How William “Big Chief” Watkins Began his Career as a Japanese: Early Native American and Japanese Baseball Interaction

 

Harry Saisho had a problem. He wanted to transform his Los Angeles-based Japanese baseball club from an amateur squad to a professional barnstorming team and he needed a pitcher.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, high-quality Japanese pitchers were rare in the US. In November 1908 Saisho and his team’s president, Dr. Takejiro Ito, went to Oakland to recruit a pitcher. A long article in the Reno Evening Gazette, probably republished from a Bay Area newspaper, describes their elusive search:

For three years [Harry Saisho] has been developing a little squad of Nippon athletes until he has one of the fastest fielding teams in the southern part of the state. He has infielders that are above the ordinary, outfielders that are certain and a good catcher – but the pitcher is lacking. That is the weakness in the Japanese ball team that Saisho must overcome. He has brought pitchers from every town along the coast south of Vancouver and they have failed to develop a pitching arm. …

Dr. Ito and Captain Saisho are in Oakland looking for a pitcher. … When you ask Ito what is the matter with having a Japanese pitcher, he throws up his hands, bites his underlip suggestively and … gives an explanation of his native countrymen. “Japanese are not built for pitching. … They haven’t a throwing arm. One reason is that the arm is too short, another is that the shoulder is too close set against the body. Our people are the greatest contortionists in the world but they can’t stand the strain of pitching for their shoulders always give out. The players can’t curve the balls either like you Americans. I thought at first it was the height, but I have seen the boys play against white pitchers smaller than our own and he would beat us. We are simply not people adapted to play ball and I can’t remedy the defect.

Furthermore, he never expects to develop a pitcher among his people. It is a hopeless task that he has been disappointed so many times that he will not attempt again. The team, which is known as the Nanka Japanese for Southern California will tour the state next spring and will appear in Oakland probably with an Indian pitcher in the box out of respect for a harmony of the complexion of the player.1

It was not unusual for Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) teams to recruit Native American players and have them pretend to be Japanese.2 This chapter will examine early baseball interaction between Native Americans and Issei in greater Los Angeles and then focus on William “Big Chief” Watkins, who began his professional career as the ace of the Japanese Base Ball Association.

Between 1901 and 1908 over 100,000 Japanese entered the United States. Baseball had been introduced to Japan in 1872 and by 1900 was played at most of the high schools and colleges across the nation. Many Japanese immigrants had learned the game in their native land and some formed amateur baseball teams soon after arriving in the United States. The first known team was the Fuji Athletic Club, founded in San Francisco about 1903. The Kanagawa Doshi Club of San Francisco and a loosely organized club from the Rafu Shimpo newspaper in Los Angeles were formed the following year.

In 1905 the Waseda University baseball team from Tokyo visited the West Coast, playing 26 games against American college, high-school, amateur, and professional teams. It was the first time a foreign team came to the United States to challenge Americans at their national pastime. The games attracted thousands of spectators and were covered in nearly all of the West Coast newspapers.

On May 20 Waseda met a squad from the Sherman Institute of Riverside, California. The game was closely covered by the local and national press as, according to Sporting Life, it “marked an epoch in the history of our national game … [as] the first time a base ball game was played by teams whose players were from two races that have adopted a sport heretofore distinctively that of the white man.”3

Founded and operated by the United States government in 1892, the Sherman Institute was the first “off-reservation” boarding school for Native Americans in California. It educated children from 5 to 20 years old with the explicit goal of assimilating them into White American society. Like many government-sponsored Native American schools, the Sherman Institute encouraged the boys to play football and baseball to help instill “American values.” The school soon became known for its outstanding football squad and would produce a number of professionals, but its baseball team was weak. To bolster the lineup against Waseda, the school recruited local Native American John Tortes Meyers. The son of German-American former Union Army officer and saloon owner John Mayer and Felicite Tortes of the Cahuilla tribe, Meyers would be raised by his mother, partly on the Santa Rosa reservation and partly in Riverside, before becoming a local semipro star and eventually the star catcher known as Chief Meyers for John McGraw’s New York Giants.

