Smokey Joe Williams

“Cyclone Joe” Williams

When you are “right” and have your “stuff”
You burn the catcher’s mitt.
“Fence – busters” haven’t skill enough
To get a single hit.

I’ve seen your ball twist like a snake
And float as if on wings.
And batsmen, baffled by its break,
Make comic, fruitless swings.

You often have struck out the side
With three on and none down;
You’ve never failed to touch our pride
Or make opponents frown.

In days when you will pitch no more
And we speak of your fame.
We can but add to your life’s score—
“None better in the game:”

— Andy Razaf (1927)1

Joe Williams was a pitcher so renowned that he couldn’t be limited to just one iconic nickname. Just as his career can be divided between the two teams that he spent most of his time with, the Lincoln Giants and later the Homestead Grays, so too can his nicknames mostly be split between these two eras. As early as 1908 Williams was being touted as “Cyclone” and he even introduced himself as such when meeting Rube Foster in 1910.2 3 After joining the Homestead Grays in 1925 in the city of Pittsburgh, often referred to as “Smoketown” or the “Smoky City,” a collaborative effort by team owner Cum Posey and the Pittsburgh Courier, led to Williams being re-christened “Smokey Joe.”4 He would be known as “Smokey Joe” for the remainder of his career and is primarily remembered that way.

Joe Williams was born on April 6, 1886 near the town of Seguin, Texas.5 His mother, Lettie Williams, was born in Texas in the late 1860s.6 Lettie spent most of if not all of her life in Seguin and built the family home they lived in.7 She had a younger sister named Delia and worked as a laundress from her home. She also had another son (Joe’s older brother), named James (Jim). In the 1910 census, 20-year-old James is living with his mom in Seguin and his last name is listed as McGarity. Lettie would pass away on July 4, 1937.8 Nothing is known about Joe’s father. Rumors abound about Joe being part Native American but it cannot be verified. How they ended up in this small town in Texas can be linked to Lettie’s extraordinary father, Calvin Williams.

Calvin Williams was born into slavery in Orange County, Virginia on July 4, 1830. He was orphaned and as an adult worked as a farmer near Richmond, Virginia before joining the Union Army in April 1865 near the end of the Civil War. After his honorable discharge in 1870 he rode into Seguin, Texas and eventually traded his horse for the property that Joe’s childhood home was built on. Calvin married former slave Fanny Elam shortly after arriving in Seguin and she brought two previous children to their marriage, Delia and Lettie, who would eventually become Joe’s mother.9 It is safe to say that without Calvin’s fortitude the legend that is Smokey Joe Williams may not exist.

Not much is known about Williams’ childhood except that his love of baseball was evident from the start, as Joe indicated in an interview late in his life. “Someone gave me a baseball at an early age and it was my companion for a long time. I carried it in my pocket and slept with it under my pillow. I always wanted to pitch.”10

In 1905, at the age of 19, Williams began his baseball career with the semipro San Antonio Bronchos and he was an immediate star, posting a record of 28-4 in his first season. He was 15-9 the following year for a team in Austin and then returned to the Bronchos in 1907 boasting a record of 20-8.11 In 1908 he led the Bronchos to the Negro Championship of Texas with a superb record of 20-2. In the clinching game, Williams pitched all 13 innings allowing 9 hits and striking out 16 in a 6-4 triumph over the Dallas Black Giants.12 In 1909 he tried his hand with a team in Birmingham but soon became homesick and returned to Texas and the Bronchos. Between the two outfits he was a sparkling 32-8.13

Williams joined an all-Black independent team called the Trilbys in the California Winter League in late 1909 early 1910. The Trilbys were an overmatched lineup and in Williams’ lone start he came out on the losing end 2-0 to a team called the McCormicks. Poor defensive support was the culprit as Williams pitched a fine game allowing only four hits and striking out five.14 The Trilbys manager, mentioned only as Manager White, praised the young Texan. “Why, man, this boy’s speed makes Walter Johnson’s fast ball look like a floater.”15 Williams lived up to the hype the following winter season leading the circuit in games (7), complete games (6), innings pitched (60), and strikeouts (78), adding two shutouts to go with his 4-1 record. In a game against the Doyles he dominated with a 19 strikeout, three-hit, 7-0 pounding of the Frank Miller/Peaches Graham-led bunch. The Los Angeles Times reported, “Big, long legged Williams, pitcher for the colored Giants team, broke all Coast records, and certainly all out of big league ball, when he fanned nineteen batsmen in the game played with the Doyles at the Vernon grounds yesterday afternoon.”16

The Florida Hotel League, or the Coconut League, as it was also called, pitted two luxury hotel squads, the Royal Poinciana and the Breakers against each other. The Black athletes that formed these two teams also worked as busboys, porters, and waiters between games for the swanky, all-White establishments. The scotch-drinking, tea-sipping socialites were too self-absorbed to realize that they were witness to some of the best ballplayers that ever lived.18 Williams’ first appearance in the Hotel League was with the Breakers in 1914 and his team won the first of three straight championships. The Breakers were 25-17-4 against their hotel rivals from 1914 through 1916 with Williams chipping in with 16 wins and just three losses. With a team that featured legends Bruce Petway, John Henry Lloyd, Pete Hill, and Louis Santop their success seemed like a foregone conclusion. Williams must have enjoyed the Florida sunshine and he spent the majority of his winters there. He was a fixture from his first season in 1914 until his last in 1931 often managing both the Breakers, and beginning in 1925, his former rivals the Royal Poinciana crew.19

As fate would have it, Rube Foster’s Leland Giants rolled through Texas in the spring of 1910 playing exhibition games to prepare for their upcoming schedule. The Bronchos met the Giants with Williams on the hill and triumphed, 3-0. Frank Leland was impressed and proclaimed, “If you have ever witnessed the speed of a pebble in a storm you have not even seen the speed possessed by this wonderful Texas giant. He is the king of all pitchers hailing from the Lone Star State and you have but to see him once to exclaim, that’s a-plenty.” When the Lelands headed north, Williams was with them.20

In April of 1910 two of Black baseballs biggest innovators and entrepreneurs, Rube Foster and Frank Leland, squared off in court for control of the Leland Giants. In a strange turn of events, Foster was awarded control of the team and Frank Leland was no longer permitted to use his own name as a team moniker. Instead, Leland called his new band the Chicago Giants and this is where Williams set up camp for the 1910 and 1911 campaigns.21 Williams had not yet achieved the pinpoint control he would later be known for, illustrated by a Chicago League matchup in mid July of 1910 with Rogers Park. Williams struck out 13 batsmen but also gave up five free passes and plunked three hitters. Despite this wildness he escaped with a 4-1 victory.22 Leland’s team had limited success in its short history, but Williams exacted some revenge for the team’s owner against Foster’s Leland Giants with a May 7, 1911 five-hit, 10-0 drubbing of Foster’s team. Williams only allowed one runner as far as third base and sent 10 hitters mumbling back to the dugout with their bats still in their hands. Williams also contributed to the shellacking with two doubles of his own.23

Late in 1911 White co-owner Jess McMahon of the New York Lincoln Giants offered Williams $105 a month to leave Chicago for the greener pastures of Harlem. Most of the team was making between $40-$75 per month so Williams didn’t hesitate to jump. 24 The 1912 Lincoln Giants were overflowing with talent with the likes of Dick ‘Cannonball” Redding, Louis Santop, John Henry Lloyd, Spottswood Poles, Judy Gans, and Ben Taylor all suiting up. It is here that Williams enjoyed the prime of his career spending 12 seasons with the unit. It was also with the Lincoln Giants that Williams began his domination over White major-league clubs.

Williams seemed to take his game up a notch when facing White major leaguers as evidenced by his 6-0 thumping of the New York Giants in 1912 while taking the mound as a Lincoln Giant.25 His mastery continued in 1913 with a victory over Grover Cleveland Alexander, who was coming off a 22-8 season, with a 9-2 walloping of his Philadelphia Phillies.26 Graceful in defeat, Alexander had these kind words to say to the rangy Texan: “Joe, you are the equal of any great pitcher I have faced and superior to most.”27 A 1-0 shutout of George Chalmers and the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies in 1915 brought even more praise, this time from the Philadelphia Bulletin. “Joe twirled the game of his career. He gave up only five hits, walked three, and struck out ten of the champions.”28 Williams also bested Hall of Famers Rube Marquard and Chief Bender twice each and Waite Hoyt once.29 His overall record against White major leaguers, according to the meticulously researched The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues, edited by Todd Peterson, was 19-8. This included an astounding 28 complete games in 28 games started and 245 strikeouts in 258 innings pitched.30 Rumors of a 1-0, 20-strikeout no-hitter defeat in 1917 to the New York Giants lost on a 10th inning error and a 1-0 victory over Walter Johnson around the same time only add to Williams’ mystique.31 Cuban Stars standout pitcher Oscar “Chick” Levis slotted Williams into his proper place in history with this quote in 1951. “Had he been in the major leagues where he belonged, he would have been greater than Christy Mathewson, Plank, Bender or any of the white boys they rave about so much.” 32

