Misplaced Pages

#836163

103-564: During their existence, the Leopardos featured several of the biggest stars of Negro league baseball , including Oscar Charleston , Satchel Paige , and Josh Gibson . In addition, the team featured outstanding performances from Cuba's own baseball stars including Alejandro Oms and Martín Dihigo . In the fall of 1921, with a depressed economy and political instability, the Cuban League fielded only two teams, Almendares and Habana , and played

206-510: A no-win situation : They could not protect their own interests without seeming to interfere with the advancement of players to the majors. By 1948, the Dodgers, along with Veeck's Cleveland Indians , had integrated. The Negro leagues also "integrated" around the same time, as Eddie Klep pitched for the Cleveland Buckeyes during the 1946 season, becoming the first white American to play in

309-580: A slugging outfielder when he wasn't pitching. Long-time Santa Clara star, Alejandro Oms, returned to the team. The team signed American Negro leaguers Bill Perkins as catcher and Willie Wells as shortstop, and Dominican Horacio Martínez as second baseman. Dihigo produced a memorable season, leading the league in many batting and pitching categories—batting average (.358), runs scored (42), hits (63, tied with Wells), triples (8), RBI (38, tied with Perkins), pitching winning percentage (11–2, .846), complete games (13), wins (11), and shutouts (4), and also won

412-516: A 21–21 record, 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 games behind Cienfuegos . The 1930/31 regular season lasted less than a week, and only five games were played. A new stadium, La Tropical Stadium , had been built in Marianao near Havana, and the season was suspended when a dispute broke out between the league and the stadium's management. Santa Clara's record was 0–1, leaving them tied for third, 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 games behind Almendares. The league reorganized for

515-422: A 34–20 record, finished five games ahead of second-place Habana. Salazar, Brown, Gibson and García did not return to the 1939/40 Leopardos, and their period of league dominance came to an end. Their pitching staff included Roy Partlow (7–4), René Monteagudo (5–7), Hilton Smith (4–2), and Armando Torres (3–5). Castaño won the batting championship again, hitting .340, and Amaro hit .326. Sam Bankhead returned to

618-588: A Santa Clara native, Pablo Mesa of nearby Caibarién , and Julio Rojo of neighboring Sagua la Grande . From the United States, Molina recruited a number of top Negro league players— pitchers Bill Holland and Dave Brown , infielders Frank Warfield and Oliver Marcelle , and superstar outfielder Oscar Charleston . Filling out the roster were pitcher Eustaquio Pedroso, infielders Manuel Parrado , Ramón González, and Matías Ríos , and outfielder Felipe Sierra . The 1922/23 season began on November 25. By January,

721-420: A black player." In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation , with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other but white teams as well. "Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent 'semipro' clubs." Baseball featuring African American players became professionalized by the 1870s. The first known professional black baseball player was Bud Fowler , who appeared in

824-626: A handful of games with a Chelsea, Massachusetts club in April 1878 and then pitched for the Lynn, Massachusetts team in the International Association . Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker , were the first two recognizably black players in the major leagues. They both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association , which was considered

927-561: A lack of a place to play. Leland bought the Giants in 1905 and merged it with his Unions (despite the fact that not a single Giant player ended up on the roster), and named them the Leland Giants . The Philadelphia Giants , owned by Walter Schlichter , a white businessman, rose to prominence in 1903 when they lost to the Cuban X-Giants in their version of the "Colored Championship". Leading

1030-680: A major league at the time. Then in 1886 second baseman Frank Grant joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League , the strongest minor league, and hit .340, third highest in the league. Several other black American players joined the International League the following season, including pitchers George Stovey and Robert Higgins, but 1888 was the last season blacks were permitted in that or any other high minor league. The first nationally known black professional baseball team

1133-665: A shortened schedule. Abel Linares controlled the league, owning both franchises. For the 1922/23 season, he set out to expand the league to four teams by establishing new teams in Marianao , a suburb of Havana, and in Santa Clara, the capital of Las Villas Province in the center of the island. Santa Clara was the first Cuban League team to be located outside of metropolitan Havana since the Matanzas club folded in 1909. Linares assigned his long-time associate, Tinti Molina, to organize and manage

SECTION 10

#1732890547837

1236-478: A special season held at the old stadium, Almendares Park, but the Santa Clara team was replaced by one from Marianao. During the early 1930s , the Cuban economy was depressed and its political situation in turmoil. The Cuban League played shortened seasons the winters of 1931/32, 1932/33, and 1934/35 with no American players, while failing to finish the 1932/33 season and skipping the 1933/34 season altogether. In 1935/36,

1339-463: A very slim margin, with a 13–12 record that was just a half game ahead of Habana and one game ahead of Almendares. For the 1924/25 season, most of the pitching staff from the previous season returned—Holland, Brown, Ryan, and Méndez—with Currie replaced by Sam Streeter. In the infield, Warfield and Marcelle returned to second base and third base, but Manuel Parrado replaced Douglass and Johnson at first, and Charlie Williams replaced Moore at shortstop. In

