From there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. 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. We still have to separate truth from hyperbole, but more analysis has become available. Holsey Lee: A great pitcher for over 20 years, Scrip Lee spent most of his long career in the Eastern Colored League. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. Find out more. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. 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. Dan Bankhead Sam Bankhead Bob Boyd Ray Brown Willard Brown Bill Byrd Roy Campanella Buster Clarkson Jimmie Crutchfield Ray Dandridge Leon Day Larry Doby Luke Easter Wilmer Fields Josh Gibson Junior Gilliam Sammy Hughes Monte Irvin Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. O'Neil served as a representative of the Negro Leagues on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from 1981-2000, and 11 Negro Leagues players were inducted through 2001 for a total of 18. Ted Page: Ted starred with the great Josh Gibson on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s. 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 . 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 SIERRA: The Clowns are paid a hundred dollars a month. 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. The other is that sources like the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia -- which basically set the standard for baseball statistics when it was released in 1969 -- wasn't all that invested in featuring Negro League records. 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. Ray Brown, , 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords, Just this month, and nearly 80 years after Suttles career ended, Ashwill was able to add two more home runs to his tally, bringing his total to 32. To this day, no one apparently has any idea of his whereabouts or even whether he is still living. 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). Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. But you've got to establish a basic record first.. Not even 60 years old. Accuracy and availability may vary. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. Chris Haughey is the last player alive from 1943 and Tommy Brown is the last player alive from 1944, 1945 and 1947. You will be redirected once the validation is complete. At their high point in mid-1930s, the team starred such greats as Biz Mackey, Jud Wilson, and Dick Lundy. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. 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. He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. Do you have a sports website? Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. They receivedbetween $1 to $1.50 a day for meal money. The numbers do not do justice to his legend. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also began their careers in the Negro Leagues. If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. 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. Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. They are symbols for what should happen next. Phone: 602.496.1460 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. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. A select few were All-Stars and one (Aaron) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. That mission continues today. 65 In 2000, Major League Baseball supplied a grant to the Baseball Hall of Fame to conduct . ","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. 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. The most important sources are the Black weekly newspapers (Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, Kansas City Call, etc.) Sports Pulse: Players, celebs and politicians tip their hats in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. There's also Charley Pride (3/18/1935), famous country singer and one of the only black people to perform on Grand Ole Opry. Ted says shortstop John Henry Lloyd was the greatest ballplayer he ever saw. Major League Baseball announced this week the 1920-1948 Negro Leagues was recognized as major league, meaning Black players who played during those years are officially acknowledgedas the same as their white counterparts. I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes will keep sharing her stories with younger generations, and others will, too. , Season Summaries, Ballparks, Owners, Player Bios, 1946 Negro World Series, Contribute, Mike Trout At that meeting, they created the Negro National League. 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. 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.). TRIBOU: And they did. Just this month, and nearly 80 years after Suttles career ended, Ashwill was able to add two more home runs to his tally, bringing his total to 32.\n\nBasically, our earlier version of the 1926 Negro National League relied heavily on the Black weekly newspapers for games played in St. Louis -- in this case the Chicago Defender (which was distributed nationally) and the St. Louis Argus, Ashwill wrote. \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. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. As with any sports league, I have to assume that there are still plenty of unknown or lesser known players still out there. Basically, our earlier version of the 1926 Negro National League relied heavily on the Black weekly newspapers for games played in St. Louis -- in this case the Chicago Defender (which was distributed nationally) and the St. Louis Argus, Ashwill wrote. 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. 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). January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. At 5'3", she hit .273 and pitched to a 33-8 record for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953 to 1955. 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. Although there are two players who played before 1946 none of them appeared in 1946, thus no players from 1946 are still alive. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. "Well, in the case of the Negro leagues the historical record is (and in many cases always will be) incomplete, Ashwill wrote. His biggest thrill came in the 1924 Negro World Series when he shut out the Kansas City Monarchs for 7 innings in relief. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Center for Negro League Baseball Research. Now 71, and a Pittsburgh resident, Sam says that Smokey Joe Williams was the greatest pitcher he ever saw while slugger Mule Suttles gave him the most trouble at the plate. Among them Fowler, Frank Grant, George Stovey, and Fleet Walker were notable players especially during the 1880s, before complete segregation. **, Press J to jump to the feed. 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. 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. Do you have a blog? 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Please enable JavaScript on your browser and try again. Lester said the average monthly salary of a Black player in the early 1920s was $175 a month. Phoenix, AZ 85004 In 1924, the first year of the Colored World Series, the share of the winners, the Kansas City Monarchs, was $307.96, says Lester. What about the other great players? All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Join our linker program. Wells, 66, is a New York City resident. Major League Baseball has a day to honor the leagues set for next month. 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.. **For the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign. So you won't let me play with you. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, The subreddit for the bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. That means its taken countless hours of research to fill in the gaps and put together the database. 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. He grew up in Cuba and says it was tough to adjust to segregation and racism he saw in the U.S. PEDRO SIERRA: It wasn't easy to see all the problems with the race. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Now a Los Angeles resident, Evans remembers playing against almost every great ballplayer, black and white, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Born September 3, 1924 Bill Greason is the oldest player on this list. There was Oscar Charleston who hit .400 multiple times. He is Dean of Men at Alcorn College in Lorman, Mississippi, and also serves as baseball coach. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. 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. Its also why there are always new updates. Jackie Robinson had an immediate impact on baseball's short and long-term future. 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. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues before the Great Depression. KENDRICK: These athletes never cried about the social injustice. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. MINNIE FORBES: It was terrible for the players at that time. Theyve established -- though its no surprise -- that the speedy Bell holds the single-season record with 49 stolen bases for the Stars in 1929. Major League Players. America is about democracy and opportunity but it's also just as much about cash. Nat remembers a 31-game hitting streak as his best moment in baseball. 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. When the book was being put together, the Negro Leagues weren't even considered for inclusion. All rights reserved. Born average. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is marking the anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Members were the Brooklyn (New York) Royal Giants, Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Club of Philadelphia, and the Cuban Stars (no relation to the Cuban Stars of the NNL) and Lincoln Giants of New York City. 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. Or write about sports? They played during the decline of the Negro leagues, after the beginning of integration. 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. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Richard Kent, Sam Sheppard, Dr. J.W McClelland and Dr. G.B. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. Suttles pictured back row, far left. Jack Marshall: A star 2nd baseman for most of the top Chicago ballclubs, Jack still lives in the Windy City. Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. Part of that was simply how the Negro Leagues recorded their statistics, which wasn't as robust a system as the Major Leagues'. They went out and did something about it. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. 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. Then in 1947, he broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In fact, that's my long-term goal: to write a Negro League Baseball Abstract. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. I know it seems that the civil rights movement was a while go, but it's truly just recent. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes owned the Detroit Stars from 1956 to 1958. 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. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. An outfielder and a solid hitter, Page resides in Pittsburgh, where he operates a bowling alley. 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). That's about five times more in salary than Black players. 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 played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. 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. Founded in 1990, the museum is the only one in the world . Michigan Radio's Doug Tribou spoke to the only surviving team owner and others about the legacy of the legendary leagues. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Those four names aren't just pieces of data, or clickable things on a site, they are human beings who excelled despiteliving under the thick anvilof segregation. 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. This process is automatic. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. Black players earnedless because they were Jim Crow'd. A high average hitter and an excellent first baseman, Buck played in 12 All-Star games. Pre-integration players. 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. Meanwhile you still have jackalopes foaming at the mouth that girls shouldn't be allowed to play high school ball. 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. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. '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. Remember these four names: Rev. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. I read Bill James in the 1980s, and I wanted a Negro League Baseball Abstract. All these early leagues were financially shaky. Forbes is 88 and worries about being one of the last left to tell this story. So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. Major League Baseball has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. You know the names: Satchel Paige. 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 . That's almost 19 times what the Black players received. DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. I grew up with the distinct impression that no statistics could ever be compiled, that it was often unclear what happened at all, and that it was more or less impossible to find out anything for sure about many of the players., Our friends at Seamheads have added new 1926 statistics to their #SABR award-winning Negro Leagues Database, including a record-setting season by Mule Suttles: https://t.co/sCWIvkVMuB @scott_simkus @KJOKBASEBALL @DanHirsch pic.twitter.com/WlQhzB8q4u. 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. Following the 1924 season, he disappeared after a homicide in New York. 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. Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. Find out more. A speedy switch-hitter, Newt writes that Martin Dihigo and Dave Brown were the two greatest pitchers he ever faced. "I always really, really wanted to get the full workup for those guys -- walks, on-base percentage, fielding stats, home runs allowed by pitchers -- so you could tell what kind of players they were, how they fit into their teams, how the teams compared to each other. Newt Allen: For 20 years, Newt starred as the Kansas City Monarchs slick-fielding 2nd baseman. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. 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. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. 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. If baseball (rightfully) believes that recognizing those players is important (and it is) then why not fully recognize them? 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. 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. 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.. 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. Streeters biggest thrill in baseball was to hit a home run. A native of Texas, Brown is reported to have pitched as early as 1917 with the Dallas Black Giants.