The game began at 3:00 and “the largest crowd of the [season’s] series gathered at Fiesta Park … and cheered loud and long.”4 The Institute team took the field in dark trousers, high white socks, and white jerseys. The visiting Japanese wore buff uniforms with maroon socks. Waseda scored a quick run in the first on an error by the Sherman shortstop Padillo and added three more in both the fourth and sixth innings. Meanwhile, Waseda starter Atsushi Kono shut out the opposition for five innings. “The teams formed a curious contrast,” the Los Angeles Times noted. “The Red Men, burly and muscular, seemed to tear through their game. The Brown men, lithe and wiry, slipped around them and out-played them.”5

In the bottom of the sixth, down 7-0, the Institute fought back, scoring six as Meyers “tried to remove the cover from the ball by knocking it to the score board.”6 But Waseda’s slick fielding held the Native Americans. “The little warriors from Waseda dashed around the field, taking down the long drives of the red man with ease and grace that was surprising.”7 The Japanese padded their lead to win, 12-7. All the newspapers agreed that it was a sensational game “replete with lively hitting, speedy base-running and good and bad fielding.”8

With the novelty of opponents from different races, the newspapermen could not resist racial stereotypes, allusions, and metaphors in their game descriptions. “Jap Team Scalps Sherman Braves,” “Wiry Japs Wallop Reds,” and “Japs Stop a Break from Reservation,” declared the next morning’s headlines.9 Not surprisingly the articles were replete with references to scalping, reservations, and the Russo-Japanese war. Typical was the Los Angeles Herald’s lede: “determined to win against a team which they considered in every way equal in strength to a company of Russian soldiers, nine little Japs from Waseda college across the sea took into camp the scalps of nine of the hardiest braves from the Sherman reservation school of Riverside yesterday afternoon and sent the big bucks crashing back to defeat with a one-sided score of 12 to 7.”10

Accompanying an article loaded with racial stereotypes and demeaning terminology, the Los Angeles Examiner published a large montage covering the top of the sports section under the headline “Orientals Win Ball Game From the Aborigines.”11 The centerpiece is a drawing of a Native American and a Japanese man in traditional clothing each holding a baseball bat (Figure 1). On either side of this centerpiece are the photographs of three players from the respective teams.

The game initiated a long relationship between Japanese ballplayers and the Sherman Institute. Harry Saisho recruited Native American players from the Institute to fill out his teams and in 1921 he organized and financed a tour of Japan for a Native American ballclub called the Sherman Indians, which contained a number of Sherman graduates. The team arrived in Yokohama on September 29 and spent the month of October playing eight games in Osaka and Tokyo. The squad did not do well on the diamond, winning only two games. Plagued by poor weather as well as a lack of talent, the tour lost money, bankrupting Saisho. The Native American players, however, returned home happy, having enjoyed their expenses-paid trip to Japan.12

Intrigued by the press coverage of the Waseda games and the large attendance, Guy Green, the owner of the famed Nebraska Indians Baseball Team, decided to create an all-Japanese baseball club to barnstorm across the Midwest. It would be the first Japanese professional team on either side of the Pacific, as pro ball would not come to Japan until the 1920s.

Although Green would claim that he had “scour[ed] the [Japanese] empire for the best players obtainable,” he did nothing of the sort.13 In early 1906 Green instructed Dan Tobey, the Caucasian captain of the Nebraska Indians, to form a team from Japanese immigrants living in California. The players congregated in Lincoln, Nebraska, in early April to practice with Tobey and assistant coach Sandy Kissell, a Native American who had played on Green’s Nebraska Indians.14

After a few days, the Nebraska Indians joined the Japanese at the practice field. Although the Japanese recruits knew the Indians’ reputation as top semipros, their skill surprised them. They were particularly impressed with the shortstop Juzicanea, a Yaqui from Arizona whom Guy Green described in Fun and Frolic with an Indian Ball Team as “the meanest looking Indian I have ever seen.”15 According to Green, Juzicanea “wore his hair long, surveyed everything suspiciously with piercing black eyes, and when he came down the street people moved to the edge of the sidewalk and apprehensively watched him pass.”16 “Although he was small like us,” a Japanese player wrote, he could throw the ball “like an arrow” so hard that the receiver sometimes dropped the ball from the sting of the impact. “Knowing that a small man could play that well, gave us a motive to practice harder. In poor English, we told the Indians’ captain that we were newcomers and inexperienced, and our skin color is very similar, so please teach us.”17

It soon became evident that not all of the Japanese were skilled enough to play on a professional independent squad, so Green and Tobey decided to bolster the roster with Native Americans – hoping that most spectators would not be able to tell the difference. Dan Tobey stayed with the team as a player-coach and shared pitching duties with Sandy Kissell. Seguin, occasionally called Sego in box scores, would catch most of the games. Both Kissell and Seguin would play on Green’s Nebraska Indians in 1907. Two other men, known only by their nicknames Doctor (first and third base), and Noisy (first base, third base, and catcher), joined the squad.18

 

 

In mid-April Green’s Japanese Base Ball Team embarked on a 24-week tour that covered over 2,500 miles through nine Midwestern states. From April 15 to October 10, the team played about 170 games against town teams and independent clubs. Although the team did well, winning 122 of the 142 games with known results, Green disbanded the club at the end of the season.19

Green’s Japanese players returned to the West Coast and formed their own amateur and professional barnstorming teams. Harry Saisho began by organizing the amateur Nanbu Karifournia (Southern California) Base Ball Club, known as Nanka. For several years the team played other amateur clubs in the Los Angeles area but Saisho longed to turn the squad into a professional barnstorming team. Despite not being able to find a strong Japanese pitcher in Oakland in the fall of 1908, the following spring he renamed his squad the Japanese Base Ball Association (JBBA) and readied to barnstorm across the country. They began with three games in Los Angeles. But after consecutive one-sided loses to the African American L.A. Giants, L.A. High School, and a Riverside semipro nine, Saisho realized that the team was not ready and canceled the planned tour.20

In 1911 the JBBA was ready to try again. The team spent April and early May honing its skills with weekly games in the Los Angeles area. Still lacking a quality Japanese pitcher, Saisho recruited Louis Lockhart, a Native American who had attended the Sherman Institute, along with two other non-Japanese. Fans, however, became suspicious during the May 10 game against the University of Southern California when the three “appeared strangely bewildered when the manager forgot and gave them some instructions in the Japanese language. In order to quiet the suspicions of the onlookers one of these players addressed the umpire with a string of gibberish that had a strong Spanish accent.”21

On May 11, 1911, the JBBA headed east to begin a 25-week tour across seven states during which they would play 128 games. After starting the first few games, Lockhart left the squad and Saisho turned the mound over to Lockhart’s Sherman Institute teammate, 21-year-old William Watkins. A Shoshone Indian, born in Round Mountain, Nevada, on March 16, 1886, Watkins enrolled at the Sherman Institute on November 4, 1909.22 The next spring, he was elected captain of the school’s baseball team. He grew into a powerful young man for his time, standing 5-feet-10½-inches and weighing over 160 pounds.23 Saisho gave Watkins the stage name Naga and attempted to pass him off as Japanese, but with his size and distinctive Native American features, few were fooled.

The JBBA was not a strong team. Playing mostly town nines and a few independent clubs, they won just 25 of the 87 games for which results are known. Although reporters often singled out Watkins, who played third base when he was not pitching, as the team’s top player, he was not dominating on the mound. Few box scores survive from the JBBA tour, but the existing statistics and newspaper articles show that he won just four of his 21 known starts and surrendered 5.86 runs per game. He did, however, strike out an average of 7.69 batters per game.24

Pitching nearly every other day, Watkins matured as a pitcher during that summer. On July 10 the Quincy (Illinois) Daily Herald noted that he “was a real twirler. He had steam and he had control. His curves broke nicely and in a way that was bewildering.”25 By the end of the tour, he threw some gems, including a 1-0 shutout with 11 strikeouts in Centerville, Iowa.26

