Jim Willis

Jim Willis began his baseball career with the New Orleans Black Pelicans in 1926 and ended it in 1949 as player-manager of the Evansville (Indiana) Dodgers. Over the 23-year arc of his life in baseball, Willis spent at least 12 seasons in an Elite Giants uniform. He made his last appearance on the mound for the Baltimore edition of the Elite Giants in 1939. He did not, however, pitch for the Elites during the 1939 Championship Series. He was a man in constant motion. He jumped from team to team with ease but not always without controversy. Willis was one of the best pitchers of his era that you likely have never heard of, mainly due to the long shadow cast by his sometime teammate, Satchel Paige.

In the early 1930s it was not unusual for Willis to notch double-digit strikeouts in a single game.1 He hurled a wicked curveball with deceptive action often enhanced by a soda-bottle cap that he secretly used to rough up the ball.2 Willis was also a man of mystery and of many names. He seems to have dropped into the baseball world from out of nowhere as a young pitcher in 1926, and then vanished into the gloaming in 1949 when he hung up his glove. He had just about as many nicknames as he did teams. Over his more than two-decade career, he was known as Smokey, Smoky, Wild Jim, Cannonball, Big Boy, Charley, Bullet, Big Jim, Speed, Vic, Sammy, and Eddie Willis.3

Who was Jim Willis, other than a man of many names? Little is known about his personal life and what leads do exist cannot be verified. His birth and death dates and locations are unknown. The lack of information about Willis’s family background in government documents and published works, combined with his relatively common name, makes him an elusive target for the researcher. In fact, Jim Willis may not even have been his legal name. But what is known is that Willis had a career in baseball that lasted for more than two decades, and during that time, he pitched his way into baseball history.

Willis left behind few breadcrumbs regarding his life beyond the diamond. But what he did leave us with was a record of a long and winding baseball life that began as early as 1926 with the New Orleans Black Pelicans, also known as Caulfield’s Ads, named for promoter Fred Caulfield.4 By midseason Willis had the best won-lost record in the Negro Southern League.5 Willis and the Black Pelicans traveled throughout the South, including stops in Nashville, where they tangled with the Elite Giants in September at Sulphur Dell.6 Willis and the Black Pelicans lost, 5-3.7 New Orleans absorbed that loss and went on to vie for the NSL title against the Black Barons, but it was Birmingham that wore the crown.8 Willis ended his tenure with the Black Pelicans with a 17-9 record, the best in the NSL.9 By then, Willis had caught the attention of the Nashville management, and by the spring of 1928, he was plying his trade in an Elite Giants uniform. It would be the first of at least 11 seasons during which Willis drew a paycheck from various iterations of the Elite Giants.

Willis began his first go-round as an Elite Giant in the spring of 1927.10 He won his first start for Nashville on April 20 with an impressive 6-0 thumping of the Milwaukee Giants, granting the visiting Wisconsinites just four hits.11 He continued his good form throughout the NSL season and was known to Elite Giants fans as Wild Jim or Smokey Willis for his dominating and deceptive hurling.12 But by midsummer, the NSL collapsed, leaving only the Dixie Series between Nashville and the Dallas Black Sox as the final defining moment for the Elite Giants.13 Willis helped the Elites clinch the Dixie title when he downed the Black Sox 5-4 at Sulphur Dell.14

For Jim Willis, the grass was always greener on the other side of the outfield fence. He rarely played for one team for more than two years in a row and was prone to midseason migrations to greener pastures. So when the Dayton Independents reached out to Willis in February 1928 with an offer of employment, they must have known that he was in the mood for a change of scenery.15 But Willis didn’t head north to Ohio in early 1928; instead, he left Nashville and went south for spring training with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro National League.16 Willis joined the Black Barons at their spring-training camp at Fort Benning, Georgia, and after 10 days was “rounded into form and ready to go.”17

