Even though Minneapolis had been home to a professional club for most of the previous 20 years, it would not be until 1896 that it won its first pennant. The closest any club had been to a flag was in the 1890 Western Association, when Minneapolis finished a game back of Kansas City. After not having a team in 1893, Minneapolis joined Ban Johnson’s Western League in 1894. Two fourth-place finishes resulted, but 1,282 runs scored in 123 games (10.4 runs per game) in 1895 led to high hopes for 1896. Chart 1 shows Western League team averages for 1895, and despite outscoring the next team by a half-run per game, the Millers were only a few games over .500. Millers fans were optimistic that several changes made over the winter would improve the club. When several midseason moves during 1896 paid immediate dividends and resulted in a winning streak for the ages, the Millers had a season worth remembering.

The 1896 Western League season of 140 games began on April 22 and it became clear that several Millers pitchers would not last long.1 Jesse Duryea would get two starts (0–2, 11 innings) and “Deacon” Rice would appear in seven games (1–3, 43 innings).2 Egyptian Healy and Bill Carney, holdovers from 1895, would pitch in 16 and 25 games respectively. Healy pitched into mid-July with a record of 6–6 and Carney into early August with a record of 9–9. Carney would finish the season with Kansas City. Of the 11 pitchers the Millers would use, only Bill Hutchison would play the entire season. His 49 complete games in 52 starts and 37–13 won-loss record over 442 innings were critical to winning the pennant.3

Other pitchers used were Varney Anderson (9–4 between June 6 and August 28) and Kirtley Baker (3–3 from August 16 to the end of the season). Baker started the season with Milwaukee. Charlie Hastings, on loan from Pittsburgh, would win four games between June 25 and July 7 with a 1.70 ERA in 37 innings. He also had six hits with four of them going for extra bases. Not surprisingly, he was recalled by the Pirates.

Two pitchers acquired during the 1896 season paid immediate dividends. While Frank Figgemeier would lose his first three and his last two decisions for the Millers, between August 9 and September 8 he would win 10 consecutive games. Earlier in the season, while with Des Moines of the Western Association, Figgemeier won 13 games in a row, en route to a 15–3 record.4 Part of his streak was part of a 25-game win streak by Des Moines.5 Another pitcher who helped put the Millers over the top was Harley “Doc” Parker, acquired by Minneapolis in early August from Grand Rapids despite his 0–10 record for the tailenders. He would match Figgemeier with 10 straight wins, only to drop his last two decisions.6

Rosters were limited to only 14 or 15 players at any one time, meaning the only substitutes were the second catcher and pitchers between starts. Catcher Pop Schriver, first baseman Perry Werden, third baseman Bill Kuehne, and left fielder Dan Lally played almost every inning of every game. Art Ball would lead the league’s shortstops with 120 games played. Jim Conner played most of the innings at second base until he was hurt on August 23. John Pickett was acquired from St. Paul to fill in for 26 games while Connor was on the shelf. Player-manager Walt Wilmot played 115 games in center field. The right fielders were Charlie Frank through July 19 and Walt Preston for the remainder of the season. Low roster sizes were the norm throughout baseball at this time, and players played until they were hurt or until their performance demanded a change. Pinch-hitting was rare (one pitcher for another), and position switches during a game were usually the result of an ejection or injury.

Though the Millers’ home run total dropped by half between 1895 and 1896 (from 215 to 107), they still had a potent offense. Werden led the way with 217 hits, 42 doubles, and 54 stolen bases, followed closely by Wilmot, with 204 hits and 54 stolen bases. Schriver contributed 203 hits and Lally scored 153 runs. Accurate statistics are difficult to find and those found in Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide and Reach’s Official Base Ball Guide and SABR’s own Minor League Stars I and II contain only a few categories per player or only a few players with lengthy careers. My own totals, derived from the daily box scores from the St. Paul Globe, sometimes did not match the season totals published by the same newspaper. Even though their runs scored dropped by 158 runs, the Millers scored 10 or more runs 41 times in 1896.

The team would play in three home parks in 1896. Athletic Park, their home since 1889, was only a block west of the main business district. Businessmen long eyed the property and in May the park was sold and the Millers were given 30 days’ notice to vacate.7 Fortunately, they had a long road trip and three weeks to locate a plot of land and erect a ballpark. Their first game at their new park in south Minneapolis was on June 19. Initially called Wright Field, it quickly became known as Nicollet Park and would remain their home for the next 60 years. However, because baseball games weren’t allowed on Sundays in Nicollet Park’s neighborhood, Sunday games continued to be played at Minnehaha Park until the issue was settled in 1909. Overall, their record was 12–5 at Athletic Park, 7–3 at Minnehaha Park and 35–9 at Nicollet Park, giving Minneapolis an outstanding 54–17 home record in 1896. They outscored opponents 668–396 at home. St. Paul, the Millers’ Twin City rivals, also had an outstanding home record of 51–17–3 and outscored opponents 866–494 at home during 1896.

While the reasons for the home dominance of the Twin Cities clubs are largely unexplainable, the reasons for the high run totals across the league are a bit clearer. Small ballparks throughout the league led to many extra base hits and baserunners were extremely aggressive. Instances of teams having eight or more extra-base hits or eight or more stolen bases in a single game are too numerous to mention.

Stolen base totals should be taken with some skepticism and can vary widely depending on the source. The definition of the stolen base wasn’t narrowed until 1898, and baserunners were often credited with a stolen base when advancing an extra base on a teammate’s hit. Judging by the high assist totals by the outfielders, runners often tried for an extra base when it was unwise. Fields were not as well manicured as today, nor fielders as skilled. A few players still played barehanded, and gloves were small with little padding or webbing.

The change in the pitching distance to 60 feet, 6 inches was several years in the past but pitchers were still adjusting. It ended the career of several major league pitchers, and it is not unreasonable to assume that minor-league pitchers faced an even more difficult and lengthy adjustment. Pitchers often had more bases on balls than strikeouts, and wild pitches and hit batters were numerous. Home teams usually batted first and thus batted in the top of the ninth inning with a lead, often adding to their run total. Pitchers were expected to finish their games and often tired in the later innings. With a lead, it was not unusual for them to ease up and gave up a few meaningless runs. A 12–7 win counted just the same as a 12–2 win.

The 1896 Western League season saw multiple clubs post long winning streaks. Early in the season Detroit won 12 straight games followed by a tie. St. Paul would reel off a 16-game streak between July 5 and July 22, followed by a tie on July 23. The Millers would top both these streaks. Between August 8 and September 15, they would win 36 of 38 games to turn a four-game deficit into a 12-game lead. They waltzed to the pennant. The streak began with 11 straight wins before a loss to Kansas City in the second game of a double-header on August 19. Another 19 wins in a row followed. A loss at Grand Rapids on September 11, by one run in eight innings, ended the streak. No reason was given in the press for the short game. Another six straight wins followed. Hutchison led with 12 wins in 14 decisions during the streak. Figgemeier and Parker each had 10 wins, Baker added three, and Anderson one. The Millers’ final record was 89–47–4 even though they lost seven of their last nine games.

By winning the pennant, the Millers qualified for the tournament for a trophy sponsored by the Detroit Free Press. They would face the second-place Indianapolis Hoosiers, a team they had beaten by nine games. The best-of-seven series started immediately after the end of the regular season. Fortunately for the Millers, they finished their season in Columbus, so they had only a short train ride to Indianapolis for the first game on September 24. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t help, as they dropped the opener behind Parker, 9–7, and the second game behind Figgemeier, 19–7. Hutchison stopped the losing funk (nine losses in the last 11 games) with a 6–3 win in Game Three.

The series switched to Minneapolis and the Millers tied the series with a 7–6 win in Game Four behind Parker. Hutchison shut out the Hoosiers on four hits in game five, 4–0. On October 1, the season ended with a 13–11 Millers win in Game Six. Figgemeier started the game and was replaced after two innings with the game tied, 5–5. Parker pitched the final seven innings.

The Millers would not be able to repeat their success. Several players moved on, some to the major leagues. They lost over 90 games each of the next two years. After the Western League was rechristened the American League and included a Minneapolis entry for the single year of 1900, Minneapolis became a charter member of the American Association in 1902. They would not see another pennant until they won three in a row (1910–12) when managed by “Pongo Joe” Cantillon, who would stay on as manager for 14 years, during which time the Millers captured four pennants and finished as league runner-up three teams. Cantillon was also a part owner of the team with his brother Mike and a revolving cast of investors.

RICH ARPI is a reference librarian and archival cataloger for the Ramsey County Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has been a SABR member since 1982 and is an active member in Minnesota’s Halsey Hall Chapter, giving numerous presentations on Minnesota baseball history over the years. He has been active in several SABR committees and written several biographies for the BioProject, articles for The National Pastime, and book reviews for various SABR committee newsletters.

Notes

1 Since the Spalding and Reach Guides provide only limited player and team statistics, I compiled my own from the box scores in the St. Paul Globe, the Minneapolis Tribune, and The Sporting News. Baseball-Reference provides only rosters for the 1896 Western League season.

2 “Great Team Won First Pennant for Minneapolis,” Minneapolis Journal, September 26, 1910. The article recaps the 1896 season, and details that the team “got hold of two ‘finds’ that year, Deacon Hutton and ‘Deacon’ Rice. Anson predicted that Rice would be the greatest pitcher in America.” From the use of quotation marks in the article, one must assume “Deacon” was not Rice’s real first name, but none other has been discovered.

3 Some sources credit Hutchison with a 38–14 record. His 37–12 record in his 49 complete games should not be in question. Of his other six appearances the Millers only won two of those games. On August 26, he was knocked out in the second inning trailing, 6–1. The Millers won the game, 11–10. On June 4, he pitched the final two innings in relief of Egyptian Healy, entering the game with an 8–4 lead. On July 15, he was clearly the loser, taken out after three innings trailing, 8–2, in a 10–3 loss. On May 9, he was taken out after eight innings with a 14–13 lead. Bill Carney gave up the final seven runs in a 20–14 loss. On May 22, he pitched the final inning of a 7–5 loss, entering the game when the score was 7–4.

4 Larry DeFillipo, “Frank Figgemeier,” SABR BioProject, accessed July 1, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/frank-figgemeier/. The Minor League Encyclopedia lists Figgenmeier with a 17–3 record.

5 DeFillipo, “Frank Figgemeier.”

6 On August 9, Parker relieved Figgemeier in the ninth inning and got the final three outs after Figgemeier had allowed two runs to tie the score. The Millers won the game with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Figgemeier was granted the win under scoring rules of the time. Modern rules, if applied, would have given Parker the victory and 11 straight wins. Figgemeier’s streak would have ended at nine wins.

7 Stew Thornley, “Athletic Park (Minneapolis),” SABR BioProject, accessed July 1, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/athletic-park-minneapolis/.

8 Henry Chadwick, ed., Spalding’s Base Ball Guide and Official League Book for 1896 (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1896), 133.

In 1905, Tokyo’s Waseda University became the first Japanese ballclub to play on American soil. Under the visionary leadership of Isoo Abe, the man now celebrated as “the Father of Japanese Baseball,” Waseda played 26 games against American colleges and semi-pro teams, finishing with a 7–19 record (.269 winning average).1 In 1911, Waseda returned to the US with the ambitious goal of playing—and winning—even more games.

The Waseda crew boarded the steamer Nippon Maru out of Yokohama on April 28, scheduled to arrive 16 days later in San Francisco.2 Abe couldn’t make the trip due to academic commitments, so he entrusted the club to professor Takizo “Frank” Takasugi, an assistant coach who had previously studied in Indiana and spoke perfect English.3

The Waseda players were enamored with America, a sentiment reflected by team captain Sutekichi Matsuda, who wrote:

America! What a sweet name to us Japanese!… Do you know what gratitude and affection we of Japan look upon the people of the opposite shores of the Pacific?… We have come here to fight you in the peaceful war of baseball. If we are behind you in our art and knack in the game, we at least want to stand on the same level as you in character and behavior.… We fight you as true fighters should, but after fighting we claim to enter into your warmest friendship.4

On April 19, Waseda kicked off its tour with an 11–2 loss to Stanford. The club notched its first victory three days later with a 4–1 win over the University of California at Berkeley. The tour headed east, with stops in Utah, Colorado, Illinois, and Iowa, before reaching Minnesota.5 When Waseda arrived in Minneapolis on May 25 to play the University of Minnesota the next day, it boasted a respectable 8–6 record.6

The community was buzzing with anticipation for the arrival of the Waseda nine. The local Issei (firstgeneration Japanese Americans) were especially thrilled. More than two weeks before the games, the Morning Tribune reported that some Japanese workers at downtown hotels had “already filed notice with the clerks and their employers that their grandmothers will die or be buried on Friday and Saturday when the two big games come off.” A bellboy at the Nicollet Hotel added, “We go to the game any way possible. Not miss it for much—job, money, or life.”7

Coaches Takasugi of Waseda and Wilkie Clarke of Minnesota announced their lineups for the May 26 contest slated to start at 3:30PM at Northrup Field.8

The game began with four scoreless innings. Minnesota pitcher Pickering, also the Gophers football captain, kept the first 12 batters hitless. The bespectacled Matsuda also puzzled opposing batters with a mix of fastballs, changeups, and breaking balls.9 His confidence was bolstered by excellent defensive support, especially from first baseman Oi, who displayed exceptional glove and footwork.10 At 5’8” he was the tallest Waseda player.11

Both catchers were handicapped by a strong wind blowing toward home plate, making it a challenge to accurately throw down to second. The wind, coupled with both pitchers’ failure to effectively hold runners, resulted in 14 stolen bases.12

In the fifth inning, Waseda struck first. Cleanup hitter Fukabori led off with a line drive that was too hot for Anderson at second. Hara’s liner past third could have scored the runner, but the third-base coach took no chances and held him. Fukunaga, the Waseda catcher, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt toward Knox at third, scoring Fukabori.13

Minnesota tied it up in the sixth inning. With two outs and a runner on second, Anderson made up for his miscue by crushing an RBI double to left for the Gophers’ first run. Matsuda killed the rally, picking off Anderson at second.14

With the score tied, 1–1, in the eighth inning, Fukunaga walked and then advanced to second when Matsuda fanned on a hit-and-run. Yawata grounded out to shortstop McGovern, moving the runner to third. Mikami singled to center, scoring Fukunaga.15

In the bottom of the ninth, the Waseda club was two outs from a 2–1 victory, but shortstop Omachi fumbled a hard grounder by Anderson, putting the tying run on first. Flynn’s groundout advanced Anderson, who promptly stole third, and Knox singled over second base for the game-tying RBI. The winning run was in scoring position once Knox stole second, but Matsuda remained calm and got Marsh to fly out to right, sending the game to extra innings.

The 10th through 14th innings mirrored the first four—both Pickering and Matsuda silenced the batters.16 Waseda failed to score in the top of the 15th, setting up Minnesota for the victory.

Johnston led off the inning by striking out, Matsuda’s tenth K of the game. Pickering then hit a hard grounder to short. The ball took a bad hop and struck Omachi’s shoulder.17 The Gophers leadoff hitter, Hartnett, who had managed just one hit in six at-bats for the day, stepped up to the plate for the seventh time. Pickering swiped second. With the baserunner dancing off the bag behind Matsuda, Hartnett hit a deep fly to the gap in left-center.

Under most circumstances, the towering drive would have been an inside-the-park home run at Northrup Field, a football stadium with baseball dimensions similar to the Polo Grounds, but the speedy left fielder Mikami quickly retrieved the ball. It didn’t matter, though. The damage was done: Pickering scored the winning run on Hartnett’s double. Minnesota 3, Waseda 2.18

Despite the two errors by Waseda, the press praised the visitors’ defense. “The Waseda men did their brilliant work, and several times the Japanese infielders brought forth cheers from the stands with their clever fielding and fast throws to first.” Newspaper observers added that Waseda’s defensive skill was “remarkable when we consider that they have but recently taken up baseball as a regular sport.”19

After the initial game, the Waseda men were feted at a banquet where university President George Edgar Vincent expressed a desire to have his school make a trip to Japan.20 The next day, the two clubs played again, but the contest paled in comparison to the 15-inning thriller. Minnesota won game two, 8–2.21

Waseda’s tour continued eastward to Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, DC Shortly after participating in a 4th of July Parade in New York City, the team began its journey home, making additional stops in Missouri, Nebraska, Montana, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.22

The Waseda baseball team covered 8,000 miles during its five-month tour.23 Waseda went 16–30 against college and semipro teams (.348 winning average).24 Of those losses, a dozen were decided by one run.25

Offensively, Yamamoto led Waseda in batting with a .317 average. Iseda led in triples (8) and doubles (5). Hara and Mikami led in stolen bases with 28 and 26, respectively. On the mound, Matsuda was credited with 10 of the team’s 16 victories, while Yamamoto won five.26

Every Waseda player was injured to some extent during the trip. Most recovered by the time they returned home, except for catcher Fukunaga, who was spiked badly in the left thigh, and pitcher Omura, who suffered a broken leg. Despite the battle scars, coach Takasugi and his club enjoyed their time in the US “Our boys conducted themselves respectfully all the time and left good impressions with the Americans,” he said.27

Of all the players who competed in the 15-inning thriller in Minnesota, only one went on to a career in professional baseball. After graduating from Waseda in 1912, outfielder Goro Mikami returned to the US for graduate school in Illinois.28 During his summer breaks, he played for All Nations, a barnstorming, multiracial club that featured legendary Negro Leagues pitchers Jose Mendez and John Donaldson. Three years after the 15-inning battle, the Japanese outfielder returned to Minnesota with his new American team.29 As a result of his stint with All Nations, Mikami is recognized as the first Japanese national to play for an integrated professional baseball team in the US.30

BILL STAPLES JR., of Chandler, Arizona, has a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime.” A SABR member since 2006, his areas of expertise include Japanese American and Negro Leagues baseball history as a context for exploring the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations, and globalization. He is a board member of the Nisei Baseball Research Project and Japanese American Citizens League–Arizona Chapter, and chairman of the SABR Asian Baseball Committee. Learn more at zenimura.com.

Notes

1 Japan Report. United States: Japan Information Center, Consulate General of Japan, 1973, 6.

2 H.O. Page, “Waseda Team in America,” Japan Times, July 26, 1911, 1.

3 “University,” Champaign (IL) Daily News, June 2, 1911, 3.

4 “Waseda Team Captain Writes His Liking for United States,” Daily Illini, May 26, 1911, 1.

5 “Waseda’s Home-Coming,” Japan Times, August 9, 1911, 5.

6 Game scores, statistics compiled by the author, September 2023. https://bit.ly/1911_Waseda_Tour_Stats.

7 “Japanese in Minneapolis Will Bury Grandmothers When Waseda Nine Comes,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 9, 1911, 5.

8 When Waseda arrived in the US, former University of Chicago coach Orville “Pat” Page joined the team and served as an assistant to Takasugi.

9 Fred R. Coburn, “Japanese Ball Players Show Class in 15-Inning Battle,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1911, 20.

10 Coburn.

11 California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists.

12 Coburn, “Japanese Ball Players Show Class.”

13 Coburn.

14 Coburn.

15 Coburn.

16 Coburn.

17 Coburn.

18 Coburn.

19 Frank E. Force, “Waseda,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1911, 20.

20 “Japan Invasion Planned by ‘U’ Baseball Team,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1911, 22.

21 Gopher Board of Editors, The Gopher 26.

22 “Waseda’s Home-Coming.”

23 H.O. Page, “Waseda Team in America.”

24 “Waseda’s Home-Coming.”

25 Game scores, statistics compiled by the author, September 2023. https://bit.ly/1911_Waseda_Tour_Stats.

26 “Waseda’s Home-Coming.”

27 “Waseda’s Home-Coming.”

28 Brian McKenna, “Goro Mikami,” SABR, undated, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/goro-mikami/.

29 “All Nations Take 2 Games,” Little Falls (MN) Herald, July 31, 1914, 1.

30 Multiple sources incorrectly state that Mikami is the first Japanese national to play professional baseball. This distinction is actually held by the members of Green’s Japanese Base Ball Team, a professional barnstorming team of Japanese nationals founded by promoter Guy Green of Nebraska in 1906. Regarding Mikami, the more accurate statement is that he is the first Japanese national to play on an “integrated professional team.” To learn more, see: Robert K. Fitts, “The First Japanese Professionals: Guy Green’s 1906 Japanese Base Ball Team.” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 26, no. 1 (2017), 9–32, doi:10.1353/nin.2017.0016.

31“Base Ball,” in Gopher Board of Editors, The Gopher 26, 371–72, https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll339:9537/p16022coll339:9392?child_index=371&query=japan&sidebar_page=372.

32“Base Ball.”

Veteran right-handed pitcher Frank Wickware posted a 5–3 record after joining the Chicago American Giants late in 1920. He made the team’s roster out of spring training in 1921 but got off to a poor start. In his first appearance of the season on May 10, Wickware’s wildness contributed to a 9–0 defeat at the hands of Bill “Plunk” Drake and the St. Louis Giants.1 Wickware was the victim of a 14–2 shellacking by the Cuban Giants in his next start on May 23.2 After Wickware surrendered 19 earned runs in 14 innings in these two starts, Rube Foster, architect of the newly formed Negro National League (NNL) and owner and manager of the American Giants, sent Wickware to the Calgary Black Sox, hoping the move might help him regain his form.

Who, or what, were the Calgary Black Sox, and their predecessor, the Winnipeg Giants? When the Chicago American Giants opened training camp in March 1920, the team’s roster was well established. Foster planned to go with catchers George Dixon and Jim Brown. LeRoy Grant, Bingo DeMoss, Bobby Williams, and Dave Malarcher composed the infield, and the outfielders were John Reese, Cristóbal Torriente and Judy Gans. Tom Williams, Tom Johnson, and Dave Brown anchored the pitching staff. A report on the team also noted that “there will be 16 new men here in addition to these men for tryouts, who will be reserved for future use.”3 Foster told the Chicago Defender, “Many clubs outside the league will be affiliated. It will be handled the same way as organized ball. The players developed in these subordinate clubs will be drafted, sent to the league. Those too slow for the league will be transferred to clubs of lower classifications.”4 The Winnipeg Giants were one of these “subordinate clubs.”