In his last start, Watkins faced the St. Louis Giants, one of the top African American clubs in the Midwest. Their lineup included future Hall of Famer Ben Taylor, his brothers Steel Arm Johnny and Candy Jim Taylor, captain Dick Wallace, and Tullie McAdoo. A tremendous crowd came out to Athletic Park, expecting the locals to demolish the visiting Japanese, but to everyone’s surprise Naga baffled the Giants. The two teams were locked, 2-2, after nine innings before the Giants squeaked out a 3-2 victory in the 11th. The outing may have changed Watkins’ life as it drew the attention of St. Louis Cardinals manager Roger Bresnahan.27

Bresnahan signed Watkins to a professional contract and tested him against major leaguers in the annual postseason matchup between the Cardinals and the crosstown rival Browns. The Cardinals were already down 4-1 when Watkins came on in the fifth inning with no outs and runners on first and second. Pitching against the toughest hitters he had ever faced, Watkins set down the side, although the Browns did push a run across. Bresnahan decided to keep the young pitcher in for the remainder of the game but Watkins could not contain the Browns, who scored another in the sixth, three in the seventh, and one in the eighth. At day’s end, Watkins had surrendered five runs on six hits with a walk and a hit batsman in four innings.28

Although his hometown newspaper, the Riverside Daily Press, proclaimed on December 30, 1911, that “Watkins will have no trouble in the big league. … [H]e is looked upon as a second Bender and every fan in the country knows what that means,” Bresnahan decided that Watkins needed more seasoning and sent him to the Erie Sailors in the Class-B Central League for the 1912 season.29

The Sailors had finished in third place in the Ohio-Pennsylvania League in 1911 and had just joined the Central League. Nonetheless, the town had high hopes for their team, and they yearned for their new phenom to appear. “Watkins … is a descendant of the same tribe as Chief Bender,” the Erie Daily Times incorrectly reported. He “is a young and powerful specimen of the aborigine race. … Bresnahan wired him to start immediately for Erie and it is expected that he will put in an appearance in about five days.”30

Watkins arrived on May 7 with a new name and a refined spitball.31 He was now known as Chief Watkins or Big Chief Watkins. “The Chief is husky,” gushed the Erie Daily Times. “He is an imposing specimen of the American Indian. He is about five feet, eleven inches tall with massive shoulders and athletic physique. He … [is] said to have everything that is needed for a first class pitcher.”32 Over the next week, the newspaper reported on when the fans would get to watch their new hero.

Watkins finally debuted on May 16 against the Youngstown Steelmen but the fans were disappointed. The Chief was hit hard, giving up 10 hits including two home runs and two doubles, as the Steelmen won 7-1. Catcher Bobby Schang had trouble handling Watkins’ spitter, which took “a quick, deceptive break right at the plate and are hard to judge.”33 The local newspaper was forgiving. “While the Chief was batted hard in his debut on the mound, it was not entirely his fault. … We might say right now that the Chief looks like a real pitcher and we predict that he will stand more than a few of the batters in this league on their heads before the curtain is rung down. But you can’t win a ball game without some runs to win as much as the red man’s supporting cast was way below its high pinnacle of perfection. … The crew had four slipups which may be connected with the run getting and were over-zealous in their base running.”34

Four days later Watkins was given a second chance as he came on in relief in the second inning and “pitched superb ball,” shutting out the Wheeling Stogies for the remainder of the game.35 The Daily Times predicted that “he will be one of the pitching stars in … [the] circuit this season.”36 But it was not to be. Watkins remained erratic, alternating meltdowns with brilliant outings. The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel noted, “[H]is worst fault was lack of control, but when he got ’em over he was hard to beat.”37 At those times he dominated – striking out eight and throwing six no-hit innings in a 4-2 win over Dayton on June 14 and a three-hit shutout over Terre Haute on June 24. But on his wild days, opponents feasted – Watkins surrendered eight runs off nine hits and three walks against the Grand Rapids Black Sox on June 26. After a disastrous start against Akron on July 11, when he was knocked out in the third inning after already surrendering four hits, two walks, and a wild pitch, Erie released Watkins.38

