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. The other h alf was Josh Gib
reasons. “ We made three times
long travel in the Negro Leagues
Venezuela and other Latin nations,
W ith in the last 10 years, the
worthwhile.”
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