The first mention of the Winnipeg Giants in Canadian newspapers was in early May 1920, when a brief item announced that the team wanted to schedule games in Regina and that potential opponents should contact a person by the name of J. Coval in care of the Winnipeg Telegram.5 All that is known of Coval is that he was the manager of the Young Men’s Lutheran Club junior hockey team in Winnipeg,6 and the nature of his association with the Giants is not known.7 Apparently, there were no takers, because the Giants started playing games in North Dakota in June and branched out into South Dakota and Minnesota in July. When the club arrived in North Dakota in early June, the local press described them as, “under the direction of Rube Foster of Chicago,”8 and “composed of colored ball players consisting of some of the overflow from the new colored league now in operation in the east.… The Colored Giants are made up of young players that are not quite old enough and well enough seasoned to make these teams so are ‘farmed’ out to this traveling organization where they will finish their baseball education.”9 The connection to Winnipeg was not specifically stated in any contemporary or published sources, but one possible theory is that Black, or mostly Black, teams had barnstormed in the Upper Midwest and Canada over the previous two decades. These teams were generally well received and games were usually well attended, meaning the team could expect sufficient advance money and/or gate receipts to make the venture financially viable. In addition, the Winnipeg Giants and similar teams might expect less racial discrimination in the North as opposed to the Southern United States.

The team was managed by Sam Gordon, who started with the Indianapolis ABCs in 1908 and later moved to Chicago, where he met Foster while playing for the American Giants and Union Giants. Catcher William “Buck” Ewing played briefly with the American Giants late in 1920 and later with the Columbus Buckeyes and Homestead Grays. Outfielder Eddie Boyd also played briefly with the American Giants in 1920. Aubry Owens was placed on Chicago’s reserve list after the Winnipeg Giants tour and pitched for the American Giants from 1922 through 1925.

Other known members of the Giants included infielder Orville Singer, described as a “crack college athlete from Zanesville, Ohio.”10 Most of the Winnipeg Giants players were only identified by a last name in box scores and available game stories, so positive identification of some of the players was impossible. An outfielder named Pate may have been Archie Pate and a pitcher known only as Knight may have been Dave Knight, a member of the American Giants in 1930. A shortstop named Turner was likely Elbert “Cool” Turner, who went on to a long career in the NNL and Eastern Colored League. Other players found in box scores were outfielders named Dameron and Jackson and a shortstop named King. One of the more interesting players was a pitcher/outfielder usually listed in box scores as “Scottie” or “Scotty.” The evidence suggests that this was Scottie Hendrix. He played for the Lincoln Giants in 1918 but spent most of his career with independent teams, including one in the small town of Verona, North Dakota in 1922.

After a game in which LaMoure defeated visiting Verona, 8–2, that year, the LaMoure County Chronicle described Scottie as a clean-cut ballplayer and a gentleman and went on to comment: “It’s unfortunate that some of the rooters became more or less personal in their remarks. This kind of rooting, of course, is not sanctioned by the real baseball fan and we hope there will not be a repetition of it.” Pregame buildup to the arrival of the Giants usually extolled their great playing abilities and often added statements such as “The only reason these players are not used in big league teams is because of their color.”11 Another report said the Winnipeg Giants “have been training with the American Giants in Chicago and have been giving these famous players a run for the big end of the score in the practice games.”12 Clearly, this was an exaggeration because the Giants often struggled to be competitive or even beat local teams. One of the few detailed reports came from a game in Valley City, North Dakota, in June. “Errors in the first inning gave the Valley City boys a lead of 6 scores, which kind of discouraged the Giants for a while. Their pitcher gave up the ghost and retired to the mourner’s bench, which he warmed until the end of the game. However, they put in ‘Shorty’—we don’t know his real name— and we can say this much for him that he pitched a good game of ball. Together with his high-pitched voice and comical antics he kept the crowd amused for the rest of the game and seemed to put some pop into the rest of his comrades. We might add that the pitcher that got cold feet yesterday was given his walking papers last night by the management of the Giants.”13

The report also added, “The baseball game yesterday demonstrated that these colored men can play ball when things are going their way but the morals of the colored man goes glimmering just as soon as the tide turns against them. This was demonstrated yesterday when the bunch went up in the air in that fateful first inning. After that another pitcher was put on the mound and a good game resulted. The pitcher who quit his job yesterday under fire was promptly fired.”14 “Shorty” and the released pitcher were not named. After their tour through North Dakota, the Giants finally arrived in Winnipeg for the first time in late July. Scottie Hendrix pitched an 8–0 shutout over a local Coca-Cola team and then the Giants embarked on a six-week western tour of Saskatchewan and Alberta, reportedly winning 32 of 35 games as well as being “successful financially.”16 Another source reported the Giants having won 73 of 75 games15 on the season.17 Won-loss claims are suspect because at least seven documented losses were found to North Dakota teams alone.18 The Giants returned to Winnipeg for two more games in mid-September and then planned another excursion into Western Canada. Those plans were scrubbed when “Amateur officials of Alberta refused to allow a Calgary team to play against a team of Colored Giants.”19 The team returned to Chicago in early October. A story upon its arrival noted a generally positive experience “highly satisfactory to the Canadian backers.”20

The Giants went as far west as Vancouver and were said to have played to “overflow crowds” but reported a more modest and realistic won-loss record of 45–15. The Giants planned to return to Canada the following year but would change their name to the Calgary Black Sox because of financial backing from Black Calgary businessman Charles Ross. When NNL rosters were announced in early April 1921, the story explained that in addition to the 10 league clubs, the “Black Sox, Calgary, Canada, S. Gordon” were among the “Associated and clubs working on agreement with the league…”21 Manager Gordon, outfielder Boyd, and pitcher Hendrix of the 1920 Winnipeg Giants returned to play with the Black Sox in 1921, but most of the roster was new. In addition to the aforementioned Wickware, Clarence Walters, who later pitched for the Milwaukee Bears, joined the pitching staff. Bobby Anderson, who played for the Chicago Giants in 1920, was the new shortstop and a new outfielder was James Lynch, who later played with the Dayton Marcos. New catcher James Bray made his debut with the American Giants in 1925 and was a member of the Colored World Series champions in 1927. Utility man William Myers22 was joined by an infielder named Morman or Moorman23 and a player named Reed or Reid.24 Finally, first baseman Frank Duncan went on to a Negro Leagues career that lasted more than 20 years, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs.

After the Chicago American Giants season began in April, the Black Sox, who now advertised themselves as the semipro champions of Canada, took to the road, following much the same route as they had the previous year. They started in Wisconsin in early May, worked their way through Minnesota, and spent most of June and early July in North Dakota before eventually crossing the border to Canada later in the month.

Although they lost more than they won against North Dakota competition, the Black Sox’s skill as ballplayers was noted in newspaper accounts. However, the Black Sox and other traveling Black teams were also expected to entertain the crowds before, during, and after the game. To promote upcoming games in Bismarck, the Tribune noted that the Black Sox were “said to have some comedians which make the ball game a vaudeville act, as well as a fine exhibition of the national pastime,” and fans could look forward to the players “performing antics to amuse the crowd if the game becomes the least bit dull.”25

Other than game accounts, little additional information was found about the Black Sox experiences in North Dakota. An early season win in Valley City was sullied by “remarks” that were racial in nature and the local reporter took the guilty parties, both the home team and their fans, to task, writing, “In every game that has been played here between the colored team now in our midst, and who, by the way are perfect gentlemen as well as real ball players, there have been remarks passed…yet because our visitors are black they are compelled to stand for it.… If a colored team is good enough to play ball with, they are certainly good enough to be treated as gentlemen so long as they deport themselves as such on the ball field and about the city. The management feel they are a good drawing card at the gate and the fans are unanimous in their opinion that they can play ball, so we expect that the players will show them the courtesy that is due between clean sportsmen.”26

Other reports exposed the deep-seated racism of the times. When the Black Sox were able to hit the Valley City pitcher’s curves, the paper said the colored sluggers were “eating them up like watermelons.”27 When Fargo’s Charlie Boardman dominated in another game, the explanation in the paper was that he “had a rabbit’s foot with him which he must have swiped from a colored man near a graveyard some time.”28 One report predicted that the local team would easily beat the Giants and that “there would be dead ‘chocolate drops’ lying around the field tonight after the game.”29

After leaving North Dakota, the Black Sox entered Canada and played a handful of games in Saskatchewan, but when they arrived in Alberta, they experienced the same restrictions as had the Giants the year before. In late August, the Alberta Amateur Athletic Union made a ruling that prevented them from playing any more games against amateur teams in the province.30 Presumably, the Giants returned to Chicago shortly thereafter, but no additional information could be found about the team, nor about why it, or a similar team, was not formed in 1922.

Around the same time that the NNL was formed, Branch Rickey, then president of the St. Louis Cardinals, began signing hundreds of players to contracts. He later purchased many minor-league teams and is credited with developing baseball’s first farm system. One of Rickey’s fundamental principles was “quality out of quantity.”31

To what degree Rube Foster may have been influenced by Rickey is not known, but he also had the foresight to realize that to ensure the success of his new league he needed to sign many of the top Black players in the country and provide opportunities for them to develop. One way he did this was by the creation of traveling teams such as the Winnipeg Giants and Calgary Black Sox, where players such as Aubry Owens, Frank Duncan, James Bray, and Cool Turner honed their skills, which they later used in long and successful careers in Black baseball.

TERRY BOHN has been a SABR member for nearly 40 years and was an original member of the Halsey Hall chapter. He has written three books on baseball history in North Dakota, has been published in the Baseball Research Journal, and is a frequent contributor to the SABR BioProject. Terry’s research interest is early baseball in the Dakotas, with an emphasis on amateur, semipro, and minor leagues. He is retired and lives in Western North Dakota.

Additional Sources

Bush, Frederick C. and Bill Nowlin, The First Negro League Champion: The 1920 Chicago American Giants, Society for American Baseball Research, Phoenix, 2022.

McFarland, Joe, “Barnstorming Black Sox,” Alberta Dugout Stories, February 24, 2023, https://albertadugoutstories.com/2023/02/24/barnstorming-black-sox/.

Notes

1 “St. Louis Giants Trim Chicago Outfit, 9 To 0,” Chicago Whip, May 14, 1921, 7.

2 “Beckwith’s Drive Goes Over the Wall at Redland Park,” Chicago Whip, May 28, 1921, 7.

3 “American Giants Open Schorling Park,” Chicago Whip, March 20, 1920, 5.

4 “‘Rube’ Assigns Players to Giants,” Chicago Defender, May 20, 1920, 9.

5 “Winnipeg Colored Giants Want Games,” Regina Leader-Post, May 6, 1920, 10.

6 “Lutherans of ’Peg Would Play Quakers,” Saskatoon Daily Star, March 8, 1920, 6.

7 “Lutherans of ’Peg Would Play Quakers.”

8 “Feature Games of the Season Here June 5–6,” Grand Forks (ND) Herald, June 3, 1920, 1.

9 “Valley City Fans See Real Baseball,” Valley City (ND) Times-Record, June 3, 1920, 4.

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

11 “Colored Giants Here June 5–7,” Grand Forks Herald, June 1, 1920, 10–11.

12 “Calgary Giants Booked to Play.” Kenosha (WI) News, April 27, 91, 9.

13 “Valley Wins Third from Giants 7 to 2,” Valley City Times-Record, June 24, 1920, 1.

14 “From Monday’s Daily.” Valley City Times-Record, June 24, 1920, 3.

15 “Colored Giants Back in Town,” Winnipeg Tribune, September 14, 1920, 15.