Williams’ first appearance with the Lincoln Giants took place on May 12, 1912 against the Ironsides of New Jersey and right out of the gate he let his new team know what they could expect from him for many years to come. Williams tossed a no-hitter that Sunday afternoon with a little help from right-fielder Louis Santop, who threw out a slow runner at first on the only ball hit out of the infield all game. The final was 8-0 and Williams capped off his gem with 16 punch-outs and just a single base on balls. 33

Despite Williams’ immediate success with the Giants he began the 1913 season with the newly formed Mohawk Colored Giants of Schenectady. The Mohawk Giants came on the scene with a bang and sported a lineup that could compete with the best as displayed by their 52-22-2 record in their maiden season. Unfortunately, the team would fizzle out just three games into the 1915 run most likely due to the looming threat of WW1. Williams pitched the opening game, shutting out the Montreal Royals, 2-0 on four hits while striking out 10 and walking just one, and then he quickly returned to the Lincoln Giants under shady circumstances.34 Mohawk Giants manager Phil Bradley was eyewitness to a 3 A.M., $500 payout to Williams sending him back to his former crew.35

Williams would occasionally flirt with other teams during his time with the Lincoln Giants including a stint with Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants during a tour of the Pacific Northwest in 1914 in which he bested Seattle 2-1 with 16 strikeouts. In a peculiar brief stay with the Morris Brown Giants, a college team, in 1915 he vanquished the Morehouse Tigers 9-5 with 16 whiffs, and in a 1916 foray with the Bacharach Giants he dispatched a Chinese University troupe 6-5 punching out seven.36, 37, 38 Despite these dalliances Williams would always return home to the Lincoln Giants.

The 1913 Lincoln Giants were the stuff of legend with the Chicago Tribune reporting them to have won 111 of 122 games and mentioning that Cyclone Joe Williams pitched an astonishing two-thirds of their games.39 A win against a team known as the Suburbans on May 25, where a no-hitter was lost in the ninth inning when Williams interfered with an infield fly, was one of the many highlights of the season.40 On Sunday July 28, in front of a capacity crowd at American Giants Park in Chicago, Williams shut down Rube Foster’s team 8-0 allowing only six hits in a complete-game romp. Williams added to the onslaught with a three-run blast over the right-field fence in the sixth inning.41 In one of his finest showings of the year Williams captured both ends of a doubleheader, first against the Cuban Stars after relieving starter Dick “Cannonball” Redding, and then taking the second matchup with a 9-3 complete-game trouncing of the American Giants. Williams won the first game with his bat, crushing a three-run triple in the ninth and a single in the 10th. He once again flashed his skills with the stick in the second game adding another hit to cap off his remarkable day. 42

Williams talked about his hitting prowess and the roster management of his time in an interview in 1950: “Most of my career my team carried between 10 and 12 men on the entire squad. When I wasn’t pitching, I had to play the outfield. In those days there was no platoon system. You had to pitch to everyone, lefties as well as righties. And you had to finish every game you started unless there was an emergency. We had no pinch hitters. Couldn’t afford them on our payroll. Pitchers just had to learn how to hit. I was awful as a hitter when I started, but I finished with a lifetime batting average of .345.”43

Williams also hit well against White major leaguers rapping out 29 hits in 108 at-bats for an admirable .269 average including two home runs.44

It could be argued that the 1913 Lincoln Giants were the greatest ball club ever assembled. With a stacked lineup that featured Grant “Home Run” Johnson, John Henry Lloyd, Spottswood Poles, Judy Gans, Doc Wiley, Louis Santop, and Dick “Cannonball” Redding, they could match up against any team in baseball history. The Giants wrapped up their magical season by winning 7 of 12 games against the Rube Foster-led Chicago American Giants to win the unofficial colored championship of the world. Williams won a staggering six of the Lincoln Giants’ seven victories.45 It’s no wonder that Ty Cobb declared that Williams would be a “sure 30-game winner in the major leagues.”46

1914 was business as usual for the Lincoln Giants and Williams was at the height of his powers turning in an awe-inspiring 41-3 record for the Harlem juggernaut force.47 A 9-0, six-hit blanking of the Cuban Stars in September and a spirited 1-1 pitching duel against Rube Marquard and the New York Giants in October, in which Williams struck out 12 and only allowed five hits when the game was called due to darkness after nine innings, only added to his legend.48, 49

The New York Lincoln Giants were still a strong team from 1915-1919 but they never quite recaptured the star quality of their first few seasons as the once celebrated lineup slowly dwindled into mediocrity by the end of the decade. Williams took over as manager in 1916 and led the team with limited success until he was replaced by longtime teammate Judy Gans after the 1923 run. Despite the team’s record, Williams’ presence on the mound was never in doubt. When asked what the greatest game he ever pitched was, he mentioned a 1919 opening day game against his sworn enemies, Dick Redding and the Brooklyn Royal Giants: “It was a no-hitter,” Williams claimed. “I won it 1-0. Dick allowed only two singles. I pitched another no-hitter that year against a white team called the Ironsides. In my career, I had five no-hitters.”50 After the game the two former teammates reluctantly posed for a photograph but refused to shake hands.51

Williams seemed to garner respect from everyone who played with or against him, White or Black. Hall of Fame second baseman Frankie Frisch declared, “I knew tough pitchers when I hit against them. I knew the guys who could get me out, and I knew the humpty-dumpties I could hit. You take a guy like Cyclone Joe Williams. When you get a guy can throw that fastball, you don’t step into it, but you have a little respect when you’re facing guys like that.” Stalwart pitcher Webster McDonald claimed that, “Williams had perfect control. Even when he was well over 40 years old, everything he threw was right in that spot.” Hall of Famer Judy Johnson agreed, “If he walked one man, he’d say his control was bad.”52 Perhaps most impressively, longtime teammate John Henry Lloyd, the man Babe Ruth called, “the greatest player anywhere,” named Smokey Joe Williams as the greatest pitcher ever in the Negro Leagues.53, 54

While living in New York, during his time with the Lincoln Giants, Williams became enamored with the theater and often spent his nights taking in a show on Broadway. So much so that he became what was known as a “Stage door Johnny,” often leaving gifts and flowers for the female performers. In 1922 he married a showgirl named Beatrice and they remained together until Williams’ death in 1951. Beatrice offered this analysis of her husband: “He was very quiet, didn’t say much, unless you got him on baseball. Then he didn’t know when to stop.”55, 56

Williams’ 12-year tenure with the Lincoln Giants came to an unceremonious end when he was released following the 1923 season. At 38 years old Williams still had some gas left in the tank and he quickly signed on with their archenemy the Brooklyn Royal Giants.57 The Royal Giants struggled under player/manager Eddie Douglass, but Williams still managed some highlights of his own. In a contest on May 30, 1924 against the Brooklyn Bushwicks, Williams relieved a faltering Willis Flournoy with two-out in the first inning and proceeded to fan 25 Bushwick batters in 11 1/3 innings. Williams was unstoppable until the 12th when his luck finally ran out and he let in the winning run suffering a heartbreaking defeat.58 In another stellar outing in early August, Williams bewildered the Bacharach Giants fanning 11 and winning the game 3-2 in 11 innings by smashing the winning double himself.59

Smokey Joe Williams warming up. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Williams, seemingly too old to keep pitching, was snatched up by Cum Posey and the Homestead Grays for the 1925 season. Originally it was thought that Williams would serve as Posey’s assistant coach but he turned out to be far more valuable than that. In a Sunday game in Bellaire, Ohio on April 26 Williams struck out nine in a 13-1 victory thus beginning the improbable second act of his career at age 39.60 Williams’ rise from the ashes that season culminated with a two-hit, 8-1 clubbing of the Western Negro National League champion Kansas City Monarchs on October 12 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Williams struck out 13 Monarchs including eight of the first nine batters proving that the 6’ 3” lanky Texan was far from done.61

As an independent team during most of Williams’ stretch with the Grays they are given very little credit for their records during this period by seamheads.com or baseball-reference.com. Their reputation and fan base was built upon the total of their games played against all competition and the Grays proved daily that they were a dominant club, featuring numerous hall-of-famers capable of going toe to toe with any club in the land. With reported win loss records of 130-23-5 in 1925 and 102-6-6, including 43 straight wins in 1926 the Homestead Grays sent out a message to all takers that they were a force to be reckoned with.62

In June of 1927, the Pittsburgh Courier bestowed this compliment upon Williams: “He reflects better than any other individual player, the spirit of baseball.”63 On July 3, he backed that statement up with a defeat of Youngstown, O., for his 17th straight victory.64 The accolades kept rolling in as Williams continued to mock time. Negro Leagues catcher Josh Johnson paid Williams the ultimate tribute when he rhapsodized, “Joe Williams was the Satchel Paige of his day. Before Satchel it was all Smokey Joe Williams. He was the best thing going. All us kids on the lots down in semipro, we wanted to be like Smokey even though we weren’t pitching. We wanted to emulate Smokey Joe Williams; his name was a household word.”65 It’s not surprising that Satchel Paige himself called Williams, “the greatest pitcher that I’ve ever seen.”66

Another no-hitter on September 8, 1928 against the General Tires in Akron, Ohio where Williams whiffed nine and walked one, 67 and a two-hitter against the powerhouse St. Louis Stars on October 8, 1929, where he retired the Stars in order in eight of the nine innings in a 4-0 nine strikeout masterpiece, extended his shunning of Father Time..68

The 1929 Homestead Grays played in the American Negro League for the first and only time due to it being the only year of the league’s existence. Between 1929 and 1933 the Grays played in five different leagues as they all struggled to survive.

The game that Williams is most famous for took place on August 2, 1930 under the pioneering system of lights that the Monarchs were employing five years before the Cincinnati Reds of the White major leagues would begin to use them. As groundbreaking as they were, fly balls were a challenge as they rose above the lights’ influence. The Grays faced off against the Kansas City Monarchs and Chet Brewer that evening and to say that it wasn’t performed on a level playing field would be a wild understatement. The hitters were helpless against Williams and Brewer as they employed every cheating tactic in their arsenals.69 The Pittsburgh Courier claimed that the two pitchers, “gave a remarkable exhibition of emery ball pitching,” also describing Williams as using “everything but a blacksmith’s file.” The Courier continued, “the opposing pitchers were cheating without the question of a doubt. An emery ball in daylight is very deceptive but at night it is about as easy to see as an insect in the sky.” By the time the lights went out Williams had struck out 27 batters in a 13-inning, one-hit, 1-0 winning performance. Brewer was no slouch either and punched out 19 himself.70 Certainly it was a game for the ages, but Williams pitched many finer games in his long storied career.

Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe called his team, the 1931 Homestead Grays, the greatest team that he ever saw.71 This would be hard to dispute as the Grays dominated all competition in 1931 with a towering record of 129-28-2.72 Williams pulled his weight with 21 wins and only 5 defeats including a 6-2, September 6 victory over the St. Louis Stars where the Pittsburgh Courier reported, “the sterling pitching of Smokey Joe Williams was the feature of the Sunday tilt, the Old Master holding the hard hitting Missourians to two hits.”73 In another fine performance Williams pitched the majority of a 5-1 contest over the Baltimore Black Sox at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on September 20.74 At 45 years old, Williams didn’t complete as many games as he did in the past, receiving more rest between starts, but he was still extremely effective and a major contributor to this illustrious team.

1932 was the last full season for Williams and it turned out to be a hectic one as he pitched for two different teams in the same league. Williams began the year with the Homestead Grays as usual but was traded to the Detroit Wolves for William Bell some time in May.75 A 9-3 complete game victory over Hilldale in late May while toeing the rubber for the Grays and a six-inning start while pitching for the Wolves on May 29 in an 11-7 win against the Washington Pilots showed his rapid movement between squads.76, 77

The Detroit Wolves were owned by Cum Posey and played in the East/West league along with the Grays. Posey is listed as the business manager of the Grays and seems to have been wrapped up in a serious conflict of interest, as he was heavily involved with both teams. In fact, 11 players played for both teams in 1932 including Williams, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Brown, Vic Harris, Willie Wells, and William Bell. Posey was also the organizer of the East/West League, and its head commissioner so his conflicts ran deep. Due to financial strains, Posey’s East/West league and the Detroit Wolves both folded in early June and the majority of the Wolves players returned to the Grays, if only temporarily. Posey was unable to make payroll and many of the players jumped to other teams.78 Gus Greenlee, the owner of the upstart Pittsburgh Crawfords benefited the most by securing the bulk of the departing Grays. Williams and Vic Harris remained loyal to Posey and the Homestead club. 79

Williams did hook up with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in a late-season series against a White outfit managed by Casey Stengel and calling themselves the Major League All-Stars. The balanced All-Stars lineup featured Hack Wilson, Woody English, and Danny Taylor and their formidable pitching staff included Larry French, Fred Frankhouse, and Bill Swift. The seven-game clash began on September 27 and the Crawfords barely broke a sweat taking the series, five games to two. Unfortunately for Williams the lowest point of the competition and probably the worst start of his life, took place on the evening of September 28 at Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh. In what was likely the last complete game of his career, Williams was hung out to dry by the Crawfords as he was lambasted by the All-Stars giving up 20 runs, 16 earned, 19 hits, 3 walks, and facing an overwhelming 48 batters. He also gave up a long ball to Hack Wilson and through all the turmoil somehow managed to fan eight All-Star hitters and bang out a base hit. The final losing tally was 20-8. It was the definition of taking one for the team and you have to wonder if he was the only pitcher available that day.80

Williams was in limbo as the 1933 season heated up after being dropped from the Grays roster due to his above-average salary. Cum Posey announced that Williams would rejoin the team in July but it doesn’t seem to have occurred as he is seen tending bar in Harlem by that time.81, 82 Williams still made the occasional appearance on the ball field, including in a game in 1933 playing for a team called the Black Giants up against the New York Police Department at the Polo Grounds. A frustrated Williams left the mound after hurling four scoreless innings due to his teammates’ excessive clowning.83 On a more positive note he twirled two scoreless innings for the Grays on, “Smokey Joe Williams Day” at Forbes Field on August 5, 1934.84

Williams settled into his new bartending position at the Harlem Grill on Lenox Avenue near 135th Street, and loved to talk baseball with the patrons and players including frequent visitors Monte Irvin and Roy Campanella.85, 86 Another tavern visitor was a young Buck Leonard who wandered in on a cold spring day in 1934, while he was playing with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, and the wise old gin slinger put Leonard on a path that would change his life forever.87 Williams had seen Leonard play a few times and recommended him to his former boss Cum Posey owner of the Homestead Grays. On Williams’ word, Posey instructed him to give Leonard a bus ticket and five dollars spending money and the rest is history.88 Leonard played first base for the Grays for the next 15 years, often being called the “Black Lou Gehrig” and while teaming with Josh Gibson they became one of the fiercest one-two punches in baseball history leading the Grays to nine league championships and three World Series titles. Leonard was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 (along with Josh Gibson) and Williams played a vital role in his success.

On December 24, 1949, Williams was admitted to a Harlem hospital and listed in critical condition. He had been ill for six weeks prior and lost more than 80 pounds.89 Williams survived this bout but his health was failing as he stated in 1950 at a day in his honor at the Polo Grounds. “My heart is weak now, I’ve got to ride elevators. No more bouncing up stairs.”90 Williams passed away on February 25, 1951 from a heart ailment.91 His wife, Beatrice, had this to say after his passing: “He’d been ailing for years. Just didn’t give up. He was a fighter.” 92 Williams is buried at the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.

Just a year after his death, the Pittsburgh Courier conducted a poll of Negro League experts to determine the best players of all-time. Williams was named the greatest pitcher in Negro League history, beating out Satchel Paige by a single vote. It took 47 more years for him to finally be recognized by major-league baseball when he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Fittingly, he was inducted with another Texas fireballer with a penchant for no-hitters and the ability to defy time – Nolan Ryan. Both pitched to the ripe old age of 46. When talking about the Black players that integrated White baseball, specifically Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Roy Campanella, Sam Jethroe, and Luke Easter, Williams offered this assessment. “But there were many Negro players just as good as them, they just never had the chance to prove their greatness. The important thing is that the long fight is over. I praise the Lord I’ve lived to see the day.”93

Whether you call him Cyclone or Smokey Joe, Williams transcended the stage outshining his opponents at every turn. From his humble beginnings as a semipro in San Antonio to his renaissance with the fabled Homestead Grays and every stop in between, the right arm, quiet grace, dignity, and intelligence of Joe Williams is unparalleled in baseball history. With apologies to Satchel Paige and Walter Johnson, Joe Williams, the flame-throwing, willowy Texan may have been the greatest of them all.