Watkins returned to the West Coast and played for a few weeks with the Vancouver Beavers of the Northwest League before finishing the season with the semipro Richmond Clothiers in San Francisco.39

The Big Chief spent the next two years bouncing around the minor leagues. During the winter of 1912-13, he received a contract from the Fort Wayne Champs of the Central League but did not report until May 7. As a result, the Champs required him to train at his own expense until he could “demonstrate that he is ready to work.”40 They also withheld his pay until he officially made the squad.41 Watkins debuted in relief on May 16 against the Springfield Reapers. “All Hail the Chief!” exclaimed a subheadline in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette as Watkins gave up just two hits in five shutout innings.42 The next game did not go as well as Watkins suffered one of his meltdowns. The Champs already trailed Springfield 2-0 when he came on in relief in the first inning on May 22. “Watkins’ downfall came in the second when the visitors started bunting on him. He had his trouble holding his feet while racing about on the muddy infield and the first thing he knew he was forced into a deep dark hole.”43 Despite giving up three runs in the inning, manager Jimmy Burke left Watkins on the mound for the next seven innings and “it was awful.”44 By the end of the game, Watkins had allowed 20 hits and 4 walks, and threw four wild pitches in the 18-7 loss.

The next morning, the Champs cut Watkins and sent him to the Steubenville Stubs of the Interstate League. “He has never shown anything here that would justify keeping him, and is of no value to the pitching staff,” concluded the Fort Wayne Sentinel.45 Watkins’ stay with Steubenville was short-lived as the franchise disbanded in mid-July and he was transferred to the Battle Creek Crickets of the Southern Michigan Association.46 He began well in Class-D ball, winning his first start with a four-hitter against Jackson on July 21 and shutting out Jackson on five hits four days later.47 But as the season continued, opponents began to rack up the hits. Nonetheless, Watkins persevered and maintained a spot in the rotation until season’s end.48

Watkins spent the winter in Detroit, working in a post office, before signing with the Jackson Chiefs of the Southern Michigan Association on March 2, 1914.49 His stint with Jackson did not last long as he was trying out for the Toledo Mud Hens of the same league by May 19.50 Watkins did not make the squad and may have injured his arm in the process.51

By late July, Watkins found his home with the Nebraska Indians.52 Founded in 1897, the Native American squad was one of the top barnstorming teams in the nation prior to World War I. Capitalizing on the American public’s fascination with Native Americans and the rapidly disappearing Wild West, the Nebraska Indians would entertain spectators with ball tricks, gags, and stereotyped “Indian” behavior like war whoops. Green gave players “Indian names” and created stories about them. Often these tales were filled with gross exaggerations based on ethnic stereotypes. Naomas, an ancient outfielder, could regenerate limbs after injury, and Juzicanea slept on the ground and ate only raw meat.53 When they arrived in town, captain Dan Tobey would dress as a clown and lead the players in buckskin and headdresses through the town streets in a parade to the ballpark. At night they would pitch tepees and camp on the ballfields, living “in true savage style.” Spectators loved the act, and the Indians became one of the most popular squads on the barnstorming circuit.54

But the squad was not just a circus show. The team contained some of the best Native American players in the country. Each season the Indians would travel throughout the US, playing about 150 games against town teams and other independent clubs. From 1897 until 1914, the team put up a record of 1237 wins, 336 losses, and 11 ties.55

