Earl Ashby

Earl Randolph Ashby Powbett led a fascinating baseball life. He was a backup catcher for the 1945 Negro champion Cleveland Buckeyes. He was given a chance to replace Josh Gibson as Homestead Grays catcher in 1947. He played in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States and perhaps other lands as well. 

But he also never stayed in one place for very long. Ashby had a temper and a habit of finding trouble. He never seemed to produce as much as he was expected to. Little is known of Ashby’s life outside of baseball. We do not even know when he died. What follows includes some speculation as Ashby played under multiple names throughout his career.

As the Negro Leagues disintegrated and Ashby and dozens of other players were left to find jobs playing baseball across North America, Ashby put together a career longer than a decade as a catcher, first baseman, and outfielder.

Very little is known of Ashby’s early life, past his birthday of May 16, 1921, in Havana, Cuba. He was close to his 24th birthday when he first came to the United States to play for the Cleveland Buckeyes. Prior to a tilt against the then first-place Memphis Red Sox on May 26, 1945, sportswriter Bob Williams said, “Two Cuban stars, Avelino Cañizares and Earl Ashby, will be seen at shortstop, or possibly catch or outfield, for the first time in the Buckeyes Lineup.”1 The pair were “Aces in the Hole” for Cleveland and Ashby “stars as an extra catcher when he isn’t strutting his stuff in and out field.”2

Ashby did not play much for Cleveland, who had star catcher-manager Quincy Trouppe taking most of the time behind the plate as well as Jesse Williams. For this reason, Ashby became an option in the outfield but was not considered a starter there either. For the season he hit .269/.345/.346, a 101 OPS+. Ashby mostly played during exhibitions, though he did have one highlight. In the second game of a doubleheader on July 1, Ashby hit a late double and scored a run as part of a late comeback in a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Monarchs to give the Buckeyes a sweep.3

Ashby’s and Jesse Williams’s roles were celebrated by the Cleveland Call and Post, the city’s African American newspaper: “[T]hese two boys have proven their worth both in the catching and hitting, and are to be given credit for aiding greatly in bringing the Buckeyes their new title.”4 In addition to winning the Negro American League pennant, the 1945 Buckeyes swept the Homestead Grays in four games in the Negro World Series. Ashby had a successful first season in the United States, even though he did not factor into the World Series victory.5

Ashby was not back with Cleveland after the 1945 season. It appears that he followed many other US-based players to Mexico in 1946, as Jorge Pasquel tried to build up the Mexican League. While there is no Earl Ashby listed in the records, there is an Edward Ashby who played with three teams: Mexico City, Veracruz, and Puebla.6

Ashby was back in the United States for the 1947 season. He began the year with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League but soon had the opportunity to replace the great Josh Gibson, who had died in January. Ashby had Gibson’s imposing size and strong arm, so it was probably a chance worth taking. He had some moments with Homestead with multihit games against the New York Black Yankees, Philadelphia Stars, and New York Cubans.7 Overall, Ashby hit .262 in 15 games for the Grays. Retrosheet shows 16 games, but none in which he appeared after July 20.8

That winter, a catcher named E. Randolph (who was likely Ashby though there is no definitive proof) played with Marianao of the Cuban Winter League, getting into one game and going 0-for-4.9 Ashby came back to the United States for the 1948 season with the Newark Eagles. He made an early impression with a two-hit game and a home run in separate exhibitions against the Atlanta Black Crackers.10 Reports were that Newark was excited to have Ashby as the starting catcher. One paper claimed, “Much is expected of Earl Ashby, who showed promise with the Grays last year”11 and another reporting that Eagles manager William Bell was impressed12 with the “hard working Cuban catcher.”13 

Ashby began the year as the starting catcher but played his last game for the Eagles on May 31. He would catch on with the defending champion New York Cubans, who had beaten the Buckeyes in the 1947 World Series, but according to Retrosheet he is known to have played in only one game for them, in August. For the season, Ashby hit .059 in 34 at-bats. His final line in the Negro major leagues was .196/.293/.284, a 61 OPS+.

From there, Ashby became one of numerous African American and Afro-Latino players who were baseball vagabonds. He spent 1949 playing for the Fulda (Minnesota) Giants of the semipro Centennial League.14 Ashby joined a Giants squad with future Hall of Famer Hilton Smith, then 42. The locals deemed that Ashby “was the character of the two.”15 It is here that we begin to see evidence of Ashby’s temper, which may explain his itinerant jumping around in the Negro leagues. Teammate Delly Koopman recalled, “Ashby could hit and he was a good catcher, but he had a temper. I stayed away from him. Sometimes, he would get mad at the pitcher, and he would take off the catcher’s gear and say he was going to pitch.”16 During a game in Iona, the away fans were taunting Ashby and he responded with an obscene gesture that led to his arrest.17 However, he had success in Fulda, with one source reporting that he hit .425.18

In 1978 columnist Patrick Reusse told the story of how Ashby caused a stir during a visit in Kinbrae, a hunting town near Fulda, when he showed up “dressed to the teeth.” As one resident said, “We haven’t seen a fellow that dressed up, before or since.”19 That a well-dressed Black man was remembered in that town three decades later is a window into how hard it was for Black players (to fit in) in the early years after integration. It also provides some context for Ashby’s disciplinary issues.

Ashby’s baseball journey continued in 1950 with Drummondville of the Class-C Provincial League. Ashby was celebrated as a three-time Negro League champion who had hit .312 for the famed Homestead Grays. This was all untrue. Ashby’s old manager and teammate Quincy Trouppe played for Drummondville the year before. Whether Trouppe recommended Ashby to Drummondville (or vice versa) is unclear but it appears that Drummondville thought they were getting Trouppe’s protégé when Ashby arrived. Ashby acquitted himself well, hitting .292 with 3 doubles and 2 home runs in 22 games. However, he was sent on a trial to the Bridgeport Bees of the Class-C Colonial League in June, probably due to his temper. There is a May 17 report of his being thrown out of a game for yelling at an umpire.20

He did not impress with Bridgeport,21 and Drummondville was forced to trade him to St. Jean for a player, Al Pajones, who did not play in the Provincial League that year. No statistics of his time in St. Jean have been found but there is a July 1 report that he was released after attacking teammate Rubén Gómez in a dispute that started over “unimportant stuff.”22

After he left St. Jean, Ashby becomes hard to follow. It appears that he caught on with the Paris Lakers of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League using the name Earl “Chico” Randolph.23 However, he was suspended and released on August 3 for throwing his glove at an umpire in a disagreement on a catcher-interference call.24 This was apparently not his first infraction with an umpire while playing with Paris. He also had a collision with Mount Vernon first baseman Pete Milinkov while running out a grounder.25 It is unclear if the collision was anything out of the ordinary but given that he cannot have joined Paris until July, it was part of a pattern of ill-discipline and violence on the field.

Then on August 11, eight days after being released by Paris, Ashby was arrested and fined $15 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for participating in a brawl and taking a swing at a police officer.26 He was described as 27 years old (he was 29 at the time) and a suspended member of the Homestead Grays. It does not appear he was on the Homestead roster at the time, though it is also unclear why he was in Fort Wayne. Homestead was a nonleague barnstorming club by 1950 and it is possible, though unlikely, that Ashby did catch on with them again.

Ashby is listed as having played with the Duluth of the Northern League in June of 1951.27 There is a report that he was assigned, on trial, to Mexican club Aguiles in 1952.28 No statistics have been found for his time there. In 1953, it appears, he was back in Illinois. A Jimmy R. Powell played with Hannibal of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, hitting .382 in nine games. However, the manager of the Paris team, Tom Sunkel, protested a game that Paris played against Hannibal, claiming that Powell was in fact the suspended Chico Randolph.29 Powell was released shortly after. This makes it possible that Randolph/Ashby’s suspension was a permanent one. There is also a report of Powell spiking Mount Vernon first baseman Roger Werner, though it is unclear if this is the same incident reported above.

In 1954 Ashby appears to have played in Mexico (though it is unclear what team he played with), hitting a reported 19 home runs.30 He was back in the United States in 1955, starting the season with the Port Arthur (Texas) Seahawks of the Big State League as a first baseman and utilityman. One report from this time said that he called New Orleans his home.31

However, his time in Port Arthur was short as The Sporting News reports that he was picked up by the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A club of the St. Louis Cardinals.32 He was signed on an emergency contract as a backup catcher in case of an injury to catcher Bob Rand following an injury to catcher Charlie White. He was apparently signed in Toronto but not put on the roster.33 Whether he was a free agent after his time in Port Arthur went sour or left directly from Port Arthur is unclear. It is also unclear why he was on the radar of the Rochester Red Wings, given his on-field demeanor.

Eventually Ashby was released on June 20 for disciplinary reasons. It appears that on the night of June 19, he was seen having drinks with a woman named Ive James. That night, James’s boyfriend, Tom R. Blythers, was found stabbed to death. James was arrested on a charge of murder and Ashby was brought in as a material witness and held for 12 days. He had left town for New York after the incident and was found and brought back to Rochester by two detectives. However, it appears that Ashby was never a suspect, and he was paid $36 for his inconvenience. He also got medical attention during his time in Rochester after he claimed that James bit him on the finger the night of the incident. It turns out that the DA failed to indict James and Blythers’ murder remains unsolved.34

After his release from Rochester, it was reported that Ashby’s friend Sandy Amorós, a few months before making a World Series-saving catch for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ only World Series title, got him a job playing in the Dominican League. The problem was that Ashby was still needed in Rochester so DA Harry L. Rosenthal called and vouched for him.35 That said, there is no statistical record of Ashby playing in the Dominican Republic, which had switched to a winter league that season.36 It is possible that if he did go down to the Dominican, he just did not get into any games. He was 34 at the time and was not playing in high-profile leagues.

This is where the trail on Earl Randolph Ashby Powbett runs cold. It is unclear what happened to him after he was released by the Rochester police. We do not even know when he may have died.

So what to think of Earl Ashby? First, he was a player with impressive physical traits who despite never putting it together as a star player kept getting chances based on those skills. Second, Ashby played at a time when many Black American and Latino players were given little choice but to be baseball nomads. The Negro leagues collapsed in the early 1950s and there were few opportunities in Organized Baseball as integration was slow and many teams, fearful of being “too Black,” had unofficial quotas for the number of Black players they would employ and play at any one time. In fact, in many of his stops, like Fulda in 1949, Ashby appears to have been viewed as much as a sideshow as a baseball player. Ashby’s ability to promote himself, use connections, and embellish his own credentials in the low-information environment of the times served him well. But it was still a challenging and entirely unnecessary situation.

This leads to the third story. Ashby had a temper and often found himself in trouble with umpires, players, and the authorities. It is nearly impossible to untangle this from the abuse he probably faced because of being a Black man in America in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This is no excuse for Ashby’s actions but an explanation. So Ashby, a Negro League champion who reportedly hit .300 a few times, had a very unusual career in the context of baseball history, though perhaps not unusual for a Black man in his era.

Sources

All Negro League statistics are from Seamheads.com as of the close of 2024. All game-level data is from Retrosheet.org unless otherwise noted. The author would like to thank Adam Darowski, Bill Nowlin, Gary Ashwill, Gary Fink, Christian Trudeau, Ruben Sanchez, and Sean Lahman for their help with this research.

Notes

1 Bob Williams, “Vastly Improved Buckeyes Strong in Every Field, May Bring Out Fans 10,000 Strong,” Cleveland Call and Post, May 26, 1945: 7B.

2 “Aces in Hole Are Bucks’ Cuban Stars,” Cleveland Call and Post, June 2, 1945: 6B.

3 Retrosheet (https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1945/B07012KCM1945.htm).

4 “Here Is Buckeyes’ Pitching Staff, Rated Peerless,” Cleveland Call and Post, September 9, 1945: 7B.

5 RetroSheet (https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/1945PS.html).

6 Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=ashby-000edw. Negro League researcher Gary Ashwill told the author in an email exchange that he thinks Edward Ashby was Earl Ashby.

