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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 1981)
Page 12 Portland Observer. August 20. 1981 Black Baseball: Looking back By Clarissa Myrick Smithsonian News Service Oscar Charleston was his name. He starred at about every position on the diamond and has been called the greatest baseball player o f all time. Then there was Buck Leonard. His first-base playing skills were considered the match o f New York Yankees star Lou Gehrig’s. But even among avid baseball buffs these names may draw a blank. They played in the Negro baseball leagues in the years before that historic day in 1947 when Jackie Robinson jo ined the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the half-century -old color barrier in the majors. Charleston and Leonard did not play in obscurity by any means. Though the Negro Leagues were around before the color bar went up, the teams reached their stride in the 1920s and ‘ 30s when thousands o f Black fans, and even some white baseball enthusiasts, packed stadiums, ballparks and sandlots all over the country to see the stars o f such teams as the Kansas C ity Monarchs, the Pittsburgh C raw fords and the Newark Eagles. These fans got the chance to see baseball at its finest. “ Blacks were playing probably the most ex citing - yes, and very possibly the best -- baseball seen in America before 1947,” critic John Holway writes in his book. Voices From The Great Black Baseball Leagues. Carl Scheelc, curator o f a recent exhibition on Black baseball at the Sm ithsonian’ s Museum of American H istory, agrees. “ The talent o f the Black baseball league stars was amazing.” Talent wasn’t the only thing these players had going for them. They had charisma and a bit o f panache. The flamboyant pitching style and personality o f Leroy “ Satchel” Paige, fo r instance, made him a national celebrity even before he broke into the major leagues in 1948 as a 42-year-old “ rookie” fo r the Cleveland Indians. A nother dazzling pitcher, son, the ball player credited w ith "S m o ke y” Joe W illiam s, was h itting the longest home run ever throw ing treacherous fast balls struck in Yankee stadium. Like Lou before Paige became a star on the Gehrig and Babe Ruth o f the major mound. And there was shortstop leagues, Leonard and Gibson batted John Henry L loyd whose m ild th ird and fo u rth in the line-up. manner o f f and hard-driving Between 1937 and 1943, the duo led ballplaying on the field earned him the Homestead Grays to nine the title " th e D r. Jekyll and M r. straight Negro League pennant Hyde o f baseball.” wins. Although most o f these players L ife in the underfinanced Black were never declared national sports leagues was exciting, but rough champions, they did become heroes even fo r the stars, Leonard says. in the nation’ s Black communities. During the season - m id -A p ril to “ When I was a kid , I felt a great the end o f September - most o f the sense o f pride whenever I watched teams tried to play every day to keep Black leaguers play.” recalls James fin a n cia lly a flo a t. “ One year we Piper, a designer for the Museum o f played 210 ball games and traveled American H isto ry and him self a 30,000 miles by bus and tra in ,” form er semi-pro Black baseball Leonard recalls. player. I f a team found a little extra time Ironically, soon after Robinson in its schedule, it set up games with cracked the co lo r bar in m ajor small town white and Black semi- league baseball, the Black leagues pro teams to get a little heavy extra began to fade away. money. ’ ’ Sometimes we played “ Once integration began, the three games in one day,” Leonard m ajor leagues recruited the better says. "W e ’ d play a doubleheader young players o f the Black against a Black team at Yankee leagues,” cultural historian Donn stadium on a Sunday afternoon; Rogosin, who organized the Black then, on Sunday night, we’d go out baseball exhibition, explains. “ Then on Long Island and play a semi-pro, B efo re the m ejo r leagues dro p p ed th e ir color the fans stopped going to see the white team.” b ro ke th e co lo r b a rrie r w h e n he Joined the b arrier in 1947. N eg ro League te a m s s ta rre d at Black league teams play; they D o d g ers In 1947. O th ers are: (Top ro w ! B lanco Economic necessity also proved p acked b a llp a rk s in th e U n ite d S ta te s and at opted fo r integrated rather than Chetaing; Campanella; Marvin Barker; Bill Ander to be the mother o f invention in special exhibition games in Latin A m erica. In thia segregated baseball.” son; Quincy Trouppe; George Jefferson; Parnell Black baseball. In the early 1930s, photo taken in 1946, the All Stars posed at gam e I t ’ s not easy to track down the W oods; Roy W elm aker; Buck Leonard. (B o tto m the Kansas C ity Monarchs were tim e in C aracaa. V en ezu ela. Team m em b er Roy great moments o f the Negro leagues ro w ! R obinson; Eugene Beneon; Felton S n o w pioneers in the use o f the portable C a m p a n e lla . to p ro w , second fro m le ft, la te r and their stars. Most o f the teams (mgr. I; Verdel Mathis; Sam Jethros (trainer). lig h tin g system that made night starred with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robin never documented their players’ baseball -- a good source o f revenue (Photo: Smithsonian News Service) son. bottom row , far left, became the player w ho records. The large m etropolitan - possible. newspapers seldom covered their Near the end o f the season, the more money in the Latin American games and hardly ever featured Black leaguers played with and best players in the leagues went to baseball world has begun to praisi countries then we did playing in the against w hile m ajor leaguers on stories about the players. So, when Chicago to play in the East-West the achievements o f the greats o f th< Negro leagues,” says Monte Irvin, a fully integrated teams. the league died, the little bit o f fame Classic, an annual all-star game. Black leagues. In 1971, Satche veteran o f the Black leagues who the Black league stars had known In the United States. Black all- ” My greatest th rill on the field was Paige was the first o f these player went on to stardom in the majors. died, too. star teams organized by such players playing in that game.” Leonard to be elected to the Baseball Hall ol The players could also improve Today’ s sports historians must as Satchel Paige barnstormed with says. Fame. Josh Gibson and Buck their skills and learn to play under white all-star teams put together by glean most o f the ir in form a tion A fte r the classic and the end o f Leonard were elected in 1972. And extreme pressure. " I f you d id n ’ t such men as Dizzy Dean. These about the leagues from the files o f the grueling season, most o f the this year. Rube Foster, the organizer play well in the L atin American Black newspapers o f the period and games demonstrated that the skills players continued their hectic pace o f the first successful Black league, countries,” Irvin remembers, "they o f Black players equalled and often from the memories and in off-season, cross-country barn was added to the Hall o f Fame. sent you back to the United States.” m em orabilia o f such players as surpassed those o f white m ajor storming tours and winter games in " I never thought I would be But perhaps the main reason for league players. Boxscorev uncovered form er first baseman W alter F lo rid a , C a lifo rn ia and Latin honored like th is ,” Buck Leonard the p opularity o f the off-season by author Holway show that out of "B uck” Leonard. America. said a few days before attending a games was the opportunity afforded the 445 games Black leaguers played Leonard, now 73 and a real estate The players looked forw ard to W hite House luncheon for champ the Black players to compare their against white m ajor leaguers bet broker livin g in Rockie M ount, these off-season games, especially ions elected to the Hall o f Fame. ” 1, skills with those o f white m ajor ween I866 and I948, the Black N.C., was once h alf o f a dynamite those in Latin America, for several makes all those years o f low pay an- league players. In Mexico. Cuba, teams won 260, lost 172 and tied 4. duo. 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