16 “Winnipeg Giants Spend Day in City,” Edmonton Bulletin, September 10, 1920, 11. “Winnipeg Giants Spend Day in City,” Edmonton Bulletin, September 10, 1920, 11.

17 “Winnipeg Giants Spend Day in City.”

18 Independent research by the author uncovered a total of seven losses to teams from Valley City, Grand Forks, and Minot during June 1920.

19 “The Insider Says,” Calgary Albertan, September 21, 1920, 9.

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

21 “Negro National League Club and Roster,” Chicago Whip, April 9, 1921, 7.

22 William Myers’s last name was also spelled Meyers in box scores and in game reports. He was also called Vanderbilt Myers and on one occasion (“Homer Gives Black Sox A 6–5 Victory,” Calgary Herald, August 5,1921: 17) he was called Vanderveer Myers.

23 Morman/Moorman may have been Elbert Norman, who later played briefly with the Cleveland Elites of the NNL, but a positive identification could not be made.

24 Available evidence suggests that Reed/Reid was Ambrose Reid who later had a long career with the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants of the Eastern Colored League, but no definitive proof could be found.

25 “Colored Team Opens a Two Game Series,” Bismarck Tribune, June 23, 1921, 6.

26 “Calgary Takes Third of Series,” Valley City Weekly Times-Record, June 2, 1921, 2.

27 “Calgary Sox Beat Home Team 8 To 0,” Valley City Weekly Times-Record, June 2, 1921, 2.

28 “Calgary Sox Beat Home Team.”

29 “Grand Forks Defeated the Winnipeg Colored Giants in the Second Game of Series,” Grand Forks Herald, June 7, 1920, 17.

30 “Amateur Ball Teams Must Keep Clear of These Touring Clubs,” Calgary Herald, August 25, 1921, 16.

31 Kevin Kerrane, Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 24.

Lefty George Mogridge entered Game Seven of the 1924 World Series in relief for the Washington Senators, after starter Curly Ogden was pulled in the first inning. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

Atop the right-field stands at Target Field in Minneapolis fly the pennants to celebrate league championships and world titles. The initial one is from 1924, the first World Series won by the franchise that spent 60 years in Washington and is now in its 64th season as the Minnesota Twins. Washington was a charter member when the American League took on major-league status in 1901. For most of its time in the capital, the team was officially the Nationals but often referred to as the Senators. Many of the years were moribund, spawning the crack, “Washington—First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.”

However, the Senators had high points, and their top player, Walter Johnson, is often regarded as the greatest pitcher of all time. Johnson came to Washington in 1907 and was still a stalwart in the 1920s when the team finally won a pennant and went to the World Series against the New York Giants, who had won their fourth straight National League flag. The Giants’ manager was John McGraw, who was completing his 23rd season with the team. The Senators’ skipper was Bucky Harris, so young that he was known as the “Boy Manager.” Harris was 27 when he was given the job of manager to go with his duties at second base at the beginning of the 1924 season.

The World Series was shrouded in controversy on its eve. On October 1, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis placed New York outfielder Jimmy O’Connell and coach Cozy Dolan on the ineligible list for trying to bribe Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand to “not bear down too hard” in a September 27 game between the Giants and Phillies. The Giants won that game 5–1, clinching the National League pennant. Sand reported the incident to his manager, who passed it on to league president John Heydler. Three other Giants—Frankie Frisch, Ross Youngs, and George Kelly—were implicated but cleared by the commissioner. Nevertheless, a cloud hung over the Giants for their attempt to get preferential treatment from another team during the pennant race.

Two days before the opening game, a rumor circulated that the Senators would not be playing the Giants, that New York had been disqualified and second-place Brooklyn would instead represent the National League in the World Series.1 But the series went on as planned, with the Giants meeting the Senators, though American League president Ban Johnson, who had demanded that the series be called off because of the scandal, refused to attend any of the games.

While the American League’s president was absent, the United States of America’s President, Calvin Coolidge, was on hand for the games in Washington and was as excited as any Senators fan. Many were even happier about the 36-year-old Johnson—who had hinted at retiring from baseball at the end of the season2—finally getting his chance. Senators fans were advised to not be “too vigorous” in shaking Johnson’s hand in order to protect his right arm.3

However, Johnson—who had won 23 games during the regular season—was the losing pitcher in the 12-inning opener as well as in the fifth game, and it looked like he wouldn’t get the World Series win that many were hoping for.

Clearly, Johnson would not start Game Seven.4 But it was unclear who would, as Harris wanted to keep McGraw guessing who would be in the starting lineup. In McGraw’s nine, the first seven spots in the batting order were occupied by players who are now in the Hall of Fame. However, he chose the lineup thinking Washington left-hander George Mogridge wouldn’t be the starting pitcher—which was exactly what Bucky Harris wanted.

Harris hoped that starting right-hander Curly Ogden, who had not pitched in the series, would cause McGraw to put left-handed-hitting Bill Terry in the starting lineup. Harris would then switch to a left-hander with the intention of prompting McGraw to pinch-hit for Terry, who would then be unavailable if Harris should come back with a right-hander.

The strategy worked—sort of. McGraw bit by starting Terry, but he did not replace him immediately after Harris made his switch. Harris even stuck with his ersatz starter longer than he had intended, after Ogden struck out Fred Lindstrom on three pitches to start the game. It was here that Harris had planned to call for Mogridge, and Ogden even started walking off the mound. However, his manager sent him back and told him to try another batter. This one—Frisch—walked, getting Harris to finally signal for Mogridge, the man he had wanted all along. Mogridge retired Youngs and Kelly to end the inning and kept the Giants off the scoreboard for the next four innings.

New York starter Virgil Barnes did even better in the early innings, keeping the Senators off the bases. Barnes retired the first 10 batters, five on strikeouts, when Bucky Harris hit a long fly that just cleared the low wooden fence in left field for a home run. Even laconic Cal Coolidge rose and joined in the prolonged applause.

The Washington lead held into the sixth when Mogridge started the inning by walking Youngs, who went to third on a single to center by Kelly. Terry was up next, and at this point McGraw finally made his move by sending Emil “Irish” Meusel up to hit for him. Harris countered by calling for right-hander Fred Marberry.

Meusel hit Marberry’s first pitch deep enough to right to bring in Youngs with the tying run. Hack Wilson sent Kelly to third with another single to center. Travis Jackson then rolled a soft grounder to first that Joe Judge bobbled. Kelly, after initially holding, raced home as Jackson reached first on the error. Another error followed as shortstop Ossie Bluege let Hank Gowdy’s double-play grounder through his legs, allowing Wilson to score from second.

Barnes, now with a 3–1 lead, stayed strong. After Harris’s fourth-inning homer, Barnes didn’t allow another runner until he gave up singles to Harris and Goose Goslin in the seventh, but the Senators came up empty as Judge flied out to end the inning.

Art Nehf and Hugh McQuillan began warming up as the Senators came up in the last of the eighth, although it looked like they wouldn’t be needed as Bluege popped out to start the inning. But hits by pinch-hitter Nemo Leibold and Muddy Ruel put runners at the corners. Bennie Tate batted for Marberry and walked to load the bases. Barnes retired McNeely on a low liner to left as the runners held, and it looked as if he had worked his way out of the jam when he got Harris to hit a ground ball toward Lindstrom at third. “Harris didn’t hit the ball hard,” reported the New York Times, “but just as the grounder hit in front of Lindstrom, the pellet took a sudden leap, cleared the fielder’s head by a foot and rolled out to left field.”5 The bad-hop hit scored two runs to tie the score.

After Nehf relieved Barnes, and Rice grounded out to end the inning, the Washington fans roared for two reasons. One was the game-tying rally. The other was for Walter Johnson, who was on his way to the mound for the ninth inning. The Big Train would again get a shot at a World Series win, one that could give his team the championship.

Johnson quickly found himself in trouble, giving up a one-out triple to Frisch. He got out of it, though, by intentionally walking Youngs and striking out Kelly on three pitches. Meusel then hit a grounder to third baseman Ralph Miller, whose erratic throw to first was saved by a great stretching catch by Joe Judge.

Like the Giants, the Senators threatened in the last of the ninth. Judge singled with one out. Bluege grounded to Kelly, who threw to second to try to force Judge. Shortstop Travis Jackson was late in covering, then dropped the throw and had it roll away as Judge made it all the way to third on the error. With Washington needing only a long fly to win, John McGraw went to his bullpen, bringing in McQuillan to face Miller. After taking a ball, Miller hit a sharp grounder. It was right at Jackson, though, who made up for his error by starting an inning-ending double play and preventing the winning run from scoring.

A dramatic inning had failed to produce runs, and the game went into extra innings. The Giants continued to put runners on against Johnson, who continued to work his way out of jams.

As for the Senators, they went down in order in the 10th and got a two-out double by Goslin, followed by an intentional walk, in the 11th off Jack Bentley, New York’s fourth pitcher of the game. Bluege grounded into a force out to end that threat.

Miller grounded out to start the bottom of the 12th. Muddy Ruel lifted a pop fly behind the plate. Giants catcher Hank Gowdy had trouble with the ball from the start. He circled under it, then flung his mask away as he seemed to figure out the spot it would drop. However, at the last instant, Gowdy had to lunge to his right. He might have still made the catch if he hadn’t stumbled over his mask. Nearly falling to one knee, Gowdy dropped the ball.

The error gave another chance to Ruel, who ripped a pitch inside third base for a double. The Giants missed a chance for the second out of the inning when Jackson booted Johnson’s grounder to short, although Ruel had to hold on the play. With one out and the winning run on second base, Earl McNeely hit a sharp grounder toward Lindstrom.

News reports vary on how the ball ended up past the Giants’ third baseman, allowing the winning run to score. Most retrospective accounts describe it as a similar play to Harris’s hit in the eighth, which took a bad hop over Lindstrom’s head. Stories from the time, however, provide other details, some of them contradictory. Washington Post sports editor N.W. Baxter wrote:

The Pacific coast youth [McNeely] met a ball from Bentley. Down the third base line it sped. A momentary shout and then a hush for it was just the sort of ball on which Lindstrom had made a brilliant play and out when the game opened. This time it was not to be. Fortune evidently considered she had done enough for this boy who humbled Walter Johnson and played a real man’s role throughout the series. His outstretched hands missed the ball completely, despite a marvelous dive. Muddy Ruel was in, standing up, with the winning run.6

However it got by, through, or over Lindstrom, the ball made it out to left-fielder Irish Meusel, who held the ball, declining to make even the gesture of an attempt to head off Ruel with a throw home.

The Senators had their championship, Walter Johnson had his victory, and the citizens of Washington rejoiced on Pennsylvania Avenue and elsewhere through the night.9

STEW THORNLEY—who is related by marriage to another author in this publication—has been a SABR member since 1979.

Notes

1 “Baseball Scandal Will Not Interfere with World’s Series,” The New York Times, October 3, 1924, 1.

2 “Johnson Planning to Retire from Box,” The New York Times, October 1, 1924, 15.

3 “Handshakers Urged to Save Johnson’s Arm for the Giants,” The New York Times, October 2, 1924, 18.

4 The 1924 World Series was the first to be played in a 2–3–2 format (the first two games played at one site, the next three, if all were needed, at the other site, and the final two, if needed, at the original site). However, the format was not predetermined. After the teams split the first four, a coin toss was held just before the teams took the field for the fifth game. Washington won the toss, giving it the home field for the final game. “Griffith Wins Toss for Seventh Game,” The New York Times, October 9, 1924, 18. The 1925 World Series was the first to adopt the 2–3–2 format, which has been used in all Series since, except for a 3–4 format used in 1943 and 1945 because of travel restrictions during World War II. For more on the topic, see “The Evolution of World Series Scheduling” by Charlie Bevis, 2002 SABR Baseball Research Journal, 21–28.

5 “Senators Win World Championship, Johnson Pitching Them to Victory over Giants, 4 to 3, in 12-Inning Battle,” The New York Times, October 11, 1924, 9.

6 N. W. Baxter, “Johnson Is Hero as Nationals Win Decisive Game of World Series, City in Carnival, Celebrates Victory,” Washington Post, October 11, 1924, 5.

7 “The Johnson of Old Too Much for Giants,” The New York Times, October 11, 1924, 9.

8 “Senators Win World Championship, Johnson Pitching Them to Victory over Giants, 4 to 3, in 12-Inning Battle,” The New York Times, October 11, 1924, 9.

9 In 2014, the Library of Congress revealed a digital copy of a newsreel with footage of the final game of the 1924 World Series. According to an article at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/library-congress-obtains-rare-1924-world-series-footage, the film was found in the garage of a resident of Worcester, Massachusetts, who had died in 2013. A few minutes of the footage are available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUX9QZo_jX8 and contain some images of Walter Johnson pitching. Viewers should be alert to the footage not always lining up with the descriptions, such as one of George Mogridge pitching (the pitcher shown, unlike Mogridge, is right-handed).

Forty years ago, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) took a step to provide long overdue recognition for the top players in minor-league baseball history. SABR surveyed its members in 1983 to select the top 10 minor leaguers of all time. The next year, a review committee revised the plan by expanding the list to include five more players. The final list of 15 players was published in SABR’s Minor League Stars, Volume II in 1985. The list included six players who played for the Minneapolis Millers: Buzz Arlett, Nick Cullop, Spencer Harris, Joe Hauser, Frank Shellenback and Perry Werden.

Werden was with the Millers for six seasons between 1894 and 1902 while Shellenback pitched for them in 1918 and 1919. Cullop had stints in Minneapolis in 1920 and 1930; Arlett was a Miller from 1934–36; Hauser from 1932–36; and Harris from 1928– 37. Cullop and Harris were Millers teammates in 1930, while Arlett, Harris, and Hauser were teammates between 1934 and 1936.

While each of the six had extraordinary careers, that of the 5-foot-9, 145-pound Harris is arguably the most noteworthy in minor-league history. Harris spent 10 of his 28 professional seasons with the Millers, and when he returned to Minneapolis in 1957 for an oldtimers event, Minneapolis sportswriter Halsey Hall wrote that he was “one of the most graceful of all Miller stars over a 60-year period and easily in the first eight of all-time fandom favorites.” Harris told Hall, there were “no thrills better than my days at Nicollet.”1

The left-handed hitting Harris stands as the all-time leader in minor-league history in games played (3,258), runs (2,287), hits (3,617), doubles (743), extra-base hits (1,151), and total bases (5,434). He is also fourth on the minor-league career RBI list with 1,769. Cullop (1,857) and Arlett (1,786) are the top two on the list. Jim Poole, who played for the Millers in 1927, is third with 1,785. (Note that Cullop and Poole’s totals are incomplete.)

Including the 94 hits he had in 164 major-league games, Harris finished with 3,711 hits in his professional career. Only 11 players collected more hits in their professional career than Harris: Pete Rose, Ichiro Suzuki (including his totals from Japan), Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Jigger Statz, Derek Jeter, Stan Musial, Tris Speaker, Paul Waner, Carl Yastrzemski, and Wade Boggs.

MINNESOTA NATIVE

Harris was born Anthony Spencer Harris in Duluth, Minnesota, on August 12, 1900. His family lived in Milwaukee while he was in grade school, then moved to Seattle, where he was a standout in baseball and basketball for Broadway High School.

As a high school senior in 1921, Harris batted .429.2 Four days after graduation, he made his professional debut for the Tacoma Tigers of the Pacific International League. In the second game of a home doubleheader against Vancouver on June 19, Harris drew a walk in his first professional plate appearance and went 0-for-3 while leading off and playing center field in the Tigers’ 4–2 victory. Two days later, still at home against Vancouver, he got his first professional hit—a solo home run in the eighth inning of Tacoma’s loss.

Harris was a fixture in the Tigers lineup for the rest of the season. He batted .271 in 71 games as Tacoma finished with a 63–53 record, good for second place in the four-team league. After the season, his contract was purchased by the Philadelphia Athletics.

In 1922, he played for Bay City in the Class B Michigan-Ontario League. He batted .340 in 121 games to earn a promotion to the A’s in September. But he suffered a sprained ankle and did not appear in any games.

He began the 1923 season with Shreveport of the Class A Texas League. After hitting .243 in 12 games, he was sent back to Bay City. Over the rest of the season, he batted .284 in 125 games as the Wolves won the league title with an 80–51 record.

Harris returned to Bay City in 1924 and was instrumental in the Wolves winning another league title. He batted .319 with seven home runs, 68 RBIs and 35 stolen bases, leading the Wolves to an 86–50 record.

After the season, his contract was purchased by the Chicago White Sox and he spent the 1925 and 1926 seasons with them. In 1925, he batted .283 in 56 games. He followed that up with a .252 average in 80 games in 1926. The White Sox returned Harris to the minors in 1927, where he enjoyed an outstanding season for Shreveport, batting .354 with 201 hits, 12 home runs and 89 RBIs. He led the Texas League with 60 doubles.

JOINS THE MILLERS

In January 1928, Harris’s rights were purchased by the Minneapolis Millers for $10,000. Charles Johnson wrote in the Minneapolis Star that Harris was “a colorful young player” who had “impressed everyone with his speed on the bases and in the outfield. He bats left-handed and is a good socker, according to averages and reports.”3

Except for two brief stints—six games with the Washington Nationals in 1929 and 22 with the Athletics in 1930—Harris was a mainstay in the Millers lineup for the next 10 seasons. He was an immediate hit in his debut season in Minneapolis, batting .327 with 219 hits and 127 RBIs while leading the American Association in runs scored (133), doubles (41), and home runs (32).

In the five seasons from 1929 to 1933, Harris batted .340, .363, .347, .352, and .355 for the Millers. In 1932, the Millers won 100 games to capture the AA title. They fell to the International League champion Newark Bears in the Junior World Series.

In 1937, his 10th and final season with the Millers, he batted .326. A week after the end of the season, a group of major-league players played an exhibition game against a team comprising Millers and St. Paul Saints players at Nicollet Park, home of the Millers.

Future Hall of Famer Bob Feller, who had gone 9–7 with a 3.39 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 148⅔ innings for Cleveland that year as an 18-year old, pitched two innings for the major-leaguers. He faced 10 hitters, walking three, striking out three, and allowing just one hit, a game-tying triple by Harris in the third inning. The major-leaguers went on to win, 7–5.

In December 1937, at the American and National Leagues’ annual winter meetings, the Boston Red Sox announced they had acquired outfielder Ted Williams from the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in exchange for two players and cash. Three players were sent by Boston to San Diego in the deal for the 19-year-old future Hall of Famer; Harris was the player named two days later. The Millers had become a Red Sox farm team in 1936. Williams would spend just one season with the Millers. He won the American Association Triple Crown with a .366 batting average, 43 home runs and 142 RBIs.

During his 10 seasons with the Millers, Harris logged at least 200 hits four times, and just missed the mark in 1934, with 198. He had 100 or more RBIs six times and averaged 16.6 home runs and 32 doubles per season.

While Harris was with the Millers, they averaged 88 victories and won at least 85 games seven times. They suffered only one losing season (80–88 in 1931) during his tenure. From 1932 to 1935 they won the American Association Western Division each year, and they won the league title in 1932 and 1935.

Donie Bush, who managed both Harris and Williams during their time with the Millers, told a Minneapolis columnist, “Harris was a fine natural hitter. Like Williams, he was gifted with keen eyes and uncanny judgement. A pitcher had to throw Harris strikes in order to get him to offer at the ball. He hit lefthanders and right-handers alike, and he hit to all fields. Spencer had perfect rhythm and timing. He was a great ball hawk and very fast. Had a weak throwing arm, but offset that with everything else he did well. I’ll tell you something else about Harris—he was one of the cutest guys, when on second base, at stealing signs and calling the turn on what the pitcher would throw of any fellow I ever knew, including Cobb.”4

Bush, who was a teammate of Cobb’s on the Detroit Tigers for 14 seasons, added, “Too bad Spencer lacked confidence in himself when with Washington and the Athletics. If he had Williams’ cockiness, he would have stayed in the majors a long time.”5

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Harris spent the next eight seasons in the Pacific Coast League. In 1938, he batted .301 with seven home runs and 92 RBIs for San Diego. He played for the Hollywood Stars in 1939 and the Seattle Rainiers in 1940. Over the next three seasons, Harris helped the Rainiers win three consecutive PCL titles.

The Rainiers won 112 games in 1940 and 104 in 1941. Harris, who turned 41 in August 1941, batted .302 in 133 games for the Rainiers that season. He entered the season with 2,981 career hits in professional baseball, 2,887 of which he’d racked up as a minor leaguer. He surpassed 3,000 hits early in the season and 3,000 hits in the minors in September.

In 1942, the Rainiers finished third with a 96–82 record before defeating Sacramento, 4–1 in the first round of the PCL playoffs. They went on to beat the Los Angeles Angels in six games for the title. In 1943, Harris joined the Portland Beavers, where he remained until returning to Hollywood during the 1945 season.

Beginning in 1946, he spent the next two and a half seasons with Yakima (Washington) of the Class B Western International League, serving as player-manager in 1946. In the final month of the 1948 season, he was a player-manager for Marysville (California) of the Class D Far West League.

After managing the Cleveland Indians’ North Platte farm team in the Class D Nebraska State League in 1956, Harris moved back to Minneapolis and went to work as a salesman at a downtown clothing store. During his nearly three-decade minor-league career, he batted over .300 in 18 seasons and finished with a career average of .318. He had more than 200 hits in a season five times—his career-high was 224 with the Millers in 1933—and drove in more than 100 runs six times.

LIFE AFTER PLAYING BASEBALL

In August 1950, Harris was asked by the Seattle Times how he continued to have success as a hitter past the age of 40. He replied, “Eyes and wrists. As long as they don’t go…I’ll be able to hit the ball when I’m 60 years old.”6 In November 1957, his wife, Olivia, whom he married in 1935 while he was playing for the Millers, died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 45. In August 1959—two weeks past his 59th birthday— Harris played in an old-timers game at Metropolitan Stadium. In his only at-bat, he doubled to center.

Gene Mauch, the manager of the Minneapolis Millers at the time, marveled at Harris’s hitting ability. He told Halsey Hall that he was struck by “the beautiful ease with which Spencer Harris got his double.”7 In an interview in 1978, Harris was asked about his highest salary as a player. “Made $7,500 with the Athletics, but that didn’t last long,” Harris recalled. “I was making $800 per month with the Millers, but that was cut to $400 during the Depression. In those days a ballplayer couldn’t get a job in the winter because a guy figured he’d just get you trained in and off you’d be to spring training.”8

Harris recalled one failure during his time with the Millers. In October 1933, he and three of his teammates—Andy Cohen, Walter Tauscher, and Wes Griffin—opened a restaurant/club in downtown Minneapolis called The Wind-up. “We turned people away,” Harris recalled, “but we still lost money. We were just ballplayers. Playing ball was what I was good at.”9

In the 1960s, Harris scouted briefly for the New York Mets. He stayed active golfing and playing in a slow-pitch softball league into his 60s. In 1976, he suffered a heart attack. After his recovery, he resumed golfing regularly at Hiawatha Golf Course in south Minneapolis.

Spencer Harris died on July 3, 1982, at the age of 81.Two days later, a Minneapolis columnist wrote that longtime Minneapolis sportswriters “Halsey Hall and Dick Cullum counted Harris among the best players they ever saw. And Bob Nordstrom, the pro at Hiawatha and the man to whom Harris entrusted his scrapbook, is of a generation who were told by their fathers that Spence Harris was one of the great ones.”10

JOEL RIPPEL, a Minnesota native and graduate of the University of Minnesota, is the author or co-author of 13 books on Minnesota sports history. His most recent book, Hidden History of Twin Cities Sports, was published in 2023 by Arcadia Publishing. He has also contributed as a writer or editor to 26 books published by SABR.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, Newspapers.com, and Stewthornley.net.

American Association Record Book, 1977.

Johnson, Lloyd, ed. The Minor League Register, 1st ed. Durham, NC:

Baseball America, 1994.

Johnson, Lloyd and Miles Wolff, eds. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd ed. Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2007.

Rippel, Joel. The Hidden History of Twin Cities Sports. Charleston, SC:

History Press, 2023.

Thornley, Stew. On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers.

Minneapolis: Nodin Press, 1988.

Notes

1 Halsey Hall, “Spencer Harris, Old Favorite, Back Home,” Minneapolis Star, August 29, 1957, 39.

2 “Interscholastic League Top 25 Hitters,” Seattle Union Record, June 3, 1921, 29. He went 18 for 42.

3 Charles Johnson, “Gus Mancuso Will Assist Eddie Kenna,” Minneapolis Star, January 21, 1928, 18.

4 George Barton, Sportographs, Minneapolis Tribune, December 4, 1942, 11.

5 Barton.

6 Joe Miller, “They Never Say Die,” Seattle Times, August 20, 1950, 61.

7 Halsey Hall, “Everyone Wants Repeat of Old-timers Ball Game,” Minneapolis Star, August 25, 1959, 37.

8 Joe Soucheray, Minneapolis Tribune, July 12, 1978, 30.

9 Soucheray, Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 5, 1982, 27.

10 Soucheray.

The 1931 baseball season began as the teeth of the Great Depression sank into economies around the world. Barnstorming baseball clubs hustled to entertain for the scraps of disposable income held by the agrarian public. When the northwestern Minnesota city of Crookston staged a pair of ballgames the weekend of Decoration Day, on May 30 and 31, baseball fans in the region buzzed with excitement.1 The Colored House of David, an all-Black barnstorming nine managed by the incomparable John Donaldson, would square off against the hometown Red Sox at Highland Field in east Crookston.

As early as 1911, Donaldson had begun hearing things like, “If he had a coat of whitewash [he] would be playing big-league ball.”2 This type of segregationist talk followed him in multiple forms through the years, leaving him to endure a career that would lead him everywhere except the white major leagues. Instead, he would become a “Negro” star in over 130 cities in Minnesota alone and was ranked as one of the top three pitchers of all time by the Pittsburgh Courier.3 So, by 1931, the start of his third decade of success in the Gopher State, his name meant riches to organizations bold enough to associate him with their entirely Caucasian towns. Donaldson’s opponents that weekend, the Crookston Red Sox, were not your typical town team. The club was managed by Walter “Dutch” Kiesling, Donaldson’s former teammate, who was a star in his own right. The 6-foot-3, 260-pound Kiesling was an imposing figure who was in the middle of a 13-year Hall of Fame career in the NFL as an offensive lineman with the Duluth Eskimos, Pottsville Maroons, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Pittsburgh Pirates.4 He was playing first base for the long end of the gate receipts for the well-promoted clashes.

Kiesling’s team included two Black players, pitcher Chet Brewer and well-traveled catcher Jon Van, recommended by Donaldson and imported to balance the scales against his Colored House of David nine. Brewer was an electric 24-year-old right-hander who had proved his abilities were a level above while playing the previous six seasons with the Kansas City Monarchs. The Monarchs were an inaugural franchise in the Negro National League (NNL), and Brewer paid his dues and learned the game from some of the greatest pitchers ever: Jose Mendez, William Bell, Bullet Rogan and Andy Cooper.5

The economics of the day created uncertainty for every team, even more so than usual, and the heavily fortified Monarchs were no exception. They went independent after the 1930 season, as the NNL spiraled into dissolution.6 The instability of the times meant that outside clubs like Crookston could poach star players like Brewer.

The former Monarch followed a long line of great Black players to compete in Minnesota. Established stars like Dave Brown, Webster McDonald, and Donaldson proved for years that teams could make money with a Black man on the mound and the winner’s share of gate receipts. These exceptional players sought paydays not afforded to average Black players, and pitchers like McDonald, Donaldson, and Brewer inflated their bankrolls with good old-fashioned star power. Black stars could command premium shares of the gate, and fans were eager to shell out their hard-earned cash to watch them perform.

In the series opener on Saturday, the House of David defeated Crookston, 4–2, behind the pitching of 25-year-old Jimmy Truesdale and the fine glovework and bat of center fielder Gabby Street.7 On Sunday, Brewer and Donaldson took center stage, captivating fans with their command on the mound, while the formidable lineups of both teams battled toe-to-toe in an exhilarating showdown.

Donaldson and Kiesling submitted their lineups for their respective clubs to home plate umpire Ray Oppegaard.8 The cards read:

• Colored House of David – Charlie Hilton, 2b; Clarence Everett, ss; Gabby Street, cf; Nick Jones, rf; Charley Hancock, 1b; Manville “Fox” Boldridge, 3b; John Donaldson, p; Louis Williams, c; Pascoe “Scrapper” Wright, lf.
• Crookston Red Sox – Stanley Berquam, cf; George Lee, 2b; Joe Bach, ss; Walt Kiesling, 1b; Jon Van, c; Freemont Phillips, 3b; Joseph Teie, rf; Ernest Teie, lf; Chet Brewer, p.

From the outset, it was evident that both club’s aces were in top form, each delivering a stellar performance that kept opposing batters at bay. Brewer showcased his finesse by allowing a mere five hits throughout the game, a testament to his pinpoint accuracy and unwavering focus. Armed with a wicked overhand curveball that appeared to drop just before reaching the hitter’s bat, Brewer notched five strikeouts and forced 23 groundball outs.9

Meanwhile, the 40-year-old Donaldson faced a relentless offensive barrage from the Red Sox, surrendering nine hits. One of Donaldson’s greatest strengths was his ability to pitch to the right part of the lineup. His control of the game—and control in the strike zone—was an element people came to watch. He managed the game from the mound, often walking batters intentionally to find a weak link in the lineup. His ability to command the game was reflected in the box score, with a balanced attack of 13 strikeouts and 13 groundouts.

The game unfolded with a series of tense moments and thrilling exchanges. Despite numerous scoring opportunities, neither side could capitalize, leaving runners stranded on base and heightening the drama on the field. Both pitchers were in control.

In the top of the seventh inning, momentum shifted in favor of the Colored House of David when Jones unleashed a double, setting the stage for Hancock’s RBI single that propelled his team into the lead. However, Brewer’s exceptional defensive play and strategic pitching prevented further damage as he deftly navigated through the Colored House of David lineup with poise and precision.

On the opposing side, the Red Sox rallied behind Brewer, mounting an effort to level the score. In a pivotal moment in the bottom of the seventh inning, Brewer himself delivered a home run that electrified the crowd and reignited his team’s hopes of victory. Despite initial controversy over whether the hit was a two-base or four-base wallop, the umpires confirmed Brewer’s homer, igniting a surge of excitement among Red Sox fans.

As the game moved into extra innings, tension reached a fever pitch as both teams fought tooth and nail for the win. In the 10th inning, the Red Sox almost secured the victory. Kiesling led off with a single past first. Van lifted a high fly to right field. Phillips, who had gone hitless for the afternoon, slugged a double to deep center. Kiesling started at the crack of the bat but was thrown out at the plate after a perfect 8–4–2 relay, Street in center field to Hilton at second to catcher “Pud” Williams, who fearlessly held his ground knowing that the stout Kiesling was barreling home.

Despite the best efforts of both teams, in the end, the game was called per Sunday baseball regulations limiting play after 6PM.10 At the end of the 12th inning, and after 2 hours and 40 minutes of the most exciting pitching duel ever witnessed in Crookston, players and fans alike were left with a sense of anticipation for the next matchup between Brewer and Donaldson. The box score from the Crookston Daily Times on June 1, 1931:

NO REMATCH IN THE MAJORS

Donaldson was known as “The Master of the Situation” on baseball fields across the continent for his proficiency playing in the segregated game.11 When the situation in baseball and society intersected—notably the exclusion of Black players—fans could see what was happening right before their eyes. “The situation,” was obvious to anyone: These players were excluded for one reason, their lack of whiteness.

This glaring omission was beginning to wear at the color line. Newspapers stated the obvious when they said things like: “Many colored fans are beginning to resent this situation.”12 Donaldson and Brewer knew this “situation” intimately.

To succeed in segregated baseball, players adapted their behavior to fit into Jim Crow America and survive. Sometimes Donaldson was the only Black player on the diamond. His daily life was wrought with discrimination and misinformation portraying Blacks as inferior. One newspaper in Minnesota even went so far as to write, “A colored man must be careful in taking liberties when alone among whites.”13 There was little doubt about exactly where white power within society wanted men like Brewer and Donaldson.

Donaldson did get overtures. New York Giants manager John McGraw had attempted to pass Donaldson as Cuban a decade and a half before.14 He was certainly good enough to break the color line in the 1910s, but too famous to pass as an acceptable shade of white. It was a backhanded compliment, and even if his reputation hadn’t prohibited the scheme, Donaldson wanted nothing to do with it.15 Another impossibility dangled to another Black man that whites could and would recant. The reality was a Black man could only do so much in white society. Donaldson and others who looked like him were continually offered what seemed like equality only to eventually see integration as a mirage.

The Colored House of David, led by Donaldson, and the Crookston Red Sox, led by Brewer, tangled that late May in Crookston, Minnesota. To play in Crookston, each spent considerable capital. It seems a shame today the game had no definitive outcome. It’s impossible not to think they both felt dissatisfied, but the lack of satisfaction was nothing new.

Later that season, the Kansas City Monarchs reorganized as a barnstorming unit. Brewer and Donaldson would eventually become teammates in 1931 and together they would navigate Jim Crow, their economic realities, and their baseball careers.16

COOPERSTOWN CALLING?

Thirty-seven people have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for their careers in the Negro Leagues. (See Table 1.) Despite boasting career credentials for inclusion, neither Donaldson nor Brewer is one of them.