1442-681: A year later. While Foster was out of the picture, the owners of the National League elected William C. Hueston as new league president. In 1927, Ed Bolden suffered a similar fate as Foster, by committing himself to a hospital because the pressure was too great. The Eastern League folded shortly after that, marking the end of the World Series between the NNL and the ECL. After the Eastern League folded following

1545-615: A young Martín Dihigo , and former or future major leaguers Armando Marsans , Manuel Cueto , José Rodríguez , and Ramón Herrera . Habana featured pitchers Adolfo Luque , coming off his 27-win season with the Cincinnati Reds , and Andy Cooper , shortstop John Henry Lloyd , and outfielders Cristóbal Torriente and Jacinto Calvo . The Marianao roster included former and future major leaguers Emilio Palmero , José Acosta , Merito Acosta , Charlie Dressen , Freddie Fitzsimmons , and Hank Schreiber . The season began on October 20, and

1648-747: The All Cubans , the Cuban Stars (West) , the Cuban Stars (East) , and the New York Cubans . Some of them included white Cuban players, and some were Negro league players. The few players on the white minor league teams were constantly dodging verbal and physical abuse from both competitors and fans. The Compromise of 1877 removed the few remaining obstacles from the South enacting Jim Crow laws , allowing legal discrimination against blacks. On July 14, 1887, Cap Anson 's Chicago White Stockings were scheduled to play

1751-567: The Big State League . Rodríguez began his professional career in the winter of 1914/15 as the first baseman of the Fe club of the Cuban League . The following winter he moved to Almendares . The team, which included Cristóbal Torriente , Adolfo Luque , José Méndez , Ramón Herrera , and Rafael Almeida , won the championship, with Rodríguez hitting .286. He again played for a championship team,

1854-629: The Chicago American Giants to appeal to a larger fan base. During the same year, J. L. Wilkinson started the All Nations traveling team. The All Nations team would eventually become one of the best-known and popular teams of the Negro leagues, the Kansas City Monarchs . On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I. Manpower needed by the defense plants and industry accelerated

1957-709: The Middle States League was formed and it admitted two all-black teams to its otherwise all-white league, the Cuban Giants and their arch-rivals, the New York Gorhams . Despite the animosity between the two clubs, they managed to form a traveling team, the Colored All Americans. This enabled them to make money barnstorming while fulfilling their league obligations. In 1890, the Giants returned to their independent, barnstorming identity, and by 1892, they were

2060-692: The Most Valuable Player Award . Wells hit .356 and, in addition to tying for the lead in hits, tied for the league lead in home runs with five. Perkins hit .323., Oms hit .311, third baseman Rafael Ruíz hit .301, and the team batting average was .294. The Leopardos easily won the championship with a 34–14 record, six games ahead of second-place Almendares. The next season, Dihigo switched to the Marianao team. Rojo replaced him as manager, and Santa Clara brought in Negro league pitcher Ray Brown and second baseman Harry Williams, as Martínez moved to shortstop and Perkins returned as catcher. Oms did not play;

2163-644: The Quinn-Ives Act banning discrimination in hiring. At the same time, NYC Mayor La Guardia formed the Mayor's Commission on Baseball to study integration of the major leagues. All this led to Rickey announcing the signing of Robinson much earlier than he would have liked. On October 23, 1945, Montreal Royals president Hector Racine announced that, "We are signing this boy." Early in 1946, Rickey signed four more black players, Campanella, Newcombe, John Wright and Roy Partlow , this time with much less fanfare. After

SECTION 20

#1732890547837

2266-573: The seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues". In the late 19th century, the baseball color line developed, excluding African Americans from play in Major League Baseball and its affiliated minor leagues (collectively known as organized baseball ). The first professional baseball league consisting of all-black teams, the National Colored Base Ball League ,

2369-649: The 1920s or 1930s, the term " Negro " came into use which led to references to "Negro" leagues or teams. The black World Series was referred to as the Colored World Series from 1924 to 1927, and the Negro World Series from 1942 to 1948. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People petitioned the public to recognize a capital "N" in negro as a matter of respect for black people. By 1930, essentially every major US outlet had adopted "Negro" as

2472-626: The 1922 season, and two more after the 1923 season. Foster replaced the defunct teams, sometimes promoting whole teams from the Negro Southern League into the NNL. Finally Foster and Bolden met and agreed to an annual World Series beginning in 1924 . Although this was a strong beginning to the Negro Leagues , throughout the 1920's the leagues were very unorganized, having teams play uneven numbers of games. Teams would skip official games for non-league matchups which would be more lucrative for

