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“Dr. May, gentlemen, — ladies and gentlemen. My plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow at 10:35 A.M. and I haven’t a thing to do between now and then but to talk if I get the chance, — and I feel like talking.
“I asked Mr. Lawson and several others today about my time limit, and I think I was rather insistent upon it, — and I never did get a time limit and I just concluded that I would talk as long as I pleased. I don’t know what time you gentlemen have engagements for tomorrow morning’s work but I want to talk about a thing or two.

“I feel a little remote, — the speaking spot is not as close as I would like it. I should like to feel that each one of you were my guests tonight at my own home, and that I could talk to you just as I would if you were there. And I am going to try to maintain that attitude of mine from my remarks that I am very close to you and whether you may agree with what I have to say or not, you will know that I am trying to be intimately confidential and frank about my remarks.

“Now I could talk at some length, of course, about the problem of hiring a negro ball player after an experience of 25 years in St. Louis, — where at the end I had no stock at all in the club and no negro was permitted to buy his way into the grandstand during that entire period of my residence in St. Louis. The only place a negro could witness a ball game in St. Louis was to buy his way into the bleachers, — the pavilion. With an experience of that kind in back of me, and having had sort of a “bringins up” that was a bit contrary to that regime, — milieu, in St. Louis, I went to Brooklyn.

“Within the first month in Brooklyn, I approached what I considered the number one problem in the hiring of a negro in professional baseball in this country. Now that is a story and that could be a fairly long speech. Namely, – ownership. Ownership must be in line with you, and I was at that time an employee, not at that time a part owner of the club. And when ownership was passed, then five other things presented themselves. This is not my speech. I am just giving you this as a preliminary. But I want to get out of the road of this thing, and have you say that, — well, I wish he had talked about that thing.

“The second thing was to find the right man as a player. I spent $25,000 in all the Caribbean countries, — in Puerto Rico, Cuba, — employed two scouts, one for an entire year in Mexico, to find that the greatest negro players were in our own country.

 

“Then I had to get the right man off the field. I couldn’t come with a man to break down a tradition that had in it centered and concentrated all the prejudices of a great many people north and south unless he was good. He must justify himself upon the positive principle of merit. He must be a great player. I must not risk an excuse of trying to do something in the sociological field, or in the race field, just because of sort of a “holier than thou.” I must be sure that the man was good on the field, but more dangerous to me, at that time, and even now, is the wrong man off the field. It didn’t matter to me so much in choosing a man off the field that he was temperamental, — righteously subject to resentments. I wanted a man of exceptional intelligence, a man who was able to grasp and control the responsibilities of himself to his race and could carry that load. That was the greatest danger point of all. Really greater than the number five in the whole six.

“Number one was ownership, number two is the man on the field, number three the man off the field. And number four was my public relations, transportation, housing, accommodations here, embarrassments, — feasibility. That required investigation and therein lies the speech. And the Cradle of Liberty in America was the last place to make and to give us generous considerations.

“And the fifth one was the negro race itself, – over-adulation, mass attendance, dinners, of one kind or another of such a public nature that it would have a tendency to create a solidification of the antagonisms and misunderstandings, — over-doing it. And I want to tell you that the committee of 32, — it was called, in Greater New York — eminent negro citizens, and Judge Kazansky, and my secretary and myself, — those 32 men organized all eight cities in the National League and did a beautiful job of it. And for two years not one of those things was attempted or done and I never had any embarrassments in Brooklyn. They did have a great trainload of people go to see you play in Montreal and Buffalo and other places, — and I tried to stop that but I was too late.

 

“But the greatest danger, the greatest hazard, I felt was the negro race itself. Not people of this crowd any more than you would find antagonisms organized in a white crowd of this caliber either. Those of less understanding, – those of a lower grade of education frankly. And that job was done beautifully under the leadership of a fine judge in New York who became a Chairman of an Executive Committee. That story has never been told. The meetings we had, two years of investigations — the Presidents of two of the negro colleges, the publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, a very helpful gentleman he was to me, a professor of sociology in New York University, and a number of others, the LaGuardia Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Tom Dewey’s Committee in support of the Quinn-Ives Law in New York state.

“And sixth was the acceptance by his colleagues, — but his fellow players. And that one I could not handle in advance. The other five over a period of two and one-half years, I worked very hard on it. I felt that the time was ripe, that there wouldn’t be any reaction on the part of a great public if a man had superior skill, if he had intelligence and character and had patience and forbearance, and “could take it” as it was said here. I didn’t make a mistake there. I have made mistakes, lots of mistakes.

“A man of exceptional courage, and exceptional intelligence, a man of basically fine character, and he can thank his forbearers for a lot of it. He comes from the right sort of home, and I knew all this, and when somebody, somewhere, thinks in terms of a local athletic club not playing some other club because of the presence on the squad of a man of color. I am thinking that if an exhibition game were to be played in these parts against a team on whose squad was Jackie Robinson, — even leaving out all of the principle of fair play, all the elements of equality and citizenship, all the economic necessities connected with it, all the violations of the whole form and conceptions of our Government from its beginning up to now, — leave it all out of the picture, he would be depriving some of the citizens of his own community, some wonderful boys, from seeing an exhibition of skill and technique, and the great, beautiful, graciousness of a slide, the like of which they could not see from any other man in this country. And that’s not fair to a local constituency.

“I am wondering, I am compelled to wonder, how it can be. And at the breakfast, recently, when a morning paper’s story was being discussed and my flaxen hair daughter said to me, “He surely didn’t say it.” I thought, yes it is understandable. It is understandable. And when a great United States Senator said to me some few days after that, “Do you know that the headlines in Egypt are terribly embarrassing to our State Department?” And then he told me, in part, a story whose utter truthfulness I have no reason to doubt, about the tremendous humiliation – “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” – “where we are talking about extending to all civilizations, tremendous and beautiful freedoms, and the unavoidable, hypocritical position it puts us in internationally,” “How could anybody do it,” said my daughter.

 

“That night we had a family discussion. It lasted a long time. My five daughters were there, mother was there, auntie was there, four sons-in-law were there, – it was Christmastime. And I said to them what I want to say to you tonight. It is understandable that an American with a certain background, certain exposures in the field of education, would represent a more or less a plausible inheritence in regard to the assimilation, the relationship, the acceptance in our current life of the negro.