SOURCES

All statistics, unless otherwise noted, are from Seamheads.com.

NOTES

1 “‘Cyclone Joe’ Williams,” New York Amsterdam News, August 17, 1927: 12. Andy Razaf was a well-known poet, songwriter, and baseball enthusiast. He collaborated with jazz great Fats Waller in the 1930’s and composed such standards as “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “The Joint is Jumpin’,” and many more.

2 “Black Bronchos Champions,” San Antonio Express-News, July 16, 1908: 7.

3 John B. Holway, Blackball Stars: Negro League Pioneers (Westport, Connecticut: Meckler Books, 1988), 65.

4 “The Passing Review,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 11, 1926: 15.

5 There is speculation around his actual birth year with it being listed as 1887 and 1888 on different census reports.

6 Lettie’s 1910, 1920, and 1930 census reports list her as being born in 1868, 1870, and 1865 respectively. Her death certificate says July 4, 1937.

7 http://cyclonejoe.blogspot.com/

8 Ancestry.com

9 http://cyclonejoe.blogspot.com/

10 Holway, Blackball Stars, 63.

11 David L. Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery: Another Sixteen Little-Known Greats at Cooperstown (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007), 200.

12 “Black Bronchos Champions,” San Antonio Express-News, July 16, 1908: 7.

13 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 200.

14 William F. McNeil, The California Winter League: America’s First Integrated Professional Baseball League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2002), 34.

15 “Trilbys Get Speed Merchant to Pitch,” Los Angeles Herald, January 20, 1910: 11.

16 McNeil, The California Winter League, 36-38.

17 https://agatetype.blog/2012/10/29/mendez-vs-williams-havana-1912/

18 William F. McNeil, Black Baseball Out of Season: Pay for Play Outside of the Negro Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007), 6-7.

19 McNeil, Black Baseball Out of Season, 17-29.

20 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 201.

21 Larry Lester, Sammy J. Miller, Dick Clark, Black Baseball in Chicago (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 22.

22 “West End Holds Lead in City League,” Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), July 18, 1910: 5.

23 “Lelands Draw 10-0 Blank,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 8, 1911: 10.

24 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 201.

25 “Giants’ Barnstorming Team Loses,” New York Times, October 28, 1912: 9.

26 Holway, Blackball Stars, 68.

27 “A Perfect Ball Game,” New York Amsterdam News, March 17, 1951: 29.

28 Holway, Blackball Stars, 69.

29 Holway, Blackball Stars, 78.

30 Todd Peterson, The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues: Historians Reappraise Black Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2020), 247.

31 Holway, Blackball Stars, 61-62.

32 “Smokey Joe Williams Waved Home,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 17, 1951: 10.

33 “Ironside players collide in a New York Game,” Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), May 13, 1912: 8.

34 “A Cyclone Struck the Royals in Shape of a Colored Pitcher,” Montreal Star, April 21, 1913: 5.

35 Frank M. Keetz, The Mohawk Colored Giants of Schenectady (Schenectady, New York: Frank M. Keetz, 1999), 4, 11, 22.

36 Paul Debono, The Chicago American Giants (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007), 49.

37 “Morris Brown 9, Morehouse 5,” Atlanta Constitution, March 28, 1915: 6.

38 “Bacharach Giants Beat Chinese; 6-5,” Chicago Defender, July 29, 1916: 7.

39 “Chief Bender Loses,” Chicago Defender, November 15, 1913: 7.

40 “Nearly a No-Hit Game for Cyclone Joe Williams,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 26, 1913: 20.

41 “Big Crowd Sees Lincolns Beat American Giants,” Inter Ocean, July 28, 1913: 13.

42 “Lincoln Giants Win 2 Games in One Day,” Chicago Examiner, August 3, 1913: 16.