While Willis was able to manhandle the Twenty-Fourth Infantry nine of Fort Benning, once the competition stepped up in class, it was another story.18 A week later, Willis and the Black Barons lost to the St. Louis Stars, 8-5, and a few days later, he failed as a reliever when the Stars swept a doubleheader against the Barons.19 But Willis was not completely to blame for his losses. In May he lost a four-hitter to the Chicago American Giants 3-2, because of the Black Barons’ four errors and their lack of offensive support.20 The game was played under protest by Birmingham, which accused Chicago of using outfielder William “Nat” Rogers, who was “the property of the Memphis club,” and for “having 17 players in Chicago uniforms when the league ruling calls for 16.”21 By early June, Willis had enough of the Magic City. He appeared in seven games for Birmingham, racking up a scratchy 2-4 record and a 6.06 ERA. The Black Barons went on to have a losing record of 46-53 for the 1928 season. On June 9 the president of the Birmingham club announced that two of their players were no longer with the Black Barons – outfielder Ruben Jones, who “felt there were some rules of the club that he did not feel he could obey,” and Jim Willis, who was “displeased or dissatisfied because of his inability to win in this league, and decided to go where he could have an easy time and not work quite so hard.”22

Where did Willis believe he could be more satisfied with his career? For Willis, the answer was Nashville. He jumped back to Nashville, where he regained his winning ways as a starter and reliever for the Elite Giants.23 The Nashville Elite Giants played as an independent team in 1928, and since the NSL had collapsed, there was no end-of-season championship series.24 Willis would have to wait for more satisfaction.

Willis was less of a rolling stone in 1929 and 1930 and stayed put in Nashville for two consecutive seasons – a rarity given his peripatetic ways. The Elite Giants were admitted as an associate member of the NNL in the spring of 1929 although they continued to compete in the NSL.25 But the NSL operated only for the first half of the year; it collapsed in midsummer. Nashville was atop the standings and was declared the winner with a 9-3 record.26 After the NSL lost its organizational structure, Willis and the Elite Giants spent the remainder of the 1929 season barnstorming against NNL teams including the Kansas City Monarchs, Memphis Red Sox, St. Louis Stars, and the Black Barons. And just as the NSL lost steam, so did Willis. His role as a starter was diminished to a handful of late-inning appearances and mostly in losing situations.27 And things went from bad to worse. In mid-August he found himself tending the right-field garden for the Elites in a game against an East Chicago, Indiana, nine.28 If that loss didn’t sting Willis, less than two weeks later he was injured while sliding home in the 10th inning of a barnstorming game against the Indianapolis Lincoln Highways.29 But Willis ended his year with the Elite Giants on a high note by tossing a gem of a one-hitter against the Miami Giants, a 3-0 victory for Nashville.30

In the spring of 1930, Willis returned to the Elite Giants, who were now full-fledged members of the NNL.31 He chalked up a preseason win against the Louisville Black Caps in April by holding the visitors to four hits and fanning 12.32 His pitching was described as “masterful … [F]our hits was the best they could do toward solving his slants.”33 The consolation prize for the Black Caps? They were given a guided tour of the city of Nashville by the Elite Giants players.34 At the end of the 1930 season, it was the Elite Giants who were in need of some consolation. They finished the year deep in the basement of the NNL standings with a dismal 26-55-1 record. For Willis, however, there was some cause for celebration. He was Nashville’s leading pitcher with a 3.99 ERA even though he posted an abysmal 3-12 record. As the Elites’ top hurler, he was presented with a wristwatch by Harold L. Shyer, a local jeweler, vice president of the Nashville Vols, and one of the founding members of Nashville’s Old Timers Club.35 And Willis also gained a new nickname – Cannonball.36

Cannonball Willis earned his new sobriquet in 1930 during his first rotation with the Elite Giants/Royal Colored Giants in the California Winter League.37 He pitched at least three seasons of winter ball in Los Angeles against such teams as the Pirrone All-Stars, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios nine, the El Paso Mexicans, and the San Luis Cubans, among others.38 Among those with whom Willis shared the horsehide during winter ball were Cool Papa Bell, Turkey Stearnes, and Mule Suttles.39 Willis also rubbed elbows with Hollywood celebrities like Buster Keaton and Joe E. Brown, who were on hand to promote their projects.40 But when the curtain came down on the West Coast interlude in early 1931, it was back to Nashville for Willis and his chores on the mound for the Elite Giants. And it was truly drudgery. Willis and the Elite Giants lost all of their spring exhibition games.41

The Elites notched the first regular-season game win when Willis took to the hill and bested the Memphis Red Sox, 3-1.42 But that was not enough to keep him satisfied. By early June, thoughts of greener pastures arose once more and he jumped to the newly minted Cleveland Cubs of the NNL.43 While the city and uniforms changed, one thing remained the same: the team and Willis’s boss. The Cleveland Cubs were essentially a reconstituted version of the Nashville Elite Giants and owned by Tom Wilson.44 Willis was their leading pitcher with five wins and four losses and a wobbly 5.09 ERA, the highest of the starters with at least five appearances. Also on the Cubs’ slab staff was Satchel Paige. Willis and Paige would later team up in the winter leagues and vie for top pitching honors. The Cleveland club was a one-year wonder and folded by the end of the 1931 season. They finished in second place in the NNL with a record of 23-22 in league play.

After his brief detour to Cleveland, in the spring of 1932 Willis was back with the Elite Giants in Nashville of the NSL. Willis was used mainly as a pitcher that year but did make an occasional appearance in the outfield.45 He had a slow start with an early loss to the Louisville Black Caps, whom which he had so handily dismissed in 1930, but found his winning groove by the early summer and was rewarded with yet another nickname, Bullet Willis.46 On June 25 Willis fanned 11 Red Sox batsmen for a solid 4-1 victory for Nashville over Memphis.47

Willis’s sharpshooting on the mound helped the Elite Giants claim the second-half NSL championship and a date with the Chicago American Giants for the 1932 Dixie Series showdown. Alas, there was no happy ending for Willis and the Elites. They lost the series due to their error-prone defense and the timely and explosive offense posted by the American Giants led by Turkey Stearnes, Steel Arm Davis, and Sandy Thompson.48 Willis ended the 1932 season as the best tosser on the Elite Giants staff, with a 4-5 record and a 2.54 ERA. His teammate Henry Wright was the club’s top hurler, with six wins against three losses and a 2.62 ERA. But Willis didn’t have much time to dwell on what could have been. In early October, Willis, and an aggregation that was first billed as Tom Wilson’s “Philadelphia Elite Giants,” but later named the “Royal Colored Giants,” rolled into Union Station in Los Angeles to prepare for another California Winter League season.49 Joining Willis and the Elites in Los Angeles for the first time was Satchel Paige, described to local fans simply as a “new man to the coast, who is also a catcher.”50

In March 1933, for the fifth year in a row, Willis reported for spring training with the Elite Giants.51 He seemed to be off to a good start. On June 8 his “masterful pitching” helped Nashville win the first half of a doubleheader against the Homestead Grays by a comfortable 7-1 score.52 But a few weeks later, he was at the center of a firestorm when he jumped from the Elite Giants to the Philadelphia Stars.53 Tom Wilson was “angry and choleric” over Willis’s defection.54 He demanded that his pitching ace be returned to his club, that no NNL club should play the Stars until Willis was back in Nashville, and that there was the matter of a $150 debt that Willis owed to Wilson that must be resolved.55

Wilson’s fellow team owners voted to blacklist the Stars “until Willis is returned to Nashville and delinquent accounts” were paid.56 Because of Willis’s defection, the NNL ruled that “no league clubs would be permitted to play Philadelphia Stars on account of player Willis.”57 One team that ignored the ban was the Pittsburgh Crawfords. The Craws ignored the NNL prohibitions and not only played several games against the Stars in mid-August, but also one in which Willis was on the mound for Philadelphia.58 When it came time for the East All-Star balloting for pitchers, at least 4,383 fans didn’t seem to hold a grudge when they cast their votes for Willis.59 Of course the stars did not align for Willis to be an All-Star in 1933. He was outshone by the top vote-getter, Sam Streeter, who garnered 29,989 tallies, and by Paige, who had an impressive 23,089 votes.60 If Willis was affected by the controversy, it didn’t show. He wore the Philadelphia uniform for the rest of the season.

