Fred Downer

Fred Downer led an interesting life, one that included being friendly with major league legend Ty Cobb. Downer was a star baseball player at a historically Black college who spent about seven years playing semipro ball in the segregated South and in the Midwest during the 1910s and 1920s. During his career, he was a teammate of several famous Negro Leagues players, including legendary pitcher William “Dizzy” Dismukes. He became a coach, a scout, a manager, and eventually, a sportswriter and a newspaper distributor. For a while, he was also in possession of the baseball purported to be Babe Ruth’s “called shot” from the 1932 World Series.1 Unfortunately, he lived in an era when most white-run newspapers paid little attention to even the best Black teams, and when record-keeping for Black teams was not always thorough. Thus, there is a lot we still don’t know about Downer’s accomplishments in baseball.

There is also a lot we don’t know about his early life. According to his 1918 federal draft card, he was born Fred Douglas Downer (with one ‘s’) on September 20, 1899; his 1942 draft card said September 21, 1899, and spelled his middle name Douglass. But the 1900 U.S. Census disagreed with both of those dates: it said he was born in January 1895. On the other hand, all available sources agree he was born in Elberton, Georgia, one of three children of Enoch Downer, a grocer, and his wife Mamie. The 1900 census listed Enoch as a widower who was raising Fred and his two sisters. At some point, the Downer family moved to Royston, about 18 miles away, and that is where Fred grew up. Meanwhile, Enoch remarried in 1916, but by that time, Fred was on his way to college.2

Fred had many positive recollections of growing up in Royston.3 He loved sports from the time he was a young child, and even though Royston was segregated, baseball was the common denominator that brought the races together: he recalled that the local boys, both black and white, would play ball until all hours. But Royston had a semipro team, the all–white Royston Rompers. They were also locally famous: among the players who got his start with the Rompers was Ty Cobb,4 and Fred recalled shagging fly balls for him. (It is difficult to verify many of Fred’s recollections, given that few of the all-white newspapers mentioned Royston’s Black residents. On the other hand, there is evidence that Cobb remembered Fred even years later, giving him a hug and greeting him warmly when they saw each other at Wrigley Field sometime in August 1953.)5

Fred recalled being the Rompers’ team mascot, as well as a bat boy. However, he was asked to do more than just “caring for balls and bats. I had to … bat out practice balls, pitch, catch, and occasionally fill in during practice games.”6 On the other hand, for even the most popular Black youth in town, to play for the Rompers during actual games was out of the question. Nor did there seem to be any competitive leagues for young Black athletes in the region at that time. However, Fred was able to play baseball once he got to college. He attended Morehouse, a historically Black college in Atlanta, from 1916 until he graduated in 1920.7 He joined the Morehouse Tigers, for whom he was mainly an infielder;8 but he could also play outfield. The Morehouse team played against other Black colleges, including Clark University, Atlanta University,9 and Howard University.10 Fred was known as a speedster, and distinguished himself by how many bases he stole.11

Several of the Tigers ballplayers, including Downer, latched on with semipro Black teams during the summer. In 1919, he was an outfielder for the Atlanta Cubs, who came to be known unofficially as the “Black Crackers” that year. The new name was a sort of homage: the city’s white minor-league team, the Atlanta Crackers, was very successful, and the Cubs were playing so well that fans began thinking of them as the Black version of the Crackers.12 (It is also worth noting that while the word “cracker” could refer to an uneducated white person, that was not its only meaning back then; it also could be used affectionately, to refer to someone who had long and deep ties to the Georgia/Florida region.)13

But regardless of the name, the Cubs were winning games and drawing large crowds, which included numerous white fans. This was especially true when a well-known Black team like Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants came to town in mid-September 1919; so many white fans wanted to see the game that “an extra large section of the grandstand [was] reserved for them.”14 Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a full picture of how individual players on the Cubs were doing: the white-run newspapers covered only some of their games, and even then seldom included box scores or full descriptions. (This was a problem that would plague many Black teams: the white/mainstream press often ignored them, and the teams themselves lacked any centralized repository to preserve their statistics. Thus, in many cases, all we have from these early years are recollections from the players themselves, and the less-than-regular publication of box scores in certain newspapers.)15