43 Hall of Fame Research Files, New York City, 1950. Williams was most likely talking about hitting against all competition. Seamheads.com only counts his at-bats in league game lowering his lifetime average to a respectable .284 with 16 home runs.

44 Peterson, The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues, 242.

45 Debono, The Chicago American Giants, 46-47.

46 https://www.mlb.com/history/negro-leagues/players/smokey-joe-williams

47 Larry Lester, Rube Foster in His Time: On the Field and in the Papers with Black Baseball’s Greatest Visionary (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012), 83.

48 “Lincoln Giants and Cubans Divide Honors,” New York Age, September 10, 1914: 6.

49 “Williams and Marquard Tie,” New York Age, October 29, 1914: 6.

50 Holway, Blackball Stars, 71.

51 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 205.

52 Holway, Blackball Stars, 66.

53 Monte Irvin and Phil Pepe, Few and Chosen: Defining Negro Leagues Greatness (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2007), 56.

54 Leslie A. Heaphy, Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006), 93.

55 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 205.

56 Holway, Blackball Stars, 71.

57 ““Cyclone” Joe Williams Signs Brooklyn Royals Contract for 1924,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 23, 1924: 6.

58 “”Cyclone” Joe Williams Strikes Out 25 in Game,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1924: 10.

59 “Bacharachs Take Series From Royals,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 9, 1924: 6.

60 James E. Overmyer, Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays: A Biography of the Negro Leagues Owner and Hall of Famer (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2020), 81.

61 “Smokey Joe Holds Them to Two Hits,” Chicago Defender, October 24, 1925: 9.

62 Rob Ruck, Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh (University of Illinois: Illini Books Edition, 1993), 131.

63 “Smokey Joe” Reflects the Spirit of Baseball,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 4, 1927: A5.

64 “Havana Cuban Redsox and Grays to Meet Saturday at Forbes Field in Twilight Game,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 9, 1927: 17.

65 Fleitz, More Ghosts in the Gallery, 198.

66 Phil Dixon and Patrick J. Hannigan, The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History (Mattituck, New York: Amereon Ltd., 1992), 69.

67 “52-year Old Joe Williams Pitches No Hit, No Run Game,” Chicago Defender, September 8, 1928: 8.

68 “St. Louis Stars Blanked By Grays,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 10, 1929: 10.

69 Overmyer, Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays, 110-112.

70 “Smokey Joe Scores 27 Strikeouts,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 9, 1930: 15.

71 James A. Riley, Of Monarchs and Black Barons: Essays on Baseball’s Negro Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012), 68.

72 Phil Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles: Great Teams: The 1931 Homestead Grays Volume 1 (Xlibris US, 2009. (courtesy of Thomas Kern)

73 “Joe Williams, Britt, Pitch Grays to Wins; Stars Beat Foster,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 12, 1931: 14.

74 “Grays Black Sox Split,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 2, 1931: 14.

75 “Detroit Sweeps Pilots,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 4, 1932: A5.

76 “Hilldale Tops Foes in Swing Around League,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 26, 1932: 11.

77 “Detroit Sweeps Pilots,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 4, 1932: A5.

78 Overmyer, Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays, 120-122.

79 Holway, Blackball Stars, 309.

80 “Stars Defeat Crawfords 20 to 8,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 29, 1932: 26.

81 “Grays to Play All-Star Nine,” Akron Beacon Journal, June 23, 1933: 30.

82 “Would You Care to Know?,” Altoona (Pennsylvania) Tribune, July 1, 1933: 9.

83 “The Sports Dial,” New York Age, August 12, 1933: 6.

84 Brad Snyder, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators: The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball (New York, New York: McGraw Hill, 2003), 44.

85 Snyder, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators, 28.

86 https://www.rivermonstersbaseball.com/post/the-legend-of-smokey-joe-williams-a-fastball-a-legacy-and-the-spirit-of-a-nation

87 Overmyer, Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays, 148-149.

88 James A. Riley, Buck Leonard: The Black Lou Gehrig (New York, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc., 1995), 35.

89 “Smokey Joe Williams Ill in N.Y. Hospital,” Afro American, December 31, 1949: 17.

90 Holway, Blackball Stars, 77.

91 Ancestry.com

92 Holway, Blackball Stars, 77.

93 Holway, Blackball Stars, 77.