In 1912 Green sold the team to James E. Beltzer. Beltzer attempted to make the team even more “Indian.” His players went by stereotypical names, such as White Bull, Little Deer, and Sweetgrass. He adopted uniforms that looked like buckskin with fringe, and players would often wear full-feathered headdresses. Watkins, playing under the name Big Chief, became one of the team’s top pitchers. He finished the 1914 season with the club and then, after an unsuccessful tryout with the Muscatine (Iowa) Muskies of the Central Association the following April, rejoined the Indians in May 1915. According to the Muscatine Journal, that season he started 37 games, winning 28. The records of the Indians after 1914 are not available, but newspaper advertisements and articles feature “Big Chief” as one of the club’s marquee players. Watkins continued pitching for the Indians until the team disbanded in 1918.56

By 1920, Watkins had married Louise Galloy (1898-1971) and moved to Chicago.57 The couple had two children: William L. (born 1921) and Charles (born 1924).58 William L. served as a pilot in World War II and was killed in a plane crash off the island of Kwajalein in the Pacific Ocean on September 26, 1950.59 Charles died in 2009 with no known offspring.

While in Chicago, Watkins worked as a machinist for the Acme Steel Company.60 He continued to pitch for semipro clubs into the mid-1930s and, according to his obituary, barnstormed with Jim Thorpe (although the date and team of this tour is not yet identified).61 William Watkins died on November 8, 1966.

ROBERT FITTS’s articles have appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and websites. He is also the author of 10 books on Japanese baseball and Japanese baseball cards. Fitts is the founder of SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee and a recipient of the society’s 2025 Chadwick Award; the 2013 Seymour Medal for the Best Baseball Book of 2012 (Banzai Babe Ruth); the 2019 and 2023 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Awards; the 2012 Doug Pappas Award for the best oral research presentation at the annual convention; and the 2006, 2021, 2023, and 2024 SABR Research Awards. He has twice been a finalist for the Casey Award and has received two silver medals at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. His latest book, In the Japanese Ballpark, will be released in November 2025.

 

Notes

1 “Little Brown Men Cannot Put Twist on a Baseball and Abandon Great Game,” Reno Evening Gazette, October 27, 1908: 6.

2 Besides the examples discussed in the chapter, William “Chief Chouneau” Cadreau pitched for the Seattle Nippon against Keio University on April 9, 1914. “Redskin Is a Good Jap,” Seattle Star, April 10, 1914: 21.

3 R.S. Ranson, “A New Departure. An Epoch-Making Game of Base Ball,” Sporting Life, June 10, 1905: 19.

4 “Orientals Win Ball Game from the Aborigines,” Los Angeles Examiner, May 21, 1905: 41.

5 “Wiry Japs Wallop Reds,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1905: III 1.

6 “Jap Team Scalps Sherman Braves,” Los Angeles Herald, May 21, 1905: 6.

7 “Jap Team Scalps Sherman Braves.”

8 “Orientals Win Ball Game from the Aborigines.”

9 “Jap Team Scalps Sherman Braves”; “Wiry Japs Wallop Reds”; “Orientals Win Ball Game from the Aborigines.”

10 “Jap Team Scalps Sherman Braves.”

11 “Orientals Win Ball Game from the Aborigines.”

12 Yoichi Nagata, Robert K. Fitts, and Mark Brunke, “The 1921 Native American Tours of Japan,” in Robert K. Fitts, Bill Nowlin, and James Forr, eds., Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume I: 1907-1958 (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2022), 87-101.

13 “The Japanese Ball Players,” Covington (Indiana) Friend, June 22, 1906: 4.

14 Robert K. Fitts, Issei Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020), 83-85.

15 Guy W. Green (Jeffery P. Beck, ed.), The Nebraska Indians and Fun and Frolic with an Indian Ball Team (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2010), 117-18.

16 Green, 117-18.

17 Masaru Akahori, Nanka Nihonjin Yakyushi [History of Japanese Baseball in Southern California] (Los Angeles: Town Crier, 1956), 17-21.

18 Fitts, 88-89.

19 Fitts, 109.

20 Fitts, 130-145.

21 “Japanese Baseball Star Proves to Be an Indian,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1911: Sec. 3, 1.

22 “Death Notices and Funeral Arrangements,” South End (Chicago) Reporter, November 16, 1966: 34; Sherman Institute Registration Ledger (Number 7), Sherman Indian Museum Collection, Calisphere.org, 54, https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/86086/n20c4x81/.