“The whole thing as a difference between the acceptance in Brazil, for instance, Spanish and Portuguese countries, and the British West Indies and America, a very remarkable thing, but understood by all historians and all writers on the subject. Portugal was the first one to import slaves from Africa, – took them into Portugal. It was the last one to give up the slave trade. 19,000,000 go into one country alone in South America, – imported slaves over a period of over four hundred years. Now, slavery antedated negro slavery, – oh many years, really thousands of years, before any negro was taken out of Africa. It was an accident, a misfortune, a thing that could be remedied. All slavery throughout the centuries preceded African importation of slaves. It was the result of war, it was a result of debt. There were several things that led to it, but always there was manumition in front of the man. Freedom obtainable. And the laws going back clear beyond Seneca, and Cicero refers to it, – all the way through all those centuries, manumition was a comparatively easy thing. The law of that time, all of it – Plato, the Roman jurisprudence is based upon it, that you can become free. You may be a slave today, – you can be a Moor, you can be a Greek, you can be a man of high intelligence. Slavery was a matter of accident or misfortune. And the Spanish Law, – the Latin nations inherited that law both in its enactment and in its interpretation were favorable to manumition, – making men free. It was not a matter of color at all and the law supported that and the importation of slaves into South America, and all of South America, into Mexico earlier, a few were there subsequently, and in all the Caribbean countries which are now predominant, – all of it came in the line of probable manumition, so that when, say, 90% of all the slaves who had been slaves came to be free in Brazil, for example. Then would come in the other importations and the other men who were slaves. There was a group of qualified free men to take care of the small number, 10%, who were slaves. That was Latin America.

“They had no problems such as we had here in the south following the Civil War, where there was nobody to take care of a great number of free men and no previous free men in the colored race to adapt themselves to those conditions. And, of course, there was disgraceful governmental conduct. Now the difference, miracle that it is, mystery that it is, and yet greed at the bottom of it the slave trade was immensely profitable, – Liverpool was, – I was going to say, was built out of it, and America followed suit on it. And whereas the law that men are equal long before, I say, the negro came into the picture.

“The church has always, and it has been a tendency of the Christian church too to undertake to establish the equality of all men in the sight of God. And to the extent which that prevailed to that extent it became inevitable that all men should ultimately become free. That was the greatest force in the world, – to give every man moral stature. Of course the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln made the southern negro slave free, but it never did make the white man morally free. He remained a slave to his inheritances. And some are even today.
“I believe that a man can play baseball as coming to him from a call from God.

“I was in Cleveland at a dinner when I was a youngster, – just out of college, and a man in Cleveland who was called, editorially in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on the occasion of his death, the foremost citizen of Cleveland, – George Shurtliffe was his name. I never had met him except at that luncheon that day up there in the cupola of that building, 12 or 13 gentlemen around the table, and I was asked to take a job, – a certain job that I had never thought about taking. And I didn’t feel that I was qualified for the job, and I didn’t no whether I wanted it, – I was quite ill at ease about it, but the strengthened force of the men who were asking me to take it was influential with me. And we had this dinner and Mr. Shurtliffe was asked to come.
“He was identified with the organization in some capacity, and when we had just about finished the meal,

I was sitting the second one on the left side of the table and he was down yonder at the end, he said to me, “Branch,” he said, “do you believe in the call of God?” No, his first question was,

“if you thought God wanted you to do something would you do it?”
“I said, “if I knew what God wanted me to do, I think any boy would.”
He said, “do you believe in the call of God?” I didn’t answer.
He said, “do you know what the call of God is?”
“I said, “I don’t know that I do,” but I said, “I don’t think it is a little bird that comes and sits on your ear and whispers and says to you go do this.”
“He said, “I think you are right.” “Well,” I said, “Bishop Basford said that to me and it’s not original,” but I said, “I don’t. . . .” “He said, “would you like to know what I think it is?”
“And I said, “I would,” because he was a distinguished man.

“He said that the first thing in the call of God is aptitude. God doesn’t want any man to do something that he can’t do. He made me define the word in front of those gentlemen.
“He said, the second thing in the call of God is the advice of his friends, and he made me tell him all my friends and we got down from the 8,000 people that had seen that professional football game that fall where I had made a touchdown, – I was a great big fellow, and I couldn’t name all those 8,000. I thought they were all my friends. They gave nine rahs with my name on the end of it and it got down to the place where I named my father and mother and then the girl that I had announced I was going to marry. He accepted her. And that made two and then he took a professor in school after questioning me about it. And then he took a boyhood friend that I had grown up with way down in the hills of southern Ohio, – a country boy. He said, no man has more than a handful of real friends under adversity. He said, they are God’s angels — go talk to them. God speaks to men through his friends. Be careful who your friends are. The second thing he said.

“And the third thing, he said, was opportunity. He said, when you are prepared to do something and your friends all tell you that you should do it and then the chance comes to do it, he said, that’s where God shows His face. Now, he said to me, and I didn’t quite know what the word meant when he said it. And he said there may be some sophistry about that. But whether there was or not, I have used it often. And I have thought about it in connection with ball players. What should they be doing in this thing that emphasizes the physical over the mental or spiritual or whatnot. And what are the weaknesses of opportunity in the field? What are the great chances for moral deterioration on the part of great men who go into this thing where they have been under hours of labor previously and now have leisure time, – the most damnable thing in the world.

“Leisure in the hands of the man who has no creativeness, – lots of young men don’t have it. That thing that can write great symphonies, that can write great tragedies in this use of time. I have often wondered where God may come into the picture. There are some boys who shouldn’t be playing ball. This chap, and others, – it’s a wonderful thing to have a family background and to have something you can hold on to that is basic and firm and strong.
“Character is a great thing to have in an athlete, a team. It’s a great thing. And when I wonder if there is any condonation, any explanation, anything that can be done to make an extenuating circumstance out of something that violates the right of a part of our citizenship throghout the country when I know that the Man of 1900 years ago spent His life and died for the sake of freedom, – the right to come, to go, to see, to think, to believe, to act. It is to be understood, but it is too profoundly regretted.

“Education is a slow process. It may solve it. It is inevitable that this thing comes to fruition. Too many forces are working fast. This so called little Robinson, – we call it the “Robinson Experiment,” – tremendous as it will be for Jackie to have so placed himself in relation not only to his own people in this country, but to his whole generation and to all America that he will leave the mark of fine sportsmanship and fine character. That is something that he must guard carefully. He has a responsibility there.

“Frank Tannenbaum, in his book on Slave and Citizen, – he is a professor of Latin American history in Columbia University, points out, – I think it is the bible on the subject – it really is. I’m not sure, I’m not sure that legislators ought to drive against a prominant and very antagonistic minority. I’m not sure that they should drive F.E.C. too fast too far. I’m not sure that the 18th Amendment might repeat itself. That you would have an organization of glued antagonisms that would be able to delay the solution of a problem that is now in my judgment fast being solved, and when you once gain an eminence you do not have to recede from it. The educational process is something.

“Four things, says Tannenbaum, is solving this question, with an unrealized rapidity. First, – proximity. Clay Hopper, Jackie’s first manager. I’ve never told it in public. I’ve never allowed it to be printed if I could help it, took me by the lapels of my coat as he sat there sweating in his underclothes watching a game over on the inside park at Daytona Beach. And this boy had made a great play in the fourth inning and I had remarked about it and the two of us sitting there together, and this boy coming from – I shouldn’t have given his name, – forget the name and I will tell you the story. I’ll deny that he ever said it. He took me by the front of my coat when in the seventh inning Jackie made one of those tremendous remarkable plays that very few people can make, – went toward first base, made a slide, stabbed the ball, came with it in his left hand glove and as he turned with the body control that’s almost inconceivable and cut off the runner at second base on a force play. I took Clay and I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, “Did you ever see a play to beat it?”

 

“Now this fellow comes from Greenwood, Mississippi. And he would forgive me, I am sure, because of the magnificent way that he came through on it. He took me and shook me and his face that far from me and he said, “do you really think that a ‘!!’ is a human being, Mr. Rickey?” That’s what he said. That’s what that fellow said. I have never answered him until this minute.

“And six months later he came into my office after the year at Montreal when he was this boy’s manager. He didn’t want him to be sent to him. And he said to me, “I want to take back what I said to you last spring.” He said, “I’m ashamed of it.” “Now,” he said, “you may have plans for him to be on your club,” – and he was, “but,” he said, “if you don’t have plans to have him on the Brooklyn club,” he said, “I would like to have him back in Montreal.” And then he told me that he was not only a great ball player good enough for Brooklyn, but he said that he was a fine gentleman. Proximity. Proximity, says Tannenbaum, will solve this thing if you can have enough of it. But that is a limited thing, you see.

“And the second thing, says Tannenbaum, is the cultural inter-twining through the arts, through literature, through painting, through singing, through the professions, where you stabbed through the horizontal strata of social makeup, and you make vertical thrusts in that cultural inter-twining. That inevitably will help solve this problem, – and be believes with rapidity.

“And third, the existence in our democracy here of a middle class, the middle class in Great Britain, – the middle class in probably every country, I think, that makes secure, if anything does, a democracy such as we know. This group here like this, – these groups throughout America of all colors. That existence in this country will bring it about surely and faster than people know.

“And fourth, the recognition of the moral stature of all men, that all humans are equal. This thing of freedom has been bought at a great price. That all men are equal in the sight of God. That all law must recognize that men are equal, – all humans are equal by nature. The same pains, and the same joys, and in our country the same food, the same dress, the same religion, the same language, the same everything. And perhaps quite as questionable an ancestry civically in this country on the part of the black men as we can trace many of the forbearers in the white race of the other settlers of this country.

“Gentlemen, it is inconceivable to me that in view of domestic tranquility and home understanding that anywhere, anytime, anybody, can question the right of citizens of this country for equal economic opportunity under the law. How can it be. And how can anyone in official authority, where more attention is given to remarks than would come from an ordinary civilian, be so unremindful of his country’s relationship that he could bring us into [?] and disgrace. internationally.

“These four things I mention will work, I think, in due time with a sureness that will make possibly the very next generation wonder and look back, as I said that you quoted me in Cincinnati, I had forgotten that I had ever said it look back with incredulity upon everything that was a problem to us today in this country, and will wonder what the issue was all about. I am completely color-blind. I know that America is, – it’s been proven Jackie, – is more interested in the grace of a man’s swing, in the dexterity of his cutting a base, and his speed afoot, in his scientific body control, in his excellence as a competitor on the field, – America, wide and broad, and in Atlanta, and in Georgia, will become instantly more interested in those marvelous, beautiful qualities than they are in the pigmentation of a man’s skin, or indeed in the last syllable of his name. Men are coming to be regarded of value based upon their merits, and God hasten the day when Governors of our States will become sufficiently educated that they will respond to those views.”

During the baseball season Negro League players were not allowed to play ball with the the Major League players the off-season was quite different. Players from the Major Leagues would get up a team and players from the Negro Leagues would get a team together, head south and then play on the same ballfield as if it was just an everyday routine. Barnstorming is one way the Negro League players used segregation to benefit them. During the winter months there was baseball in the warmer states and south of the border. Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama and other South American countries cherished baseball and anyone who played baseball regardless of the color of their skin. There was money to be made south of the border and the warmer weather made it so the guys could keep making a paycheck after the regular baseball season shut down for the year. The money was often better than in the states. This had a negative effect to some extent as the players would often choose to stay south of the border during the summer baseball season to make the better money.
 Barnstorming lasted for years after Negro League players were playing in the Major Leagues but just like the Negro Leagues there was a decline in interest after the mid 50′s. There was good money in barnstorming and many of the players liked playing in the south after the season. Warm temeratures, good money, and it was good to be accepted as just a ball player with ability.
 Connie Johnson played throughout the south and into Cuba, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico. Even after he was pitching for the Chicago White Sox he was on Roy Campenella’s team. This team was what Campanella called the greatest barnstorming team ever to play. There were Major League players at every position.

The first black professional ballplayer played second base for an all-white team in New Castle, Pennsylvania. That player, John W. (Bud) Fowler, was born in 1854 to freedmen parents. Ironically, he was born in Cooperstown, New York, where professional baseball has its museum and Hall of Fame. Fowler was the first of more than thirty black players in the white leagues before 1900, and like his journeymen brethren he played whatever position he could on whatever field would allow him to play. Although he was recognized by the white media as one of the best second basemen of his day, he never got the chance to play in the Major Leagues.

In fact, the first black major league player was a student-athlete named Moses Fleetwood Walker.  Walker was born in Ohio in 1857 and by 1877 was studying at Oberlin College. There he played two years of baseball with the school team, and spent the last two playing with Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1883 he joined the Toledo club of the North Western league, and when Toledo entered the American Association a year later Walker became the first black Major leaguer. He was apparently well received, even applauded in some places, except in two games in the southern cities, Louisville and Richmond, where he was threatened and harassed.