2575-602: The 1927 season, a new eastern league, the American Negro League , was formed to replace it. The makeup of the new ANL was nearly the same as the Eastern League, the exception being that the Homestead Grays joined in place of the now-defunct Brooklyn Royal Giants. The ANL lasted just one season. In the face of harder economic times, the Negro National League folded after the 1931 season. Some of its teams joined

2678-641: The Detroit Wolves were about to collapse, and instead of letting the team go, Posey kept pumping money into it. By June the Wolves had disintegrated and all the rest of the teams, except for the Grays, were beyond help, so Posey had to terminate the league. Across town from Posey, Gus Greenlee , a reputed gangster and numbers runner , had just purchased the Pittsburgh Crawfords . Greenlee's main interest in baseball

2781-482: The Eastern Colored League as an alternative to Foster's Negro National League, which started with six teams: Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox , Brooklyn Royal Giants, New York Cuban Stars, Hilldale, and New York Lincoln Giants . The National League was having trouble maintaining continuity among its franchises: three teams folded and had to be replaced after the 1921 season, two others after

2884-665: The Genuine Cuban Giants, the renamed Cuban Giants, the Columbia Giants , the Brooklyn Royal Giants , and so on. The early "Cuban" teams were all composed of African Americans rather than Cubans; the purpose was to increase their acceptance with white patrons, as Cuba was on very friendly terms with the United States during those years. Beginning in 1899 several Cuban baseball teams played in North America, including

2987-523: The Giants' home games for almost a month and threatened to become a huge embarrassment for the league. On March 2, 1920, the Negro Southern League was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1921, the Negro Southern League joined Foster's National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs . As a dues-paying member of the association, it received the same protection from raiding parties as any team in

3090-634: The Gorhams, Bud Fowler caught on with a team out of Findlay, Ohio . While his team was playing in Adrian, Michigan , Fowler was persuaded by two white local businessmen, L. W. Hoch and Rolla Taylor to help them start a team financed by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company, the Page Fence Giants . The Page Fence Giants went on to become a powerhouse team that had no home field. Barnstorming through

3193-608: The Jamaica Monitor Club, Albany Bachelors , Philadelphia Excelsiors and Chicago Uniques started playing each other and any other team that would play against them. By the end of the 1860s, the black baseball mecca was Philadelphia , which had an African-American population of 22,000. Two former cricket players, James H. Francis and Francis Wood, formed the Pythian Base Ball Club . They played in Camden, New Jersey , at

Leopardos de Santa Clara - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-563: The Leland Giants' name. Leland took the players and started a new team named the Chicago Giants, while Foster took the Leland Giants and started to encroach on Nat Strong's territory. As early as 1910, Foster started talking about reviving the concept of an all-black league. The one thing he was insistent upon was that black teams should be owned by black men. This put him in direct competition with Strong. After 1910, Foster renamed his team

3399-479: The Leland Giants, he demanded that he be put in charge of not only the on-field activities but the bookings as well. Foster immediately turned the Giants into the team to beat. He indoctrinated them to take the extra base, to play hit and run on nearly every pitch, and to rattle the opposing pitcher by taking them deep into the count. He studied the mechanics of his pitchers and could spot the smallest flaw, turning his average pitchers into learned craftsmen. Foster also

3502-521: The Leopardos scoreless through eight innings before giving up a three-run homer to Perkins in the ninth. Brown's extraordinary season was for naught, as Marianao won the championship. Santa Clara's final record was 37–32, with Brown accounting for more than half of their wins. In 1937/38, Emilio de Armas brought in Lázaro Salazar as the new player/manager; Salazar played first base and also pitched. Brown, Perkins, Castaño, and Amaro were brought back to

3605-487: The Leopardos were in the lead of a tight race, with only 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 separating them from the fourth-place team. Then, with the season half over, a dispute took place when the league refused to count Sunday games, taking away one of Santa Clara's wins. Santa Clara withdrew from the league in protest and forfeited their remaining games. Their record stood at 14–13, but dropped to 14–40 after deducting 27 losses by forfeit. Charleston hit .446, but had too few at bats for

3708-427: The Leopardos won their first five games. They kept on winning; by December 14, they were 21–7, and at the end of the year, they were 29–10. By January 16, they had won their last six games and were 36–11 (a .766 winning percentage) and 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 games ahead of second place Habana. They were winning by big scores, scoring 10 or more runs in 10 games and 15 or more runs three times. With attendance dropping as

3811-442: The Leopardos, and Oms returned to the team after a year's absence. The team also added pitcher Bob Griffith and shortstop Sam Bankhead from the Negro leagues. Santa Clara won the pennant, going 44–18 (though nine of the victories represented games forfeited by Habana, which withdrew early). They led second place Almendares by 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 games. Brown went 12–5, leading the league in winning percentage, and Griffith went 12–6;