In the end, in spite of all the drama and vitriol, it appears that Tom Wilson and Jim Willis reconciled their differences. By September, Willis was announced as a returning player on Wilson’s Royal Giants of the California Winter League.61 In Los Angeles Willis teamed up again with Paige; they shared the spotlight with Hollywood celebrities including George Raft and an actress named Constance Allen who was “the star of the recent nudist picture, ‘Elysia.’”62 Willis and Paige thrived in the California sunshine and dazzled crowds and baffled batters. Although just a few years earlier Paige was a relative unknown to the Los Angeles audience, by 1933 he was described as the “celebrated strike-out king.”63 But in truth, Willis was just as effective as Paige and grabbed headlines with sparkling performances. He even stole “some of Paige’s thunder” when he struck out 13 batters to lead the Royal Giants to a 14-0, win over the White Kings.64 Paige grabbed most of the headlines, but Willis was just as good. At the end of the season, the Royal Giants won their second straight Winter League championship.65 Paige’s record for the West Coast swing was 16-2 while Willis was credited with 14 wins against two losses.66 But there was no rest for weary arms. After hoisting the pennant, Willis and his fellow Elite Giants headed back Nashville, playing exhibition and “spring training” games along the way to pay the freight.67

For Willis, the 1934 season was a mirror image of his working life in 1933 – spending the regular season with the Elite Giants and ringing in a new year in sunny Los Angeles in the Winter League. Willis crossed paths with Paige in May when the Pittsburgh Crawfords paid a visit to Nashville.68 This time it was Bullet Willis who stole the spotlight, and thanks to some “sensational fielding” by Sam Bankhead, the Elites nipped Paige and the Crawfords, 2-1.69 That moment may have been the highlight of the year for Willis. The Elites had a mediocre season and finished the year in fifth place in Negro National League II. Willis took the mound just six times for the Elites and posted a dismal 2-4 record but had the lowest ERA (2.65) among Nashville’s top three hurlers. With the 1934 season in the books, Willis was westward bound for another Winter League swing and another reunion with Paige and the Royal Giants.

For the next few years, Willis continued to toss the pill for the Elite Giants as Wilson’s team migrated from Nashville to Columbus, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., before finally settling down in for a stay in Baltimore in 1939. In 1935 Willis was touted as one of the “greatest stars of Negro baseball,” and the “possessor of a good fast ball and a baffling change of pace,” and as a “keen student of the game.”70 The changes in scenery did little to improve the Elites, and in 1935 they ended up in third place in the NNL2. Willis was the second-best pitcher on the squad with an improved 4-1 record and a 2.89 ERA, the lowest of the Elites’ top slingers. In 1936 and 1937 the Elites settled in Washington. For Willis, the move was a capital idea. In 1936 he ended the year with a so-so 5-5 record but posted the lowest ERA (2.84) of any pitcher in the NNL2 with at least 10 appearances on the mound, including Paige, who went 8-2 with a 3.64 ERA. In 1937 Willis had a rough year with the Elites, though, and was relegated mainly to working in relief. Although he did have some success in a handful of nonleague tilts during the 1937 season, he was handed the ball for only two NNL2 games before racking up an eye-popping 15.19 ERA.71 What caused Willis’s rapid decline in 1937 is unknown but it was a harbinger of things to come. Cannonball Willis was misfiring and running low on ammunition.

The 1938 season marked the first time since 1928 that Willis did not start spring training in an Elite Giants jersey. He was now a member of the Evansville Morocco Stars, of Evansville, Indiana. The Morocco Stars were an independent barnstorming club whose roster included other castoffs from the NNL2 and NSL.72 In May the “Theodore Acklen’s” Stars and their marquee pitcher, “Big Jim Willis,” described as a “former” big leaguer, were scheduled to make an appearance at Sulphur Dell in May in a game against the Cincinnati White Sox.73 The Stars were described as a “local Negro” team, indicating that they had migrated from Indiana to Tennessee.74 By August 1938, the Stars were rebranded as the Nashville Morocco Stars and claimed to have won 50 of their 60 games and boasted the services of such “outstanding stars” as Jim Willis.75 The lack of newspaper coverage of the Morocco Stars’ season makes it difficult to confirm their reported winning record or exactly how Willis contributed to that feat.