In 1885 Fowler and Walker were the only two blacks in the organized white leagues. 1886-1887 saw the emergence of nearly twenty black ballplayers, most notably pitchers George Stovey and Robert Higgins and fielders Sol White, whose, 1907 book provided much of our knowledge of the 1887-1900 black baseball period and Frank Grant, whose light skin allowed him to be signed as a ‘spaniard’. All of these players performed credibly; Stovey was 33-14 and Higgins 20-7 (2nd best in the league), Fowler hit .350, White batted .381 and Grant hit at .366, topping his club as well as the league in all power categories.

 It would seem that these stellar performances would lead to more black players in the leagues; indeed, that was the hope. But unfortunately as society went, so went baseball. At that time, Booker T. Washington (who called for self-sufficiency and meritocracy) was finding out the same thing these ballplayers painfully realized: that whites hated a successful ‘negro’ more than one that failed.

Trouble had begun, and incidents involving player refusals to participate with a black player led to a decision by the International League’s directors that the secretary approve “no more contracts with colored men”. The color line now drawn, one more incident led to over a half-century of the exclusion of black players from the major leagues. The incident involved Adrian “Cap” Anson, the best player of his day and a star of white baseball history (Anson was the first player to collect 3,000 hits). Anson, who had initially refused to play in 1883 with Walker but changed his mind for the money, now refused to play with pitcher George Stovey on the field. He is said to have stated: “get that nigger off the field!” (There is also a terrific book of that tile by A. Rust Jr.) No one ever explained Anson’s ignorant attitudes, but Sol White in his History of Colored Baseball pegged Anson as being almost solely responsible for baseball imposing the color barrier. Starting in 1888 all of the black players were put in the reserves, and Jim Crow began in earnest in the National pastime.

If what has just preceded can be called part of integrated baseball history, that which follows is truly black baseball history. As the colorline was being drawn in the major leagues in the late 1880′s, there were already a large number of all-black teams all over the East and well into the Deep South. The period of 1880-1900 was marked by their development into sound leagues, and although 90% of the black population still lived in the rural South, in 1910 the best teams were found in the North.

 Cuba emerged around 1890 as a lucrative, receptive and viable alternative to American baseball for black ballplayers. The fans were very enthusiastic, the teams were on par with the best the new Negro Leagues could offer, and color-consciousness was minimal (Cuban teams fielded both light and dark Cubans). Cuban teams played in the Negro Leagues well through their heyday in the 30′s and 40′s and light-skinned Cubans had a considerable degree of mobility. For example, outfielder Armando Marsans, third baseman Rafael Almeida and pitcher Adolpho Luque were Major Leaguers for over ten years from 1911-21. Although their acceptance again raised the hopes of the black press and black players, no really dark players got their chance, be they Cuban or American.

As Booker T. Washington made his famous “Atlanta Compromise speech” at the cotton exposition in 1895 in which he argued that the races could be “as separate as the fingers on the hand” in all things not related to economic progress he expressed the national consensus on the acceptance of social segregation. This was followed by the Plessy v. Ferguson ‘separate but equal’ decision, which placed post-emancipation segregation into national law. Just as it would in 1947, Baseball had foreshadowed American social issues in general. Baseball for black Americans now meant the formation and growth of the separate and unequal Negro Leagues.

The growth of Negro League baseball between the years 1900 and 1920 is analogous to the demographic changes of the Great Migration: black Americans moved in large numbers to the Northern cities and their urbanization yielded new and varied cultural expressions. Great Negro teams were born such as the Homestead (PA) Grays, The Lincoln Giants (NY), the Indianapolis ABC’S, the Chicago American Giants, and the Baltimore Elite Giants. A few blacks tried to sneak or were snuck onto Major League clubs as ‘Indians’ or ‘Spaniards’, but for all intents and purposes the color barrier remained and would remain impenetrable until 1947.

Many humorous but pathetic stories survive of black Americans babbling made-up languages to pass as Spaniards or claiming Native American heritage, such Charlie Grant, nicknamed “Chief Tokohama”. Negro League baseball of this time is characterized as much by the greatness of its stars as by the instability of the individual Leagues. Player contracts were apparently non-existent, being generally informal or verbal ones and the Leagues witnessed much shifting and “jumping” of players as teams competed for top players while struggling to stay afloat financially.

These leagues were very popular due to both segregation and the excellence of the Negro League stars. Not only was seating segregated in White Major League ballgames, but especially in places like Harlem its irony was glaring in that Yankee stadium, a white segregated stadium with white players, stood in the middle of an all-black neighborhood.

It was on such fields as the Polo Grounds of New York where the early Negro League stars emerged: fielders such as John Henry Lloyd and Oscar Charleston, and pitchers such as Smokey Joe Williams and Rube Foster.  It is largely because of famous players like Lloyd and Foster that pre-integration records seem only half-reported - Lloyd, a shortstop for the Lincoln Giants of 1906-21, was called the “Black Honus Wagner” by the white media. The Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop saw “Pops” Lloyd play and declared: “I am honored that they would call (him) the Black Wagner. It is a privilege to have been compared with him.” Likewise Oscar Charleston, (right) called by Negro League veterans one of the greatest outfielders to play the game made the press wonder whether Ty Cobb wasn’t “the white Oscar Charleston.”

Pitchers such as Smokey Joe Williams (far left) and Cannonball Dick Redding (left) lived true to their nicknames; their presence was sure to draw crowds wherever they played. Most likely the best Negro Pitcher before Satchel Paige was Andrew “Rube” Foster, so named because he defeated Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell in an exhibition game early in his career. Not only was Foster the most prolific and powerful pitcher of his time, but he was also the brilliant organizer who established the solid Negro National League in 1921.

Foster’s prowess as both pitcher and manager was widely known; not only did this draw more fans, but probably gave him the credibility to hold the league together through the tough Depression and pre-WWII era (1920-40) in American History. Foster truly brought stability to Negro baseball – he found and provided material support for struggling teams, he traded players and intervened in conflicts; he created such a strong League that it lasted not only through the Great Depression but well past the integration of baseball into the 1960′s.

Negro baseball play was now permanent – it was highlighted by the most popular event, the annual East-West game, as well as the World Series which began in 1924. Play continued in Cuba, and the second era of Negro baseball witnessed the blossoming of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and most significantly Mexico as new playing field for Negro baseball players and later white major Leaguers in the winter off season. As the level of play increased, so did the money. This was a significant lure of the Latin ballparks -players could earn $400 to $500 per month, a far cry from the $100 to $200 of the early days of the Negro Leagues (the best white players made well over $10,000 annually.

t was in this fairly secure arena of occasional interracial competition and constant travel that the most legendary and popular players of Negro baseball emerged. This was the era of Satchel Paige, the era of the great Josh Gibson, of the speedy Cool Papa Bell. Players such as these drew huge crowds with their incredible feats and led Negro baseball through the rough years in race relations before World War II. Bell and Paige lived to see the integration: Bell died in 1990, while Paige played in the Majors in 1948 at over forty years of age. Gibson, the man whom the Negro Leaguers swear would have eclipsed Ruth’s home run mark before Hank Aaron, died the night before Jackie Robinson signed with Montreal, the triple-A affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

 The effects of the Great Depression as the “equalizer” and the ironies uncovered by the “united” war effort helped create the atmosphere that led to the integration of baseball in 1947. Although it is true that the war against Nazism showed Americans the incongruities of segregation at home, I would argue that economics was the rationale for most of the positive changes that occurred, including the desegregation of baseball.

 Labor’s desegregation in 1941( specifically the arms industry), was clearly an economic decision, and the desegregation of baseball was as well – the attendance of blacks at home games of Robinson’s 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers increased by 400 percent from the previous year and set a League attendance record. With the racist baseball commissioner Judge Landis having died in 1944, the stage was set for Branch Rickey, the enigmatic head of the Brooklyn Dodgers franchise, to desegregate the national pastime. The Negro Leagues were reviewed, but most of the established players, now in their 30′s, were overlooked. Rickey chose Jackie Robinson, a UCLA graduate and shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs. A few teams threatened to withdraw upon his arrival in Brooklyn in 1947, but the National League President Ford Frick stuck with Jackie and tamed the maverick teams.

Robinson, like Monte Irvin of the crosstown New York Giants and their counterpart Larry Doby in the American League, suffered physical and verbal abuse from fans, players, and teammates alike.  Their play on the diamond showed that they belonged, however, as Robinson went on to win the Rookie of the Year award in 1948 and Most Valuable Player in 1949. Doby and Irvin played in the same infield with the Newark Eagles as they defeated the Kansas City Monarchs for the Negro League title in 1946. The next year, when the color barrier fell, Irvin signed with the Giants ( but was relegated to the minor leagues for three years ) and Doby with the Indians. Doby (below) shined as a centerfielder for the Indians and hit 253 home runs in a 13 year career.

 When Bill Veeck signed Satchel Paige in 1948, the death note of the Negro Leagues was sounded. Satchel had been the most charismatic star of the 1940′s, and Negro baseball seemed to expire as fan interest dwindled without the presence of him and players like Robinson or the adored Roy Campanella. As blacks (and more latins) slowly entered the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues gradually disappeared. By 1950 five Major League teams had black players, by 1953 seven clubs had 20 players, by 1957 fourteen clubs had 36 players.

It’s the seventh inning stretch. Everyone is on their feet to sing, “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”, but instead the fans are about to be entertained by a gospel quartet and hear a remarkable story of faith and perseverance about a school located 20 miles southeast of Jackson, Mississippi; the Piney Woods Country Life School, which was founded in 1909 by Dr. Laurence C. Jones, to provide academic, spiritual, and practical education to rural black children in Mississippi, and which would eventually include a junior college. Early on, the Cotton Blossom Singers from the school began traveling around the country to raise money. Beginning in the 1930s, the school also sponsored baseball teams, as part of the fund-raising efforts.
The Chicago Defender has reports of Piney Woods’ games from as early as 1930. That year, the Piney Woods High School team defeated Tougaloo College, in both ends of a double-header, 17-4 and 4-3, behind the pitching of Payne and Glass. The catcher, Johnny Jordan, was also one of the early stars of the team.
By 1932, 135 hopefuls tried out for the Piney Woods’ team. With all of that interest, the school would eventually sponsor three teams: The Giant Collegians, the Brown Cubs, and the Little Brown Cubs.
The next year, one of the highlights was a 13-4 win over the Montgomery Grey Sox, of the Southern Negro Baseball League. Talli was Piney Woods’ winning pitcher. That same year, behind Conley and Glass, the Giant Collegians defeated the Jackson Bearcats, another Southern League entry, 10-2.
Even Hall-of-Famer and Mississippi resident, Willie Foster, rounding into shape in the early spring of ’33, could not take the measure of the Collegians, dropping a 4-3 decision on the mound for Alcorn, against the Piney Woods’ battery of Talli and Jordan, in the “nightcap” of a double-header. Dent was on the mound for the Collegians in the first game that day, which ended in a 5-5 tie. When the school term ended, the team, led by Captain “PeeWee” Frazier, headed to the Midwest to play 20 games in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
One of the stars of the team in 1934 was Howard Easterling, a Mississippi native. Easterling, who also played basketball at Piney Woods, would go on to become a Negro Baseball League All-Star, appearing in the East-West Classic five times during his 14-year professional career and batting .320 in the East-West contests. From 1940-47, interrupted only by military service, he was one of the stars of the famous Homestead Grays, who reigned as champions of black baseball during some of those years.
By the Fall of 1935, the school combined its teams and added some other players to form an all-star team called the St. Louis Blues. The Blues barnstormed through a major portion of the country. Their normal lineup was as follows:

