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

All 3,400 players from 1920 to 1948 will be elevated to MLB status. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Created a hundred years ago, the leagues showcased Black baseball players, players who couldn't play on the major teams because of the color of their skin. In 1954, he signed with the Indianapolis Clowns at the age of 16. Willie Wells: A .338 lifetime hitter, Willie Wells is often called the best shortstop to play in the black leagues. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. 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 The museum has pushed back its year-long celebration of the centennial to next year and renamed it Negro Leagues 101. "Going forward, in the 1930s following the Great Depression, salaries of Black players were about the same amount as the 1920s," Lester said. Lester said the average monthly salary of a Black player in the early 1920s was $175 a month. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Just a humbling reminder that Jim Crow laws and segregation was less than a generation ago. 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. This is a list of the last handful of living major leaguers from the 1940s. 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. The records, as they proved with Suttles, are not static either. 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 . Then I'll create my own. TRIBOU: Today, Sierra lives in New Jersey. Pedro Dibut). Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. Copyright 2020 NPR. 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. WANTED: INFORMATION ON DAVE BROWN. "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. They played during the decline of the Negro leagues, after the beginning of integration. This Month in Sports ReferenceFind out when we add a feature or make a change. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. That means numbers are always changing here and there. Do you have a blog? List of living major league players from the 1940s - BR Bullpen At 5'3", she hit .273 and pitched to a 33-8 record for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953 to 1955. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) This list consists of players who have appeared in Negro league baseball . January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. They played primarily before the organized Negro leagues. But there are a group of researchers led by Gary Ashwill who are looking to change that. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major - Wikiwand He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. Chicago Team History, Silas Simmons played in the pre-Negro League era, and he passed away just a decade ago. 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. 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. He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. 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. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes will keep sharing her stories with younger generations, and others will, too. Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. Copyright 2000-2022 Sports Reference LLC. And now I look back and I say, oh, my God. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. 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 . Fortunately, that has recently changed with the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, but for decades that wasn't the case. But you've got to establish a basic record first.. 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. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Phone: 602.496.1460 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. 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. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Please enable JavaScript on your browser and try again. How Cool Papa Bell was so fast that he could hit the light switch and be in bed before the lights went out. Chris Haughey is the last player alive from 1943 and Tommy Brown is the last player alive from 1944, 1945 and 1947. Negro Leagues history didn't survive on its own - Beyond the Box Score In fact, that's my long-term goal: to write a Negro League Baseball Abstract. 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. 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. Well Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are still alive. Meanwhile you still have jackalopes foaming at the mouth that girls shouldn't be allowed to play high school ball. Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. 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. Many thanks to him. 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. 1924 Kansas City Monarchs, The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Center for Negro League Baseball Research. 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. 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. Rookies earned $75 and the stars $375. All rights reserved. Among them Fowler, Frank Grant, George Stovey, and Fleet Walker were notable players especially during the 1880s, before complete segregation. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. That's about five times more in salary than Black players. The coming seasons brought many more signings. He jumped to the Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1923 and pitched with them for 2 years. Remember these four names: Rev. Are there any former Negro League players still living? Hank Aaron - Death, Stats & Facts - Biography Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mays played. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. 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). That mission continues today.\n\nAnd I really do mean today. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. He cites being selected to manage the East All-Star team in 1939 as his biggest moment. Families of Negro Leagues players launch group to preserve historical In 1924, the first year of the Colored World Series, the share of the winners, the Kansas City Monarchs, was $307.96, says Lester. A select few were All-Stars and one (Aaron) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Paige, Satchel | Baseball Hall of Fame His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. 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. The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. 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. Many Old Negro League Stars Still Around - Society for American I read Bill James in the 1980s, and I wanted a Negro League Baseball Abstract. One of two players in history to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP in his career (Verlander being the other). They receivedbetween $1 to $1.50 a day for meal money. 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. At that meeting, they created the Negro National League. Players he signed as a scout with Chicago then the Royals included Lou Brock, Oscar Gamble, Lee Smith and Joe Carter. MINNIE FORBES: It was terrible for the players at that time. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. A select few were All-Stars and one (Aaron) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. ***** 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. pic.twitter.com/qiMXrVD4RB. , Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. 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. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. His biggest thrill came in the 1924 Negro World Series when he shut out the Kansas City Monarchs for 7 innings in relief. Newt Allen: For 20 years, Newt starred as the Kansas City Monarchs slick-fielding 2nd baseman. Recovering it is a constant, ongoing struggle. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. You can't really settle on a few sacred numbers the way you can for MLB records.. 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. If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. 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. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. Major League Baseball has a day to honor the leagues set for next month. Like O'Neil, Minnie Mioso was still alive when he was denied entry in 2006, mostly because his time was so short in the Negro Leagues. Foster still retains a strong interest in 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. 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. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Bill Greason, Clyde Golden, Ron Teasley and Willie Mays. Major League Baseball has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. Philadelphia Stars (baseball) - Wikipedia "Well, in the case of the Negro leagues the historical record is (and in many cases always will be) incomplete, Ashwill wrote. TRIBOU: And they did. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. 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. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. 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.. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . Josh Gibson, The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. \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. America is about democracy and opportunity but it's also just as much about cash. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 1928 St. Louis Stars, 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. Born September 3, 1924 Bill Greason is the oldest player on this list. 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. 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. We present them here for purely educational purposes. I remember reading about a living umpire from those times when he was interviewed, say, 3-5 years ago? The World Series winners that same year earned $5,959.64 and the losers $3,820.29. Born September 3, 1924 Bill Greason is the oldest player on this list. As with any sports league, I have to assume that there are still plenty of unknown or lesser known players still out there. The 1930 St. Louis Stars. 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. I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. 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. Data Provided By Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. I know it seems that the civil rights movement was a while go, but it's truly just recent. TRIBOU: Jackie Robinson played briefly in the Negro Leagues. 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. Mays played his rookie year in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons. Not even 60 years old. This list comprises players who have appeared in Negro league baseball. Or write about sports? Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. They are symbols for what should happen next. "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 . He is Dean of Men at Alcorn College in Lorman, Mississippi, and also serves as baseball coach. Part of that was simply how the Negro Leagues recorded their statistics, which wasn't as robust a system as the Major Leagues'. March 16, 2007 - Hubert "Country" Glenn, passes away. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also began their careers in the Negro Leagues. Do you have a blog? When the book was being put together, the Negro Leagues weren't even considered for inclusion. 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. Paige probably took a pay cut when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.". Today . Josh Gibson. 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. 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. 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.. Or write about sports? The service requires full JavaScript support in order to view this website. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. They went out and did something about it. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. **For the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign. This page was last edited on 27 January 2023, at 00:27. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 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. 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. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is marking the anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Paige, now 65 and a Kansas City resident, is by far the best known of these old stars. You know the names: Satchel Paige. 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, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, Ashwill said. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League He . 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 All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. For families of Negro League players, MLB recognition is both Do you have a sports website? Rogers was one of the few players, black or white, who hit Satchel Paige consistently well. I was wondering if there are any players left from those times, There's actually a good amount. All rights reserved. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseball's best 1-2 home-run punch. Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. Join our linker program. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. Turkey Stearnes. 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. KENDRICK: These athletes never cried about the social injustice. Many thanks to him. Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame are noted with a . Pedro Dibut). He says, faced with segregation, Black owners and players kept pushing for organized baseball. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? So they slept in the buses. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. Satchel Paige, 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. Its also why there are always new updates. 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). 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. BOB KENDRICK: They had no idea they were making history. Now a Los Angeles resident, Evans remembers playing against almost every great ballplayer, black and white, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) - Wikipedia 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. All rights reserved. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. 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. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball. 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. Find out more. 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. Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. A native of Texas, Brown is reported to have pitched as early as 1917 with the Dallas Black Giants. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The text below has been updated to reflect that. 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. After 100 Years, MLB Recognizes Negro Leagues As 'Major League' - TPR . Keys bought the Giants franchise after the 1921 season and built the newly named Stars a stadium in '22. At the onset of the digital age, enough now-aging players were still alive to share their experiences. TRIBOU: Bob Kendrick heads the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum there. Phoenix, AZ 85004 A high average hitter and an excellent first baseman, Buck played in 12 All-Star games. Born average. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). March 10, 2007 - William "Bill' Van Buren passes away. Pre-integration players. Names of those who played in integrated organized white leagues are boldfaced, and those who played in integrated major leagues are also italicized. He played for the Louisville Clippers, and later was traded with Jesse Mitchell to the Birmingham Black Barons for a used team bus. 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.