Eddie Dixon

Eddie Lee Dixon was born on May 16, 1916, in Bonifay, Florida, in the Florida panhandle region, approximately 100 miles northeast of Pensacola, where Dixon spent most of his formative years. Except for his years in the Negro Leagues and while serving in the US Army during World War II, Dixon spent his entire life in Florida.

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.”