3914-578: The Midwest, they would play all comers. Their success became the prototype for black baseball for years to come. After the 1898 season, the Page Fence Giants were forced to fold because of finances. Alvin H. Garrett , a black businessman in Chicago, and John W. Patterson , the left fielder for the Page Fence Giants, reformed the team under the name the Columbia Giants . In 1901, the Giants folded because of

4017-578: The Negro National League. Foster then admitted John Connors' Atlantic City Bacharach Giants as an associate member to move further into Nat Strong 's territory. Connors, wanting to return the favor of helping him against Strong, raided Ed Bolden 's Hilldale Daisies team. Bolden saw little choice but to team up with Foster's nemesis, Nat Strong. Within days of calling a truce with Strong, Bolden made an about-face and signed up as an associate member of Foster's Negro National League. On December 16, 1922, Bolden once again shifted sides and, with Strong, formed

4120-468: The Negro leagues. These moves came despite strong opposition from the owners; Rickey was the only one of the 16 owners to support integrating the sport in January 1947. Chandler's decision to overrule them may have been a factor in his ouster in 1951 in favor of Ford C. Frick . Some proposals were floated to bring the Negro leagues into "organized baseball" as developmental leagues for black players, but that

4223-497: The Newark Giants of the International League, which had Fleet Walker and George Stovey on its roster. After Anson marched his team onto the field in military style as was his custom, he declared that his team would not play unless Walker and Stovey were barred from the field. Newark capitulated, and later that same day, league owners voted to refuse future contracts to blacks, citing the "hazards" imposed by such athletes. In 1888,

Leopardos de Santa Clara - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-591: The Orientals, in the winter of 1917, but hit only .194. The league didn't play in the winter of 1917/18, but in 1918/19 he again played for Almendares and hit .312. In 1919/20 he moved to Habana , where he played shortstop and hit .278. In 1920/21, still with Habana, he played third base and was part of another championship, hitting .226. The next winter, the Cuban League season terminated after only five games; Rodríguez had returned to first base and hit .368. The following winter, 1922/23, his role shifted as he became

4429-710: The Rochester team was sold after the 1920 season, the new owners, George Stallings and Walter Hapgood, sold most their players; Rodríguez was sold to the Bridgeport Americans of the Eastern League. He played in the Eastern League from 1921 to 1930, playing for Bridgeport, the Worcester Panthers , the Providence Rubes , and the Pittsfield Hillies . He hit as high as .316, and his overall minor league average

4532-513: The United States with a Cuban team, the Habana Reds , in 1915 and was recruited by the New York Giants. He joined the Giants in spring training in 1916. News reports from spring training suggested that Rodriguez "may develop into a high class player like Palmero, the young Cuban pitcher," and that manager John McGraw expected him "to develop into a star first baseman." After spring training he

4635-424: The accepted term for black people. By about 1970, the term "Negro" had fallen into disfavor, but by then the Negro leagues were mere historic artifacts. Because black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism which established the color line , they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s. The first known baseball game between two black teams

4738-480: The batting title. Oms also had an outstanding performance, hitting .436. For 1923/24, the Leopardos loaded up with American Negro league talent. Linares and Molina brought back pitchers Holland, Brown, and Pedroso and added Americans Rube Currie and Merven Ryan, as well as Cuban legend José Méndez , and Pedro Dibut , who had just been signed by the Cincinnati Reds . In the infield, first basemen Oscar Johnson and Eddie Douglass and shortstop Dobie Moore joined

4841-410: The champion Habana. It was the last season in the Cuban League for Santa Clara. The following season, the league contracted to three teams. Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans . The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for

4944-491: The championship fell out of reach for the other teams, the league officials stopped the season early and declared Santa Clara the champions. They would reorganize the teams and hold a second, special season called Gran Premio to try to renew fan interest. Santa Clara players led the league in several statistical categories: Marcelle led in batting average , hitting .393; Charleston led in runs scored with 59 and in stolen bases with 31; Moore led in hits with 71 and tied for

5047-535: The color line. His list was eventually narrowed down to three: Roy Campanella , Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson . On August 28, 1945, Jackie Robinson met with Rickey in Brooklyn, where Rickey gave Robinson a "test" by berating him and shouting racial epithets that Robinson would hear from day one in the white game. Having passed the test, Robinson signed the contract which stipulated that from then on, Robinson had no "written or moral obligations" to any other club. By

5150-571: The end of Negro National League. Just as Negro league baseball seemed to be at its lowest point and was about to fade into history, along came Cumberland Posey and his Homestead Grays. Posey, Charlie Walker, John Roesnik, George Rossiter, John Drew, Lloyd Thompson, and L.R. Williams got together in January 1932 and founded the East–West League . Eight cities were included in the new league: "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and Washington, D.C.". By May 1932,

