Since 1952, it had been accepted that Johnny Britton and Jimmie Newberry were the first Black ballplayers to play pro baseball in Japan – that is until an all-star team of researchers rediscovered the mysterious Jimmy Bonna… […]
Category: Negro Leagues
Doc Sykes: Spitballs, Civil Rights, and Dentistry
Doc Sykes was one of the more interesting men to have played in the Negro Leagues. A star college athlete, Sykes was the ace of the Baltimore Black Sox when not practicing dentistry, and went on to become a Civil Rights hero. […]
Minnie Miñoso: Cuba to Cooperstown via the Negro Leagues
When the teenage Orestes Miñoso approached the manager of the Ambrosia Candy Company baseball team for a tryout, little did he know that it would be the beginning of a career that would span four countries and last seven decades. […]
Lefty Glover: Requiem for a Southpaw
This is not your typical biography, but the story of my three-decade quest to uncover and document the life and career of a little-known Negro League ballplayer who may or may not have been named Lefty Glover. […]
Johnny Wright: He was never just the “other guy”
Today, Wright’s time in Montreal is seen as a brief footnote to Jackie Robinson’s story – but I’m going to flip it the other way around and argue that those six weeks with Montreal was just a brief footnote in Johnny Wright’s story… […]
Cyclone Joe Williams: Paul Bunyan of the Diamond
While Satchel Paige is usually referenced as the finest pitcher Blackball produced, many fans and sportswriters alike who witnessed both Paige and the man known as Cyclone Joe Williams pick the latter as the best. […]
John Henry Lloyd: Wherever the money was, that’s where I was
From the start of his career in 1906, Lloyd was Blackball’s most sought after attraction and he switched teams often, stating “Wherever the money was, that’s where I was.” […]
Jud Wilson: Boojum!
Called “Boojum” because of the sound his line drives would make hitting the outfield wall, many consider Jud Wilson to be the most dangerous hitter in Black baseball history. […]
Wild Bill Wright: A Most Complete Ballplayer
Wild Bill Wright’s contemporaries called him the Negro League’s “most complete ball player.” Built like an NFL linebacker, the 6’-6” outfielder had blinding speed on the base paths, fielded with grace and was a line-drive hitting machine. […]
Cool Papa Bell: Speeding through three decades
Cool Papa Bell earned his nickname as a teenage pitcher in St. Louis where his unflappable demeanor on the mound caused his teammates to say he was “one cool papa!” […]