In 1936, the Blues’ travels included the State of Washington. Then, in 1937-38, most of the players from the Blues played on a team out of Yakima, Washington, called the Washington Browns, and several of the players eventually settled down in that Central Washington community. The team had ended up in Yakima when a new sponsor, who lived there, was recommended, through a friend, to the team manager, Owen Smaulding, a Negro Leagues’ Veteran and Seattle native who was acquainted with the area.
Howard Easterling joined the Browns in ’38, and by the end of the ’38 season, Willie Foster had taken over the reigns as the manager. After playing in the Washington State semi-pro tournament and contending against the bearded House of David in a series of games in and around Washington, the Browns headed for the Midwest. Their games that fall included a 23-6 win over the 9th Calvary in Junction City, Kansas.
From 1936 through 1938, the Giant Collegians continued successfully, parallel to the St. Louis Blues and Washington Browns. One of their ’36 victories was over the Wisconsin Blues; the reigning Wisconsin semi-pro champions. The October 24, 1936, issue of the Chicago Defender published a photograph of the team, listing the following players: Fred Milton, Robert Taylor, Norton Dunkerson, James Thomas, Harris Edwards, Johnny Chambers, Leman Carter, Bernard Dewberry, Ardale Lewis, James Dunkerson, Hillary Hardison, Cornell Carter, Warren Watkins, Johnny Scott, Herman Montgomery, and Ernest Chapman (the photograph is not published here, since it was copied off of microfilm, which does not provide a clear image).
In 1937, Owen Smaulding was still managing the Collegians, who were again using the name, St. Louis Blues. A Defender article on April 10 invited players to try out for the team, offering a $100 scholarship to any college of their choice. Some of the hopefuls were “Cannonball” Simpson, “Rabbit” Henderson, “Ironman” Irving, and “Powerhouse” Pellin.ÁÁDuring some of the years, the Giant Collegians would play spring training games against the Chicago American Giants, for example, splitting four games against them in ’36. In 1937, the Giants thumped Piney Woods, 12-2. The Piney Woods’ pitcher that day, ÓÓCurtis Hollingsworth, would go on to play in the Negro Baseball Leagues (Birmingham Black Barons, 1946-50).
In 1938, the Giant Collegians barnstormed through the State of Washington. The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, Washington, reported in its August 4 issue, that the Collegians had beaten the local team, 10-0. The lineup for the Collegians:

Willie Grant and Curtis Hollingsworth were other pitchers that were on the ’38 roster. By 1945, Popeye Saucier, the Collegians’ colorful center fielder, had broken into the professional ranks with the New Orleans Black Pelicans.
Hollingsworth was still with the Piney Woods’ team when it came back through the State of Washington in 1940. Three other teammates from that squad, Bernell Longest (Chicago American Giants and Chicago Brown Bombers, ’42-’47), Bilbo Williams (Chicago Brown Bombers, ’42, and Baltimore Elite Giants, ’43), and Leonard Johnson (Chicago American Giants, ’47-’48), also played in the organized Negro Baseball Leagues. The 1940 trip through the State of Washington included a 9-4 win over the Everett Bluebirds. As reported by the Everett Herald, July 15, 1940, the Collegians’ lineup was as follows:

Webster Herron, Lefty Thompson, A. W. Cummings, and Leonard Johnson were also with the team in 1940.

The Giant Collegians, who were well-known for their excellent, entertaining baseball and their melodious quartets, were also recognizable by their distinctive mode of transportation–a large truck converted into a bus complete with sleeping quarters and kitchen. By becoming self-contained, they had solved the constant problem of segregated accommodations and restaurants. The bus even became the center of attention on one trip, recalls Sanford Barnes, when a group of circus thugs tried to overturn it, having taken offense at the players accompanying the local white team to the circus. To their credit, the local team returned that night and ran the circus out of town.
The glorious history of the Giant Collegians was interrupted by World War II, and not until 1950, did the school begin to reclaim its status as a top-notch baseball team. Leading the Crimson Clover League, in Mississippi, by August 12, 1950, Piney Woods had increased its wins to a total of 19, with Horace McMurtrey pitching a two-hitter in their most recent win. His usual battery mate was Bennie Jones, and one of the hitting stars was Carl Williams. Piney Woods won the league crown that year and then played an all-star team put together from the other league teams; Mendenhall, Sanatorium, Bassfield, Prentiss, Mt. Olive, and Monticello. Piney Woods defeated that all-star team, 11-6, on its home field. Dr. Laurence Jones, President of Piney Woods School, threw out the first pitch for that game.
The next year started with a close game, with Piney Woods prevailing 13-11 over Yazoo City. Bennie Jones and Ivory Bryant both contributed triples in that game. That same year they defeated Monticello, 14-4, before a large crowd at their home field. Marvin Bryant had a double and a triple in that win.
One of the highlights of 1952 was a game against the Jackson Cubs, a team that had played in the organized Negro Southern League the prior year. Piney Woods won their first game against the Cubs that year, behind the pitching of Fred Smith, a 16-year-old right-hander. The two teams met again on June 29. This time, the Cubs came from behind to win, 14-13, behind Cub stars James Williams, Jim Norwood, Cleo Horton, and Roosevelt Cheeks. Undaunted, Piney Woods went on to an undefeated record in the Crimson Clover League for ’52.
In my office I have a framed replica of a Giant Collegians’ poster, advertising a game to be played August 5, 1938, in Olympia, Washington. Pictured are the team, the bus, and Curtis Hollingsworth and PeeWee Dunn individually. At the bottom, the following is inscribed: “Defeated the House of David; Milwaukee Red Sox; Honolulu; Mexicans; Pittsburgh Crawfords; American Giants; New York Cubans; Madison Blues; Indianapolis A.B.C’s; New Orleans Black Pelicans; Monroe Monarchs. Playing United States, Canada and Mexico, Winning Over 100 Games Each Year For Last 5 Years.”
Certainly, for a group of young players, they faired extremely well against outstanding opponents. They also gave the fans much more than good baseball. They were entertaining, and their quartets and the story of Piney Woods School lifted the spirits. A poster of one of the teams sponsored by the school advertised them as A Clean (No Smoking), Jolly (No Gambling), Happy (No Drinking), Singing Ball Club (No Swearing). They stood above many as a team and in their conduct; they were the Giant Collegians–the Singing Baseball Team.

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No reports of games from the Chicago Defender, Jackson Advocateor other sources, have been found for the years after 1952. The author whose address is 16000 Bothell-Everett Highway, Suite 285, Mill Creek, Washington 98012-1515, would appreciate hearing from anyone with memories, information, articles, photographs, etc., with regard to any of the Piney Woods’ teams.