The Morocco Stars fell from the sky and did not field a team in 1939. Willis needed a job and the first offer came from the Baltimore Elite Giants. It was Jim Willis’s last year in the NNL2. He appeared in two games for the Elite Giants during their championship season but did not play in the final series. Although he won one of his two starts for Baltimore, batters were no longer baffled by his curve and Willis quickly accrued a beefy 12.15 ERA. By early July, Willis was no longer in an Elites uniform. The Elite Giants were in the process of cleaning house and reinventing their lineup with more youthful talent, and Willis had to go.76 He didn’t have to leave town, but he did have to take a step down in class. He was signed by the Baltimore Black Sox, a Black minor-league team.77 In one of his first outings with the Black Sox, Willis was planted out in left field and went 0-for-4 at the plate in a 16-1 drubbing by the Long Branch Greys.78 The Black Sox used Willis more as a utility player than as a pitcher, and even then only as an occasional reliever.79 When the 1939 Black Sox season was over, Willis did not play another game in Baltimore. In fact, he didn’t play for another team until 1941.

During the 1940s, Willis’s career was in steep decline. In the spring of 1941, he was picked up as player-manager by the Cincinnati White Sox, formerly known as the Cincinnati Tigers.80 But that arrangement lasted less than two months and by June Willis’s name no longer appeared in newspaper coverage of Cincinnati’s games.81 He resurfaced in 1942 as a player-coach for another team, Nashville’s L.N-N.C. Railroaders.82 In May it was reported that Willis had recently enlisted in the US Army but that his induction was “temporarily deferred.”83 No US Army records were found for a “Jim Willis” for that timeframe and location. Willis’s name did not appear in any baseball game results for the remainder of 1942, or during the 1943 or 1944 seasons, leaving his whereabouts unknown.

The last four years of Jim Willis’s baseball life were spent in Evansville, Indiana. In 1945 he took a turn with the Evansville Black Sox.84 In 1946 and 1947, Willis found a home with the Evansville Reichert Giants, a team that was sponsored by the city’s mayor, Manson L. Reichert, and managed in part by Charles “Dusty” Decker, an influential local businessman and politician who was formerly associated with the Indianapolis A.B.C.s, Memphis Red Sox, Detroit Stars, and the Louisville Black Colonels.85 Willis experienced a bit of a renaissance and found himself back on the mound as a starting pitcher. Although he was described as a “Baltimore Giants’ cast-off,” he let his pitches do the talking in the summer of 1946 as he racked up a string of wins for the Reichert nine.86 But it was nearly closing time for Willis. He came back to Evansville for the 1947 season but was ineffective.87 Willis sat out the 1948 season and returned to Evansville in the summer of 1949 to put the final touches on his career as a manager and coach of the Evansville Dodgers of the NSL.

After Willis ended his baseball career in Evansville in 1949, he disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared with the New Orleans Black Pelicans in 1926. In more than two decades as a baseball player, no clues to his personal life appeared in newspapers. No obituaries about a former Negro League pitcher named Jim Willis have surfaced. What is known is that he had flashes of brilliance as a pitcher during the early 1930s that nearly equaled the flash and substance of Satchel Paige. And his peers recognized his brilliance. Negro Leagues historian John Holway quoted former Elite Giant Roy Campanella: “The Elites had five pitchers who could pitch in any league – any league. … We had Robert Griffith, Andrew Porter, Bill Byrd, Jim Willis, and left-hander Tom Glover. I would take those five pitchers, put them right on the Dodgers, and all of those fellows would be starters in the big leagues.”88

In a 1987 interview, Claude O’Neil, a Nashville Elite Giants fan, recalled that “Jim Willis had a great curve ball,” and added, “They used to call Willis ‘Black Gold.”89

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 are 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 “Elite Giants Capture Twice from Memphis,” Nashville Tennessean, June 27, 1932: 7; “Giants Hand White Kings 14-0 Shutout,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1933: 14.

2 Richard Schweid, “Club Built Against All Odds,” Nashville Tennessean, September 2, 1987: 19, 22.

3 “Black Pelicans Try for Fourth in a Row,” New Orleans Item, July 14, 1926: 20; “Nashville Elites Beat Black Barons,” St. Louis Argus, August 12, 1927: 7; “Elite Giants Play Hopkinsville Sunday,” Nashville Tennessean, April 11, 1930: 15; “Elite Giants Play Hopkinsville Today,” Nashville Tennessean, April 13, 1930: 20; “‘Babe’ Herman on All Star Team,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 29, 1930: 18; “Elite Giants to Play Dixie Series Champs,” Nashville Banner, June 4, 1932: 10; “Giants Win 1st Game in Winter League 8-2,” Indianapolis Recorder, October 21, 1933: 2; “Tigers Add Trio of New Players,” Cincinnati Post, May 15, 1934: 11; “Phila. Stars Cop Two from Nashville Nine,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 1934: 29; “Philly Stars and Bushwicks in 1 to 1 Tie,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 24, 1939: 7; “Baltimore Giants to Play Manheim,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Intelligencer Journal, June 27, 1939: 12.

4 “Eight Cities Enter Negro Southern League,” New Orleans States, April 7, 1920: 15; “Black Pelicans Open Season with Memphis Team Saturday,” New Orleans Item, April 30, 1926: 19.

5 “Black Barons Meet Ads in Three Games,” Birmingham News, July 18, 1926: 19.

6 “Black Pelicans Fall Before Elite Giants,” Nashville Banner, August 9, 1926: 11.

7 “Elite Giants Defeat Black Pelicans, 5 to 3,” Nashville Tennessean, August 9, 1926: 7.

8 “Black Barons Cop Final Go of Year from Ads,” Birmingham News, September 9, 1926: 16.

9 William J. Plott, The Negro Southern League, A Baseball History, 1920-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Inc., 2015), 58.

10 “Elite Giants to Be Strong This Year,” Nashville Banner, April 8, 1927: 19.

11 “Elite Giants Again Trounce Milwaukee,” Nashville Tennessean, April 21, 1927: 11.

12 “Nashville Elites Beat Black Barons,” St. Louis Argus, August 12, 1927: 7; “Black Barons Lose,” Birmingham Reporter, August 13, 1927: 7.

13 Plott, 74-75.

14 “Elite Giants Capture Negro Dixie Title,” Nashville Banner, September 12, 1927: 10.

15 “Dayton Seeks Stars,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 18, 1928: 16.

16 “Black Barons to Train in Georgia,” Birmingham Post-Herald, March 18, 1928: 22.

17 “Black Baron Pilot Working Team Hard,” Birmingham Post-Herald, April 8, 1928: 26.

18 “Black Barons Win in Ninth Over Infantry,” Birmingham Post-Herald, April 20, 1928: 12.

19 “St. Louis Stars Again Win from Birmingham Black Barons, 8 to 5,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 30, 1928: 9; “St. Louis Stars Win Double-Header from Birmingham, 5-0, 8-5,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 2, 1928: 13.

20 “Black Barons Lose to Chicago Giants Under Protest, 3-2,” Birmingham News, May 6, 1928: 25.

21 “Black Barons Lose to Chicago Giants Under Protest, 3-2.”

22 “Black Barons Release Jones; Add New Players,” Birmingham Reporter, June 9, 1928: 7.

23 “Elite Giants Open with Chattanooga,” Nashville Banner, June 21, 1928: 13; “Elite Giants Blank Lookouts,” Nashville Tennessean, June 25, 1928: 9; “Squeeze Play Beats Majors in Last Frame,” Flint (Michigan) Sunday Journal, August 19, 1928: 6.

24 Plott, 76.

25 “Elite Giants Are Ready for Work,” Nashville Banner, April 7, 1929: 42; Plott, 78-79.

26 Plott, 78.

27 “Elite Giants Lose,” Nashville Banner, June 17, 1929: 17; “Elite Giants Lost Twin Bill to Red Sox,” Nashville Banner, July 29, 1929: 12; Dark Barons Take Two at Nashville,” Birmingham Post-Herald, August 5, 1929: 11.

28 “Poindexter Stops Elites; Score 5 to 3,” Munster (Indiana) Times, August 15, 1929: 14.

29 “Nashville Elites Divide Two with Lincoln Highways,” Chicago Defender, August 24, 1929: 9.

30 “Elite Giants Divide with Florida Team,” Nashville Tennessean, September 30, 1929: 9.

31 “Elite Giants Join the National Loop,” Nashville Tennessean, March 25, 1930: 12.

32 “Black Caps Lose,” Louisville Courier-Journal, April 20, 1930: 52.

33 “Elite Giants Win,” Nashville Banner, April 20, 1930: 25.

34 “Elite Giants Win.”

35 “Elite Giants Win and Tie with Black Barons,” Nashville Tennessean, September 1, 1930: 6.

36 “‘Babe’ Herman on All Star Team,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 29, 1930: 18; “Harold L. Shyer Rites Tomorrow,” Nashville Tennessean, October 19, 1971: 28.

37 “‘Cannonball’ Willis Will Twirl Sunday,” Los Angeles Daily News, November 6, 1930: 15.

38 “‘Babe’ Herman on All Star Team; “‘Cannonball’ Willis Will Twirl Sunday”; “White Sox to See Nashville Giants, Mexicans and All-Stars Tilt,” California Eagle (Los Angeles), November 14, 1930: 9; James Newton, “Winter Ball,” Chicago Defender, February 7, 1931: 8.

39 “Elite Giants Cop Winter League Rag,” Nashville Banner, February 4, 1934: 12.

40 “‘Cannonball’ Willis Will Twirl Sunday”; James Newton, “Winter Ball,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1931: 8.

41 “Elite Giants Defeated Twice Sunday Afternoon,” Nashville Banner, April 20, 1931: 13; “Nashville Wins Season Opener,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 16, 1931: 14.

42 “Nashville Wins Season Opener.”

43 “Cubs to Meet Hoosiers Here,” Akron Beacon Journal, June 3, 1931: 17.

44 James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graff Publishers, Inc., 1994), 178-179.

45 “Elite Giants Take Second from Crackers,” Nashville Tennessean, May 15, 1932: 9.

46 “Black Caps Defeat Nashville Team, 7-4,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 14, 1932: 12; “Elite Giants to Play Dixie Series Champs,” Nashville Banner, June 4, 1932: 10.

47 “Elite Giants Capture Twice from Memphis,” Nashville Tennessean, June 27, 1932: 7.

48 “Five Homers Give Chicago Americans Win Over Elites,” Nashville Tennessean, September 19, 1932: 7; “Elite Giants Lose in Playoff with Chicago for Southern Crown,” Nashville Tennessean, October 3, 1932: 7; Al Monroe, “Giants Crush Nashville,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1932: 8.

49 “Winter League Ready for Greatest Season in History of Sox Park,” California Eagle, October 2, 1932: 9; “Winter Ball to Start on Sunday,” Los Angeles Daily News, October 5, 1932: 14.

50 “Winter League Ready for Greatest Season in History of Sox Park.”

51 “Elite Giants Train in New Orleans, La.,” Nashville Banner, April 2, 1932: 11; “Elite Giants Return from Spring Training,” Nashville Banner, April 19, 1933: 10.

52 Fred D. McCrary, “Grays, Nashville Battle to Thrilling 10-10 Tie,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 10, 1933: 15.

53 William G. Nunn, “Posey Refuses to Return Two Detroit Players,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1933: 14.

54 Nunn.

55 Nunn.

56 Bill Gibson, “Pittsburgh’s Grays Ousted from League,” Kansas City Call, July 7, 1933: 12.

57 Cum Posey, “Pointed Paragraphs,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 15, 1933: 14.

58 Russell J. Cowans, “Thru the Sport Mirror,” Detroit Tribune, August 5, 1933: 7; “Crawfords Rally Local Stars Bow,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 13, 1933: 23; “5,000 Fans See Colored Teams at Eagle Park,” York (Pennsylvania) Gazette and Daily, August 14, 1933: 12.

59 “The East-West Game Player Vote,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 9, 1933: 15.

60 “The East-West Game Player Vote.”

61 Harry Levette, “Winter League Opens October 14; To Be Greatest in History,” California Eagle, September 22, 1933: 11.

62 “It’s Newsom Day at Sox Park,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1933: 61.

63 “It’s Newsom Day at Sox Park.”

64 “Giants Hand White Kings 14-0 Shutout,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1933: 14.

65 “Elite Giants Cop Winter League Rag.”

66 “Bell Bats .342 to Lead Coast Winter League,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 24, 1934: 14; John Holway, The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History (Fern Park, Florida: Hastings House Publishers, 2001), 304.

67 “Elite Giants Cop Winter League Rag”; “Elite Giants Will Train in Longview,” Nashville Banner, April 2, 1934: 10.

68 “Elite Giants Split Pair with Pittsburgh Club,” Nashville Tennessean, May 7, 1934: 10.

69 “Elite Giants Split Pair with Pittsburgh Club.”

70 “Craws to Vie with Cubans in Orleans,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 27, 1935: 17; “Detroit Happy about Pitchers,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 27, 1935: 19.

71 “Elite Giants Defeat Strand,” Vineland (New Jersey) Evening Times, May 22, 1937; “Nashville Wins Over Congoleum,” Chester (Pennsylvania) Times, July 22, 1937: 20.

72 “Fast Negro Club Organized Here,” Evansville (Indiana) Press, April 22, 1938: 18.

73 Morocco Stars Play Cincinnati Sunday,” Nashville Banner, May 27, 1938: 15

74 Morocco Stars Play Cincinnati Sunday.”

75 “Bombers Face Strong Foe,” Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, August 14, 1938: 14.

76 “Elites Clash with Eagles,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 22, 1939: 23.

77 “Greys Defeat ‘Black Sox,’ 16-1,” Long Branch (New Jersey) Daily Record, July 7, 1939: 7.

78 “Greys Defeat ‘Black Sox,’ 16-1.”

79 “Lloyd Tossers and Baltimore Stage Thrilling Stalemate,” Chester Times, August 12, 1939: 15; “Baltimore Sox in Week-End Games,” Chester Times, August 19, 1939: 12.

80 “Black Colonels Book Cincy in Opener,” Louisville Courier-Journal, April 9, 1939: 57; “Community League,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 26, 1941: 12.

81 Cincinnati White Sox, with Five Straight Triumphs, Face Grays Sunday,” Richmond (Indiana) Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram, June 27, 1941: 10.

82 Red O’Donnell, “Castleman May Forego [sic] Pro Career to Work, Play with DuPont,” Nashville Tennessean, May 17, 1942: 39.

83 “Railroad Nine Meets Acitcos [sic] in Dell Today,” Nashville Tennessean, May 24, 1942: 40.

84 “Black Sox Want to Book Games,” Evansville (Indiana) Courier, May 21, 1945: 9.

85 “Reichert, City Mayor from 1943-’48, Dies,” Evansville Courier, December 28, 1978: 1; Riley, 226-227.

86 “Giants Play Tomorrow,” Evansville Press, April 20, 1946: 6; “Giants Win,” Evansville Press, June 18, 1946: 12; “Giants Beat Owls,” Evansville Press, June 18, 1946: 15; “Giants Win,” Evansville Press, July 23, 1946: 12; “Giants Play Illinois Team,” Evansville Press, September 17, 1946: 12.

87 “Wallace Field Promises to Be Haven for Home Runs,” Evansville Courier, August 4, 1947: 8.

88 John Holway, “The Rube and Smokey Joe,” New York Amsterdam News, September 24, 1977: 12.

89 Richard Schweid, “Club Built Against All Odds,” Nashville Tennessean, September 2, 1987: 19, 22.