From the available information, it appears that Downer was a role player for the Cubs: he was sometimes a defensive replacement, and sometimes in the starting lineup. He usually played left field, but now and then, he played in the infield, as he had done in college. A right-handed batter, he seldom hit for power, but he got some timely hits, and was praised for his speed on the bases, as well as for his ability to execute the fundamentals in a pressure situation. The Atlanta Constitution described one such occasion, when his manager called for the squeeze play. “Downer, the fast left fielder of the Cubs, came to bat and laid down a perfect bunt,” which scored what turned out to be the winning run as the Cubs defeated the Montgomery Grey Sox in front of a home crowd at Ponce de Leon Park, or “Poncey,” as it was often called.16

Once he had finished up at Morehouse, Downer briefly returned to the Cubs, but then joined the Knoxville Giants for the remainder of the 1920 season.17 (Both Atlanta and Knoxville were by then playing in the newly formed Negro Southern League.)18 Then, in 1921, his baseball journey took him to Pittsburgh, thanks to a fortuitous encounter with veteran pitcher “Dizzy” Dismukes in the spring of 1920, when Fred was still playing college ball. Dismukes happened to see one of Morehouse’s games and was impressed with how the young man played.19 In 1921, Dismukes became the player-manager of the Pittsburgh Keystones and he decided to sign Downer to the team.20

The Keystones had existed in several iterations—one as far back as back in 1887.21 This 1921 version was first called the Pittsburgh Colored Athletics.22 The team’s president and business manager was Alexander McDonald “Don” Williams, who had emigrated from Barbados in 1903 and subsequently settled in Pittsburgh, where he and his brothers operated a pool hall. Williams (usually referred to in the press as “A.M. Williams”) funded the building of a new ballpark at the intersection of Center and Wylie Avenues and Chauncey Street; it opened on July 24, 1920.23 (Evidence suggests that Central Park, as it came to be known, was the first Black-owned ballpark in Pennsylvania, and possibly the first in the United States.)24 But before Williams’s new team could start the season, another local team, which was also named the Athletics, asked him to change his team’s name to avoid any confusion.25 Williams agreed—he decided to revive the Pittsburgh Keystones name, and quickly ordered new uniforms, just in time for the team’s first game.26

During the 1921 season, the Keystones were considered an independent team, and their schedule included games against local semipro clubs, along with some against teams from the Negro Leagues. With Dismukes in charge, the Keystones played their home opener against the W.L. Reinecker Athletic Club on Saturday, April 23, 1921, at Central Park, in front of about 2,000 fans. Prior to the game, there was an “automobile parade,” in which a line of cars carried the players from both teams to the ballpark.27 Downer got two hits in a game the Keystones easily won 10-4. Throughout the season, he played regularly—sometimes starting in either right or left field, and sometimes coming in as a late inning defensive replacement. He was not usually a home run hitter, but he consistently got on base, which may explain why Dismukes often made him the Keystones’ leadoff batter.

It is difficult to determine how well Downer did in all the games he played. As mentioned earlier, the white-run newspapers seldom covered the “colored” teams as thoroughly as they covered the major and minor leagues, and even the Black newspapers tended to focus their attention on other teams, including the Homestead Grays.28 However, we do know that Downer was respected enough to be named team captain that year.29 We also know Downer remained a consistent hitter who got at least one hit in a majority of the games he started and often had multi-hit games. For example, his hitting contributed to a Keystones victory against Duquesne Steel in July when he went 3-for-4 and also stole two bases in a 9-2 win.30 In another July game, against the Dayton Hubs, he went 3-for-3 and stole a base as the Keystones won,18-2.31 In a September game against the Homestead Grays, he got two hits and scored three of the Keystones’ runs in an 11-5 win. The newspapers also praised him for his defensive skills, with one saying he “fielded the best” in that game,32 and another that he “fielded sensationally.”33 Even when the Keystones lost, Downer frequently was one of the team’s bright spots. In a game against the Cuban Stars, he went 3-for-4 and scored a run, although the Cubans easily defeated the Keystones 9-3.34 And in a game the Keystones lost to the Chicago Giants, 11-4, he was the only player on his team to get three hits.35

By many accounts, the Keystones had lots of fans who attended their games, but the team did not have a winning record, nor did it turn a profit. In fact, within several years, Don Williams had lost so much money that he sold the ballpark and got out of baseball.36 We do not know if financial concerns caused Downer to decide to play for someone else; but whatever the reason, he had no trouble finding another team, since Pittsburgh was a hotbed of semipro baseball. He spent the first part of 1922 playing for local businessman Fred R. Clarke’s new club, the Pittsburgh Orioles. He was not the only one to depart from the Keystones; teammates Willis Moody and Royster Bullock joined him.37 Bullock became the manager and Downer the team captain.38 The Orioles also played home games at Central Park; and, like most of the region’s semipro teams, they played road games throughout Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. According to the newspapers, the Orioles were doing well: winning games and drawing crowds.

