Orville Singer

Baseball is full of quiet performers who showed up year after year, yet are still forgotten to even the most knowledgeable students of the sport’s history. Orville Singer, a prized prospect in Canada, a fan favorite in New York, and a veteran presence in Cleveland, is one such mysterious player. Which side of the plate he swung from is still unknown, as are the circumstances under which his career suddenly ended at the age of 33. But, we do know that for more than 10 years, Orville Singer was one of Black baseball’s most consistent hitters and one of its best with a glove.

Orville Willis “Red” Singer was born on December 27, 1898 in the small town of Cambridge, Ohio, as the second of six children to farmers Church and Anna Singer. Church Singer was the son of Enos and Rhoda Singer, freed slaves born in Virginia and settled in Noble County, Ohio sometime around 1850, according to census data. Within three years, Orville’s family moved approximately 25 miles west to Zanesville, where Orville would spend most of his early life.1 Zanesville’s 8th Ward, where the Singers lived, was the city’s largest Black community,2 and its proximity to the city’s various industries, perhaps led the family to relocate for job opportunities.

The Singer family was affected by a diphtheria outbreak in 1907, which was appearing by the in small communities all over the United States and closed schools in Zanesville for weeks.3 Then nine years old, Orville survived the illness and went on to be an active young man, gaining a reputation as a talented athlete. At 12 years old, he won a footrace at the Moxhala Park’s Children’s Day celebration, his competitors as old as 16.4

The first mention of Singer as a baseball player appeared in the local press in 1915 when he joined the Advocates in the city’s amateur league. In the third and championship deciding game against the Westfields, “Singer’s hitting and fielding…featured” in a 5-4 victory.5

Orville appears to have been a nomadic young man. After finishing his first year of high school, he held a variety of apprenticeships including a job with a local tailor6 and work as an assistant at a funeral home7 before moving to Cleveland to study engineering at an unnamed school. The 1916 Zanesville city directory simply lists his occupation as “laborer.” His interest in multiple occupations extended to sports as well, as he played both basketball and football when he wasn’t on the baseball diamond. In March 1916, he was listed on “the colored basketball team of this city [Zanesville]” as a left guard.8 While studying in Cleveland in 1917, he played football in for the “State All-Stars” where his “line plunging and line runs” at halfback led the team to second place in the city championship.9 

Singer rejoined the Advocates in April 1918 when he returned to Zanesville, playing both shortstop10 and first base before World War I cut the season short in June.11 He was he was drafted by the Army in October 1918 and reported to a training battalion at Wilberforce University. But, by the end of the year most of the unit was disbanded with the armistice in November, and he was back in Zanesville with an honorable discharge by December.12

In 1919, Singer played second base for the independent and integrated Zanesville Mark Greys, named for the Mark Manufacturing Company. A photo of the team published in 1962 reveals that he was likely the only Black player on the team.13 With the Mark Greys, Singer quickly blossomed into a star and was even awarded a gold watch by the team’s sponsors for being the first on the team to steal a base and hit a single, double, triple, and home run.14 Singer and the Mark Greys went on to win the city’s semipro championship over the Hill Tops, sweeping the best-of-three series.15

Singer joined the Mark Greys football team in the fall of 1919 predating the formation of the NFL by a year. Lining up at end and defensive tackle, Singer joined the Greys for their first of a three-year undefeated streak.16

But, by 1920, baseball had become Singer’s primary job. He caught the attention of Chicago American Giants manager and owner Rube Foster, who extended an invitation to Singer for spring training in Texas.17 The Chicago Defender wrote in April that Singer had “shown himself to be a mighty nifty fielder, also a pretty wise chap on general baseball maneuvers” but “the lad’s throwing arm loses much of its caste when pitted against the men that have been assembled here.”18

Singer didn’t make the roster but instead reported to the Winnipeg Colored Giants, an independent barnstorming outfit loosely affiliated with Foster’s American Giants.19 The “crack college athlete from Zanesville, Ohio stood the north country populace on their heads with his flashy work,” noted The Chicago Whip in October.20 An announcement of his subsequent November signing with the New York Lincoln Giants credited Singer with a .425 batting average in Canada.21Still dabbling in all three sports, in the fall, Singer took up residence in Chicago and played football for the Lincoln Athletic Club, where he made headlines for a 50-yard touchdown run against the Kenmore Athletic Club.22 Then, in December, he returned to the basketball court and joined the Zanesville Buffalos, where he also assisted coaching.23

Back on the baseball diamond in the spring, Singer immediately made an impact for the Lincoln Giants in the cozy confines of the Catholic Protectory Oval, hitting a .367 in recorded statistics against all levels of play in 1921. In June, he took a trip back to Zanesville to marry Gladys Baldridge.24 The couple would be married for 64 years.

