The Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game and The Two Games Held at Yankee Stadium

The White major leagues held their first All-Star Game on July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Taking place in conjunction with the Chicago World’s Fair, the game was the brainchild of Chicago’s Mayor Edward Kelly with help from the Chicago Tribune to hype the Fair and spur interest in baseball, whose fortunes had been declining during the Depression.

Around the same time, Pittsburgh writers Roy Sparrow and Bill Nunn met with Cumberland Posey of the Homestead Grays to discuss holding a Negro League all-star showcase in New York City. After no progress was made, the writers met with Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who helped initiate contact with Chicago American Giants owner Robert Cole to facilitate leasing Comiskey Park in Chicago for an all-star contest.1 The game would be known as the East-West Classic, and its players chosen via fan voting (as was the case with the NL/AL All-Star Game) with ballots provided by prominent African American newspapers.

Some thought that a joint All-Star game might be in the cards, but with segregationist Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in charge of the White major-league game, a contest between the two leagues had no chance of success.2 The East-West All Star Game organizers scheduled a September 10, 1933, matchup of their own Negro League stars in a game that led to nearly 40 contests in one format or another over 30 years.3

The inaugural game was all that had been hoped for – an 11-7 slugfest with the West team led by Mule Suttles’ homer and three RBIs and Willie Foster’s complete game.4 In subsequent years, the game would bring together a who’s who of Negro League greats and remind any follower of baseball of what might have been.

Fast forward to 1939. Black baseball’s national showcase had taken place in six consecutive years (the East and West each winning three), all at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. A June 1939 meeting in Pittsburgh of the boards of the Negro American and National Leagues approved the seventh All-Star Game to be played again in Chicago. No mention at that time was made of a second game. The August 6 contest saw the West (Negro American League) squad come from behind to win dramatically 4-2 over the East (Negro National League). The devastating loss by the East All-Stars prompted its owners to call for a rematch. According to Fay Young in the Chicago Defender:

After the West defeated the East … the owners in the Negro National League were not convinced that the West had a better team, therefore they issued a challenge to the Negro American League for a game to be played in New York on Sunday, August 27, at the Yankee Stadium, home of the New York American League club. … The game in New York will not be a second East versus West Classic but will be a game between stars of the two leagues. Many of the same players who took part in the game in Chicago will be in action. In fact, the East can hardly produce a better lineup than what was on the field on August 6. True, the home run kings of the Eastern circuit fell down – but don’t we all have off days?5

The idea of a second All-Star Game prompted by the intense rivalry of the two leagues was understandable, but why Yankee Stadium? Negro League teams in New York City had never succeeded in the way that teams in other East Coast cities had – Pittsburgh, Newark, and Philadelphia in particular. Perhaps a place like Pittsburgh, home of the Homestead Grays (and until 1938, the Pittsburgh Crawfords), would have been better. But New York was the mecca for the White major leagues and a platform from which to display the talents of Black baseball players and to confirm how deserving they were to play alongside their White peers.

In his work Black Baseball’s National Showcase, Larry Lester wrote that “the last year of the [1930s] decade proved to be a pivotal year for baseball in America, particularly Black baseball. More attention than ever was focused on the integration issue … more and more press coverage, and more campaigns questioning the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ imposed by Major League owners [to exclude Blacks from their game], continued to be front page news.”6 Bringing the best of the Negro Leagues to New York was a palpable way to shine a light on their play. In fact, the game at Yankee Stadium saw eight future Hall of Famers (Oscar Charleston, Andy Cooper, Leon Day, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes, and Willie Wells) either play, manage, or coach. And a case could be made that several others who appeared in the game should be in the Hall as well.

The Negro National League at that time included two teams from New York City – the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans – as well as one from across the Hudson River in Newark, the Eagles. The Black Yankees and Cubans finished third and seventh respectively in the Negro National League that year and three of their players, Bill Holland and Terris McDuffie of the Black Yankees and Cando López from the Cubans, were the only ones from New York teams selected. Each played in one of the two games.