7 Retrosheet (https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1947/Bashbe1011947.htm).

8 That may be because no box scores have turned up. There is no record of his playing elsewhere that season.

9 Jorge S. Figueredo, Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History: 1878-1961 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2003). Ashby’s first two names were Earl Randolph and he was a Cuban catcher of the right age to be playing here. Ashby, as we will see later, had a habit of changing his name when it suited him as well.

10 Joel W. Smith, “Newark Eagles Sink Black Crackers By 19-2 Margin,” Atlanta Daily World, April 22, 1948: 5; Joel W. Smith, “Newark Eagles Squeeze Out 8-5 Victory Over Atlanta Black Crax,” Atlanta Daily World, April 27, 1948: 5.

11 “NNL Teams Begin Exhibition Contests,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 3, 1948: 8.

12 “Newark Eagles Sign Max Manning, Ace Hurler, to Contract,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 13, 1948: 10.

13 Joel W. Smith, “Newark Eagles, Black Crackers Clash Here Sunday,” Atlanta Daily World, April 23, 1948: 5.

14 Armand Peterson and Tom Thomashek, Townball: The Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball (Duluth: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 50-1.

15 Patrick Reusse, “Once Upon a Time in Fulda, Folks Were Tuned Into Baseball,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 4, 1993: 1C, 7C.

16 Reusse, 1993.

17 Reusse, 1993.

18 “Les Cubs Auront un Bon Receveur en Earl Ashby,” La Tribune (Sherbrooke, Quebec), May 6, 1950: 18. Translated by Christian Trudeau. The source, a report from an interview with Ashby also claims that Ashby went 11-1 as a pitcher and led the team to the championship. However, it contains a lot of inaccuracies and may be an example of Ashby taking advantage of a low-information environment to embellish his résumé.

19 Patrick Reusse, “Reusse at Random: Frogs Destined to ‘Croak,’” St. Paul Dispatch, August 24, 1978: 59.

20 “Les sportifs de Drummondville demandent la tête de Murphy,” La Tribune, May 17, 1950: 20. Translated by Christian Trudeau.

21 “Bees Take Twin Bill From Kingston Colonial,” Bridgeport Post, June 5, 1950: 26; “Bees Triumph Over Kingston Club 9-6,” Bridgeport Telegram, June 7, 1950: 25.

22 Gerard Hebert, “Le Saint-Jean a perdu un excellent joueur avec R. Ste-Marie blessé,” Le Front Ouvrier (Montreal), July 1, 1950: 14. Translated by Christian Trudeau.

23 Earl Randolph, The Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Cards, maintained by the LA84 Foundation and SABR.  

24 “Paris Player Hits Ump,” Mt. Vernon (Illinois) Register-News, August 2, 1950: 8; “Paris Lakers Release Fiery Cuban Catcher,” Terre Haute Tribune, August 3, 1950: 20.

25 Email conversation between Gary Fink and Christian Trudeau handed to the author (and verified by both men) by Gary Ashwill. In the exchange Mr. Fink sources this from a Mount Vernon newspaper from July 24.

26 “Fined for Brawl,” Fort Worth Telegram, August 11, 1950: Second Section.

27 Earl Ashby, The Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Cards, maintained by the LA84 Foundation and SABR.  

28 “League Distributes Players of Pasquels’ Two Teams,” The Sporting News, March 12, 1952: 32.

29 Howard V. Millard, headline undecipherable, Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, June 3, 1953:12.

30 “Les Cubs Auront un Bon Receveur en Earl Ashby.” Ashby had a track record of polishing his credentials and never showed that type of power before.

31 “Hawks Brave Wind to Hold Workout,” Beaumont Enterprise, March 28, 1955: 8.

32 “Deals of the Week,” The Sporting News, June 22, 1955: 24.

33 “Dugout Diggins,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 20, 1955: 19.

34 “Two Women Indicted on Murder Charges,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 27, 1950: 22.

35 “DA Goes to Bat for Catcher,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 6, 1955: 15.

36 Dominican League statistics can be found at: https://www.winterballdata.com/en.