list of negro league players still alive

Nat Rogers: Now 78 years old and a waiter at Memphis Peabody Hotel, Nat writes that he played for 45 consecutive seasons in organized baseball, compiling a batting average of over .340. We will also be adding the Puerto Rican Winter League at some point.. His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. Newt Allen: For 20 years, Newt starred as the Kansas City Monarchs slick-fielding 2nd baseman. The numbers do not do justice to his legend. 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. 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. 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. This list comprises players who have appeared in Negro league baseball. It has been 47 years since anyone last saw this man. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. 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. One of two players in history to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP in his career (Verlander being the other). Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. Is there any way to possibly send a baseball to try and get signed by Biddle. 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. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. Just having a few stories here and there was not remotely enough. The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a man who became bigger than the game. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also began their careers in the Negro Leagues. Players he signed as a scout with Chicago then the Royals included Lou Brock, Oscar Gamble, Lee Smith and Joe Carter. Buck O'Neil, 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. James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. 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. Chris Haughey is the last player alive from 1943 and Tommy Brown is the last player alive from 1944, 1945 and 1947. Cronkite School at ASU Yet there was still a feeling that many more had been missed. 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. "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. You know the names: Satchel Paige. 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. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. There would be the Royals dressed as the Monarchs, the Tigers as the Stars, the Pirates as the Crawfords or Grays, Triple-A Memphis as the Red Sox, Double-A Birmingham as the Black Barons, High-A. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. Copyright 2020 NPR. 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. The coming seasons brought many more signings. Wells, 66, is a New York City resident. **, Press J to jump to the feed. At that meeting, they created the Negro National League. 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. All these early leagues were financially shaky. You can't really settle on a few sacred numbers the way you can for MLB records.. So they slept in the buses. 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. Pedro Dibut). DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. BOB KENDRICK: They had no idea they were making history. And I really do mean today. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? As it stands, Newcombe is the oldest living man to play in the Negro Leagues at their major-league level. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. Bell, who regularly went from 1st base to 3rd on sacrifice bunts, enjoyed his peak years with the St. Louis Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords in the early 1930s. All 3,400 players from 1920 to 1948 will be elevated to MLB status. 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 Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. A speedy switch-hitter, Newt writes that Martin Dihigo and Dave Brown were the two greatest pitchers he ever faced. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. Negro League Baseball historical stats. Do you have a blog? I know it seems that the civil rights movement was a while go, but it's truly just recent. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Fortunately, that has recently changed with the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, but for decades that wasn't the case. In 1934, led by 20-year-old left-hander Slim Jones, the Stars defeated the Chicago American Giants in a controversial playoff series, four games to three, for the Negro National League pennant. 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. Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. 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. His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. 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.. 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. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Or write about sports? 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. TRIBOU: Today, Sierra lives in New Jersey. 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. Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. 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. 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. This page was last edited on 27 January 2023, at 00:27. . 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 . 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. Mike Trout Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. After contacting Lester, co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and chairman of SABR's Negro Leagues Research Committee, he provided data that was absolutely staggering. Silas Simmons played in the pre-Negro League era, and he passed away just a decade ago. This is a list of the last handful of living major leaguers from the 1940s. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. 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. ***** 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. This article originally appeared in the 1972 Baseball Research Journal. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame are noted with a . Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. Nat remembers a 31-game hitting streak as his best moment in baseball. Many thanks to him. 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. Among them Fowler, Frank Grant, George Stovey, and Fleet Walker were notable players especially during the 1880s, before complete segregation. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) This list consists of players who have appeared in Negro league baseball . Many of the men that played in the last era of the Negro Leagues (1937-1957) died in the past 18 years, and a good portion in the past ten or eleven years. He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. Among the most captivating features of Stars Park was the trolley car building that served as the left-field barrier. Richard Kent, Sam Sheppard, Dr. J.W McClelland and Dr. G.B. America is about democracy and opportunity but it's also just as much about cash. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. 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.\n\nFrom there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. 