Legacy of the Negro Leagues in American Baseball History

Early History of Baseball and Segregation

The history of the Negro Leagues in baseball has recently received renewed interest after a half century of benign neglect. Baseball fans know that Black players competed before Jackie Robinson crossed over to the Brooklyn Dodgers and integrated what most people thought of as "major league baseball." The history of the teams that created Robinson and thousands of other talented athletes deserves far more attention.

Baseball began as a "gentleman's game." Men of means joined athletic clubs and formed teams that played one another purely for recreation. After the Civil War, interest in baseball broadened to all levels of society. It crossed ethnic and color lines, which is one reason it was eventually called "the national pastime" (Riley, 2002). The game was still amateur only, with no professional clubs, and during this period there were both all-Black and integrated teams (Riley, 2002).

However, when these clubs organized into the National Association of Baseball Players, the group voted in 1868 to exclude any integrated teams. This was the first time segregation was formally imposed on baseball, but it would not be the last (Riley, 2002).

The following year, 1869, professional teams were organized. Not bound by amateur rules, both all-Black and integrated teams again emerged (Riley, 2002). Integrated teams presumably overlooked color in order to field the best players available. Yet these were deeply troubled times for race relations, and by 1900 no Black players remained on professional teams (Riley, 2002).

Black players did not stop playing ball — not even professional ball. Some played for teams in other countries, such as the "Cuban Giants" (Riley, 2002), and in 1920 Black players organized the first professional Black baseball league (Riley, 2002).

These players were every bit as dedicated to the game as the more celebrated white players of the era. They were respected in their communities, often well educated, and they played with skill, enthusiasm, humor, and showmanship. Black baseball became a thriving financial enterprise that attracted many astute white investors, and Negro League clubs were an important anchor in the communities they called home (Emerge, 1997).

Because games were rarely covered by the mainstream press, people outside the Black community did not realize how talented many of these athletes were. Riley (2002) quotes Satchel Paige — one of the most famous Black players — as saying, "There were many Satchels, many Joshs," referring to Josh Gibson, another outstanding Black player. Today's historians believe that many of these men could have competed in mainstream major league baseball well before Jackie Robinson made that leap, had it not been for the color barrier (Conrads, 1999; Riley, 2002).

The Golden Years of the Negro Leagues

Three years after Rube Foster founded the Negro National League, the Eastern Colored League was founded by Ed Bolden (Riley, 2002). These two leagues operated for several years alongside other leagues that formed, survived briefly, and then collapsed financially. The surviving teams were consolidated into the Negro National League in 1933, and four years later the Negro American League was formed (Riley, 2002).

Kram (1994) wrote vividly about what life on the road was like for Negro League players:

"But if you were black and played baseball, well, look for your name only in the lineup before each game, or else you might not even see it there if you kept on dreamin'. Black baseball was a stone-hard gig. It was three games a day, sometimes in three different towns miles apart. It was the heat and fumes and bounces from buses that moved your stomach up to your throat and it was greasy meals at fly-papered diners at three a.m. And uniforms that were seldom off your back. 'We slept with 'em on sometimes,' says Papa, 'but there never was enough sleep. We got so we could sleep standin' up.'"

Conrads (1999) quoted the autobiography of Walter "Buck" Leonard, the famous first baseman, on the same rigors:

"Black baseball was tough. We'd play our way into shape. We didn't have time for somebody to teach us fundamentals and inside baseball like the major leaguers did in the spring. As for backup plays, relays, cutoffs, and things like that, we learned by playing. We'd play every day. Anybody, anywhere, anytime."

Compared to white players' salaries, Black players earned far less. Kram (1994) reports that Cool Papa Bell started at $90 a month and was never paid more than $450 a month. According to Conrads (1999), Josh Gibson earned $1,200 per month when he played for the Homestead Grays in the 1940s. Black major league players could support their families, but they made considerably less than prominent white players of the era such as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Though the lifestyle had its drawbacks, the players were held in high esteem in their communities and often socialized with other local celebrities, including famous jazz musicians.

Many players held regular jobs during the off-season, while others discovered that Caribbean and South American teams would hire them regardless of color. Some played in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, or South American countries during the United States' winter months.

White American players did the same, giving both Black players and today's historians further evidence that many Negro League players could have competed on any team. Other evidence is equally compelling. Conrads (1999) writes: "Over the decades, black teams played 445 recorded games against white teams, winning 61% of them. Black teams did so well against major league teams that baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, embarrassed by the losses, put a stop to the practice."

Schulian (2000) reports that Josh Gibson once hit a ball out of the Pittsburgh ballpark at least 470 feet, using the older and less effective equipment available at the time.

Black baseball had its own distinctive style. Players performed with flair and humor, and there are suggestions that they did not always follow the rulebook strictly (Kram, 1994), but it was entertainment as much as sport. Some non-professional teams used baseball to stage humorous and entertaining exhibitions reminiscent of the Harlem Globetrotters in basketball. One such team, the "Zulu Cannibal Giants," played in grass skirts and war paint; another was called the "Ethiopian Clowns," with players sporting colorful names like "Wahoo" and "Tarzan" (Conrads, 1999). League games themselves, however, were also highly entertaining.

Famous Players and Their Stories

The history of the Negro Leagues is peppered with tall tales and imaginative exaggeration. Other players bragged that Oscar Charleston "could run backwards faster than most people could run forward." John "Buck" O'Neill claimed in his autobiography that on one occasion the entire team of thirteen players traveled to the next game in a single car — eleven inside and two hanging onto the running boards (Emerge, 1997).

Satchel Paige was known for his theatrics. Standing on the pitcher's mound, he would taunt batters and give his pitches colorful names: "Big Tom," "Be Ball," "Bat Dodger," and "Midnight Creeper" (Emerge, 1997). Paige was famous for pinpoint accuracy, claiming he could throw the ball over a gum wrapper during warm-ups. Like Muhammad Ali, he would predict his own performance, announcing that he intended to strike out every batter he faced in the first three innings (Conrads, 1999). On another occasion he reportedly walked several batters intentionally so he would have the pleasure of striking out Josh Gibson. Dizzy Dean, the celebrated white pitcher renowned for his fastball, said: "My fastball looks like a change of pace alongside that little bullet old Satchel shoots up to the plate" (Conrads, 1999).

Cool Papa Bell played professional ball until he was 47 years old and was equally famous for his blazing speed. Satchel Paige quipped, "Why, he was so fast he could turn out the light and jump in bed before the room got dark!" (Kram, 1994). Bell once stole two bases on a single hit and was documented to have circled the field in 13.1 seconds on soft ground — two-fifths of a second faster than the standing record. He was also an exceptional hitter and fielder; it was said he could place the ball through gaps in the outfield fence with the same precision Paige brought to his pitching (Kram, 1994). After retiring from baseball, Bell slipped into obscurity and was found working as a janitor at City Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, not far from the city's famous baseball stadium.

Not all Negro League players had happy lives. Josh Gibson's story was a sad one. His young wife died in childbirth, and both his grief and his career seem to have separated him from the twins who were left behind and raised by relatives (Schulian, 2000). Gibson had a legendary batting arm — he reportedly once hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium, something Babe Ruth never managed. Later in life he developed mental illness, struggled with alcohol, and was hospitalized more than once. He died at his mother's home at age thirty-five, just three months before Jackie Robinson made history by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers (Schulian, 2000). His career batting average was .354, and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Kram (1994) recounts an extraordinary story Satchel Paige told about the Dominican Republic in 1937. The dictator Rafael Trujillo had grown unpopular and believed that winning the pennant in the Dominican league would ease his political difficulties. According to Paige, Trujillo's agents virtually kidnapped him from his hotel in New Orleans, then enlisted his help in recruiting other outstanding Black players, including Cool Papa Bell and Josh Gibson. Once Trujillo had assembled his team, he confined the players to their rooms under armed guard to ensure they stayed for the games. Bell recalled: "He wanted us to stay in pajamas, and all our meals were served to us in our rooms, and guards circled our living quarters.... We all knew the situation was serious, but it wasn't until later that we heard how bad it was. We found out that, as far as Trujillo was concerned, we either won or we were going to lose big. That means he was going to kill us." The story carries credibility because Bell was not someone who sought the spotlight once his playing days were over.

Bibliography

Author not available. "A Museum of Their Own: Kansas City's Home for Negro League Baseball." Emerge. June 1997.

Conrads, David. "Sacrifice Play: The Negro Baseball Leagues Remembered." The World & I. December 1999.

Kram, Mark. "No Place in the Shade: Cool Papa Bell." Sports Illustrated. June 20, 1994.

Riley, James A. "Negro Baseball Leagues" website. TK Publishers. Accessed via the Internet 3/25/02. http://www.blackbaseball.com/

Schulian, John. "Josh Gibson: Laughing on the Outside." Sports Illustrated. June 26, 2000.

Vernon, John. "A Citizen's View of Presidential Responsibility." Negro History Bulletin. December 1999.