list of negro league players still alive list of negro league players still alive

Of these, nine have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and two of them (Greason and Mays) are still alive. His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. A native of Talladega, Alabama, Scales now lives in New York City. '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. Foster still retains a strong interest in baseball. 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. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. When the book was being put together, the Negro Leagues weren't even considered for inclusion. America is about democracy and opportunity but it's also just as much about cash. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. 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. 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. 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. Born September 3, 1924 Bill Greason is the oldest player on this list. 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 speedy switch-hitter, Newt writes that Martin Dihigo and Dave Brown were the two greatest pitchers he ever faced. I have always been drawn to blank spaces on maps, blank spaces in record books, Ashwill said. TRIBOU: And they did. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account. This process is automatic. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. December 15, 2006 - Medal of freedom awarded to Buck O'Neil. But there are a group of researchers led by Gary Ashwill who are looking to change that. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues before the Great Depression. Join our linker program. Bill Greason, Clyde Golden, Ron Teasley and Willie Mays. The World Series winners that same year earned $5,959.64 and the losers $3,820.29. Do you have a sports website? The text below has been updated to reflect that. Pre-integration players. A lifetime .312 hitter, Ray remembers 1950 as a banner year when he was selected as MVP in the Triple-A American Association, while playing with the Minneapolis Millers. 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. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Phoenix, AZ 85004 Keys bought the Giants franchise after the 1921 season and built the newly named Stars a stadium in '22. Willie Wells: A .338 lifetime hitter, Willie Wells is often called the best shortstop to play in the black leagues. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. Major League Players. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. 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. 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 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. 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.. What about the other great players? 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). As with any sports league, I have to assume that there are still plenty of unknown or lesser known players still out there. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. All these early leagues were financially shaky. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. The museum has pushed back its year-long celebration of the centennial to next year and renamed it Negro Leagues 101. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. 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. 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. A family friend used to play for the Black Yankees, Bob Scott. WANTED: INFORMATION ON DAVE BROWN. 1933 Homestead Grays, Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. But Minnie Forbes sympathizes with the many athletes who were good enough to play in the major leagues but never got a shot. 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 has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. 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. He cites being selected to manage the East All-Star team in 1939 as his biggest moment. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Ernie Banks and Monte Irvin died a couple years ago. I read Bill James in the 1980s, and I wanted a Negro League Baseball Abstract. pic.twitter.com/qiMXrVD4RB. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote. To this day, no one apparently has any idea of his whereabouts or even whether he is still living. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. There was Oscar Charleston who hit .400 multiple times. Remember these four names: Rev. Jackie Robinson had an immediate impact on baseball's short and long-term future. Turkey Stearnes. We still have to separate truth from hyperbole, but more analysis has become available. They went out and did something about it. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 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 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. Mike Trout 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. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. That's about five times more in salary than Black players. That means numbers are always changing here and there. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. You will be redirected once the validation is complete. Cronkite School at ASU Paige, now 65 and a Kansas City resident, is by far the best known of these old stars. SIERRA: The Clowns are paid a hundred dollars a month. 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. Its also why there are always new updates. 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. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. 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 . Dennis Biddle lives down the street from my grandparents. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. So the problem of whether Roosevelt Jackson is a veteran of the Negro Leagues is really one of semantics. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. Copyright 2000-2022 Sports Reference LLC. 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. 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. Ted Page: Ted starred with the great Josh Gibson on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes will keep sharing her stories with younger generations, and others will, too. Last I knew he was still alive but he is hard to contact sometimes. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. We present them here for purely educational purposes. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). You knew the disparity in pay would be bad, but that gap is embarrassing for baseball. The 1930 St. Louis Stars. 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. Baseball needs to retroactivelypay the newly recognized Negro League players and their surviving families. In Cleveland, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League. But you've got to establish a basic record first.. Only a few members of the leagues are alive to celebrate the centennial. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. 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. James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. 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. Recovering it is a constant, ongoing struggle. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. 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. Major leagueplayersreceived from $300 to $2,000 a month and about $15 a day for meals. Just a humbling reminder that Jim Crow laws and segregation was less than a generation ago. I heard about it, but I hadn't experienced it. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. 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. 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. 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. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. . TRIBOU: Today, Sierra lives in New Jersey. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. This page was last edited on 27 January 2023, at 00:27. His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. Following the 1924 season, he disappeared after a homicide in New York. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. 65 In 2000, Major League Baseball supplied a grant to the Baseball Hall of Fame to conduct . 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. Part of that was simply how the Negro Leagues recorded their statistics, which wasn't as robust a system as the Major Leagues'. By August 1, 1947, three Major League teams had already integrated. The leagues were full of talent and it went beyond the names you may know like Mays or Satchel Paige. Names of those who played in integrated organized white leagues are boldfaced, and those who played in integrated major leagues are also italicized. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. Meanwhile you still have jackalopes foaming at the mouth that girls shouldn't be allowed to play high school ball. 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. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum estimates there are about 100 former players still alive. Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. Buck O'Neil, Newt still makes Kansas City his home. 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. DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. 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. But before Paige there was baseball's serial pay disparity. 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. and daily newspapers in cities where games were played. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. "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 . Chicago Team History, TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes owned the Detroit Stars from 1956 to 1958. Mays played. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseballs best 1-2 home-run punch. , Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. Paige probably took a pay cut when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.". 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. 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 . There's also Charley Pride (3/18/1935), famous country singer and one of the only black people to perform on Grand Ole Opry. So they slept in the buses. Data Provided By 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. January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. You know the names: Satchel Paige. Josh Gibson. So you won't let me play with you. That's almost 19 times what the Black players received. All rights reserved. Negro League Baseball historical stats. How Cool Papa Bell was so fast that he could hit the light switch and be in bed before the lights went out. Join our linker program. 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. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. Well Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are still alive. 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. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. 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. TRIBOU: The last league folded in the early 1960s. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. 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.. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. 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 . "Well, in the case of the Negro leagues the historical record is (and in many cases always will be) incomplete, Ashwill wrote. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Tipping their caps: paying homage to Negro Leagues on their 100th anniversary. Paige was the first Negro League player inducted . If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. The Book: Playing the Percentages in 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.). Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is marking the anniversary of the Negro Leagues.