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. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. Satchel Paige, Simkus says the work taught him how important major league recognition would be for the families of Negro Leagues veterans, few of whom are still alive. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is marking the anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Pedro Dibut). 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. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. 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.. The star pitcher for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro National League in the early 1920s was a young left-hander named Dave Brown. Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Pre-integration players. James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. I knew about it. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Baseball needs to retroactivelypay the newly recognized Negro League players and their surviving families. So you won't let me play with you. Suttles pictured back row, far left. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. Lee lives in Washington, D.C. George Scales: One of the strongest-hitting 2nd basemen of his time and a .311 lifetime hitter, George played in the big-time for nearly 25 years with 6 different clubs. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. 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 If baseball (rightfully) believes that recognizing those players is important (and it is) then why not fully recognize them? 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 . The leagues were full of talent and it went beyond the names you may know like Mays or Satchel Paige. 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. But more interesting, in my opinion, are some of the larger patterns we've found. Paige was the first Negro League player inducted . I was wondering if there are any players left from those times, There's actually a good amount. I heard about it, but I hadn't experienced it. 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. Willie Foster: Called by many the greatest left-handed pitcher in the black leagues, Willie won 4 World Series games in his long career, and may be the only pitcher, black or white, to have pitched a complete 9-inning All-Star game. But you dont know their numbers -- at least, not with the same devotion baseball fans have to statistics like Ted Williams .406 batting average or Hank Aarons 755 home runs. Major League Baseball has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. He turns 100 on December 20th, 2017. He . DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. The coming seasons brought many more signings. Remember these four names: Rev. He says, faced with segregation, Black owners and players kept pushing for organized baseball. Then I'll create my own. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. The numbers do not do justice to his legend. 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. 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. Suttles pictured back row, far left. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. It wouldn't even cost baseball that much money particularly since salaries of Negro League players began to increase in the 1940s as their play became so good they were practically impossible to ignore, and as Jackie Robinson started his trek towards history. Pedro Dibut). 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. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. Join our linker program. That mission continues today.\n\nAnd I really do mean today. Louis Stars, Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (1886), International League of Independent Professional Base Ball Clubs (1906), National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba (19071909), West Coast Negro Baseball Association (1946), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Negro_league_baseball_players_who_played_in_Major_League_Baseball&oldid=1137262492, Short description with empty Wikidata description, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Served in the US Army during WWII 19421944, Served in the US Navy during WWII 19441945, Served in the US Army during WWII 19441945, Served in the US Marine Corp during WWII 19431945, Served in the US Army during Korean War 19521953, Served in the US Army during WWII 19431945, Served in the US Army during WWII 19421943, Served in the US Army during WWII 19411945, Served in the US Army during WWII 19441946, Served in the US Army during WWII 19431947, Served in the US Army during WWII 19431946, Served in the US Navy during WWII 19441946, Served in the US Army during Korean War 19511953, Served in the US Navy during WWII 19431946, Served in the US Navy during WWII 19431945, Served in the US Marine Corp during WWII 19431945 and the Korean War 19511952, Served in the US Army during Korean War 19511952, Served in the US Army during WWII 19421945, This page was last edited on 3 February 2023, at 18:10. "Many of the players are gone, but their . Newt Allen: For 20 years, Newt starred as the Kansas City Monarchs slick-fielding 2nd baseman. In 2020, MLB recognized the Nego Leagues as major leagues. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. All rights reserved. SIERRA: Yeah, a hundred dollars a month. "Well, in the case of the Negro leagues the historical record is (and in many cases always will be) incomplete, Ashwill wrote. 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 during the decline of the Negro leagues, after the beginning of integration. 1928 St. Louis Stars, With the game still years away from the multimillion-dollar contracts handed to star players, Aaron's annual pay in 1959 was around $30,000. Like O'Neil, Minnie Mioso was still alive when he was denied entry in 2006, mostly because his time was so short in the Negro Leagues. Major League Players. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. 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. Ray Brown, , 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords, Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. He was known to be a great hitter, but I don't think it was fully appreciated how pivotal he was to the Monarchs' defense.. \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. We already knew they were equals, of course, it's just official now. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Mays played his rookie year in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons. Forbes is 88 and worries about being one of the last left to tell this story. 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. Tipping their caps: paying homage to Negro Leagues on their 100th anniversary. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. From there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Or write about sports? Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Many thanks to him. 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. This process is automatic. I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. "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. Do you have a sports website? 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. You can't really settle on a few sacred numbers the way you can for MLB records.. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. Jimmie Crutchfield: A slender outfielder, Jimmie signed with the great Pittsburgh Crawfords when he was only 19 years old. 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. I have always been drawn to blank spaces on maps, blank spaces in record books, Ashwill said. Center for Negro League Baseball Research, First black player for St. Louis Browns and New York Giants, First black player for Philadelphia Athletics, First black player for Pittsburgh Pirates, "Negro League Players Who Made the Major Leagues", "Negro Leaguers Who Served With The Armed Forces in WWII", List of Negro league baseball postseason games, Atlanta Black Crackers/Indianapolis ABCs (IV), Indianapolis ABCs (II)/New OrleansSt. What about the other great players? Rogers was one of the few players, black or white, who hit Satchel Paige consistently well. Negro League Baseball historical stats. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. America's Pastime. The museum has pushed back its year-long celebration of the centennial to next year and renamed it Negro Leagues 101. 