But then, something happened, around the end of June, when they were scheduled to make a trip to the New Jersey area. Evidently there was a dispute between the owner and the team that resulted in Clarke withdrawing his support. According to one cryptic newspaper article, he left the team “stranded in Baltimore,” where they had a scheduled game against the Black Sox but arrived too late to play it. By the end of June, the team was under new management, with a new name, the “Dixie Colored Crackers.”39 But the Pittsburgh Orioles, or what seemed to be a remnant of the original team,40 soldiered on till early July. Downer was still with them, playing against two New Jersey teams. He went 2-for-3 in one game, and went hitless in another, but the Orioles appeared to be demoralized. The newspapers noted that they played poorly,41 and they lost in surprising (and embarrassing) fashion, 13-4 against Caven Point, and 18-1 against the Peerless club. By July 3, the team seems to have disbanded. Downer played the remainder of the season in New York, possibly for the Brooklyn Royal Stars,42 but little is known about how he did.

In 1923, Downer left Pittsburgh to join Cleveland’s Tate Stars.43 Reporting about his new job, the Pittsburgh Courier referred to him as a “speed merchant,”44 and praised his skills as an outfielder. The Cleveland Gazette agreed, saying he was “an outfielder of exceptional ability, with an almost uncanny ability to steal bases,” and noted that he could also be “a dangerous man at the bat.”45 Interestingly, in addition to Downer, the Tate Stars had as many as six other players who had previously been members of teams from Pittsburgh.46 One of them, Vic Harris, went on to become a star with the Homestead Grays.

Unlike with the Keystones, Downer was not Tate’s leadoff hitter, and he sometimes played right field rather than left. But as with his past clubs, he made few errors, and he reliably got on base. For example, in a game played in fierce April winds that made every fly ball an adventure (both teams made a total of eleven errors), Tate lost to the Tellings club 8-6. However, Downer got two key hits, including a home run, and he was not one of the players who made an error.47 Also, in a game the Stars lost to the Canton (Ohio) Railroaders, 6-4, he went 2-for-3.48

But as May progressed, Downer was in fewer games, and after June 15, he was no longer in the box scores. Little information exists about what happened, but it was reported in the Black press that the team was in financial trouble during that time period: the club was in receivership, and the stockholders were upset with team president George Tate.49 Perhaps Downer wasn’t being paid and he tried to latch on with another team. He seems to have returned to Pittsburgh, but it isn’t known whether he played for anyone during the remainder of 1923. What we do know is in early 1924, there was some talk that he would be joining the Pittsburgh Giants,50 but then, the Pittsburgh Keystones re-formed, under the ownership of Milas J. Tidline, who hired Downer to be the team’s scout. He was also asked to assist manager Mathis Williams, by providing the players with guidance and coaching.51 In addition, he would still have the opportunity to play, something the local sportswriters were happy about. As the Pittsburgh Courier noted, Downer was “one of the best outfielders” in any independent league.52

Because Downer was frequently scouting or coaching, he didn’t play in most of the Keystones’ games. When he did, he showed he was still a capable hitter: in one game, against the team from the Sheraden Board of Trade, he went 3-for-3, including a double, and scored three runs, in a night game that ended in a 5-5 tie.53 The 1924 team was filled with young and often inexperienced players, along with some veterans. But although the Keystones played hard and sometimes showed promise, they didn’t win a lot of games. On the other hand, club management expected better results in 1925, given all the experience the young players had gotten. Downer even told local reporters that the Keystones would be “one of the strongest semi-pro clubs in the district.”54

By the time the Keystones reported for spring training in March 1925, Downer was a married man. He had wed Marian Foster, a graduate of Shaw College (today Shaw University) in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was a society reporter on the women’s pages of the Pittsburgh Courier, and she also wrote about the local churches. The couple later had a son, in June 1936, but he died of bronchial pneumonia when he was just nine months old.55

Downer officially became the Keystones manager for the 1925 season.56 He was now responsible for scouting and signing new players, as well as booking games for the team, and he was excited about the challenge. He was able to sign several former college stars, who reported to the team in May. The Pittsburgh Courier’s sports commentator William G. Nunn praised Downer’s efforts and encouraged the fans to support the Keystones.57 But Nunn’s encouragement wasn’t enough to solve what was becoming a big problem for the Pittsburgh area’s Black semipro teams: most were in financial trouble, the Keystones among them. Nunn reported about this in late June, noting that only the Homestead Grays were doing well. Other teams were unable to sign players, book games, or pay the bills. Nunn said that the Pittsburgh Giants had “practically passed out of existence,” despite being managed by well-known former player Sellers “Sell” Hall, who had purchased Central Park from A.M. “Don” Williams several years before.58 The Pittsburgh Orioles were long gone, the Pittsburgh Monarchs weren’t making any money, and as for the Keystones, they were “practically a thing of the past.”59

Downer had evidently seen the writing on the wall, because in late May, he began playing for an industrial league team belonging to the Pittsburgh branch of the Railway Mail Service (RMS). The post office and the railway mail service were among the few employers offering relatively good-paying jobs to Black men in the era of segregation. The pay was lower than for white employees, but it was still considered a stable means of making a living. It would not be surprising if, at some point, Downer had taken a job with the RMS; it paid the bills while he tried to keep the Keystones going. By some accounts, as many as 22,000 Black men worked for either the postal service or the railway mail during the 1920s.60 And since many of the industries in greater Pittsburgh had semipro teams that competed several times a week, he was able to continue playing baseball.

Interestingly, when Downer began playing in the Press Industrial League (co-sponsored by the Pittsburgh Press newspaper), he was the only Black player on the RMS team. Years later, he recalled that his white teammates “expected nothing more or less of me than to deliver the goods, nor did the opposing white teams show any difference where I was concerned.” And he spoke of how his teammates went out of their way to make him comfortable.61 Downer did “deliver the goods” on the RMS team, playing the outfield well and usually getting one or two hits a game. For example, against Hermes-Grove, he had two hits, and his team won 7-6.62 But what Downer was not able to do was keep the Keystones going. As William G. Nunn had predicted, by July 1925, the team seems to have disbanded.

In late April 1926, Fred’s father, Enoch Downer, a popular businessman in Royston, Georgia, died after being ill for months. He and Fred had remained in touch, and Fred had gone to visit him several times during his illness. At some point later that year, Fred and his wife Marian left Pittsburgh and moved to Chicago. But they kept in touch with their friends and relatives in Pittsburgh. In a note to the Pittsburgh Courier, Downer said he was planning to organize a baseball league among the churches of Chicago, but it is not known whether he was able to achieve that goal. We do know that after he stopped playing semipro baseball, he reinvented himself as a sportswriter, sending dispatches about Black baseball in Chicago, as well as other sports news, to the Pittsburgh Courier.63 He continued to be a correspondent for the Courier well into the late 1930s. By the mid-1930s, Downer was writing for the Chicago Defender, and his sports columns sometimes appeared in the New York Age as well. Marian, too, became a regular columnist: her dispatches about interesting people in Chicago society, as well as news of the Black churches, appeared in the Courier. By the mid-1930s, like her husband, she too was writing for the Chicago Defender. Now and then, she would even write a baseball-themed column.64

In the late 1930s, Downer became circulation manager for the Chicago edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, supervising its distribution in Wisconsin, Northern Indiana, and Illinois; it was a job he continued to hold for about two decades. In addition, around 1941, he started a photography business, the Atlas News and Photo Service. His new company distributed relevant current events photos to interested Black newspapers. For example, in April 1942, he covered spring training for some of the Negro Leagues teams and provided reports and photos to various publications.65 (Marian helped to publicize her husband’s company in her weekly columns—by the early 1940s, she was the society reporter for the Chicago Bee.) Although Fred was mainly involved in the distribution end of newspaper work, he continued to freelance, covering major events in the Negro Leagues, such as the annual East-West classic.

In 1945, one of his articles got people talking: he wrote about how the Negro Leagues should hire white players. He said that if major league baseball continued to resist integrating, the Negro Leagues teams should build their own ballparks and hire the best players, no matter their race. He believed there were many white players, including some just getting out of the military, who might latch on with an integrated team that had its own park and a high caliber of competition. He believed this kind of competition would force the major leagues to integrate, as well as giving the fans more options for watching good baseball.66 But unfortunately, his idea was not taken seriously by Negro Leagues executives, and they never acted on it.

Another story that got Downer into the news was his quest for Babe Ruth’s “called shot” home run ball. Ruth had hit it against the Cubs’ Charlie Root in Game Three of the 1932 World Series, and Fred, who was a big fan of the Babe, had been in attendance when it happened. After the baseball sailed into the bleachers, Fred became determined to find out what happened to it. It took him 10 years to get the answer: he discovered that a fishing buddy of his had caught it. Of course, there was no way to prove that this was in fact the baseball, but Downer (and others) certainly believed it was. He persuaded his friend to give it to him, and for about six years, Downer held onto it. But he finally let his prized souvenir go in 1947: he learned that the newly organized Babe Ruth Foundation was seeking an item that could be auctioned off to help underprivileged children, and he donated the baseball to the Foundation.67

In 1948, Fred and Marian Downer got divorced. By this time, Fred had gone into the newsstand business, and he eventually owned three newsstands in Chicago. He became a popular fixture in the Hyde Park section of the city for nearly three decades, selling newspapers and talking baseball with anyone who wanted to. He was so well-liked that customers, both Black and white, had fond memories of seeing him each day. One of his regular customers was Walter Powers, a white businessman who owned a chain of 12 restaurants. Powers was so impressed with Downer’s work ethic and his positive attitude that he gave Fred a lifetime “meal ticket,” a gift certificate to any of the restaurants.68

Fred Downer died in Chicago on March 10, 1986. While he never became famous as a baseball player, he was a solid and consistent role player; and had he not played at a time when many Black semipro teams ended up disbanding due to financial problems, his stats (the ones that we have been able to compile) might have been more impressive. As it was, he was frequently praised by the local press, including the white publications, for his speed and his defensive skills. He was also a mentor to numerous players, some of whom kept in touch with him over the years. If he had lived at a time when baseball was not segregated, perhaps he might have become a minor-league manager or a major-league coach. But throughout his life, whether as a player, a sportswriter, or a newspaper vendor, Fred never lost his love for baseball.

Acknowledgments

The author consulted numerous historical newspaper databases, including Newspapers.com, Genealogybank.com, and Proquest Black Newspapers. The author also consulted Seamheads.com, and she appreciates the informative email conversations with Gary Ashwill.

This biography was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Rory Costello and fact-checked by James Forr.

Photo credit: Fred Downer, Pittsburgh Courier, April 19, 1924.

Notes

1 “On the Radio Airlines,” Sporting News, May 28, 1942: 14.

2 “Prime Sport News,” Cleveland Gazette, March 17, 1923: 2.

3 Fred D. Downer, “Batter Up!! A Program for the Majors,” New Vistas, August 1945: 27-28.

4 “Ty Cobb, Greatest of Ballplayers,” Bridgeport (Connecticut) Evening Farmer, December 19, 1912: 7.

5 Dan Burley, “Talking About,” Jet Magazine, August 27, 1953: 47.

6 Fred D. Downer, “Batter Up!! A Program for the Majors,” New Vistas, August 1945: 27.

7 Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, Annual Catalogue, 1926-1927: 149.

8 Frank L. Forbes, A History of Athletics at Morehouse College, 1896-1966, Atlanta: Morehouse College (1966): 8.

9 “Athletics,” The Athenaeum, Morehouse College, March 1917: 11-12.

10 “Morehouse Ties Howard 6-6,” Chicago Defender, April 15, 1916: 7.

11 “Prime Sport News,” Cleveland Gazette, March 17, 1923: 2.

12 “Cubs Open Here Monday with Knoxville Giants,” Atlanta Constitution, July 27, 1919: 4.

13 Gene Demby, “The Secret History of the Word ‘Cracker’,” Code Switch, Word Watch, NPR.org, July 1, 2013: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/01/197644761/word-watch-on-crackers

14 “Atlanta’s Own Cubs Meet Giants Today,” Atlanta Constitution, September 19, 1919: 15.

15 Similarly, Richard Bak speaks of the challenge in finding reliable Negro Leagues stats for his book Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars, Detroit: Wayne State University Press (1995): 73-74.

16 “Cubs Defeat Gray Sox in Fast Game at Poncey,” Atlanta Constitution, August 12, 1919: 13.

17 “Giants Hit Ball and Triumph, 4-3,” Knoxville (Tennessee) Journal and Tribune, July 7, 1920: 14.

18 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland (2015): 9-10.

19 “Prime Sport News,” Cleveland Gazette, March 17, 1923: 2.

20 “Keystones Sign New Players,” Pittsburgh Press, April 16, 1921: 8.

