1925: 11. Curtis Riko was most likely a member of the Pottawatomie tribe, which had a significant population in states like Kansas and Oklahoma and is the only tribe with a name that is spelled close to what the news article printed.

11 “Wetumka Drillers 6 – Carter Oil Team 1,” Wetumka (Oklahoma) Gazette, July 2, 1926: 2; “Drillers 7 – Shawnee 2,” Wetumka Gazette, August 13, 1926: 4.

12 “Muskogee Vets Drop 2 to Quinton Indians,” Quinton (Oklahoma) Times, September 2, 1926: 1.

13 “Colorful Club Faces Beaches Here Tuesday,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, June 5, 1927: 21.

14 “All Nations Win,” Des Moines Register, May 2, 1927: 9; “Defeat the Cricks in Ninth,” Kansas City Times, May 2, 1927: 10.

15 Daney.

16 Leonard Cahn, “Kansas Team Defeats Powers-Behen, 9 to 0,” Denver Post, September 3, 1927: 13.

17 “Ray Quincey Wins More Laurels by Playing on Championship Team in Tournament,” Neligh (Nebraska) News, September 15, 1927: 1.

18 Jay Sanford, The Denver Post Tournament (Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 2003), 28.

19 Daney.

20 Daney.

21 “Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Daney,” Arizona Republic (Phoenix), July 3, 1977: K-15; “Marguerite A. Daney,” Arizona Republic, January 17, 1984: D2.

22 “Indian Pitcher to Tryout [sic] with Macks [sic] Athletics/Arthur Lee Daney Is Real Name of Choctaw Brave to Succeed Bender,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, February 24, 1928: 26.

23 Bender was out of the major leagues from 1918 to 1924. In 1925 he made one appearance for the Chicago White Sox in which he allowed two runs in one inning pitched.

24 “Indian Pitcher to Tryout with Macks Athletics.”

25 Daney.

26 “Orioles Wallop Athletics, 14 to 4, in Opener of Exhibition Schedule/Birds Batter Mack Rookies,” Baltimore Sun, March 9, 1928: 14.

27 “‘Chief’ Daney, Choctaw, Dazzles with ‘Sinker,’ Lyons Also Looks Good,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 1928: 23.

28 “Birds Topple A’s by Heavy Hitting,” Wilmington (Delaware) News Journal, March 22, 1928: 19.

29 “Athletics Take Final Game of Series from Phillies/Misjudged Fly, Going for Triple Results in Quakers’ Defeat,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, April 11, 1928: 13. An erroneous subheadline for the article states, “Jing Johnson Goes Entire 

Route for Mackians, Winning by 2 to 1,” but the game article and box score clearly indicate that Daney pitched the final three innings of the game for the Athletics.

30 James C. Isaminger, “Babe Hits 15th and 16th, Dugan Socks Pair as Yanks Trip A’s in Twin Bill,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 26, 1928: 20.

31 “Athletics Wallop 17 Hits to Overwhelm Buffalo Nine by 11-3/Jimmy Foxx Hits Home Run in Exhibition Tilt; Daney and Powers Hurl Well,” Reading Times, June 2, 1928: 17.

32 “Mack Releases Powers, Daney/Pitchers Farmed Out to Bloomington; A’s Roster Down to 24 Players,” Atlantic City Daily Press, June 5, 1928: 12.

33 Daney.

34 Harold C. Burr, “Chief Bender, Great Indian Ball Player, Still in National Game,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 

11, 1928: 22.

35 “Senators Take on Lee Daney, Indian, Release Lefty Dill,” Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), August 15, 1928: 12.

36 “Lee Daney Bests Roxy [sic] Lawson in Tight Pitching Duel to Give Bloomers Three in Row Over Huts,” Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, June 30, 1929: 17.

37 “Indian Goes to Indians,” Lafayette (Indiana) Journal and Courier, September 4, 1929: 10.

38 “Engel Buys Cherokee [sic] Indian Hurler to Help in Scalping Memphis Tribe,” Chattanooga Daily Times, July 9, 1930: 8.

39 “Decatur Weakens After Great Start, Daney Fails in Debut and Barons Win, 6 to 5,” Chattanooga Daily Times, July 10, 1930: 11; “Chattanooga Gets Only Two Runs on Eleven Hits, Crackers Take Contest, 11 to 2/Lookouts Drop Third Conflict to Dobbs Crew/Daney Gets Off to Fine Start, Then Blows Up,” Chattanooga Daily Times, July 14, 1930: 7; “Charlie Bates Blasts Homer With One On as Chattanooga Noses Out Pebbles, 5-4,” Chattanooga Daily Times, July 19, 1930: 9; “Dick Ludolph Holds Chattanooga as Birmingham Takes First of Series, 8 to 4,” Chattanooga Daily Times, July 29, 1930: 8.

40 Daney.

41 R.A. Drysdale, “Solons Beat Tots 8-3; Swift Hurls Today/Clark Also Due to Play in Outfield/Daney Pitches Great Ball in Opening Game of Series,” Daily Illinois State Journal, August 31, 1930: 17.

42 “Indianapolis Beats Phillies,” Jacksonville (Florida) Daily Journal, March 20, 1931: 9; “Indians Defeat Yankees in 11 Innings and Play Ruth’s Gang Again Today,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 24, 1931: 6; “Defeat the Cards, 12 to 3/The Indianapolis Indians Get Fourteen Hits in Victory,” Kansas City Times, March 30, 1931: 12; “Indianapolis 4; Red Sox 1,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), April 6, 1931: 14.

43 “Tribe Buys Sigafoos for Job on Infield/Second Baseman, Who Batted .305 for Angels Last Year, Is Bought from Reds; Daney Goes to Peoria; Wednesday Game Dropped,” Indianapolis Times, June 4, 1931: 10.

44 “Tractors Win Over Tots, 7-5, to Take Lead/Daney Holds Terre Haute to Six Hits and Strikes Out 13,” Decatur (Illinois) Herald, July 14, 1931: 8.

45 “Peoria Rallies to Tighten Lead with Win Over Danville, 12-7/Fraser’s Nine Scores Eight Runs in Rally/Daney Ejected for Argument with Umpire Davis in Third Frame/Crossley Shines,” Decatur Herald, July 17, 1931: 20.

46 Daney.

47 Bob Murphy, “Smoky Owner Leaves Last Part of Month; New Deals Pending/Indianapolis Sends Six Players to Knoxville; Thompson and Bass Come from Louisville; Allen Enthused Over Florida Trip,” Knoxville Journal, February 6, 1932: 8.

48 Bob Wilson, “Smokies Ready to Go, Says Joe Schepner/Burns Opposes Liska in Opening Battle at Chattanooga Park,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 11, 1932: 11.

49 “Indians Release Daney,” Indianapolis News, April 12, 1932: 16.

50 Howard V. Millard, “Ladies Free Tonight as Commies End Home Stand/Thad Campbell Will Hurl for Locals – Daney Pitches 6 to 2 Victory,” Decatur Daily Review, May 27, 1932: 32.

51 “Mountaineers Get Indian Flinger,” Hazelton (Pennsylvania) Standard-Sentinel, July 2, 1932: 25.

52 “Lee Daney Joins Mountaineers and Beat [sic] Elmira Red Wings 6-3,” Hazelton Standard-Sentinel, July 6, 1932: 8; “Pitchers Released,” Hazelton Plain Speaker, July 25, 1932: 11.

53 “Independents Lost Hard Fought Game to Redskins,” Holdenville (Oklahoma) Daily News, May 19, 1933: 3; “McAlester Runs Wild Over Wilburton Team,” Latimer County News-Democrat (Wilburton, Oklahoma), June 30, 1933: 4; “McAlester 

Beats Heavener’s Crew by Score of 5-2,” McAlester (Oklahoma) News-Capital, July 10, 1933: 5; “Quinton Baseball Fans Have Enjoyed Games/Home Club Climbs as Daney Pitches Allowing Four Hits,” Quinton Times, September 21, 1933: 1.

54 “Tentative Lineup Is Announced by Beaty,” Hugo (Oklahoma) Daily News, April 6, 1934: 1; “Hugo Will Play Antlers Sunday/Daney Slated to Face Winford as Game Begins,” Hugo Daily News, May 13, 1934: 1; “Cato Lost to Hugo Tigers Saturday/Johnson May Face Bohannon in Game at Antlers,” Hugo Daily News, June 17, 1934: 1.

55 Leonard Cahn, “Icemen Upset Pampa, Tex, 6-5; Cabble Again Stars in Box,” Denver Post, August 6, 1935: 23.

56 Robert Gamzey, “Roadrunners and United Fuel Win Sunday/White Elephants Eliminated by Pampa, Texas Team, 7 to 0/Lee Daney Pitches Great Game, Allowing Colored Club Only Five Hits – Summers Turns in Sensational Fielding Plays,” Denver Post, August 12, 1935: 17.

57 Sanford, 55, 89.

58 Sanford, 89.

59 “Cox Leads Road Runners in Hitting for Denver Games,” Pampa (Texas) Daily News, August 11, 1936: 5.

60 “Road Runners Pound Out 13 to 8 Victory Over Aztecas/Daney Hurls Game as Bailey Leads in Hitting,” Pampa Daily News, September 3, 1936: 5.

61 “Daney or Stewart to Hurl Against Kansas City Negroes Tonight/Another Tilt to Be Played on Wednesday,” P

ampa Daily News, September 15, 1936: 5; “Texas Floods Damage Roads and Bridges,” Lawton (Oklahoma) Constitution, September 17, 1936: 2.

62 “Road Runners Crush Hawaii Nine 14 to 2,” Pampa Daily News, September 23, 1936: 5.

63 “Sheriff, Patrol Asked to Search for Missing Man/Lee Daney, Seminole, Has Not Been Seen Since Leaving Here for Muskogee Last Friday,” Wewoka (Oklahoma) Times-Democrat, November 18, 1937: 1.

64 “Daney Leaving for New Club/Holdenville Coach Is Given Place With North Carolina Club,” Holdenville Daily News, July 11, 1938: 4.

65 Daney.

66 “Kannapolis Tops Gastonia, 5 to 3,” Greensboro (North Carolina) Daily News, July 16, 1938:13; “Kannapolis Tops Hickory by 5 to 0,” Greensboro Daily News, August 13, 1938: 11.

67 “Kannapolis 7 Landis 2,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, May 6, 1939: 9; “Landis 2 Concord 1,” Wi

nston-Salem Journal, May 10, 1939: 8.

68 “Rally Enables Owls to Defeat Nats, 9-5,” Charlotte Observer, July 4, 1939: 19.

69 “Reflections on Sports,” Statesville (North Carolina) Record and Landmark,” July 6, 1939: 2.

70 Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Third Edition (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007), 368.

71 “Landis Indians Top Kannapolis, 10 to 3,” Greensboro Daily News, August 10, 1940: 5; “Hosiery Advances in Semipro Play,” Winston-Salem Journal, August 29, 1941: 9.

72 “Topics of Tucson,” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), May 3, 1949: 15.

73 “Indian Choirs to Sing Here,” Arizona Daily Star, March 4, 1951: 30.

74 “Marguerite A. Daney”; “Arthur Lee Daney, 83, Scottsdale,” Arizona Republic, March 14, 1988: 8.

75 Daney.