Local newspapers lauded the arrival of the All-Star Game in New York, noting that “for the first time since its conception seven years ago, the East will have the opportunity to witness the Dream Game of Negro baseball, when the All-Star teams of the Negro National and American Leagues clash at Yankee Stadium Sunday, August 27th.”7

If the Negro National League owners were looking for revenge at Yankee Stadium for their earlier loss at Comiskey, they got it. The New York Daily Worker wrote, “Led by Josh Gibson, whom many big leaguers have called the greatest catcher in the game today, the Eastern All-Stars of the Negro National League pounded out a 10-2 victory over the Western All-Stars before 20,000 fans at the Yankee Stadium yesterday.”8 Gibson drove in four runs along with Bill Wright’s and Willie Wells’ two each. Three pitchers for the East split the innings equally: Bill Byrd, Terris McDuffie (in front of his hometown crowd), and Newark’s Leon Day. Although the West squad had seven hits (to the East’s 10), they could muster only single runs off Byrd in the first and McDuffie in the sixth.

Dan Burley of the New Amsterdam News wrote after the game that it “served the purpose of placing two brands of ball played by the Negro leagues on display for the first time in the East. Out West, the boys rely on old time strategy, stolen bases, squeeze plays, bunts, and sacrifices. Out here [the East], it is knock the ball out of the park and be done with it.”9

There was another element to the game at Yankee Stadium that perhaps only New York could bring. Burley wrote:

The crowd was gay and colorful, counting in its bigwigs Elks, politicians, theatrical and nightlife celebrities plus a sprinkling of Alphas [Alpha Phi Alpha], Deltas [Delta Sigma Delta], and others. Henry Armstrong, welterweight titleholder, threw the first ball, John Henry Lewis, undefeated as light-weight champion, making the attempt to catch it but dropping the ball as it crossed the plate.10

Fay Young of the Chicago Defender offered his own postgame commentary on the bigger picture, lamenting the attendance and considering the causes for such poor numbers:

New York had an East versus West game. The official paid attendance was a bit over a reported 20,000. … To have one game on a Sunday afternoon after several four team gala bills [Negro League owners would often schedule doubleheaders at venues like Yankee Stadium showcasing four different teams] naturally left the fans believing they would be paying a price for one half of what they had been getting [the ticket price was the same for one game as it had been for two and this affected attendance]. … The Chicago game taught the promoters a lesson. Of the 32,000 [in the stands at Comiskey], less than 1,500 were White baseball fans paying their way. In other words, the success of the game was made by Negro newspapers and the daily press. Even as liberal as [the White press] were here, it didn’t put people in the gate.11

Young also asserted that Negro League owner Effa Manley of the Newark Eagles did not promote the game to the African American community as well as those in the Chicago area did for their All-Star Game, hence lower attendance from the Black community. The upshot? Grand plans for a showcase event at Yankee Stadium failed to come to fruition.

In 1948, nine years later, the East-West All-Star Game returned to Yankee Stadium. After the 1939 East-West Classic, Negro League owners paired the annual Comiskey Park game with a second contest in Cleveland (1942), Washington (1946), and the Polo Grounds in New York (1947).

The period between the two Yankee Stadium Classics may have been less than a decade, but in other ways, it was an eternity. Dan Burley of the New Amsterdam News wrote in early 1948, “When [Jackie] Robinson went into big league baseball, he took the Negro League attendance at all-Negro contests with him.”12 The long-awaited breaking of the color barrier in the White major leagues had the inevitable impact of lessening interest in the Negro Leagues among its primary customer base, African Americans. And although the talent drain took some time as Black stars and emerging talent began to take roster spots on American and National League teams and in their minor-league systems, the Negro League game itself suffered. Look no further than the number of future Hall of Famers who played or managed in the 1948 game compared with 1939. Eight appeared in 1939 and only two in 1948: Willard Brown and Pop Lloyd (as manager).