21 Rob Ruck, Sandlot Seasons, Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press (1993): 40.

22 “Colored Team Strong,” Pittsburgh Press, March 29, 1921: 28.

23 “New Athletic Field to Be Opened Tomorrow,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, July 23, 1920: 12.

24 Kevin Kirkland, “Your Photo Could Be Ballpark’s Best Shot at the Record Books,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 18, 2021: G-5.

25 “Negro Baseball Team Likely to Change Name,” Pittsburgh Press, April 2, 1921: 12.

26 “Uniforms Are Ordered,” Pittsburgh Press, April 5, 1921: 32.

27 “Keystones Win Opener from Reineckers, 10-4,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, April 24, 1921, Section 3: 2.

28 E. Everett Lane, “Sport Tid-Bits,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 27, 1921: 2.

29 William G. Nunn, “Diamond Dope,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 6, 1925: 12.

30 “Keystones on Long End,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, July 16, 1921: 10.

31 “Keystone Wallop Dayton,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, July 8, 1921: 8.

32 “Keystones Win Third of Series,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, September 3, 1921: 10.

33 “Keystone Wins,” Pittsburgh Post, September 3, 1921: 8.

34 “Keystones Fall Before Cubans,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, June 25, 1921: 12.

35 “Chicago Takes First from Locals,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, June 17, 1921: 10.

36 John L. Clark, “Wylie Avenue,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1941: 22.

37 “Pittsburgh to Have New Club,” New York Age, March 4, 1922: 6.

38 “Pittsburgh Orioles Playing Good Ball,” Richmond (Virginia) Planet, June 24, 1922: 7.

39 “Have Changed Their Name,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 30, 1922: 9.

40 “Peerless Capture Two Games Over Weekend,” Paterson (New Jersey) Morning Call, June 26, 1922: 3.

41 “Penn Red Caps vs. Caven Point,” Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), July 3, 1922: 10.

42 “Prime Sport News,” Cleveland Gazette, March 17, 1923: 2.

43 “Right Off the Bat,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 7, 1923: 16.

44 “Many Changes in 1923 Lineup of Cleveland,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 14, 1923: 11.

45 “Prime Sport News,” Cleveland Gazette, March 17, 1923: 2.

46 Geo. M. Bell, “Gloomy Outlook for New York This Year,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 28, 1923: 11.

47 “Tate Stars Unable to Solve Dornkott,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 23, 1923: 17.

48 “Brilliant Fielding Stunts Features Second Victory of Railroaders Against Tates,” Canton (Ohio) Evening Repository, May 4, 1923: 38.

49 “Tate Baseball Co. Stockholders Rebel,” Cleveland Gazette, May 5, 1923: 5.

50 “Local Clubs to Begin Spring Training This Week,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1924: 10.

51 “To Pilot Keystones,” Chicago Defender, March 22, 1924: 6.

52 “Pair of Keystone ‘Aces,’” Pittsburgh Courier, April 19, 1924: 10.

53 “Traders Tie Keystoners,” Pittsburgh Post, June 26, 1924: 12.

54 “Keystones to be Back on Field Again,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 4, 1925: 12.

55 “Infant Son of the Fred Downers Dies of Pneumonia,” Chicago Defender, March 20, 1937: 19.

56 “Downer and Pgh Keystones in Spring Grind,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 18, 1925: 13

57 William G. Nunn, “Diamond Dope,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 6, 1925: 12.

58 “Rags Roberts to Pilot Sell Hall’s Giants,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 15, 1924: 6.

59 William G. Nunn, “Lean Days Are Upon Us,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 27, 1925: 12.

60 “22,000 Race People Now in Post Office,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 18, 1925: 2.

61 Fred D. Downer, “Batter Up!! A Program for the Majors,” New Vistas, August 1945: 28.

62 “Industrial League,” Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, August 7, 1925: 12.

63 For example, Fred Downer, “Chicago Baseball News,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 4, 1927, Section 2: 5.

64 Marian F. Downer, “Our Girl Scribe Sees Mule’s Hit,” Chicago Defender, August 17, 1935: 6.

65 “Covers Baseball Camps,” California Eagle, April 16, 1942: 10.

66 “Negro Leagues Should Hire White Players,” Arkansas State Press, July 27, 1945: 1.

67 “Ruth Homer-Ball Returns to Aid Ruth’s Foundation,” The Sporting News, August 27, 1947: 19.

68 “Inherits Meal Ticket,” (Phoenix) Arizona Sun, April 10, 1958: 2.