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. "Many of the players are gone, but their . I first saw this idea mentioned in one sentence in a Deadspin story and wondered why this wasn't something discussed much more than it has been. 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. 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. Remember these four names: Rev. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues before the Great Depression. You knew the disparity in pay would be bad, but that gap is embarrassing for baseball. Its also why there are always new updates. MINNIE. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Now a Los Angeles resident, Evans remembers playing against almost every great ballplayer, black and white, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. As Lou Moore, a professor at Grand Valley State University, noted: from 1949 to 1959 - two years after Jackie Robinson's debut season - former Negro League players won all but two of the. Ray Brown, , 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords, All rights reserved. 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. \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. So the problem of whether Roosevelt Jackson is a veteran of the Negro Leagues is really one of semantics. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. 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. Names of those who played in integrated organized white leagues are boldfaced, and those who played in integrated major leagues are also italicized. Copyright 2000-2022 Sports Reference LLC. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. The 57 Texas native was certainly one of the smartest players of his day. 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 . The Encyclopedia and various books and projects over the years printed stats for a selection of Negro League stars," Ashwill explained -- picking and choosing what information to present, and often excluding players who appeared in fewer than 10 games. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . 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. Streeters biggest thrill in baseball was to hit a home run. MINNIE FORBES: It was terrible for the players at that time. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. Sports Reference . All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. They didn't care about making history. "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 . Join our linker program. 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. March 16, 2007 - Hubert "Country" Glenn, passes away. Center for Negro League Baseball Research. 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. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. 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: Jackie Robinson played briefly in the Negro Leagues. Although there are two players who played before 1946 none of them appeared in 1946, thus no players from 1946 are still alive. Ted Page: Ted starred with the great Josh Gibson on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. I heard about it, but I hadn't experienced it. 1920 Chicago American Giants, 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.. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. 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. That's about five times more in salary than Black players. 1924 Kansas City Monarchs, Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum estimates there are about 100 former players still alive. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. The records, as they proved with Suttles, are not static either. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 TRIBOU: And they did. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. Then in 1947, he broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Charlie Neal Hank Aaron George Altman Maury Wills Donn Clendenon John Wyatt Blue Moon Odom Paul Casanova See also [ edit] List of starting black NFL quarterbacks List of black NHL players That mission continues today. His biggest thrill came in the 1924 Negro World Series when he shut out the Kansas City Monarchs for 7 innings in relief. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. While baseball acknowledgingthese Black players is important, it should only be a first step. I have always been drawn to blank spaces on maps, blank spaces in record books, Ashwill said. Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in 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. 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 . "Going forward, in the 1930s following the Great Depression, salaries of Black players were about the same amount as the 1920s," Lester said. Turkey Stearnes. Many thanks to him. If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. The 1930 St. Louis Stars. But more interesting, in my opinion, are some of the larger patterns we've found. TRIBOU: The last league folded in the early 1960s. Hall of Fame. Chuck Harmon played under alias of Charlie Fine for the Clowns so as not to violate his college basketball eligibility. In Cleveland, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League. 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. "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. ","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. At their high point in mid-1930s, the team starred such greats as Biz Mackey, Jud Wilson, and Dick Lundy. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. Do you have a sports website? Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. A native of Texas, Brown is reported to have pitched as early as 1917 with the Dallas Black Giants. Keys bought the Giants franchise after the 1921 season and built the newly named Stars a stadium in '22. Holsey Lee: A great pitcher for over 20 years, Scrip Lee spent most of his long career in the Eastern Colored League. I remember reading about a living umpire from those times when he was interviewed, say, 3-5 years ago? Major leagueplayersreceived from $300 to $2,000 a month and about $15 a day for meals. 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, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and many more. That mission continues today.\n\nAnd I really do mean today. 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. 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. SIERRA: The Clowns are paid a hundred dollars a month. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. You know their stories, like how Paige once told his outfielders to sit down while he struck out the side. Pedro Dibut). 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. 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. Founded in 1990, the museum is the only one in the world . All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Rogers was one of the few players, black or white, who hit Satchel Paige consistently well. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Or write about sports? SIERRA: Yeah, a hundred dollars a month. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. 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. 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. He . So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote.