Don Porter

Climbing a tree is a common childhood activity. Dexterity, effort, and determination all play a role and afford kids the opportunity to admire the horizon from a higher perspective. As such pursuits give way to teenage interests, youths may choose to remain on firmer ground to determine their possible adult career. In Don “The Rook” Porter’s case, the vocation was a branch of the family tree – his uncles Andrew Porter and Merle Porter both played in the Negro Leagues. Andrew (1910-2010), nicknamed “Pullman,” pitched from 1932-1948, mostly with the Nashville/Columbus/Washington/Baltimore Elite Giants.1 (It’s unclear whether “Pullman” was connected to his last name or because “he worked as hard as a Pullman porter.”)2 Merle played for the New Orleans Creoles (1947) and the Kansas City Stars/Monarchs (1948-1949).3

As a high school sophomore in 1957, Don joined the New York Black Yankees; the following year, the righty pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns. He also played the outfield when not on the mound. (As touring teams, the Black Yankees and Clowns would occasionally swap players from their rosters.)

Donald James Porter was born on December 23, 1940, in College Station, Arkansas.14 His father was Levi B. Porter, who worked in a warehouse and the Pine Bluff Arsenal, a military facility in Jefferson County. His mother, Elma (née Weekly), cleaned laundry for local families.

Don and his four siblings (Levi Banes, Austin, Willie Violet, and Nancy Blue) eagerly followed their uncles’ feats on the diamond via telegrams, phone calls, and letters. During the offseason, Merle and Andrew returned to College Station, before they settled in Los Angeles after their playing careers. Don excitedly picked up advice and benefited from their baseball equipment to hone his skill. “When they came home in the offseason, they would tell us what was going on, where they were playing.”5

An older sibling taught Porter how to throw a curveball and a knuckleball, to the chagrin of Little League and Pony League opponents: “I was a very successful around Little Rock … because I could throw a curveball and the young kids were afraid they were going to get hit.”6

Porter played with the Little Rock Cubs and soon blossomed into a stellar pitcher. Summer vacation aligned perfectly with the baseball season. “I was only 16 when I played with the Black Yankees,” said Porter, “and 17 when I played in Indianapolis. ‘Rookie’ became shorted to ‘Rook’ because I was so young.”7 Porter grew to 5-foot-10 and weighed 135 pounds during his career.

In the waning days of the Negro Leagues, many franchises had become traveling teams. The Black Yankees were members of the Negro National League (NNL 2) from 1936 until the circuit’s dissolution in 1948. The Clowns, whose lineage dated to the 1930s, played in the Negro American League (NAL) from 1943 through 1954.Both teams barnstormed after dropping from the organized leagues. Once longtime Clowns owner Syd Pollock acquired the Black Yankees, the teams toured together. “We played against each other quite a bit,” Porter recalled, “and we also played independent teams. I started out with the Black Yankees and got promoted to the Clowns in the later part of the (1957) season.”8

Negro League games – especially those of touring teams in the post-integration era –received uneven press coverage. However, the Evansville Courier and Press published both rosters on August 4, prior to a two-game series the following weekend.9 Porter is listed as one of three Indianapolis hurlers in a 7-6 comeback Clowns win.10

In the August 24, 1957 issue of the Indianapolis Recorder, Porter is listed as number 22 on the Black Yankees pitching staff.11 (Given that rosters may have been submitted to the press weeks before, it is possible he had already switched teams.) The clubs met again on August 30 in Baltimore, where according to the Baltimore Evening Sun, “Yankee hurlers include John Fisher, Floyd Humphries, Ray Holmes, and Don Porter. The last is slated for tonight’s assignment.”12

By the late 1950s, African-Americans had earned MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year Awards in Organized Baseball. However, the Negro Leaguers still experienced subpar conditions: “”What wasn’t fun was the travel. It was all by bus, and because of segregation, we couldn’t stay in some of the towns we played in. Of course, we couldn’t eat everywhere, either. So it wasn’t anything for us to grab some lunch meat and red soda pop. It had to be the love of the game because we weren’t paid very much…Yet there were some guys who played 30 years in the Negro League. I remember [Ted] ‘Double Duty’ Radcliffe played a long, long time. He’d pitch the first game of a doubleheader and catch the second game. That’s how he got that nickname,” said Sacramento sportswriter Martin McNeal.13

Pollock’s endless promotion brought Porter back home when the teams played at Travelers Field, home of the Little Rock-based Double-A affiliate of (at that time) the Kansas City Athletics.14 It was “a wonderful occasion, with my family at the game…(where) my uncles had played,” Porter related.15 Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman, future member of the expansion 1962 Mets, was his regular catcher.

After this professional career was over, Porter enlisted in the US Army. He served in Ulm, Germany, and Ft. Hood, Texas. From 1958 to 1962, he continued to play baseball while on active duty, and his teams won championships in both locations, with fellow Negro Leaguer Pedro Sierra as a teammate.

Porter married high school sweetheart Yvette Stewart in 1961. They went on to have three children: Charles David, Donna Vivian, and Donald Keith (deceased).

Based on his performance in military tournaments, Porter was invited to try out for the expansion Houston Colt .45s in 1962. Although he attended the tryout in Texas City, Texas, he was not offered a contract. Afterward, he and Yvette decided to move to California, where his uncles Andrew and Merle had settled after their playing careers.16 The Porters settled in Sacramento, where Don worked at McLellan Air Force Base from 1962-1964 and then with the Sacramento Regional Transit District from 1964-1995.

Porter played for various teams in Northern California during the 1960s, including nines sponsored by Rainbo Bread (a California bakery) Square Deal Roofing, and La Fiesta.17 “We played in the Rural League and the County League and the Night League around here. We played winter league ball around here and Larry Bowa, Bob Oliver, Ken Forsch, Dusty Baker, Jerry Manuel, and Leron and Leon Lee would play with us in that league. [Agent] Scott Boras also used to play with us when he was a student (at the University of the Pacific).”18

Porter was enshrined on the Yesterday’s Negro Leaguers Wall of Fame on August 12,  2017.19 The Milwaukee Brewers honored him and other living Negro Leaguers the prior day before their game against the Cincinnati Reds.20 During the broadcast, Porter expressed gratitude, saying, “It’s a special honor for me, I had an uncle who played in the Negro Leagues for over 20 years, and he’s on the Wall of Fame. To follow in his footsteps as a second-generation Negro Leaguer is an honor for me.”21.

Porter is an avid supporter of the Sacramento Honorary Negro League Game, an annual event to spotlight Black and Latino high school baseball athletes.22 The game marked its fifth edition in 2025. The proud father of three and grandfather of four was enshrined in the Sacramento Baseball Hall of Fame on January 17, 2026.23

Acknowledgments

To Don Porter, for graciously sharing his memories about the Negro Leagues and beyond during phone interviews with the author.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Joe Wancho.

Notes   

1 For further information on Andrew Porter, see his page on the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia website, https://www.arkbaseball.com/tiki-index.php?page=Andrew+Porter&highlight=andrew+porter

2 Justice B. Hill, “Special Negro Leagues Draft,” MLB.com, May 30, 2008, https://web.archive.org/web/20080608150853/https://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2008/m05/d29/c2795840.jsp

3 Merle Porter, Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia, https://www.arkbaseball.com/tiki-index.php?page=Merle+Porter

4 Date of birth provided by Don Porter. Author’s telephone interview with Don Porter, August 22, 2025 (hereafter Author’s interview #1).

5 Author’s interview #1.

6 Author’s interview #1.

7 Martin McNeal, “Love of Baseball Allowed Negro Leaguers to Cope,” Sacramento Bee, February 22, 2009: C2, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=AEE7A47199E1403EAE7227210560E893&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/12688C9CADCAAFD0. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.

8  Author’s interview #1.

9 “Clowns Play Black Yanks This Week,” Evansville (Indiana) Sunday Courier and Press, August 4, 1957: 5, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/article/evansville-courier-and-press-evansville/185940671/

10 “Clowns Vanquish Black Yankees in 9th, 7-6,” Evansville Sunday Courier and Press, August 11, 1957: Section C, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/article/evansville-courier-and-press-evansville/185940846/

11 “Schedule Clowns Game, Fun-Filled Frolic, at Victory Field,” Indianapolis Recorder, August 24, 1957: 11, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19570824-01.1.11&srpos=1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN-%22Indianapolis+clowns%22+%22don+porter%22——

12 “Negro Nines Tangle at Westport,” Baltimore Evening Sun, August 30, 1957: 34, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/370418364/?terms=%22don%2Bporter%22%2B%22black%2Byankees%22&match=2

13 McNeal. Sportswriter Damon Runyon is credited with coining the Double Duty moniker after observing Radcliffe catch, and then pitch, shutouts in a 1932 doubleheader.

14 This Travelers franchise played in the Southern League and folded in 1961. The current Arkansas Travelers began in 1963 and do not share their lineage. The Southern League Travelers were affiliated with several major league franchises in their history but were an Athletics farm team in 1957 and 1958.

15 Author’s interview #1.

16 A different player, Donald James Porter, was drafted by Houston in 1960. This Porter was a center fielder and starred at Ole Miss. https://olemisssports.com/news/2009/3/6/Rebels_in_the_MLB_Draft

17 “Players’ Register: Who’s Who,” Center for Negro League Baseball Research, https://irp.cdn-website.com/33d0c3d0/files/uploaded/O-Q-2020.pdf

18 McNeal.

19 YNLBP Wall of Fame Inductees 2017, https://www.yesterdaysnegroleague.com/negro-league-baseball-timeline-1/ynlbp-wall-of-fame-inductees-2017

20 Jimmy Carlton, “Brewers Host 12th Annual Negro Leagues Tribute Game on Aug. 12,” On Milwaukee, August 7, 2017, https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/brewers-negro-leagues-tribute-game-2017

21 “CIN@MIL: Howard, Porter Discuss Negro Leagues,” MLB on YouTube, August 12, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GodY60RYtgw

22 Thomas Cathey, “Sac State Hosts Fourth Annual Honorary Negro League Game,” Sacramento Observer, September 30, 2024, https://sacobserver.com/2024/09/sacramento-state-honors-negro-leagues/

23 Sacramento Baseball Hall of Fame, http://www.thelasalleclub.com/