Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime

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#6- The Negro Leagues

 

In conjunction with Major League Baseball’s hopes and

travails of the 1930’s, it should be noted that this was also

when the Negro Leagues came into prominence. Still young, the

two best known stars met in 1932, both members of the Homestead

Grays team, pitcher and catcher, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.

What we sometimes refer to as the Negro Leagues was deemed

to have started in 1920 and called the Negro National League.

However, well prior to that in 1885 the Cuban Giants formed the

first black professional baseball team. Finances precluded a

long history and they were followed by other attempts similarly

destined.

Baseball statisticians are still working on compiling the

records. A few facts seem to have been verified, but far from

all. Another complication is that the Negro leagues generally

found it more profitable to schedule relatively few league games

against “pro” competition, and allow the teams to earn extra

money through barnstorming against semi-professional and other

non-league teams. From what they have been able to determine in

what seems like a half century effort, the statisticians have

come up with little record of league play, while making note of

the importance of distinguishing between records for all games

played and records in league games, which they have not. For

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example, against all levels of competition Josh Gibson hit 69

home runs in 1934; the same year in league games he hit 11 home

runs in 52 games. Unlike all others, with the possible exception

of Satchel Paige, his records have been scrutinized because of

his gigantic stature.

It might be interesting for the fan of today to be aware,

that unlike today, many areas of the country had their own quite

competent leagues, and sometimes they would host a game with

Negro League contingents, and the record compilers find an

apparent difficulty in differentiating opponents’ abilities.

This is further discussed in the next chapter titled

“Barnstorming.” Complicating any comparisons one more step some

non-league games were played against barnstorming teams from

Major League Baseball; such as the Babe Ruth All-Stars. It

doesn’t seem likely that we’ll ever be able to measure the

players with any degree of exactitude. But, in and of itself,

that is probably no more relevant than the inability to measure

the “official” professionals from one era to another; though in

the case of Negro League players, even a reasonable

approximation is severely hindered, if not precluded.

What is available and of most unsatisfactory, practical

importance is that the world now has a general idea of who the

black stars were and what they did. Negro League baseball was in

its heyday during the Depression. While there was likely no

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financial surge, things are relative; and in the thirties, the

Negro League players were better off than many Americans. On the

field Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were in their primes and

doing some wonderful things that would not be “officially”

noticed for 30 more years. Organized white baseball suffered in

the midst of the Depression, while black baseball flourished.

Successful black entertainers sponsored their own teams. Louis

Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson made

investments. Black communities all over the country took pride

in their teams and that may have helped local finances. Pioneer

Rube Foster's old dream of a separate but athletically equal

league finally came true.

Hear their words.

 

“We were worked like the mule that plows the fields all week and

then drives the carriage to church on Sunday.”

Satchel Paige, pitcher

 

I would like to note that Satch was often photographed in fine

duds with a very expensive car and that he regularly had a

private plane to take him to the next town.

 

"Back in those days we rode all night in the buses. Sometimes we

played four games in one day. Nobody ever heard of that before.

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We'd play nine forty-five in the morning, one o'clock a double

header, then go fifty, sixty miles at night and play a game. And

traveling all night in those buses. That's the thing: I traveled

in those buses 31 years, was turned over four times and you know

what? Somebody upstairs liked me 'cause I never got a scratch."

Double Duty Radcliffe, pitcher and catcher

 

"We played in a rough league. When I say a rough league... I

notice nowadays every time a youngster get a sprain; 15 days on

the disabled list; and all this. Uhh, we didn't go on the

disabled list. Unless we were broken and in a wheelchair and on

two crutches. If we get hurt, we played. We don't have no relief

pitcher. You go out there, you go for nine. That's it. You were

paid for nine and that's the way they wanted you to pitch. Nine

innings."

Riley Stewart, likely a pitcher (Due to the inadequacies of

Negro League records this is unclear.)

 

“Spitballs, shine balls, emory balls... I never knew what the

ball would do once it left the pitcher's hand.”

Roy Campanella, catcher

 

"Some pitchers used a bottle cap hidden in their gloves to scuff

up the ball to make it break more sharply. As a result, Negro

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league batters learned how to hit everything. For years major

leagues had scorned the bunt, but black players turned it into

an art.”

Roy Campanella, catcher

 

"They had a sizable following, especially among their fellow

blacks, but also some white people who used to turn out to watch

them. They were always sort of scrappy affairs. Seldom had a

grandstand or anything else. And they were not often offered the

use of the stadium, you see, so they had to play in all kinds of

sandlot situations. I really don't see how they played baseball

traveling the way they did in those ramshackle buses without any

sleep and bone-jarring trips over those bad roads."

Shelby Foote, historian

 

"It's a trade-off. I think that the Negro leagues were a

wonderful institution in American life, but they had the stigma

of reminding black people that they were separated from and not

a part of American life. That was a problem with all segregated

institutions that we had; they were important in enriching the

black community's life on one level, but they were stigmatized

in telling us that we could not be a part of everything else

that was going on. So you're talking about a very limited kind

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of life, on the whole."

Gerald Early, essayist, culture critic and college professor

 

“How to stay young: 1) Avoid fried meats, which angry up the

blood. 2) If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it

with cool thoughts. 3) Keep the juices flowing by jangling

around gently as you move. 4) Go very light on the vices, such

as carrying on in society. A social ramble ain't restful. 5)

Avoid running at all times. 6) Don't look back — something might

be gaining on you.”

Satchel Paige, pitcher

 

"Satchel Paige had a good arm. A strong arm with no muscles.

Like a slingshot."

Connie Johnson, pitcher

 

“I never got a sore arm because I had no muscles to get sore”

Satchel Paige, pitcher

 

"On the mound, Satchel Paige threw fire. He had a whole arsenal

of distinctive pitches: his Bee Ball, Jump Ball, Trouble Ball,

Long Tom, Hesitation Pitch... Number one, that's a fastball,

he'd call that his Midnight Rider. The changeup, he'd call that

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Four-Day Creeper..."

Sammie Haynes, catcher

 

“People only saw the major leaguers in the big cities. I believe

people got a chance to see me everywhere. I played all over.

Farm fields, penitentiaries. Anyplace in this whole country

where there was a baseball diamond, they know me, and see me.”

Satchel Paige, pitcher

 

"We were the attraction. In our baseball the Kansas City

Monarchs were like the New York Yankees in major league

baseball. Very tops, very tops. We had the stars, and so to make

a living we showed it to the world."

Buck O'Neil, first baseman

 

“There is a catcher that any big league club would like to buy

for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits

the ball a mile. He catches so easy he might as well be in a

rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Too bad this Gibson is a

colored fellow.”

Walter Johnson, pitcher