5253-557: The highest career batting average at .372. During the formative years of black baseball, the term " colored " was the established usage when referring to African-Americans. References to black baseball prior to the 1930s are usually to "colored" leagues or teams, such as the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (1886), the National Colored Base Ball League (1887) and the Eastern Colored League (1923), among others. By

SECTION 50

#1732890547837

5356-610: The idea to duplicate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game , except, unlike the big league method in which the sportswriters chose the players, the fans voted for the participants. The first game, known as the East–West All-Star Game , was held September 10, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago before a crowd of 20,000. With the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States

5459-542: The inclusion of this clause, precedent was set that would raze the Negro leagues as a functional commercial enterprise. To throw off the press and keep his intentions hidden, Rickey got heavily involved in Gus Greenlee 's newest foray into black baseball, the United States League . Greenlee started the league in 1945 as a way to get back at the owners of the Negro National League teams for throwing him out. Rickey saw

5562-465: The integration of the major leagues in 1947, marked by the appearance of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers that April, interest in Negro league baseball waned. Black players who were regarded as prospects were signed by major league teams, often without regard for any contracts that might have been signed with Negro league clubs. Negro league owners who complained about this practice were in

5665-688: The landing of the Federal Street Ferry, because it was difficult to get permits for black baseball games in the city. Octavius Catto , the promoter of the Pythians, decided to apply for membership in the National Association of Base Ball Players , normally a matter of sending delegates to the annual convention; beyond that, a formality. At the end of the 1867 season, "the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with

5768-451: The lead in triples with his teammate, Warfield, with six. Moore hit .386, Oms .381, Charleston .375; all of the team's regulars hit above .300 except for Warfield, who hit .296. The team batting average was .331, a Cuban League record. In pitching, Holland led the league in wins with 10, and in winning percentage with .833 (10–2). The other regular pitchers were not far behind—Currie had an 8–2 record, Brown 7–3, Ryan 5–0, and Méndez 3–1. For

5871-443: The league in complete games with 16, Manuel (Cocaína) García went 11–4, and Salazar went 6–2 while also playing first base and hitting .293. Castaño led the league in batting average, hitting .371, and his fellow outfielders Amaro and Vargas hit .366 and .333. Meanwhile, Dihigo, now pitching for Habana, led the league in wins and winning percentage with a 14–2 (.875) record, but his fellow pitchers were less effective. Santa Clara, with

5974-478: The league lead with Wells and Roberto Estalella , who both played for Almendares. Salazar hit .318, went 3–0 as a pitcher, and received the MVP Award. Amaro hit .326, and Oms hit .315—his eleventh season hitting .300 or better, tying him for the Cuban League all-time record. Santa Clara won the pennant again in 1938/39. Catcher Josh Gibson joined the team and shattered Suttles' Cuban League home-run record, hitting 11 homers in 163 at bats. Brown went 11–7 and led

6077-461: The league, took a five percent cut of all gate receipts. On May 2, 1920, the Indianapolis ABCs beat Charles "Joe" Green's Chicago Giants (4–2) in the first game played in the inaugural season of the Negro National League, played at Washington Park in Indianapolis. However, because of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 , the National Guard still occupied the Giants' home field, Schorling's Park (formerly South Side Park). This forced Foster to cancel all

6180-402: The league. The reserve clause would have tied the players to their clubs from season to season but the NCBBL failed. One month into the season, the Resolutes folded. A week later, only three teams were left. Because the original Cuban Giants were a popular and business success, many similarly named teams came into existence—including the Cuban X-Giants , a splinter and a powerhouse around 1900;

6283-437: The migration of blacks from the South to the North. This meant a larger and more affluent fan base with more money to spend. By the end of the war in 1919, Foster was again ready to start a Negro baseball league. On February 13 and 14, 1920, talks were held in Kansas City, Missouri , that established the Negro National League and its governing body the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs . The league

SECTION 60

#1732890547837

6386-627: The moribund Philadelphia Phillies and stock them with Negro league stars. However, when Landis got wind of his plans, he and National League president Ford Frick scuttled it in favor of another bid by William D. Cox . After Landis's death in 1944, Happy Chandler was named his successor. Chandler was open to integrating the game, even at the risk of losing his job as Commissioner. He later said in his biography that he could not, in good conscience, tell black players they could not play baseball with whites when they had fought for their country [although they had fought in segregated units]. In March 1945,

6489-401: The new league was the same as the old league Negro National League which had disbanded a year earlier in 1932. The members of the new league were the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Columbus Blue Birds , the Indianapolis ABCs, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cole's American Giants (formerly the Chicago American Giants ), and the Nashville Elite Giants. Greenlee also came up with

6592-423: The only Negro league then left, the Negro Southern League. Only strong independent clubs were able to survive the hard economic turn that affected the country, such as the Kansas City Monarchs . During this time, strong clubs would build teams that had potential to beat the teams in the major leagues with new players and tactics that many have never seen before. On March 26, 1932, the Chicago Defender announced

6695-410: The only black team in the East still in operation on a full-time basis. Also in 1888, Frank Leland got some of Chicago's black businessmen to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club . Through Chicago's city government, Leland obtained a permit and lease to play at the South Side Park , a 5,000-seat facility. Eventually, his team went pro and became the Chicago Unions . After his stint with

6798-411: The opportunity as a way to convince people that he was interested in cleaning up blackball, not integrating it. In midsummer 1945, Rickey, almost ready with his Robinson plan, pulled out of the league. The league folded after the end of the 1946 season. Pressured by civil rights groups, the Fair Employment Practices Act was passed by the New York State Legislature in 1945. This followed the passing of

6901-406: The outfield featured Santos Amaro , José Vargas, and Tony Castaño , with Brown often playing in the outfield when he wasn't pitching. Brown had a dominating season, setting the Cuban League all-time record for wins with 21, while leading the league in winning percentage (21–4, .840) and complete games (23), and also hit .311. On November 17 he pitched a no-hitter against Habana for his first win of

7004-454: The outfield, Oms was back, but Charleston moved to Almendares and Mesa didn't play; their places were taken by Montalvo and Jelly Gardner , with Turkey Stearnes appearing for part of the season. By January, Almendares—which, in addition to Charleston, featured Bullet Rogan , Luque, Biz Mackey , Lloyd, and Lundy—had taken an 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 game lead. Attendance in Santa Clara was flagging. The league cut its losses and on January 11 moved

7107-401: The owner of the league's Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise. The WCBA disbanded after only two months. Judge Kenesaw M. Landis , the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball , was an intractable opponent of integrating the white majors. During his quarter-century tenure, he blocked all attempts at integrating the game. A popular story has it that in 1943 , Bill Veeck planned to buy

7210-434: The pitcher-catcher battery was made up of the two most marketable icons in all of black baseball: Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson . In 1933, Greenlee, riding the popularity of his Crawfords, became the next man to start a Negro league. In February 1933, Greenlee and delegates from six other teams met at Greenlee's Crawford Grill to ratify the constitution of the National Organization of Professional Baseball Clubs . The name of

7313-514: The playing manager of Almendares. In his third season as manager, 1924/25, he won the league championship with a team powered by Negro league stars, including five future members of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame — Bullet Rogan , Andy Cooper , John Henry ("Pop") Lloyd , Biz Mackey , and Oscar Charleston —as well as Dick Lundy , Newt Allen , and Valentín Dreke, and major leaguers Adolfo Luque and José Acosta . He won his next championship as manager for Almendares in 1931/32, his last season as

7416-551: The quality of the Negro leagues slowly deteriorated; the Negro American League 's 1951 season is generally considered the last Negro league season, although the last professional club, the Indianapolis Clowns , operated as a humorous sideshow rather than competitively from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that based on recent decades of historical research, it classified

7519-403: The returning second baseman , Warfield, and third baseman , Marcelle. The regular outfielders, Charleston, Oms, and Mesa, were the same as in the previous season, and Esteban Montalvo was the backup outfielder. The other teams in the league appeared to be competitive. Almendares featured Nip Winters on the mound, Dick Lundy at shortstop, Bernardo Baró and Valentín Dreke in the outfield,

7622-588: The same time, Nat Strong , a white businessman, started using his ownership of baseball fields in the New York City area to become the leading promoter of blackball on the East coast. Just about any game played in New York, Strong would get a cut. Strong eventually used his leverage to almost put the Brooklyn Royal Giants out of business, and then he bought the club and turned it into a barnstorming team. When Foster joined

7725-531: The season but never played a game, the Cincinnati Browns and Washington Capital Citys . The league, led by Walter S. Brown of Pittsburgh , applied for and was granted official minor league status and thus "protection" under the major league-led National Agreement . This move prevented any team in organized baseball from signing any of the NCBBL players, which also locked the players to their particular teams within

7828-466: The season. On December 16, again facing Habana, he pitched complete games in both ends of a doubleheader , losing the first game 1–0 against Luis Tiant, Sr., in 11 innings, then shutting out Habana in the second game on five hits. With three games left to play, Santa Clara had a three-game lead over Marianao, whom they faced in the final series at home in La Boulanger Park. The visiting Tigres swept

7931-423: The series and forced a playoff, with Dihigo pitching for Marianao on consecutive days and winning both games. The three-game playoff took place at La Tropical Stadium. Brown faced Dihigo in the first game and the Leopardos prevailed, 6–1. Marianao won the second game 4–2 behind the pitching of Silvio García . Brown and Dihigo squared off again in the finale on two days rest. The Tigres scored 7 runs, while Dihigo held

8034-466: The seven "major Negro leagues" as additional major leagues, adding them to the six historical "major league" designations it made in 1969, thus recognizing statistics and approximately 3,400 players who played from 1920 to 1948. On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records, which among other changes gives Josh Gibson the highest single-season major league batting average at .466 (1943) and

8137-423: The situation had finally improved enough to allow the teams to hire American players again. The league also expanded from three teams to four, restoring the Leopardos de Santa Clara under new owner Emilio de Armas. In 1935/36, Martín Dihigo returned to the Cuban League after several years playing elsewhere, and Emilio de Armas signed him to serve not only the Leopardos' manager, but also as their pitching ace, and as

8240-453: The special season, the league dropped the Marianao club and reassigned its better players to Habana and Almendares, while Santa Clara retained its players. All games took place in Havana at Almendares Park. The special season ran from January 19 through March 6, with each team playing 25 or 26 games. The reconfigured teams were more competitive and closely fought. Santa Clara won the championship by

8343-515: The team and hit .321, leading the league in runs (41) and hits (67). The pennant race was a close one—Almendares won, leading Cienfuegos by two games and Santa Clara, which went 24–27, by four games. In 1940/41, Manuel García rejoined the pitching staff, while Americans Partlow, Smith, and Bankhead left. Torres went 8–7, Monteagudo went 6–4, and García went 4–5. Silvio García took over at second base and hit .314, but Castaño hit only .206. The Leopardos went 25–26, tied for second place, seven games behind

8446-399: The team to Matanzas for the remainder of the season. The Santa Clara/Matanzas team finished in third place with a 20–28 record, 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 game out. Oms led the league in batting average, hitting .393, and Montalvo led in home runs with 5. After four seasons of absence, the league restored the Santa Clara franchise in the 1929/30 season. Tinti Molina returned as manager, Warfield

8549-406: The team. As manager of the Cuban Stars (West) , he had contacts he could use to recruit top Negro league players from the United States. The team would play at La Boulanger Park, a small stadium with a capacity of fewer than 3,000 people. In an effort to draw from a regional fan base, they scheduled all of the team's home games on weekends. The team recruited several local players— Alejandro Oms ,

8652-566: The team. Players would jump from franchise to franchise, looking for the highest pay, causing imbalance within the leagues. 1925 saw the St. Louis Stars come of age in the Negro National League. They finished in second place during the second half of the year due in large part to their pitcher turned center fielder, Cool Papa Bell , and their shortstop, Willie Wells . A gas leak in his home nearly asphyxiated Rube Foster in 1926, and his increasingly erratic behavior led to him being committed to an asylum

8755-441: The two pitchers tied for the league lead in wins. Although Dihigo won 11 games, his Marianao team ended in third place, 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 games out. Brown led the league in complete games with 14, and Griffith led in shutouts, with five. Bankhead led the league in batting average (.366), runs scored (47), hits (89), and RBIs (34), and tied with teammate/manager Salazar for the lead in triples (5). With four home runs, Brown tied for

8858-481: The way for the Cubans was a young pitcher by the name of Andrew "Rube" Foster . The following season, Schlichter, in the finest blackball tradition, hired Foster away from the Cubans and beat them in their 1904 rematch. Philadelphia remained on top of the blackball world until Foster left the team in 1907 to play and manage the Leland Giants (Frank Leland renamed his Chicago Union Giants the Leland Giants in 1905). Around

8961-490: The white majors created the Major League Committee on Baseball Integration . Its members included Joseph P. Rainey , Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey . Because MacPhail, who was an outspoken critic of integration, kept stalling, the committee never met. Under the guise of starting an all-black league, Rickey sent scouts all around the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico , looking for the perfect candidate to break

9064-564: The white majors were barely recognizable, while the Negro leagues reached their highest plateau. Millions of black Americans were working in war industries and, making good money, they packed league games in every city. Business was so good that promoter Abe Saperstein (famous for the Harlem Globetrotters ) started a new circuit, the Negro Midwest League , a minor league similar to the Negro Southern League. The Negro World Series

9167-777: Was .284. He played for the Canton Terriers of the Central League and the Binghamton Triplets of the New York–Pennsylvania League in 1930 and 1931, before returning to the Eastern League where he ended his U.S. career with the Allentown Buffaloes and Norfolk Tars in 1931 and 1932. Rodríguez returned to minor league baseball for one season in 1948 as the manager of the Sherman-Denison Twins in

9270-560: Was a Cuban infielder who played in Major League Baseball from 1916 to 1918 and in the Cuban League from 1914 to 1939. In the majors, he played for the New York Giants and was primarily a second baseman , while in the Cuban League and the U.S. minor leagues he mostly played first base . A defensive specialist, according to Roberto González Echevarría , Rodríguez "was considered the best defensive first baseman in Cuba" of his time. He

9373-405: Was able to turn around the business end of the team as well, by demanding and getting 40 percent of the gate instead of the 10 percent that Frank Leland was getting. By the end of the 1909, Foster demanded that Leland step back from all baseball operations or he (Foster) would leave. When Leland would not give up complete control, Foster quit, and in a heated court battle, got to keep the rights to

9476-529: Was also a long-time manager in the Cuban League and managed for one season in the minors. He was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951. Rodríguez was born in Havana in 1894. His younger brother Oscar also became a baseball player and manager in the Cuban League and the minor leagues and joined José as a member of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1960. José Rodríguez toured

9579-615: Was assigned to the New London Planters in the Eastern League , where he hit .263. Rodríguez debuted with the Giants on October 5, 1916, when he appeared as a pinch runner. In 1917 he was assigned to the Rochester Hustlers in the International League , where he hit .252. When he was again called up by the Giants, he played in seven major league games and hit .200 in 20 at bats . After spring training in 1918, Rodríguez

9682-420: Was back at second base, and Oms also returned to his hometown. The pitching staff featured the 23-year-old Satchel Paige and Ramón Bragaña , and slugger Mule Suttles took over first base. Paige went 6–5 before leaving the team early under mysterious circumstances, Oms won the batting title again, hitting .380, and Suttles hit seven home runs, setting a Cuban League record. The team finished in second place with

9785-778: Was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants . The success of the Cubans led to the creation of the first recognized "Negro league" in 1887—the National Colored Base Ball League . It was organized strictly as a minor league and founded with six teams: Baltimore Lord Baltimores , Boston Resolutes , Louisville Fall City , New York Gorhams , Philadelphia Pythians , and Pittsburgh Keystones . Two more joined before

9888-600: Was held on November 15, 1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens , defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn , 54 to 43. Immediately after the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and during the Reconstruction period that followed, a black baseball scene formed in the East and Mid-Atlantic states. Comprising mainly ex-soldiers and promoted by some well-known black officers, teams such as

9991-453: Was initially composed of eight teams: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants , Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos , Detroit Stars , Indianapolis ABCs , Kansas City Monarchs, and St. Louis Giants . Foster was named league president and controlled every aspect of the league, including which players played on which teams, when and where teams played, and what equipment was used (all of which had to be purchased from Foster). Foster, as booking agent of

10094-410: Was organized strictly as a minor league but failed in 1887 after only two weeks owing to low attendance. After several decades of mostly independent play by a variety of teams, the first Negro National League was formed in 1920 by Rube Foster . Ultimately, seven Negro major leagues existed at various times over the next thirty years. After integration of organized baseball began in the late 1940s,

10197-714: Was recognized as contrary to the goal of full integration. And so, the Negro leagues, once among the largest and most prosperous black-owned business ventures, were allowed to fade into oblivion. First a trickle and then a flood of players signed with Major League Baseball teams. Most signed minor league contracts and many languished, shuttled from one bush league team to another despite their success at that level. Jos%C3%A9 Rodr%C3%ADguez (infielder, born 1894) José Rodríguez (February 23, 1894 – January 21, 1953), nicknamed "Joseíto" or "El Hombre Goma" in Spanish and "Joe" in English,

10300-514: Was retained by the Giants as their utility infielder. He hit poorly, and after Larry Doyle , the regular second baseman, had surgery in May, the Giants acquired other infielders such as Bert Niehoff and Ed Sicking. Rodríguez ended the season with a .160 batting average in 40 games. After the season, he was traded to Rochester, ending his major league career. Rodríguez played the next two seasons as Rochester's first baseman, hitting .264 and .320. When

10403-525: Was revived in 1942, this time pitting the winners of the eastern Negro National League and midwestern Negro American League . It continued through 1948 with the NNL winning four championships and the NAL three. In 1946, Saperstein partnered with Jesse Owens to form another Negro league, the West Coast Baseball Association (WCBA); Saperstein was league president and Owens was vice-president and

10506-633: Was thrust into World War II. Remembering World War I, black America vowed it would not be shut out of the beneficial effects of a major war effort: economic boom and social unification. Just like the major leagues, the Negro leagues saw many stars miss one or more seasons while fighting overseas. While many players were over 30 and considered "too old" for service, Monte Irvin , Larry Doby and Leon Day of Newark ; Ford Smith , Hank Thompson , Joe Greene , Willard Brown and Buck O'Neil of Kansas City ; Lyman Bostock of Birmingham ; and Lick Carlisle and Howard Easterling of Homestead all served. But

10609-469: Was to use it as a way to launder money from his numbers games. But, after learning about Posey's money-making machine in Homestead , he became obsessed with the sport and his Crawfords. On August 6, 1931, Satchel Paige made his first appearance as a Crawford. With Paige on his team, Greenlee took a huge risk by investing $ 100,000 in a new ballpark to be called Greenlee Field . On opening day, April 30, 1932,

#836163