Unlike 1939, when the decision to play a second game was spur-of-the-moment, the Chicago Defender reported that in 1948 “the Negro American league club owners have decided on the players who will represent them in the 16th annual East vs. West game to be played at Comiskey Park, Sunday afternoon, August 22nd. … A second game between the East and West teams, called the “Dream game,” will be played in New York that week.”13

At the first game, in Chicago, the West defeated the East 3-0. Two days later, on Tuesday, August 24, substantially the same teams met again in front of an announced attendance of 17,928 at the Stadium. Once again, as in 1939, the East made up for its earlier loss in Chicago, winning easily, 6-1.

Players from the Negro National League’s New York teams this time contributed heavily to the win. Minnie Miñoso of the hometown New York Cubans batted second and went 2-for-2. George Crowe of the Black Yankees played first and batted fifth, going 2-for-4 and scoring twice. Louis Louden (Cubans) and Marvin Barker (Black Yankees) made appearances and Dave Barnhill of the Black Yankees tossed a scoreless middle three innings. John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, who had played and managed much of his career in the New York/New Jersey area, managed the East to victory.

Several compelling storylines emerged during and immediately after the 1948 games that suggested the handwriting was on the wall for the future quality of the All-Star Games and the Negro Leagues as a whole.

The ticket from the August 24 game at Yankee Stadium made it clear which league had superiority in the pecking order between the Negro and White major leagues. On it was written:

“The Colored All-Star Game Dream Game is scheduled to be played on the Night of August 24th. In the event of RAIN, it will be played on the Night of August 25th. In the event the Yankee-Chicago [White Sox] game scheduled for the Night of August 23rd is rained out, the game will be played on August 24th, thereby postponing the All-Star Game to the Night of August 25th.”14

Although not surprising, the notation on the ticket is reminiscent of the stark inequality of an earlier era, or at least those who controlled the pocketbook.

Before the game the New Amsterdam News had written that the game was expected to draw a crowd of about 40,000.15 As it turned out, fewer than 18,000 attended, the lowest All-Star Game attendance outside of two games that had been played in Cleveland and Washington.16

The August 28 edition of the Chicago Defender noted:

Baseball fans and the general public are blaming the slump in the East versus West game attendance to politics and ticket scalping. Last year 48,112 watched the classic. Sunday 42,099 was the attendance although it was reported a few minutes before as 37,099. Leroy “Satchel” Paige drew 51,000 in the same park on Friday night August 13th. On that night fully 15,000 were unable to get inside the park. Sunday, at the East vs. West game there weren’t 15,000 on the outside.17

African Americans had now turned their eyes to the small number of Black ballplayers in the American and National Leagues. Exorbitant ticket prices and ticket scalping also drove away cost-conscious fans.18 As a result, the game’s showcase lost its luster.

The Defender’s Satchel Paige reference spoke to the exodus of its better players to Organized Baseball. In fact, Paige had pitched on Friday, August 20, in Cleveland before 78,383 fans. The Indianapolis Star wrote, “Ageless Satchel Paige shut out the Chicago White Sox with three hits last night. … The fabulous Negro hurler now has won all three of his major league starts and has a season record of five victories and only one loss. A total of 201,829 customers have jammed their way into the stands to watch Paige in his three major league starts.”19 The African American community were voting with their feet. They cared about Black baseball players, following their stars as they now competed head-to-head with their White counterparts.

On September 4, the Defender observed:

[T]he crowd was asked to stand in silent tribute to the late George Herman “Babe” Ruth [Ruth had died on August 16, eight days earlier]. No mention was made of the last Negro baseball men’s death – namely Josh Gibson [January 20, 1947], hero of many an East vs. West game; Candy Jim Taylor, manager of the East nine and of the Chicago American Giants [April 3, 1948]; Cum Posey, Homestead Grays and former secretary of the Negro National League [March 28, 1946]. Maybe they didn’t amount to much in the eyes of the owners and promoters of the game, but baseball fans wondered why.20

The lack of respect accorded to the Negro Leagues in situations like this was at least somewhat mitigated by the slowly increasing number of its players who were afforded an opportunity to help integrate the previously White major and minor leagues. However, the breaking of the color barrier brought about conflicted feelings within the African American community about Negro League baseball, its role, and its future.

In a September 1948 editorial titled “Don’t Let Negro Baseball Die!” a writer for the Pittsburgh Courier wrote:

I pride myself on being a staunch supporter of Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Roy Campanella. I’m praying that Don Newcombe, Dan Bankhead, and Sammy Jethro[e] get major league calls next year, but – for God’s sake, fans, don’t let Negro baseball die! … The way I see it, Negro fans are doing Negro baseball, future Negro stars and potential major leaguers a great injustice by withdrawing their support. For if the Negro teams are forced to curtail their activities due to inability to meet expenses, the hopes of hundreds of Negro aspirants for major league careers will be doomed. How will major league scouts be able to look over Negro material if there are no Negro teams playing?”21

In the twenty-first century, all agree that the national pastime is in a better place than it was before Jackie Robinson’s trailblazing. The 1948 East-West All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium may have helped shine a light on how much was still to be done to repair the fracture of segregation, both for baseball and beyond.

It is worth noting that in Larry Lester’s significant work on the East-West All-Star Game that in 1958 and 1961, the Negro American League, weakened now to independent minor-league status, held All-Star games at Yankee Stadium. The league disbanded after 1962.

THOMAS E. KERN was born and raised in Southwest Pennsylvania. Listening to the mellifluous voices of Bob Prince and Jim Woods in his youth, how could one not become a lifelong Pirates fan? Arriba Roberto! He now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and sees the Nationals and Orioles as often as possible. He is a SABR member dating back to the mid-1980s. With a love and appreciation for Negro League Baseball, he has written SABR bios of Leon Day, John Henry Lloyd, Willie Foster, Judy Johnson, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Louis Santop, Andy Cooper, and Buck Ewing. Tom’s day job is in the field of transportation technology.

 

SOURCES

Larry Lester’s Black Baseball’s National Showcase serves as the primary source of the All-Star Game statistics, supported by Seamheads.

 

NOTES

1 Cumberland Posey, “Posey’s Points,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 15, 1942: 16.

2 Chester Washington of the Pittsburgh Courier wrote on June 17, 1933, of a proposed “interracial” All-Star Game between the White and Negro Leagues that would “not only settle a lot of arguments, but would probably draw one of the biggest turnouts of Negro and Nordic fans in the history of the game.” Chester Washington, “Sez Ches,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 17, 1933: 15.

3 Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1962, Expanded Edition (Kansas City: NoirTech Research, Inc., 2020), 400-401.

4 Lester, 33.

5 Fay Young, “The Stuff Is Here … Past-Present-Future,” Chicago Defender, August 19, 1939: 17.

6 Lester, 116.

7 “All Star East West Game at Yank Stadium, August 27,” New Jersey Herald News, August 19, 1939.

8 “Gibson Leads Attack as East beats West, 10-2,” New York Daily Worker, August 28, 1939.

9 Dan Burley, “Power Crushes West 10-2,” New Amsterdam News, September 2, 1939: 17.

10 Burley.

11 Fay Young, “Fay Says,” Chicago Defender, September 9, 1939: 17.

12 Dan Burley, New Amsterdam News, January 3, 1948: 16.

13 “West Selects Players for the Big Game, August 22,” Chicago Defender, July 31, 1948: 24.

14 Lester, 298.

15 Swig Garlington, “40,000 Expected at Dream Game,” New Amsterdam News, August 21, 1948: 16.

16 Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 321. The Cleveland game was the second of two in 1942, two days after the Comiskey Park contest that the East had won with 44,000 fans in attendance. The game at Municipal Stadium drew just under 11,000 with the East winning again. Griffith Stadium in Washington hosted the first of the two All-Star Games in 1946, drawing a little over 16,000 compared with 44,000 at Comiskey. The East and West split the two games with each side winning in its respective region.

17 Morgan Holsey, “Scalpers and Politics Mar East-West Game,” Chicago Defender, August 28, 1948: 24.

18 Holsey.

19 “78,382 Fans See Paige Pitch Another Cleveland Shutout,” Indianapolis Star, August 21, 1948: 16.

20 “Second East versus West Game Draws 17,928,” Chicago Defender, September 4,1948.

21 Don’t Let Negro Baseball Die,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 4, 1948: 10.