The published histories of the Negro Baseball Leagues generally end with 1955 or even earlier. The Negro American League (NAL) actually continued through 1961, with league and all-star games, but little has been written about this era. While the major and minor leagues had opened up to African-Americans beginning with Jackie Robinson, there is no doubt that the major league teams were slow in adding black players (with Boston being the last to integrate in 1959). Many major league quality players were never promoted from the minors, due to their color, and most of the major league teams were resistant to having more than just a few blacks on the roster. In light of this, the owners of the Negro Baseball League teams saw the continuation of their league as vital to the continued development of black players players and the provision of a broader opportunity for them to play professionally. This article covers the post-’55 history. At the end of the article are ’55-’61 rosters. These are incomplete. I have spoken with Ted Rasberry, owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, and Arthur Dove,II , grandson of the Raleigh Tigers’ owner, but, unfortunately, not much is available by way of rosters, photos, scorecards, etc. Some has been carted off by memorabilia seekers, to be locked away in their den, for their personal enjoyment. Some has been discarded or lost. My hope is that this article will stimulate interest in this forgotten era and that others might supplement what I have discovered or send along information to me that I might use to supplement this article in the future.
As the ’56 season opened, four teams comprised the NAL: Memphis Red Sox, Detroit Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, and Birmingham Black Barons. Memphis owner Dr. J. B. Martin would serve as League President throughout the remaining years, even beyond the demise of his team.
Initially, Birmingham intended to adopt a new nickname; the “Giants”. The team had a new owner, Dr. Anderson Ross of Memphis. The franchise of the former owner, Floyd Meschack, had been lifted due to violations of various kinds. Meschack, however, owned the rights to the name “Black Barons” and threatened to sue if the name was used. Whether this was resolved peacefully or Ross just decided to “steam ahead” despite the threat, it was not long before all the articles were once again calling the team, the “Black Barons”.
The teams all had managers who were Negro League veterans: Jim Canady-Barons, Goose Curry-Red Sox, Ed Steele-Stars, and Jelly Taylor-Monarchs. Taylor had succeeded Buck O’Neil who had been hired as a scout by the Chicago Cubs.
One of the strategies in ’56 was to schedule games in towns where minor league teams had folded. Television and greater organization among major league teams were having an influence, and many good baseball towns were losing their teams. The hope was that there would be a market among those towns. Ted Rasberry was busy visiting or writing to over 100 cities, seeking to book league games.
During spring training, several Negro League stars were hoping to make good in major league tryouts. Among them were Herman Green (Yankees), Aaron Jones (Yankees), Ezell King (Orioles), and James Ivory (Giants).
The Monarchs had been the League champions in ’55. Fifty-six was to see many new faces in the lineup, with 12 players from the previous year being sold to major league teams. Fifty players were vying for 18 spots as spring training opened. Enrique Morroto was back with the team, having been released by the Cardinal organization, due to arm problems. One of the bright spots was “flashy” shortstop, John Kennedy, who in ’57, would go on to become the first black on the Philadelphia Phillies. By June 23, Kennedy was leading the NAL with a .464 average!
The center of operations for the Monarchs had moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, Rasberry’s home, where League games were played at Valley Field. Rasberry had been involved already in black baseball as owner of the Grand Rapids Black Sox. He also owned a touring basketball team called the “Satellites”.
One of the Red Sox pitchers was Charley Pride, who would go on to tremendous fame as a Country Western singer. He, thus, became a pioneer in another endeavor, once again helping to open new opportunities for African Americans. At the end of the first half of the season, the Detroit Stars were in first place. They would go on to take the second half as well and reign as the ’56 champions.
The traditional All-Star game was again scheduled for Comiskey Park. Over the waning years of the League, there were high hopes of drawing 20,000 fans to the annual All-Star game. Usually, though, the actual turnout was in the 8,000-11,000 range.
By September 8, Kennedy had been overtaken by the Barons’ Billy Joe Moore in the batting race. The top hitters were:

By the end of the season, the Monarchs had sold eight more players to major and minor league teams, including: Kennedy (Philadelphia), Willie Ivory (Brooklyn), and Juan Soler (Detroit–but he refused to report). Frank Barnes, who was sold to a minor league team, would eventually play in the “Big Show”.

New interest was shown in the NAL in ’57 as Willie Davis of Mobile and Jim Williams of Jacksonville applied for new franchises. The Mobile Havana Cuban Giants, to be composed of Cuban players, were added to the League, but Williams lost out when he failed to pay the franchise fee. The League still expanded to six teams, though, when LeRoy Robinson was awarded a franchise for his New Orleans Bears.
Veteran Dizzy Dismukes took over as the Monarchs’ manager, and by June 27, his charges had lost only one game. League games were played in Kokomo, Indiana; Indianapolis, Indiana; Decatur, Alabama; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Columbus, Georgia; Tallahassee, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Whiteville, North Carolina; etc. Many throughout the Midwest and South were enjoying the opportunity to see these teams. Although the Stars were stationed in Detroit, they did not play a game there until June 28, when they appeared at Briggs Stadium.
The West would win the 25th All-Star game at Comiskey, with a score of 8-5. Memphis had many of the best hitters in ’57: Jim Banks .434, Lonnie Harris .378, and Isaac Barnes .378, as of July 20. Coming off a 96-45 record for ’57, the Monarchs opened spring training in ’58 with 47 hopefuls.
There were again many changes in the League, as Mobile and New Orleans dropped out, and Detroit had a new owner–Globetrotter and Indianapolis Clown great, Goose Tatum. Tatum changed the nickname to the “Clowns” and would sign Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, another basketball and baseball star, in July, to play right field. Tatum held down first base. Prince Joe Henry was also signed, to help provide the comedy. The Clowns were popular, with a game against the Black Barons in Birmingham, drawing 10,000 fans.
In May, the Monarchs played an exhibition game against the Raleigh Tigers, who were managed by Wesley Barrows. Monarchs pitcher Jesse Townsend fanned 23 Tigers. Townsend was signed out of the Mississippi Industrial College, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In July, an Old Ball Players Club banquet was held in Chicago. Olympic greats Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe were the speakers, and Rube Foster’s widow, Sarah Foster, was in attendance, as was the great Bingo DeMoss.
A highlight of the ’58 All-Star game was that Jackie Robinson threw out the first pitch. The game, played before 11,000 fans, was won by the East. Kansas City won the league championd the leading batter was Johnny Williams (BBB), .357. In the twentieth year of Dr. Martin’s presidency, the League again expanded to six, adding the Raleigh Tigers, owned by Arthur Dove, and the Newark Indians. Newark, however, seems to have folded early. The Monarchs again had a new manager, Marion “Sugar” Cain. A curious advertisement appeared in the May 30 Defender, to the effect that Negro Major American and National League franchises were available in Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, D.C., Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, etc. President John Joy claimed that all home games could be played in major or minor league parks. Well, whatever it was all about, it never “got off the ground”.
Little was reported about the ’59 League games. The All-Star game was again played in Chicago. Piper Davis, another Globetrotter and NAL veteran, who was now Birmingham’s manager, would manage the West squad, while Herman Green, who had taken over the managerial duties in Detroit, would manage the East. Detroit had now returned to the “Stars” as its nickname.
The starting pitcher for the West was the Barons’ Willie Smith, who had been the winning pitcher for the East the year before. By 1963, Smith would be on the Detroit Tigers’ roster in the majors. Rufus Gibson, of the Memphis Red Sox, was making his seventh All-Star appearance. The West won, 8-7, in 11 innings, before a crowd of 8,923. Ernie Harris, of the Barons, hit a two-run-inside-the-park home run and also scored the winning run from third on a single to left field by Bill White. Harris had reached third after an infield hit, a stolen base, and a passed ball. In an August 22, Defender editorial, Lee D. Jenkins began to sound the “death knell”, writing that the five remaining teams were all in the “red” Rasberry was “on the fence”. Still, there was some hope held out that a subsidy or other working relationship with the major leagues might be forthcoming. Perservering, the NAL opened ’60 with four remaining teams: Kansas City Monarchs, Birmingham Black Barons, Raleigh Tigers, and Detroit-New Orleans Stars.
The managers for the ’60 campaign were: Sherwood Brewer-Monarchs, Jim Canady-Barons, Wesley Barrow-Stars, and Eugene Holmes-Tigers. The corresponding owners: Ted Rasberry, Wardell Jackson, George Foster, and Arthur Dove. Dr. J. B. Martin, although he had lost his team, continued as League President. The 28th All-Star game played in ’60 was the last to be played at Comiskey Park, ending an era that had seen all of the greats perform over those 28 years to large crowds who had come from far and wide to see the best that the Negro Leagues had to offer.
The ’60 All-Star starters were:

One of the All-Stars, Ike Brown, would become the last Negro League player to make it to the major leagues, when on June 17, 1969, he donned the uniform of the Detroit Tigers. In a July 30, 1960 Defender article, Lee D. Jenkins recounted Dr. Martin’s comments as the All-Star game was approaching “We pushed Negro ball players into the majors but we’re still pushing Negro leagues. Even with Negro ball players throughout the “big leagues,” we still have some good ball players. We have some young players who show every possibility of developing into the faster company. We also have some players that have had several tryouts in the majors. Everywhere we have played this year, the fans have been satisfied with the caliber of play we have shown,” he relates “Keeping Negro baseball alive has been a driving issue with Martin and he is not about to give it up after thirty years of battle. The league has been suffering and the office of president has dropped to a no salary job but the headaches have tripled. “For several years, the East-West Game has been the source by which the teams could keep their heads above the red ink. The entire proceeds of the East-West Game are now prorated among the remaining teams.” Martin has been dickering with several major league clubs with the hope of developing some financial assistance along lines similar to a farm club arrangement. One National league club has shown some interest but the league is somewhat reluctant to enter into a single arrangement and is hopeful for some like deal with at least one American loop organization. The ’60 All-Star game was not the “Swan Song” for the League. The four teams continued into 1961, and am I glad they did. As a 10 year old, I saw the Raleigh Tigers play my hometown, Bellingham (Washington) Bells, twice in ’61.

The Bells won the first game, 8-7, in extra innings after a controversial call at the plate sent the game into the extra frames. The umpire, Spedo Southas, a local police detective, called a runner safe at home, claiming that the Tigers’ catcher, Bob Fowler, had missed the tag, setting off a rhubarb. The base ump, Sid VanSinderen, agreed with the call. Sid was a local school teacher and frequent basketball referee. Having played in some basketball games that Sid called, I can only say that the phrase, “the blind leading the blind” certainly comes to mind.
During the game, Raleigh’s Len Wilson hit an inside-the-park home run. The Bellingham Herald reported it just as I remember; a long shot to dead center that rolled all the way to a flagpole deep in center field; “the Raleigh speedster had crossed home and was sitting in the dugout when the ball finally arrived back to the infield”. Both dead center and right field were very deep in the old Battersby Field park where the Bells played their home games. Even Tony Kubek, R. C. Stevens, and several other major leaguers, who had been called up to active duty during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and were playing for Fort Lewis, Washington, could not clear the right field fence. We used to comment that “Babe Ruth, himself, couldn’t hit one over that fence”.
That first game was on Friday night. The second one was slated for Sunday, and all little leaguers, with their hats on, were admitted free. Well you can bet that I didn’t miss either game. The second was preceded by a junior high championship game in which one of my brothers, Rollin, played, on a team coached by our dad, Allan Wilson. Unfortunately, they lost.
Just as my dad’s opponent had taken revenge on his team, so, too, did the Tigers exact their revenge against the local nine. The Herald in its August 1 edition summarized the game this way, “A couple of tunes were floating around Battersby Field last night– one sounding like “Happy Days Are Here Again” rattling off Raleigh Tiger bats while Bellingham Bell pitchers were moaning “Don’t Be Cruel” as the Negro American League nine danced around the base paths and waltzed to an 11-3 win over the local squad.” First baseman, Dick Jackson, and catcher Fowler each hit a home run in the game. Fowler’s home run was another inside-the-park shot, again to deep center field.
The starting pitcher for the Tigers in their first game against the Bells was 22-year-old Pete Gilliam, a 6’5″ right-hand fast-ball pitcher, who was said to have a 10-4 NAL record. Gilliam would have the distinction of being the East’s starting pitcher for the 29th and last All-Star game, played this time at Yankee Stadium, rather than Comiskey. Teammate Bob Fowler was his battery mate, and Tiger pitchers James Drummond and Eugene Holmes also took a turn for the East. The first to appear on the mound that day was Governor Rockefeller who threw out the first pitch. Another Tiger, Fred Green, got the only hit in the game for the East.
Dick Hemphill and Don Poindexter pitched no-hit ball for the West, from the fourth inning on, having taken over for the starter who was credited with the win and who had two strikeouts and faced only 10 batters in his three innings of work. The biggest cheer of the day was for a looping hesitation pitch delivered by that starter in the second inning.
That starting pitcher for the West, whose career had spanned five decades of the Negro Baseball Leagues, was awarded the MVP award. He was, none other than, Satchel Paige. How appropriate that he would be the MVP and winning pitcher of the last Negro Baseball League game.

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Lyle Wilson can be reached at:
16000 Bothell-Everett Highway, Suite 285, Mill Creek, WA 98012

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