Singer’s breakout season came in 1923, the Lincoln Giants’ first year in the Eastern Colored League. According to the Seamheads Negro Leagues database, he hit .396 with nine stolen bases in 23 recorded games and 104 plate appearances,25 though other sources credit him with a .400 batting average.26 In the Eastern Colored League, only Biz Mackey (.464) and Oliver Marcelle (.449) had a higher on base percentage than Singer’s .431.27 In September, he returned home to Zanesville, splitting time on the diamond with the semipro Zanesville Colored Athletics and on the gridiron with the Durant Stars. During a game with the Durant Stars in October, the “flashy halfback” suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season and ended his time as a football player.28

In 1924, Singer was signed by the newly formed Cleveland Browns of the Negro National League, one of several itinerant Black baseball franchises in the Forest City. The Chicago Defender reported that Singer was “to be field captain and assistant to manager Sol] White.”29 With the Browns his average dipped to .245 in 121 recorded plate appearances. But, by midseason Singer was reacquired by the Lincoln Giants, who were described by guest columnist and recently released Washington Potomacs manager Ben Taylor in the Baltimore Afro American as “one of the poorest outfields in the league.” In one of his only notes of praise for the team, Taylor noted that Orville Singer was “one of the fastest men in baseball.”30 In 64 plate appears with the Lincolns, Singer batted .293.31

Going into his fifth season with the club, cracks were beginning to form in Singer’s relationship with the Lincoln Giants. According to a season preview published in the New York Age, Lincoln Giants owner James Keenan showed “utter disregard for the orthodox method of running a ball club,” and opened spring training with no dedicated outfielders on the roster. Singer, fellow infielder George Scales, and catcher Tom Gee were projected to rotate into the outfield, and rookie Ed Pryor was projected to take Singer’s position at second base.32 The season opened in New York with Singer absent without explanation and his place in the lineup temporarily taken by Dave Brown.33

Singer evidently reported to the team after all, but despite a productive season in which he hit .355 in 228 plate appearances and swiped a career-high 10 stolen bases, the Lincoln Giants finished in the cellar of the Eastern Colored League with an abysmal 7-38-2 record. Ed Pryor, who had replaced him at second base, hit just .180 and by the end of the season, Singer was moved back into the infield.34 Against the perennial rival Atlantic City Bacharach Giants on September 12, Singer went 3-for-5 with a triple and a rare walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.35

When Singer reported to the Lincoln Giants for spring training in April 1926, he found his natural position blocked again, this time by newly hired veteran player-manager and future Hall of Famer John Henry Lloyd.36 Forced to platoon in right field with Burdell Young, Singer made his displeasure clear and refused to play. On July 8, 1926, the Lincoln Giants suspended Singer indefinitely for “general insubordination on Singer’s part to orders by Manager [John Henry] Lloyd.” The Philadelphia Tribune explained further, revealing that the issue had been ongoing throughout the season and he was absent from an earlier game without explanation. After Lloyd found him after another missed training session, “he stated the only reason he had been absent was that he did not want to come out for practice…Lloyd immediately suspended him indefinitely.”37 Singer only made 18 recorded appearances in 1926, hitting .347 in 83 plate appearances.

That offseason, Singer was traded from the Lincoln Giants to the Baltimore Black Sox for Julio Rojo and Clarence Lindsay.38 Singer did not make any appearances for the Black Sox however and instead joined the independent Akron All-Stars for the 1927 season.39

He resurfaced in the major Negro leagues with the Cleveland Tigers in 1928, hitting .347 in 158 plate appearances for a team that dressed 41 different players and three managers during the year.40 When the Tigers dropped out of the league before the 1929 season, Singer remained with the now-semipro “Wills Tigers” as the team’s center fielder for the next two seasons.41 In 1930, he crossed paths with legendary boxer Jack Johnson, who umpired a game between the Tigers and another semipro team in Akron simply known as Lyndhurst.42

In 1931, the Negro National League placed another franchise in Cleveland, this time an extension of Tom Wilson’s Nashville Elite Giants known as the Cleveland Cubs. Singer joined the Cubs as the team’s leftfielder. At this stage in his career, Singer was more known for his glove work and was described by the Pittsburgh Courier’s W. Rollo Wilson as an “excellent bulwark on defense,”43 though he hit .307 in 98 plate appearances. Singer made national headlines in a Cubs 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Stars when he “robbed Mule] Suttles of a sure double when he made a diving catch” in the second inning and “[Willie] Wells belted a long drive over Singer’s head in the fourth, but Orville circled around under it and made the catch.”44

For a few brief moments, Singer also filled in at left field for the juggernaut Homestead Grays during a doubleheader against the Baltimore Black Sox in Cleveland. Singer was 2-for-7 with a triple and two RBIs and one run scored in the two games on September 20.45 How Singer joined the Grays is unclear as he only appeared with the team for these two games. A few weeks before the series in Cleveland, Homestead regular center fielder Johnny Jones left the team for unknown reasons after a game in Canton on September 1.46 It may be reasonable to speculate that with a hole in the lineup after Vic Harris was moved from left to center field, the Grays kept Singer in mind after a May matchup against the Cleveland Cubs in which he gathered two hits off of starter Smokey Joe Williams.47 Harris also had a personal connection to Singer; the pair were teammates on the Cleveland Browns in 1924.48

The doubleheader, split between a 5-1 Grays victory and a 15-5 Black Sox win, was historic for other reasons—Cleveland Municipal Stadium was dedicated just two months earlier and the teams’ appearances were some of the first baseball games played at the venue.49 The Cleveland Indians would not move in until July of the following season.50

In 1932, Singer joined the Cleveland Stars of the East-West League. He hit .328 in 72 plate appearances and 21 games before the team folded along with the league.51 Now 33, Singer retired from baseball and lived in Cleveland for the rest of his life, working as a mechanical engineer and volunteering his time at the Lafayette Community Center in the city.52 He also took up stage acting in local community center plays.53 In 1939, Orville and his wife were listed as “hosts” at the Maple Hollow Country Club in Cleveland,54 an African-American summer resort community; though the economic downturn of the Great Depression caused its closure in 1940.55

On June 29, 1985, Orville Singer died at the age of 86 in Dorset, Ohio. He was survived by his wife, one son, two daughters, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His body was buried in Dorset Cemetery.56 His wife Gladys died five days later. ;

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Ancestry.com to gather biographical data including birth, death, marriage, family, and military service information. Statistics were obtained from the Seamheads Negro Leagues database unless otherwise noted. Special thanks to Zanesville 8th Ward historians Joyce Hill and Angela Barnett for background information on Zanesville and the Singer family.

Photo credit

Orville Singer, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 The 1900 census listed the family’s residence in Cambridge. His sister’s birthplace in 1901 is listed as Zanesville, and subsequent census data places the family’s residence in the same city.

2 “Opportunity Zones Development Strategies,” City of Zanesville, Ohio, https://economicdevelopment.ohio.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ZanesvilleOpportunityZonesRedevelopmentStrategies_05-31-2023-Final_sm.pdf, accessed December 20, 2025.

3 “Diphtheria Situation,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, October 27, 1907: 7.

4 “Big Crowd at Children’s Day,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, September 1, 1910: 5.

5 “With The Amateurs,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, August 23,1915: 10.

6 “Colored Citizens Notes,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, March 2, 1916: 9.

7 “Colored Citizens Notes,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, December 19, 1916: 6.

8 “Colored Basketball Team Plays at Armory,” Zanesville Signal, March 31, 1916: 14.

9 “Former Advocate Man is Playing Good Game,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, November 6, 1917: 8.

10 “Advocates Defeated by Newark Sunday,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, May 20, 1918: 8.

11 “Five Armco Men Called To Colors,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, June 22, 1918: 8.

12 “Colored Citizens Notes,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, December 28, 1918: 8.

13 1,200 Employed During World War I At Huge Tube Plant In Lower Putnam,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, March 25, 1962: 16.

14 “Singer Awarded Gold Watch by Mark,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, September 2, 1919: 4.

15 “Baseball Staged Comeback in 1919,” (Zanesville) Sunday Times Signal, February 14, 1943: 8.

16 “Zanesville Mark Greys—Three Time Champions,” (Zanesville) Sunday Times Signal, October 20, 1940: 6.

17 “Rube Assigns Players to Giants,” Chicago Defender, March 20, 1920: 9.

18 “Round The Baselines,” Chicago Defender, April 24, 1920: 9.

19 “Rube Foster’s Canadian Farm Teams,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/journal/article/rube-fosters-canadian-farm-teams/, accessed December 10, 2025.

20 “Colored Canadian Team Returns,” Chicago Whip, October 2, 1920: 5.

21 “Singer Signs With N.Y. Lincoln Giants,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, November 6, 1920: 8.

22 “Local Man Makes Good,” Zanesville Signal, November 18, 1920: 10.

23 “Buffaloes Will Play Hard Game to Cop Victory,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, December 10, 1920: 12.

24 “Marriage Licenses,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, June 18, 1921: 5.

25 “1923 New York Lincoln Giants,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1923&teamID=NLG&LGOrd=2, accessed December 20, 2025.

26 “Orville Singer Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More,” Baseball-Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/singeor01.shtml, accessed December 20, 2025.

27 “1923 Season,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1923&teamID=NLG&LGOrd=2, accessed December 20, 2025.

28 No further accounts of Orville Singer in a football game exist. “Durant Stars and Cambridge Club Billiards Play Tie Game,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, October 8, 1923: 8.

29 “Negro National League Season Opens April 28,” Chicago Defender, April 5, 1924: 10.

30 Ben Taylor, “Lincolns Only Had Infield And Three Good Pitchers,” Baltimore Afro American, January 17, 1925: 7.

31 “Orville Singer,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=singe01orv, accessed December 20, 2025.

32 Lloyd P. Thompson, “Purveyors of Baseball In The East Are Shaping Up For Opening Of 1925 Season,” New York Age, March 7, 1925: 6.

33 William E. Clark, “Hits By Prior and Scales Bring Lincoln Giants Double Winning in Sunday Games,” New York Age, April 18, 1925: 6.

34 “1925 New York Lincoln Giants,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1925&teamID=NLG, accessed December 20, 2025.

35 “Lincoln Giants Defeat Bacharach Giants,” New York Age, September 12, 1925: 6.

36 “Hudspeth and T. Gee Arrive To Complete Lincon G’t’s Lineup,” New York Age, April 17, 1926: 6.

37 “Manager Lloyd Suspends Vet Right Fielder,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 10, 1926: 10.

38 “Sox Benefited By Rojo Deal,” Baltimore Afro American, February 12, 1927: 15.

39 “Yellow Cabs Play Akron All-Stars,” Akron Beacon-Journal, July 16, 1927: 14.

40 “1928 Cleveland Tigers,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1928&teamID=CTG&LGOrd=1, accessed December 20, 2025.

41 “Gimbels Primed for Tough Tiff With Visitors,” (Mansfield, Ohio) News Journal, August 17, 1929: 13.

42 “Tigers Defeat Lyndhurst, 9-4,” Akron Beacon Journal, August 30, 1930: 13.

43 W. Rollo Wilson, “Sport Shots,” New Pittsburgh Courier, August 8, 1931: 14.

44 William Finger, “St. Louis Loses Close 2-1 Game to Cleveland,” Chicago Defender, June 6, 1931: 9.

45 “Grays, Blacksox Split,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 21, 1931: 14.

46 Phil Dixon, Phil Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles Great Teams: the 1931 Homestead Grays, Volume I, (Xlibris Publishing, 2009), 285.

47 Dixon, 291.

48 “1924 Cleveland Browns,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1924&teamID=CBN, accessed January 31, 2026.

49 Alexander Taylor, “Ohio State News,” Chicago Defender, September 19, 1931: 10.

50 Tom Wancho, “Cleveland Municipal Stadium,” Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/cleveland-stadium/, accessed January 31, 2026.

51 Christopher Hauser, The Negro Leagues Chronology: Events in Organized Black Baseball, 1920-1948 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2006), 74.

52 Alexander Taylor, “Cleveland News,” Chicago Defender, November 26, 1932: 20.

53 “Present ‘Penthouse Parade’ At Center,” (Cleveland) Call and Post, April 1, 1937: 11.

54 “Maple Hollow, Ohio’s Summer Paradise, Holds Open House,” (Cleveland) Call and Post, August 31, 1939: 3.

55 Maya Hixon, “Maple Hollow Country Club,” Green Book Cleveland, https://greenbookcleveland.org/locations/maple-hollow-country-club/, accessed December 29, 2025.

56 “Obituaries- Orville Singer,” (Zanesville) Times Recorder, July 2, 1985: 2.