Both were among the 39 candidates on the ballot in 2006, yet each fell short of the required 75 percent of the votes for induction. They were not alone though, as stellar players like Dick “Cannonball” Redding and Walter “Dobie” Moore and the beloved ambassador Buck O’Neil also missed the cut.17

Of the candidates on that ballot, 17 were inducted, thanks in part to the composition of the special committee selected to evaluate their credentials. All 12 voting members held some level of expertise in Negro Leagues baseball history.18

Since then, more information about the careers of Donaldson and Brewer has surfaced, bolstering their Hall of Fame candidacies. Unfortunately, the Negro Leagues history landscape and the expertise tapped to survey that landscape have changed.

In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that it was officially designating the Negro Leagues as “major leagues.”19 This declaration was met with mixed responses, as the scope of the designation is both time- and geography-bound, limited to Black baseball played between 1920 and 1948, and only by teams that participated in select leagues. For players like Donaldson and Brewer, whose pitching talents and quest for economic justice resulted in constant travel, the scope and impact of their careers cannot be fully appreciated within these myopic parameters.

At the same time, the Hall of Fame modified its approach to recognizing and honoring Negro Leaguers through the creation of Era Committees.20 This change resulted in the longest gap in time (16 years) without a Negro Leaguer being enshrined in Cooperstown since Satchel Paige was the first in 1971. Between 2006 and 2022, not a single player or pioneer from the Negro Leagues was inducted.

What’s more, not all voters currently on these special Era Committees possess the same level of Negro Leagues expertise as those back in 2006. For example, of the 16 voters selected for the Early Baseball Era ballot of 2022, only three (Gary Ashwill, Adrian Burgos Jr., and Leslie Heaphy) are Negro Leagues historians. The rest are baseball history generalists or former players, like Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, Ozzie Smith, and Joe Torre.21 As a result, only two Negro Leaguers—O’Neil and Bud Fowler, a candidate not on the 2006 ballot—received 75 percent of the votes.22

The Early Baseball Era has been rebranded as the Classic Baseball Era for the upcoming election in December 2024.23 But given that the composition of the voting committee members remains unchanged, optimism for Donaldson and Brewer to achieve enshrinement is low.

With the current approach of relying on uninformed, non-Negro Leagues historians to cast votes for Negro Leagues candidates, the odds are likely that the results of any future election involving Donaldson and Brewer will resemble the 12-inning battle that occurred on that Sunday in May 1931 in Crookston— where, despite the excellence exhibited on the mound, the perverse conditions in which the game was played resulted in an outcome that left neither man a winner. Thus, their battle for respect continues.

PETE GORTON, a SABR member for 19 years, is a founder of The Donaldson Network (johndonaldson.bravehost.com).

BILL STAPLES JR., of Chandler, Arizona, has a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime.” A SABR member since 2006, his areas of expertise include Japanese American and Negro Leagues baseball history as a context for exploring the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations, and globalization. He is a board member of the Nisei Baseball Research Project and Japanese American Citizens League–Arizona Chapter, and chairman of the SABR Asian Baseball Committee. Learn more at zenimura.com.

 

Notes

1 Decoration Day is now recognized and celebrated as Memorial Day. Learn more at: “The History of Memorial Day,” PBS, undated, 2023, https://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/memorial-day/history/.

2 “Coons Were A Hoodoo,” Ackley (Iowa) Inter-County Journal, August 18, 1911, 1.

3 John Donaldson is known to have played in 766 different cities in North America and 132 in Minnesota, according to The Donaldson Network, https://johndonaldson.bravehost.com/. Ranking found in “Dismukes Selects Nine Best Pitchers in Diamond History,” New Pittsburgh Courier, February 15, 1930, 14: https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-pittsburgh-courier-dizzy-dismukes-se/147787480/.

4 “Walt Kiesling, Class of 1966,” Pro Football Hall of Fame, undated, https://www.profootballhof.com/players/walt-kiesling/.

5 Thomas Kern and Bill Staples Jr., “Chet Brewer,” SABR, undated, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/chet-brewer/.

6 “1931 Season, Independent Clubs,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, undated, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/year.php?yearID=1931&lgID=IND.

7 “Colored Boys Down Locals 4-2 Saturday,” Crookston (Minnesota) Daily Times, June 1, 1931.

8 “Game Called in 12th with Count 1-All,” Crookston Daily Times, June 1, 1931.

9 “Brewer recalls wild ride with Satchel Paige,” Des Moines Register, April 1, 1984, 30.

10 “Game Called in 12th with Count 1-All,” Crookston Daily Times, June 1, 1931.

11 “Donaldson in Perfect Condition to Meet Rivals from Up-River City,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times, July 19, 1930, 12, https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-cloud-times-john-donaldson-master-of/141716603/.

12 Hamlet B. Rowe, “Sport World,” Minneapolis Timely Digest, July 1, 1931, 22.

13 “Clarkfield Baseball Team Wins Championship Game,” Clarkfield (Minnesota) Advocate, August 5, 1926, 1.

14 “Donaldson to Hurl in Game with Bats,” Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa), June 28, 1932, 9.

15 Brian Flaspohler, “John Donaldson,” SABR, undated https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/john-donaldson-2/.

16 “Monarch Hurler Defeats Cubans,” Omaha World Herald, September 28, 1931, 9.

17 Bill Francis, “Negro Leagues Committee members reflect on the historic 2006 election,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, undated, https://baseballhall.org/discover/negro-leagues-committee-members-reflect-on-2006-election.

18 Carter Gaddis, “One Shining Moment,” Tampa Tribune, February 26, 2006, Sports 1.

19 “MLB officially designates the Negro Leagues as ‘Major League,’” MLB.com, December 16, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mlb-officially-designates-the-negro-leagues-as-major-league

20 “Hall of Fame makes series of announcements,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, July 23, 2016, https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/news/hall-of-fame-announcements.

21 “Golden Days Era Committee, Early Baseball Era Committee ballots to be considered Dec. 5,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, November 29, 2021, https://baseballhall.org/news/golden-days-era-committee-early-baseball-era-committee-ballots-to-be-considered-dec-5.

22 “Baseball legend Buck O’Neil voted into the Hall of Fame,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, December 14, 2021, https://www.nlbm.com/kansas-city-baseball-legend-buck-oneil-finally-inducted-into-the-hall-of-fame/.

23 “Era Committees,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-fame/election-rules/era-committees.

The Minneapolis Millers’ 1933 home opener featured three-seat bicycles during the pregame parade to the team’s venerable but odd-shaped Nicollet Park. The bikes weren’t the only unusual sight as the Millers began to defend their first American Association title since 1915. That gloomy late April day, with temperatures in the 50s, locally made product, Wheaties, debuted their new national advertising slogan “The Breakfast of Champions” on a billboard inside the park.1

After their perfunctory first-pitch duties, Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson and several city politicians took batting practice. A three-man comedy team, featuring “Snooze” Kenneard, roamed through the sizable crowd of 8,064 and six—six!—bands entertained fans. At the center of this circus was the Millers’ new manager, Dave Bancroft, slight in build and gray haired just four days after he turned age 42.

The longtime northwestern Wisconsin resident, with enough spitfire to start a car, reluctantly took the job after 18 years in the National League. During his career, the 1971 Hall of Fame pick became one of the finest defensive shortstops; played in four World Series, including two winning teams; served four years as the Boston Braves player-manager; and, from 1930 to June 1932, was legendary skipper John McGraw’s closest associate with the New York Giants.

Early in the 1932 season, Bancroft often led the Giants at spring training in Los Angeles and became interim manager on multiple road trips when McGraw wasn’t available. But that June, when McGraw’s health prompted him to quit, team officials named star Bill Terry as player-manager. Bancroft was simply too much like the fiery old-school McGraw to replace him. As an indication that the Giants were going in a different direction, Terry’s first managerial decision was to end curfews. Terry asked Bancroft to remain as assistant coach, but he politely declined.2

So, after the 1932 season, Bancroft sought the vacant Cincinnati Reds managerial spot with the subtlety of a squirrel scrambling toward a walnut. Despite McGraw’s efforts to help him, the Reds picked Donie Bush, who had led the Millers to 100 wins in 1932, his first season in Minneapolis.

Bush’s departure led Millers owner and president Mike Kelley to search deeply to maintain the team’s momentum. Minneapolis papers named more than 20 candidates, ranging from former major leaguer and vaudeville star Mike Donlin to Bancroft’s Giants teammate Heinie Groh. None mentioned Bancroft.

But Kelley, a former player and manager himself, pursued Bancroft and landed him for a $7,500 salary— high for the minor leagues, which sought to cut costs during the Great Depression. Minneapolis newspapers responded with zeal. One said the worst part of Bancroft’s hiring was that the season didn’t begin for another five months. Another paper presented a six-part series on Bancroft’s playing career. Within one week of Bancroft’s hiring, however, New York Telegram sportswriter Dan Daniel predicted that “Bancroft will not linger long in minor company.”3

At the opening game, the Minneapolis Star reported that Edna Bancroft, “attractive wife of the new Minneapolis manager,” sat directly back of first base, where she would be for virtually all 76 home games. She saw her husband of 22 years struggle through the Millers’ 13–8 “riotous victory.” In the game’s first three innings, the Toledo Mud Hens pounded Millers starting pitcher Harry Holsclaw for six runs, prompting the Minneapolis Journal’s Jack Quinlan to wisecrack, “Holsclaw was just coleslaw.”4

The game signaled what Bancroft already knew about the Millers’ depleted pitching staff. In addition, just 20 games into the season, the team’s leading hitter from 1932, Joe Mowry, was traded to the Boston Braves for two players and $25,000. At the time of the deal, Mowry was batting .360. His absence would leave a big gap.

Before the Millers’ spring training at the Campton Bowl, a Montgomery, Alabama, football stadium with a baseball field carved into it, Bancroft had tried to sign pitcher Clarence Mitchell, one of three remaining spitballers allowed to use that pitch in the National and American Leagues due to a 1920 “grandfather clause.” Mitchell rejected Bancroft’s request, leaving Bancroft to rely on former teammates Jess Petty, 38, and Rube Benton, who at 43 was playing the last of his 24 pro seasons.

The Millers offense was bolstered by slugger Joe Hauser, who hit 69 home runs in 1933, thanks to Nicollet Park’s unusual right-field fence. Though two billboards high, the fence was a mere 279 feet, 10 inches from home plate. By late August, the 34-year-old Hauser had hit 62 homers and was showered with gifts during Joe Hauser Day at Nicollet Park. He received $500 raised by fans, a diamond ring “from the women fans,” an electric toaster, three large cakes, and boxes of cigars.5 A rainout of the Millers’ final regular season game kept Hauser from a chance at 70 homers, but Babe Ruth still sent him a fawning telegram. Hauser’s 69 homers were an astounding 36 more than the runner-up. It was the second time he’d hit more than 60 home runs in a single season.

Bancroft pushed the Millers as they scrambled to a playoff berth, taunting umpires along the way. He was ejected from many games, although with a month left in the season, he insisted it hadn’t been 47 times, as suggested by one sportswriter. He claimed that the minor-league umps tossed him from games for infractions that wouldn’t receive similar punishment in the majors. Still, Bancroft boiled over. “Why don’t you try to bear down for just one game,” he shouted as he approached an umpire.6

In another game, Bancroft was ejected while walking toward umpire Jeff Pfeffer with his arms raised in disgust over a disputed strike call.

“But I didn’t say anything to you,” Bancroft screamed.

“No,” the ump said, “but it was your actions.”

Bancroft snapped back: “Well, what about your actions?”7

The Millers also used Bancroft as a promotional tool. In a pregame gimmick, he raced tap dancer Bill Robinson, one of the world’s most popular Black entertainers during the first half of the twentieth century. Robinson, 55, was given a 20-yard handicap against Bancroft and won the race by 15 yards—despite running backwards the whole time.

In an early July game, the Millers were foiled by a stray dog that scurried across the Nicollet Park field, delaying the game for five minutes. Third baseman Babe Ganzel caught the dog with a flying leap but was bitten sharply on two fingers and had to sit out for a week.

Kelley and Bancroft sought players to boost the Millers lineup after injuries. In mid-July, Kelley signed Bob “Fats” Fothergill, a 12-year American League veteran, despite his constant weight problems. Fothergill—described as 5-foot-10 and (charitably) 230 pounds—played 30 games as an outfielder with the Millers before retiring from organized baseball.

The Millers inched ahead of the crosstown rival St. Paul Saints and earned themselves an 86–67 record, making them the underdog in a best-of-seven championship series against the Columbus Red Birds. Columbus won two of the first three games at home, in part thanks to the pitching of 21-year-old Paul Dean, Dizzy Dean’s younger brother. But when the series moved to Minneapolis, the Millers won the fourth game, 6–4, before 10,000 frenzied fans at a sold-out Nicollet Park. Columbus followed up with a Game Five victory in 10 innings.

Game Six “was the most exciting baseball game seen here in years,” Minneapolis Star sportswriter Charles Johnson wrote. Unfortunately, it was bittersweet. With the Millers leading, 11–10, in the top of the ninth, first baseman Hauser misjudged a catchable foul pop with two outs. The batter, Lew Riggs, then hit a two-strike pitch over Nicollet Park’s short right field fence.

In the bottom of the ninth, Minneapolis couldn’t score despite placing runners on second and third with no outs. In the top of the 10th, Ralph Judd, a struggling relief pitcher and fair hitter who had narrowly avoided being cut from the team a few weeks before, hit a three-run homer that barely cleared the not-quite 280-foot fence to secure the championship for Columbus.

The epilogue to Bancroft’s lone and lively season with the Millers is filled with remarkable coincidences and missed opportunities. On the day Columbus won the American Association series over Minneapolis, Bill Terry’s New York Giants locked up the National League title. Terry—whom Bancroft had supported publicly several times in 1932 as the Giants floundered—then led the Giants to the 1933 World Series crown.

In early October 1933, Bancroft formed an auto dealership in Minneapolis while still serving as the Millers manager. One month later, Kelley announced that Bancroft’s one-year contract wouldn’t be extended. Bancroft then stung Minneapolis fans when he said he expected to land “something better” than the Millers managerial position.8

The idle Donie Bush, who had been fired after the Reds finished last in the National League, signed with Kelley to return as Millers manager in 1934. Bush remained for another five years, leading the Millers to an American Association title and helping prepare a 19-year-old Ted Williams for his major-league debut in 1939.

On December 18, 1933, the United Press announced that Bancroft would become the Reds’ new manager. Instead, the job went to former St. Louis Cardinal Bob O’Farrell, who lasted all of 90 games before being fired with a 30–60 record.

Bancroft’s friend and mentor, John McGraw, died on Feb. 25, 1934. “I am so hard hit,” Bancroft said, “I can hardly talk.”9 Without McGraw’s support, Bancroft’s major-league coaching career came to an end. In 1947, he managed the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Rox for one season. Then he spent four seasons as manager in the All-American Girls Baseball League before returning to his Superior, Wisconsin, home with his wife, Edna, where he became a warehouse supervisor whose baseball career was largely unknown to his co-workers.

In January 1971, Hall of Famer Terry and New York sportswriter Daniel (the one who predicted that Bancroft wouldn’t be in the minors for long) were members of the 12-person Veterans Committee that elected Bancroft to the Hall of Fame. When reached by a Milwaukee reporter with the news, Bancroft, nearing 80 and in failing health, beamed. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

TOM ALESIA is the author of one of 2022’s best-selling baseball books, Beauty at Short, the snappy and entertaining biography of Hall of Famer Dave Bancroft. A Madison, Wisconsin, resident, he worked for nearly three decades as an arts and entertainment writer for Midwest newspapers and was the winner of the National Music Journalism Award. His website is www.TomWriteTurns.com.

Notes

1 Stew Thornley, “Nicollet Park,” undated, StewThornley.net, https://stewthornley.net/nicollet_park.html.

2 Associated Press, “Terry Full of Ideas,” Tampa Times, June 4, 1932, 10.

3 “Daniel lauds Dave Bancroft,” Minneapolis Star quoting New York Telegram, December 7, 1932, 14.

4 Jack Quinlan, “The Sounding Board,” Minneapolis Journal, April 28, 1933, 31.

5 “Truckload of Gifts Presented to Hauser,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 27, 1933. 34.

6 “Miller Notes,” Minneapolis Star, April 29, 1933, 10.

7 Halsey Hall, “Saints Take Win from Millers,” Minneapolis Journal, May 14, 1933, 12.

8 Associated Press, “Dave Bancroft ‘Frank to Say’ He Wouldn’t Mind Managing Reds,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 17, 1933, 11.

9 Associated Press, “Dave Bancroft Is Shocked By Death Of Veteran Leader,” Birmingham News, February 26, 1934, 12.

On a long, lonesome highway east of Omaha lies Norway, Iowa, birthplace of Hal Trosky, who broke into the major leagues 91 years ago in 1933, and spent his rookie season in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. How did he get there? He was scouted in Iowa. He debuted with Dubuque in the Mississippi Valley League (MVL) in 1931 at the age of 18, batting .302 in only 52 games. He then split 1932 between Quincy in the Three-I League and Burlington in the MVL. At Quincy, he batted .331 in 68 games, with 14 doubles, and 15 home runs. He then batted .316 in 59 games with Burlington, with 15 doubles, and 9 triples.

In 1933, Trosky saw playing time with AA Toledo, where he hit .323 with 25 doubles, 33 homers, and 92 RBIs. This led to a brief, late-season appearance with the Cleveland Indians, where he batted .296 in only 11 games. This cup of coffee set the stage for his breakout rookie year in 1934.

When he arrived in the American League, Trosky joined an already impressive collection of talent at first base, including Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and Lou Gehrig. His statistical line for his rookie season can be seen in Table 1, below. He very likely would have been the AL Rookie of the Year had that award existed at the time.

Highlights of his season included May 30, a three-homer, four-RBI game against Chicago, a six-RBI and two-home-run performance on April 24 against the Browns in St. Louis, and another six-RBI game against the A’s on June 14, again with two home runs. In a July 23 game against the A’s he drilled a homer and a pair of doubles, driving in five runs. Finally, on September 5, he blasted a grand slam as part of a six-RBI outburst against the Red Sox. The Tribe won all but one of those games.

Trosky’s power was evident both at home, where he hit 17 round trippers, as well as on the road, where he hit 18. However, he batted .384 at home, to .274 on the road, and his OBA and SLA were also significantly higher at home than on the road.

His lefty-righty splits were also extreme. He batted .345 against righties and .280 against lefties, with much higher OBA and SLA against righties. He did have more than three times as many at bats against righties than lefties, which helps explain his 33 home runs against right-handed pitchers, and only two versus southpaws. In 192 at-bats with runners in scoring position, he batted .359 with 12 homers and 112 RBIs. He batted .300 or better in every AL park except Boston’s Fenway Park and Detroit’s Navin Field, and fared especially well against Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Despite his exaggerated L/R splits, Trosky was a substantial contributor to the third-place Cleveland Indians, skippered by Walter Johnson, who won 85 and lost 69. Table 2 displays the Indians home and road splits. We can see that the Tribe, like Trosky, performed better at home than on the road.

Cleveland had a .500 or better record against every AL team except for pennant-winning Detroit, against whom they went 6-16. They were 11-11 against the second place Yanks. Thus, their third-place finish was due entirely to their inability to beat the two teams above them in the standings. They did go 15–7 against Boston, 14–8 vs. Chicago, and 15–7 against St. Louis. However, Detroit was 17-5 against the Chisox, and the Yankees were 17–5 vs. Chicago, and 17–5 vs. the Browns, thus beating up the weak links. But they went 10–12 against Detroit. (More on this later!)

Table 3 puts Trosky’s rookie season into perspective by comparing him to Foxx, Greenberg, and Gehrig. Though Trosky was a rookie in 1934, he held his own against these future Hall of Fame first basemen, all of whom were multiple MVP winners. Trosky finished seventh in the AL MVP voting, which was notable, given the stiff competition at his position and considering that Cleveland was not in the pennant race. He finished third in the majors in home runs, and second in RBIs—impressive for a rookie.

Trosky was no flash in the pan. He had a number of other strong years, capped by his 1936 season, when he belted 42 homers and 162 RBIs, with over 400 total bases, and became the first Cleveland batter to drill 40 homers in a season. And he was respected well enough by the club to be named team captain in 1940. But severe migraine headaches derailed a promising career, costing him two full seasons in his prime, and eventually driving him from the game at the age of 33.

Hal Trosky should be remembered as an important player for the Indians, and a stalwart at first base, holding his own at a time when first base was such a strong position in the American League. He also compares favorably to other strong batters. Similarity Scores by age rank him most like Albert Pujols, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Orlando Cepeda, Eddie Murray, and Ted Kluszewski. That’s rather good company!

Trosky had some prominent teammates, such as Earl Averill and Mel Harder. During his rookie season, Trosky hit behind future Hall of Famer Averill, who had a banner year, batting .313, with 31 homers, 48 doubles, 113 RBIs, and 128 runs scored. While there were other .300 hitters who contributed—including Joe Vosmik—Trosky and Averill were the main power threats in the lineup.

Despite the stellar performances of Trosky, Averill, and Mel Harder, who went 20–12 with a sparkling 2.61 ERA, the Tribe didn’t have the depth of talent to compete for the pennant in 1934. Table 4 shows how the Tribe stacked up against the rest of the league. Detroit’s superiority is easy to see. They scored more runs, had a greater run differential, and had a better record in all comparisons to the rest of the league.

Though the Indians finished a distant third, Hal Trosky certainly did his share to make them more competitive in 1934. The boy from Norway, Iowa, (also home of Mike Boddicker) “done splendid,” as Casey Stengel would have said.

STEVE KREVISKY has been a professor of mathematics at Connecticut State Community College, Middlesex Campus, for many years. His students get used to him bringing baseball into classes to make it more interesting for them. He is also President of the Smoky Joe Wood SABR chapter, which has periodic meetings, chapter breakfasts, and trips to local minor league games. He has been attending SABR’s annual conventions for many years, going back to his first convention in Chicago in 1986. He has been a frequent presenter, and will also be presenting this year. He has published articles in the journals and has also been on seven teams that won the trivia championships over the years! He looks forward to returning to Minneapolis for this year’s convention. He is in a simulation/fantasy league, and looks forward to that committee meeting as well as seeing old friends there!

Author’s note

The opening line references the Bob Seger song, “Turn The Page.”

Sources

Baseball Almanac

Baseball Reference

SABR Biography Project

Daguerreotypes, 8th Edition, published by The Sporting News

Retrosheet