23 “W.W. Watkins,” The Sporting News Baseball Players Contract Cards Collection, LA84 Foundation, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/175985/rec/7.

24 “Maroons Annex Opening Game of Season,” Las Vegas (New Mexico) Daily Optic, May 17, 1911: 3; “Honorable Trinidads Bingo Honorable Cork Center Very Much Japanese Boys No Can Hit Same,” Trinidad (Colorado) Chronicle-News, May 22, 1911: 1-2; “Japanese Will Never Beat Yankees at Ball,” Hutchinson (Kansas) Daily Gazette, May 25, 1911: 3; “Japs Won Out,” Strong City (Kansas) News Current, June 1, 1911: 8; “Greenfield Humbles Japan,” Greenfield (Illinois) Argus, June 9, 1911: 7; “Base Ball at Pavilion Park,” Henry (Illinois) Times, June 22, 1911: 1; “Base Ball News,” Cuba (Illinois) Journal, June 29, 1911: 1; “Potters Gain Victory in Ninth,” Macomb (Illinois) Daily Journal, July 3, 1911: 8; “The Japs Lost Out,” Quincy (Illinois) Daily Herald, July 10, 1911: 5; “Company L Whips Jap Team 4 to 1,” Keokuk (Iowa) Daily Gate, July 14, 1911: 6; “Japanese Trim Locals Sunday,” Fort Madison (Iowa) Evening Democrat, July 17, 1911: 7; “Home Team Victorious,” Fairfield (Iowa) Weekly Journal, July 19, 1911: 4; “[Illegible] Ball Team Versus Locals,” Washington (Iowa) Evening Journal, July 22, 1911: 3; “Marion Win Game from Japs,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Evening Gazette, July 28, 1911: 9; “Oelwein Won Over the Japs Sunday,” Oelwein (Iowa) Daily Register, July 31, 1911: 4; “Base Ball Results,” Boone (Iowa) News Republican, August 7, 1911: 5; “Suzuki Scores and Japs Win,” Centerville (Iowa) Daily Citizen, August 19, 1911: 4; “Nipponese Are Given Trimming,” Council Bluffs (Iowa) Daily Nonpareil, August 27, 1911: 6; “Semi-Pros and Amateurs,” Des Moines Register, August 29, 1911: 9; “Japs Defeated by All Stars,” Des Moines Daily News, September 4, 1911: 8; “Giants Meet Japs Today,” St. Louis Star and Times, September 27, 1911: 6.

25 “The Japs Lost Out.”

26 “Suzuki Scores and Japs Win.”

27 “Giants Meet Japs Today.”

28 “George Pitches in Clever Style Against Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 15, 1911: 37.

29 “Sherman vs. Nine Stars,” Riverside (California) Daily Press, December 30, 1911: 3; “Rain Prevented Crew from Playing Third Game with Akron Yesterday; Another Pitcher from Cardinals,” Erie Daily Times, April 30, 1912: 20.

30 “Rain Prevented Crew from Playing Third Game with Akron Yesterday; Another Pitcher from Cardinals.”

31 “Chief Watkins,” Erie Daily Times, May 8, 1912: 12.

32 “Chief Watkins Arrived Today,” Erie Daily Times, May 7, 1912: 6.

33 “Sport Notes,” Erie Daily Times, May 16, 1912: 15.

34 “Youngstown Runs Off with First Game,” Erie Daily Times, May 16, 1912: 15.

35 “Sailors Win Third of Series in Game Featured by Brilliant Fielding and Schang’s Throwing,” Erie Daily Times, May 21, 1912: 11.

36 “Sport Notes,” Erie Daily Times, May 21, 1912: 12.

37 “Fort Wayne’s Indian,” Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, May 8, 1913: Sports 1.

38 “Champs Take Last Game from Sailors Very Easily,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 12, 1912: 16.

39 “Spokane Put Indian Sign on Former Teammate,” Vancouver World, July 25, 1912: 12; “Spokane Takes Last Two Baseball Games,” Vancouver World, July 29, 1912: 15; Lou Schroeder, “Independent Games,” San Francisco Examiner, August 25, 1912: 93.

40 “Burke Ready to Take His Place,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, May 9, 1913: 5.

41 “Burke Ready to Take His Place.”

42 “Bilikeners Suffer First Shut-Out of Season; Atkins Yanked in Favor of Chief Watkins, Who Goes Great,” Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, May 17, 1913: 6.

43 “Springfield Crowd Does Murder and Downs Biliken Gang, 18-7: Chief Watkins Is Handed a Fierce Drubbing,” Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, May 23, 1913: 14.

44 “Springfield Crowd Does Murder and Downs Biliken Gang, 18-7: Chief Watkins Is Handed a Fierce Drubbing.”

45 Watkins to Get Another Chance, Fort Wayne Sentinel, May 23, 1913: 15.

46 “Interstate Men Are Getting Busy,” New Castle (Pennsylvania) News, July 19, 1913: 9.

47 “Indian Pitcher Beats Vets,” Flint (Michigan) Journal, July 21, 1913: 10; “The Figures,” Jackson (Michigan) Citizens Press, July 25, 1913: 13.

48 “Senators Cannot Stop Crickets,” Kalamazoo Gazette, July 30, 1913: 6; “Beavers Take Series From Battle Creek,” Kalamazoo Gazette, August 6, 1913: 6; “Ducks Are Defeated by Crickets, 9 to 2,” Kalamazoo Gazette, August 7, 1913: 6; “Vallandingham Holds Crickets to Three Hits,” Flint Daily Journal, August 20, 1913: 10; “Double Header in Foodtown Divided,” Kalamazoo Gazette, August 24, 1913: 10; “Errors Give Game to Battle Creek,” Kalamazoo Gazette, August 27, 1913: 6; “Kazool Take Third Game From Adrian/Final Contest of the Year With Tots Sees Good Baseball,” Kalamazoo Gazette, August 29, 1913: 6; “Sandlotters Are Again the Heroes,” Kalamazoo Gazette, September 7, 1913: 7.

49 Associated Press, “Jackson Club Signs Watkins,” Bay City (Michigan) Daily Tribune, March 3, 1914: 6.

50 “Myersmen Return Wednesday for Five Games at Keeley Park/Toledo and Flint Come for Series,” Jackson (Michigan) Citizen Patriot, May 19, 1914: 7.

51 “Strong Team to Oppose Indians Next Sunday,” Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, July 31, 1914: 9.

52 “Strong Team to Oppose Indians Next Sunday.”

53 Green, 105-09, 117-18.

54 Jeffrey P. Beck, “Introduction,” in Green, xviii.

55 Beck, xvii.

56 Beck, xxxvii-xliii.

57 1920 United States Federal Census, Enumeration District 604, Chicago Ward 9, Cook County, Illinois, Roll: T625_312: 1B.

58 1930 United States Federal Census, Enumeration District: 388, Chicago Ward 9, Cook County, Illinois, FHL Microfilm: 2340165: 6B.

59 “Local Nay Pilot Dies in Crash Off Kwajalein,” Suburbanite Economist (Chicago), September 27, 1950: 1.

60 “William Watkins,” U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.com.

61 “Heights Hammers Harvey to Sleep,” Chicago Heights Star, August 24, 1922: 1; “Durand 11, Chalmers-Hamilton 2,” Chicago Heights Star, May 31, 1923: 10; “Notes from the Diamond,” Chicago Star Publications, August 2, 1923: 2; “H.P. Elks Defeat Evanston Giants,” Highland Park Press, July 15, 1926: 7; “Baseball Extra!” Riverdale (Illinois) Pointer, June 18, 1926: 5; “St. Cyril Blank Colts in Final Game of Season,” Blue Island (Illinois) Sun Standard, October 4, 1935: 6: “Death Notices and Funeral Arrangements.”