The most important sources are the Black weekly newspapers (Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, Kansas City Call, etc.) America's Pastime. In 1924, the first year of the Colored World Series, the share of the winners, the Kansas City Monarchs, was $307.96, says Lester. Researchers are still looking to add fielding statistics, left/right splits and secondary pitching and batting stats for many Negro League seasons, especially those in the 1940s. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. This process is automatic. March 10, 2007 - William "Bill' Van Buren passes away. The integration of Major League Baseball happened at the beginning of the 1947 MLB season when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.By the 1950s, enough black talent had integrated into the formerly "white" leagues (both major and minor) that the Negro leagues themselves had become a . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. FORBES: And I just wonder if I'm worthy of representing, speaking about the Negro League because when I got involved, things was easier for me than it was for the one before me. Foster still retains a strong interest in baseball. Turkey Stearnes. Theyve established -- though its no surprise -- that the speedy Bell holds the single-season record with 49 stolen bases for the Stars in 1929. the Negro Leagues weren't even considered. His biggest thrill came in the 1924 Negro World Series when he shut out the Kansas City Monarchs for 7 innings in relief. Today . An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. It's just that you rarely get where are they nows on the guys who played 3-4 forgettable seasons,whether they were in 1930s or 1990s. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseballs best 1-2 home-run punch. Then in 1947, he broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The responsibility to elect Negro leagues players shifted to the Hall's Veterans Committee, but with Roy Campanella as the only Black member, the committee was hamstrung by its lack of knowledge . Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 This is not a complete or exhaustive list of all the organizations and individuals who have kept the Negro Leagues alive, but it is easy to contribute to the four following organizations whether . When I began speaking with Ashwill about the database in September, Hall of Fame slugger Mule Suttles held the Negro Leagues single-season home run record with the 30 that he hit as a member of the St. Louis Stars in 1926. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum estimates there are about 100 former players still alive. 1928 St. Louis Stars, Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseball's best 1-2 home-run punch. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. This Month in Sports ReferenceFind out when we add a feature or make a change. Pedro Dibut). While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. By the 1950s, enough black talent had integrated into the formerly "white" leagues (both major and minor) that the Negro leagues themselves had become a minor league circuit. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. While there are roughly 130 players alive from the Negro Leagues, according to baseball historian Larry Lester, only those four players are alive from that 1920-1948 window. Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. O'Neil also made history when the Cubs hired him as a coach in 1962, making him the first Black member of an AL/NL coaching staff as part of Chicago's "College of Coaches." When the book was being put together, the Negro Leagues weren't even considered for inclusion. Remember these four names: Rev. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. Ernie Banks and Monte Irvin died a couple years ago. Pittsburgh soon produced two of the greatest teams of all time, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, featuring such stars as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell and many . I knew about it. Suttles home run record isnt the only record theyve discovered. Accuracy and availability may vary. While there are roughly 130 players alive from the Negro Leagues, according to baseball historian Larry Lester, only those four players are alive from that 1920-1948 window. But there are a group of researchers led by Gary Ashwill who are looking to change that. He . While baseball acknowledgingthese Black players is important, it should only be a first step. "There's a huge amount of information about Latin American baseball that still needs to be processed -- Black Americans played professional baseball in Mexico, Cuba . Fortunately, that has recently changed with the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, but for decades that wasn't the case. , Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. The list includes those who played on major Negro league teams prior to integration (and any caliber Negro league team after integration) as well as in Major League Baseball. Baseball needs to retroactivelypay the newly recognized Negro League players and their surviving families. Do you have a sports website? Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. An excellent all-round ballplayer and a teammate of such greats as Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston, Jimmie is a Chicago resident where he is employed at the post office. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. For our latest update I checked through the mainstream daily newspapers in St. Louis and picked up three more St. Louis Stars games -- and Suttles homered in two of them.","type":"markdown"},{"__typename":"PhotoPart","caption":"The 1930 St. Louis Stars. Find out more. Pedro Dibut). Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. Mays played his rookie year in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons. Born September 3, 1924 Bill Greason is the oldest player on this list. In 1954, he signed with the Indianapolis Clowns at the age of 16. They played primarily before the organized Negro leagues. And now I look back and I say, oh, my God. This List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball is largely based on the research compiled by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research. This data is based on actual contracts I have seen. **For the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign. Chris Haughey is the last player alive from 1943 and Tommy Brown is the last player alive from 1944, 1945 and 1947. Remembered as one of the few hurlers Josh Gibson had trouble hitting against, Lee writes that Martin Dihigo was the greatest player he ever saw. Although Brown was never formally charged, there was not much question that the police suspected him. Jimmie Crutchfield: A slender outfielder, Jimmie signed with the great Pittsburgh Crawfords when he was only 19 years old. Recovering it is a constant, ongoing struggle. If you think white players made more money because they were more talented that's just false. Our statistics are based on box scores and game stories found in contemporary newspapers, as well as the small number of scorebooks and filled-in scorecards that can be tracked down, Ashwill wrote. Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. The complete list is divided into four pages to reduce the size: The players below are some of the most notable of those who played Negro league baseball, beginning with the codification of baseball's color line barring African American players (about 1892), past the re-integration in 1946 of the sport, up until the Negro leagues finally expired about 1962. By August 1, 1947, three Major League teams had already integrated. List of living major league players from the 1940s, List of living members of World Series-winning teams, List of living major league players from the 1950s, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=List_of_living_major_league_players_from_the_1940s&oldid=1264856, Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Suttles pictured back row, far left. You will be redirected once the validation is complete. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. Copyright 2020 NPR. How Cool Papa Bell was so fast that he could hit the light switch and be in bed before the lights went out. He jumped to the Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1923 and pitched with them for 2 years. Although there are two players who played before 1946 none of them appeared in 1946, thus no players from 1946 are still alive. A native of Talladega, Alabama, Scales now lives in New York City. This article originally appeared in the 1972 Baseball Research Journal. This article was written byJohn M. Coates, This article was published in 1972 Baseball Research Journal, The recent election of Satchel Paige to the Hall of Fame brings back memories of the old Negro leagues and the men who starred in them. What about the other great players? Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Among them Fowler, Frank Grant, George Stovey, and Fleet Walker were notable players especially during the 1880s, before complete segregation. Below is a list of 52 players who played for major Negro league teams up to 1950 and eventually saw playing time for a Major League team. The World Series winners that same year earned $5,959.64 and the losers $3,820.29. 'THEY TRULY DESERVE IT:'Families of Negro Leaguers rejoice in MLB's decision to recognize league, OPINION: After vowing change, Black candidates shut out again of MLB front office jobs. A lot of the earlier versions of Negro league statistics only gave you batting averages, home runs, pitchers' won-lost records, basic stuff," Ashwill said. Major League Baseball has a day to honor the leagues set for next month. At the onset of the digital age, enough now-aging players were still alive to share their experiences. Chuck Harmon played under alias of Charlie Fine for the Clowns so as not to violate his college basketball eligibility. Because we compile fielding statistics, we're able to know that, for example, Dobie Moore, the Kansas City Monarchs shortstop in the 1920s, was a great fielding shortstop. The service requires full JavaScript support in order to view this website. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. A family friend used to play for the Black Yankees, Bob Scott. Suttles pictured back row, far left. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. Or write about sports? Thats the type of work that Ashwill, who currently works as a freelance academic editor and runs the Agate Type baseball blog, has done since he began researching the Negro Leagues 20 years ago. Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. Please enable JavaScript on your browser and try again. Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Third baseman Hank Thompson appeared in a game for the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) on July 17, two days before outfielder Willard Brown joined him on the Browns' roster. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. If baseball (rightfully) believes that recognizing those players is important (and it is) then why not fully recognize them? A member of 8 All-Star squads, Willie remembers a home run he hit in 1931 to win the pennant for St. Louis as his greatest baseball thrill. 1920 Chicago American Giants, They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. We present them here for purely educational purposes. List of Negro league baseball players (AD), List of Negro league baseball players (EL), List of Negro league baseball players (MR), List of Negro league baseball players (SZ), List of first black MLB players by team and date, List of player profiles from the Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lists_of_Negro_league_baseball_players&oldid=1087987010, This page was last edited on 15 May 2022, at 16:27. Born average. When I began speaking with Ashwill about the database in September, Hall of Fame slugger Mule Suttles held the Negro Leagues single-season home run record with the 30 that he hit as a member of the St. Louis Stars in 1926. Tipping their caps: paying homage to Negro Leagues on their 100th anniversary. **, Press J to jump to the feed. Players he signed as a scout with Chicago then the Royals included Lou Brock, Oscar Gamble, Lee Smith and Joe Carter. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. They also represent something else. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. Josh Gibson, Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. He played for the Louisville Clippers, and later was traded with Jesse Mitchell to the Birmingham Black Barons for a used team bus. There's also Charley Pride (3/18/1935), famous country singer and one of the only black people to perform on Grand Ole Opry. Black players earnedless because they were Jim Crow'd. From there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. All rights reserved. I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. All rights reserved. \n","providerName":"Twitter","providerUrl":"https://twitter.com","type":"rich","width":550},"type":"oembed"},{"__typename":"Markdown","content":"That started to change in the 1980s and early 90s as researchers like Dick Clark, Larry Lester, John Holway, James Riley and Phil Dixon began assembling a more robust statistical record. SIERRA: The Clowns are paid a hundred dollars a month. A high average hitter and an excellent first baseman, Buck played in 12 All-Star games. Rookies earned $75 and the stars $375. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Among the most captivating features of Stars Park was the trolley car building that served as the left-field barrier. SIERRA: Yeah, a hundred dollars a month. That means numbers are always changing here and there. Negro League Baseball historical stats. For example, here, courtesy of Ashwill, are the pages from a 1941-42 Baltimore Elite Giants scorebook showing the Elites beating the Philadelphia Stars on Aug. 16, 1942: The biggest myth of them all is that the history of Negro League baseball is nothing but blurry, hard-to-substantiate legends and tall tales, Ashwill wrote in an email to MLB.com. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes will keep sharing her stories with younger generations, and others will, too. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Join our linker program. Its also why there are always new updates. TRIBOU: Today, Sierra lives in New Jersey. Sports Reference . The leagues were full of talent and it went beyond the names you may know like Mays or Satchel Paige. Jackie Robinson had an immediate impact on baseball's short and long-term future. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. From 1940 to 1949, 1,705 men played at least one game in the National League or American League plus hundreds, maybe thousands, more in the Negro Leagues. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). Silas Simmons played in the pre-Negro League era, and he passed away just a decade ago. The list does not include Negro league players who only played in the minor leagues and White Hispanic players who played in both the Negro Leagues and MLB prior to full integration (ex. A version of this story was first published in November, 2020, a few weeks before MLB announced that Negro League stats were being made part of the official record. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Following the 1924 season, he disappeared after a homicide in New York. Forbes is 88 and worries about being one of the last left to tell this story. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. Last I knew he was still alive but he is hard to contact sometimes. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? At their high point in mid-1930s, the team starred such greats as Biz Mackey, Jud Wilson, and Dick Lundy. That means its taken countless hours of research to fill in the gaps and put together the database. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account. Major League Baseball announced this week the 1920-1948 Negro Leagues was recognized as major league, Families of Negro Leaguers rejoice in MLB's decision to recognize league, After vowing change, Black candidates shut out again of MLB front office jobs, Oscar Charleston who hit .400 multiple times, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The 1930 St. Louis Stars. "Going into the late 1930s and the early 1940s, we see player salaries jump to an average of $300 to $400 each month with the stars like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige getting about $600-$700 a month. So they slept in the buses. So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Mike Trout Dennis Biddle lives down the street from my grandparents. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. There are a variety of reasons for that, Ashwill said, including a lack of capital and other resources, looser organization and less of a press infrastructure covering them.. Ted Page: Ted starred with the great Josh Gibson on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s. Paige probably took a pay cut when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.". Nat remembers a 31-game hitting streak as his best moment in baseball. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. Cronkite School at ASU Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. And in 2021, Baseball Reference, a trusted source for baseball stats, expanded its coverage of the Negro Leagues and integrated Negro League data from 1920 to 1948 into its record books. Join our linker program. Though there is more information on the Negro Leagues just a click away than ever before, there is still plenty of work to be done. KENDRICK: These athletes never cried about the social injustice. At 5'3", she hit .273 and pitched to a 33-8 record for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953 to 1955. They receivedbetween $1 to $1.50 a day for meal money. List of Negro league baseball players (A-D) List of Negro league baseball players (E-L) List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) List of Negro league baseball players (S-Z) Contents: M N O P Q R References Sam Streeter: The star pitcher for the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the 1930s, Sam pitched for the West in the inaugural Negro leagues All-Star game in 1933. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. We know which were the pitchers' parks (Chicago's Schorling Park, for example) and which were the hitters' parks (Stars Park in St. Louis and the Catholic Protectory Oval in the Bronx, home of the New York Lincoln Giants). James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. Since the Negro Leauges were still around several years after Jackie Robinson's debut, I would imagine there are still a few dozen former players who are still alive. We will also be adding the Puerto Rican Winter League at some point.. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. In Cleveland, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League. Pre-integration players. They also decided not to count the interleague games which were an important part of Negro League seasons, especially in the 1940s. (Though many seasons featured approximately 50 league games, "Negro League teams played 150-175 games a year overall -- the rest of the schedule being filled up with games against white semi-pro teams, lower-level Minor Leaguers, minor Black teams, and other teams whose games we haven't counted yet," Ashwill explained.). We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Soon he became involved in the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group and helped with an extensive study commissioned by the Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball. And they couldn't go in places to eat, so one person would go to the back door and get the food for all the players. "Many of the players are gone, but their . 65 In 2000, Major League Baseball supplied a grant to the Baseball Hall of Fame to conduct . Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. The list of teams with which he played includes the largely forgotten Miami Globetrotters, Hollywood Redbirds, Miami Red Sox, Belle Glade Redwings, Florida Cuban Giants, the Lucky Stars, the Danny Dodgers; Ft. Lauderdale Braves, Pompano Beach Yankees, Ft. Lauderdale Lucky Stars, Ft. Lauderdale Gray Sox, and the Buffalo Red Sox (a travelling team that appears to have played many of its games in West Virginia and Pennsylvania). You can't really settle on a few sacred numbers the way you can for MLB records.. ","type":"markdown"},{"__typename":"ExternalEmbed","data":{"__typename":"ExternalEmbedContent","html":", #Spotlight In February of 1920, The Chicago Defender previewed the formation of the Negro National League - Kansas City Selected for Meeting of Baseball Magnates - https://t.co/VANcXcLmL0 pic.twitter.com/KfBEDCalWr, A copy of the 1969 Macmillan baseball encyclopedia for show and tell @sabr. Many thanks to him. The color line in baseball is also probably the most profound case of historical injustice in the history of modern sports -- and the injustice most definitely includes the failure to properly record both the identities and the achievements of thousands of professional ballplayers., Before the Seamheads database, Negro League statistics were sparse and spottily updated. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. We still have to separate truth from hyperbole, but more analysis has become available. A lifetime .312 hitter, Ray remembers 1950 as a banner year when he was selected as MVP in the Triple-A American Association, while playing with the Minneapolis Millers. ","contextualCaption":null,"contextualAspectRatio":null,"credit":null,"format":"jpg","templateUrl":"https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/{formatInstructions}/v1605643461/mlb/lv9mhm1fsyjmr30kii4r","type":"photo"},{"__typename":"Markdown","content":"Thats the type of work that Ashwill, who currently works as a freelance academic editor and runs the Agate Type baseball blog, has done since he began researching the Negro Leagues 20 years ago. A native of Texas, Brown is reported to have pitched as early as 1917 with the Dallas Black Giants. Yet there was still a feeling that many more had been missed. After spotting the Black newspaper The Chicago Defender in his universitys library stacks and knowing its historical importance, he dove into the reels for the 1920 season and was surprised to see incredibly thorough coverage and box scores for the Negro National League. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. The 57 Texas native was certainly one of the smartest players of his day. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Don Newcombe (6/14/1926) played one season for the Newark Eagles before being allowed to sign with the Dodgers, where he went on to become the first person to win MVP and Cy Young in the same season (1956, the first year the Cy Young was introduced). That's about five times more in salary than Black players. Data Provided By Names of those who played in integrated organized white leagues are boldfaced, and those who played in integrated major leagues are also italicized. In 2020, MLB recognized the Nego Leagues as major leagues. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. RHP Satchel Paige: The most famous Negro Leagues player, the age-defying Paige stayed young long enough to pitch in the majors -- including the World Series -- as a 42-year-old rookie in 1948. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. It has been 47 years since anyone last saw this man. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. MINNIE. Bill Greason, Clyde Golden, Ron Teasley and Willie Mays. That's almost 19 times what the Black players received. Over at the Seamheads Negro Leagues database, a dedicated few have combed through newspapers and scorebooks, photo albums and microfiche to piece together the most complete statistical record of the Negro Leagues to date. But before Paige there was baseball's serial pay disparity. Phone: 602.496.1460 You know the names: Satchel Paige. The coming seasons brought many more signings. The numbers do not do justice to his legend. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. But you've got to establish a basic record first.. Buck O'Neil, Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. He turns 100 on December 20th, 2017. The unparalleled Rube Foster started the first Negro League in 1920, with such dominant teams as the Chicago American Giants and the Kansas City Monarchs. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis.