Tex Burnett

Although he played and managed in the Negro Leagues for many years and for an assortment of teams, Fred “Tex” Burnett is a bit of a mystery.

Start with his birth. Baseball Reference and Seamheads list his birthplace as Houston but the 1900 census shows the Burnetts lived in Livingston, Texas, some 70 miles away from Houston. He wouldn’t be the first person to simplify his story by saying he was from a larger town but there does not seem to be a birth certificate to settle the question. We do know that Burnett was born on December 24, 1899, and given his nickname, we can feel certain it was in the Lone Star State. He was the fourth son of William (born 1867) and Ridener Burnett (born circa 1873), following Albert (1892), William (1895), and John (1897). William Senior’s occupation in the 1900 census was listed as “Farmer.”1

Little information is available on Burnett’s early days. He had made his way to Pittsburgh by 1915 according to a later newspaper account that mentions him playing baseball at Douglass High School at age 15.2 Burnett played well enough to capture the attention of the Pittsburgh Keystones. After an inaugural season as an independent team, the Keystones had joined the Negro National League (NNL) for the 1922 season. The earliest mention of Burnett in a box score comes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of May 12, 1922. Burnett caught Johnny Spencer’s 9-3 win over the Pittsburgh Independents, but the rookie went hitless.

The 1922 season was not a good one for the Keystones. Their 14-24 record (with two ties) in league play was bad enough, but owner Alexander McDonald Williams and manager Dizzy Dismukes also clashed. The conflict was bad enough that Dismukes quit, then returned to the team a few days later, only to resign for good about a week after that. The Keystones disbanded after the season. However, Burnett ended up having a solid rookie year, with a .287/.347/.345 line in 101 plate appearances. At 5’9” and 170 pounds, the switch-hitting catcher was not a power hitter but hit for a promising average.  

With the Keystones no longer operating, Burnett joined the Cleveland Tate Stars for 1923.3 The Stars had also struggled in the NNL in 1922 and went into 1923 as an independent team. But soon enough, he was reunited with Dismukes, who was now managing the NNL Indianapolis ABCs. Burnett played in 47 games that year, accumulating 188 plate appearances and a .262/.319/.333 line with one home run and 15 RBIs.

A small item in newspapers early in 1924 indicates Burnett had returned to Pittsburgh for the winter, along with Dismukes and ABCs shortstop Gerard Williams, following a “successful fall and winter season on the Pacific Coast.”4 Shortly after, Burnett and Williams signed with the New York Lincoln Giants for the 1924 season. One newspaper called the duo the “sensation of the Western league last season,” mentioning “Burnett’s catching stamped him as a real comer.”5

However, 1924 was a rough year for the young backstop. In June, he was suspended and fined $100 after rushing the field and slugging an umpire during a game against Hilldale. It was not the first time Burnett had engaged in fisticuffs on the field; in 1922, he punched Homestead Grays manager Cum Posey after a disagreement about a close call at first base.6On that day, Burnett was not even in the game, but inserted himself into an argument over whether a Keystone teammate Harry Kenyon had touched second base on his way home following Rich Gee’s double.7

Shortly after that incident, Burnett suffered a leg injury in an automobile accident8 that kept him out of the lineup until late July. For the year, Burnett hit .235/.270/.271 in just 89 plate appearances for the Lincoln Giants.

After that trying season, the catcher latched on with the Harrisburg Giants for 1925, joining a team with the legendary outfield of Rap Dixon, Fats Jenkins, and player-manager Oscar Charleston. Burnett seems to have had a quieter year, hitting .277/.302/.325 in 86 plate appearances, and the Giants released him near the end of the season. He also played for the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants in one game, an unsuccessful pinch-hitting appearance.