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. This Month in Sports ReferenceFind out when we add a feature or make a change. 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. 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. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? That means its taken countless hours of research to fill in the gaps and put together the database. Created a hundred years ago, the leagues showcased Black baseball players, players who couldn't play on the major teams because of the color of their skin. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. Copyright 2000-2022 Sports Reference LLC. At their high point in mid-1930s, the team starred such greats as Biz Mackey, Jud Wilson, and Dick Lundy. This data is based on actual contracts I have seen. 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. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. 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. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. 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. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. 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. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum estimates there are about 100 former players still alive. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. 2006 Negro League Baseball News December 17, 2006 - Willard Brown inducted to LA. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . To this day, no one apparently has any idea of his whereabouts or even whether he is still living. 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 Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. There was Oscar Charleston who hit .400 multiple times. We will also be adding the Puerto Rican Winter League at some point.. 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). All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Last I knew he was still alive but he is hard to contact sometimes. . The service requires full JavaScript support in order to view this website. As with any sports league, I have to assume that there are still plenty of unknown or lesser known players still out there. 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. Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. Current Greats: Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, . Josh Gibson, The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseballs best 1-2 home-run punch. I wanted to see them as flesh and blood people, real players who had the same kinds of complex profiles we have for players today. He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. WANTED: INFORMATION ON DAVE BROWN. An outfielder and a solid hitter, Page resides in Pittsburgh, where he operates a bowling alley. 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. Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Marshall remembers occasionally playing 4 games a day when he was with the Philadelphia Stars and he says Satchel Paige was the fastest pitcher he ever saw. Jackie Robinson had an immediate impact on baseball's short and long-term future. Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. The 57 Texas native was certainly one of the smartest players of his day. But Minnie Forbes sympathizes with the many athletes who were good enough to play in the major leagues but never got a shot. Find out more. While baseball acknowledgingthese Black players is important, it should only be a first step. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Now a Los Angeles resident, Evans remembers playing against almost every great ballplayer, black and white, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. 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. December 15, 2006 - Medal of freedom awarded to Buck O'Neil. 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. Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Josh Gibson holds the all-time home run record with 238 and Smokey Joe Williams struck out 1,571 batters in his 25-year career. I read Bill James in the 1980s, and I wanted a Negro League Baseball Abstract. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. 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. Buck O'Neil, Not even 60 years old. Of course, Josh Gibson and some of the other big names have passed on, but a lot of the legendary stars are still alive and well and living in well, why dont we call the roll of some of the more familiar names, men like . Find out more. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is honoring the Negro Leagues that showcased Black baseball players at a time the sport was segregated. They went out and did something about it. ***** TRIBOU: Bob Kendrick heads the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum there. Part of that was simply how the Negro Leagues recorded their statistics, which wasn't as robust a system as the Major Leagues'. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. 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 . Use Mays, Greason, Golden and Teasley as the faces of a compensation plan, like lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit, and account for what was a wide disparity in pay between Black and white players during those 28 years. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseball's best 1-2 home-run punch. 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. Is there any way to possibly send a baseball to try and get signed by Biddle. 1933 Homestead Grays, His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. We present them here for purely educational purposes. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball. You knew the disparity in pay would be bad, but that gap is embarrassing for baseball. Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. Or write about sports? March 10, 2007 - William "Bill' Van Buren passes away. Jack Marshall: A star 2nd baseman for most of the top Chicago ballclubs, Jack still lives in the Windy City. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. You go through the most important sources for a given year, collect the box scores, construct a schedule, go back and try to fill in gaps, double and triple check everything, then type in the games.. The World Series winners that same year earned $5,959.64 and the losers $3,820.29. Turkey Stearnes. He jumped to the Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1923 and pitched with them for 2 years. However, he played for minor-league clubs: What Jackson did not do was to play in any of the all-black leagues traditionally thought of as the Negro Major Leagues. A charity baseball game that paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and their significance to the sport was held at Sacramento State's John Smith Field on Oct. 9. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. Among the most captivating features of Stars Park was the trolley car building that served as the left-field barrier. They are symbols for what should happen next. 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.. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. A high average hitter and an excellent first baseman, Buck played in 12 All-Star games. 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. A native of Talladega, Alabama, Scales now lives in New York City. 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. Center for Negro League Baseball Research. Well Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are still alive. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. TRIBOU: And they did. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. Mays played. This article originally appeared in the 1972 Baseball Research Journal. A family friend used to play for the Black Yankees, Bob Scott. 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." All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. But before Paige there was baseball's serial pay disparity. 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. Cronkite School at ASU Major League Baseball has a day to honor the leagues set for next month. 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. , Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. 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 remember reading about a living umpire from those times when he was interviewed, say, 3-5 years ago? 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.