The 1926 season found Burnett on yet another new team, this time with a new position, as he joined the Brooklyn Royal Giants and took over the first-base job. Burnett batted .275/.389/.288 while the team struggled to an 11-24 record. For the first time in his major-league career, Burnett entered a second season with the same team in 1927, now finding himself behind the plate once again. It was another tough year for the team, which ended its time in the Eastern Colored League with an 11-23 mark. Burnett struggled, too, hitting just .152/.253/.167 in 75 plate appearances. However, he experienced what had to be a career highlight when he and several other league players faced off against a barnstorming team headed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in Trenton, New Jersey. The game ended after eight innings and Ruth’s third home run, which brought a mob of youngsters onto the field to greet the Bambino.9

That was the beginning of a jaunt to the West Coast for Burnett and some teammates for winter ball. Burnett drove George Carr and Bill Holland across the country in his Chrysler to reach California.10

It was also the beginning of a long absence from the major Negro Leagues. Burnett played in three games for the Lincoln Giants in 1928, then played only independent ball until until 1933. A Pittsburgh newspaper noted in 1931 that Burnett had been playing for Bedford (Quebec) in a Canadian league for the past three seasons.11 The Seamheads database has him playing a handful of games for the Royal Giants, Homestead Grays (apparently Posey had forgiven Burnett for that punch to the jaw all those years ago), Harlem Stars, and New York Black Yankees, all independent teams, in those years.

Burnett’s return to organized Negro Leagues in 1933 was a success. He started off hot for the Baltimore Black Sox, hitting .625 in the first seven games of the season.12 He ended the season with a .312/.366/.387 line in 105 plate appearances. He followed that up with a fine season in winter ball in Puerto Rico, as relayed by Bill Gibson in the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper:

“‘Things were fine on the island,’ Tex exuded. ‘The boys were all treated royally and played some real ball. Country Jones, the young Baltimore southpaw pitcher, set the Islanders on their heads and won the trophy offered for the best hurler in the league. Jones went like a house afire once he got started, and should have a great season this year. Josh Gibson won the cup for getting the largest number of extra-base hits and Rap Dixon was awarded a cup for having stolen the largest number of bases.’

‘And you, Tex,’ I queried, ‘what did you win?’ sensing that he was holding something back from me.

‘Well,’ Tex finally managed to say, ‘I won the cup offered to the most valuable player in the league.’”13

Now a veteran, Burnett was credited with taking the pitcher, Jones (more commonly known as Slim) under his wing in Puerto Rico. Jones was pitching for Baltimore in 1933 and Burnett spotted talent there. He convinced Jones’ father to let the 21-year-old head to Puerto Rico for winter ball, then proceeded to coach him and boost his confidence. In 1934, Jones, now with the Philadelphia Stars, went 20-4 with a 1.29 ERA. It was a glimpse into Burnett’s developed leadership skills that would one day see him as a manager.

Meanwhile, Burnett found himself with the Grays once again. He had played one game (early in the season) for the 1931 Grays but joined them for a full season in 1934. He batted .120/.137/.180 in just 54 plate appearances, but Posey praised him after the season:

“For unadulterated ‘guts’ for the 1934 season, I give the palm to Tex Burnett. Tex did not go through a week without a spike wound and rode all the big fellows into the plate day after day. He then ended the season by plunging headfirst into the dugout at Ebbets Field while after a foul fly. Tex woke up in the Queens County Hospital an hour later and asked the final score.”14

However, the Grays sold Burnett to the Brooklyn Eagles before the 1935 season began. Back in Brooklyn, Burnett brought down the curtain on his playing career with a .286/.398/.319 line in 111 plate appearances. Despite a hand injury in June,15 it was a successful season for the veteran. It was also a good year away from the field, as Burnett married Lena Lovett, a New Orleans native, on May 20 in New York.16 However, the couple would divorce in 1941.17

After the season, Posey reported that Burnett was serving as chauffeur for the New York Renaissance pro basketball team.18

Records are sparse, and except for records of a handful of games over the next two seasons (two with Newark in 1936 and one each for Newark and Homestead in 1937), and three games as a fill-in for the New York Black Yankees in 1941, Burnett’s playing days appeared done. He quickly moved into coaching, taking that role with Newark partway through the 1936 season when player-manager William Bell decided to concentrate on his pitching. Owner Abe Manley took over in the dugout, with Burnett as an assistant.19

Burnett took over as manager for 1937, but the arrangement didn’t last long, as Manley dismissed him partway through the season, despite a 15-13 record.20

Two years later, Burnett resurfaced as the skipper of the New York Black Yankees. Record-wise, at least in Negro National League II play, this was not a success. The club went 57-118 over the next four seasons, with an especially sad 6-32 mark in 1943, Burnett’s last year. However, more so in that final season, the team was hurt by losing players to military service. Burnett himself was sent to Baltimore to work in a plant to support the war effort between the 1942 and 1943 seasons; in fact, his availability to manage was in doubt as late as March.21 Burnett did get to serve as a coach for the East team in the East-West All-Star Games in both 1941 and 1942. Despite the poor records, newspapermen were generally complimentary towards Burnett’s managing; for example, Wendell Smith called him “shrewd, capable and (able to) handle men.”22

Following the 1943 season, Burnett was summoned back to the war effort, working at the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore as a riveter on ships.23

He continued to manage teams. He was named as manager of the independent Baltimore Grays early in 194424 but was later back in Pittsburgh, managing an independent version of the Crawfords25 and the Negro Southern League’s Nashville Cubs in 1945.26

Of course, not long after this, the Negro Leagues began dying out as what was then known as major-league baseball at long last began integrating. Burnett seems to have left baseball altogether. The 1950 census found him in Kansas City, working as a bellhop in a hotel. It also indicated he was married to 42-year-old Lola,27 although efforts to find out more about her have been unsuccessful.

In keeping with the mystery of Burnett’s life, we do not seem to have a death certificate, obituary, death notice, or even a gravesite. Baseball Reference lists his date of death as February 9, 1962, in Los Angeles.

Sources

In addition to the cited sources below, the author consulted both Baseball-Reference.com and the Seamheads.com online Negro League database. 

Photo credit

Tex Burnett, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 FamilySearch.com, “United States, Census, 1900.”

2 Chester L. Washington, Jr., “SEZ CHES: Jack Loads With Chin,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 1, 1937: 16.

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

4 “Warfield’s Leaving Wrecked Detroit,” Baltimore Afro-American, January 18, 1924: 14. The newspaper item doesn’t specifically mention in what league Burnett may have played.

5 “Burnett And Williams to Play in East,” Kansas City Call, March 14, 1924: 6.

6 “’Texas’ Burnett Draws Fine And Suspension,” New Pittsburgh Courier, June 14, 1924: 6.

7 W. Rollo Wilson, “Lincoln Giants Sweep Series With Hilldale; Still Lead Procession: High Class Pitching and Smart Baseball of Visitors Overcome Home Club’s Dumbness and Errors,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 14, 1924: 7.

8 “Former Harvard Star Twirler Joins The Lincoln Giants Staff,” New York Age, July 12, 1924: 6.

9 “Babe Hits 3D, Kids Mob Him; Game Ends,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1927: 20.

10 “Winter League Opens Oct. 15 With Babe Ruth: Vanguard of Winter League Players Passes Through … to Coast,” Kansas City Call, October 14, 1927: 5.

11 W. Rollo Wilson, “Sports Shots: Press Box and Ring Side,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 14, 1931: A4.

12 “Tex Burnett, Baltimore Catcher, Leads Batsmen in National Loop,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 24, 1933.

13 Bill Gibson, “Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya,” Baltimore Afro-American, March 24, 1934: 19.

14 Cum Posey, “Posey And Wilson Air Views On National League Controversy: Cum Posey’s Pointed Paragraphs,” Pittsburgh Courier, November 10, 1934: A4.

15 “Black Eagles Resume Play At Columbus,” Brooklyn Times Union, June 19, 1935: 9.

16 Ancestry.com, “New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018.”

17 “Divorces Asked,” Palm Beach Post, December 30, 1941: 3.

18 Cum Posey, “Cum Posey’s Pointed Paragraphs,” Pittsburgh Courier, December 21, 1935: A3.

19 “Red Caps Play Cops Tomorrow Night,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 6, 1936: 13.

20 “The New Captain,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 22, 1937: 12.

21 Dan Burley, “Confidentially Yours: We Hear From Soldier Boy Jim Semler,” New York Amsterdam Star-News, March 6, 1943: 14.

22 Wendell Smith, “The Sports Beat: Take That $, Buddy Young!” Pittsburgh Courier, January 25, 1947: 16.

23 “To Honor Sidat-Singh,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 22, 1944: 22.

24 “Burnett to Manage Baltimore Grays,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 10, 1944: 22.

25 Paul Kurtz, “Crawfords Meet Detroit Giants,” Pittsburgh Press, July 15, 1944: 8.

26 “Nashville Cubs Show Up Well: Tex Burnett New Manager Of Club,” Chicago Defender, April 20, 1946: 11.

27 FamilySearch.com, “United States census, 1950 census.”