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555 N. Central Ave. #416 Remembered as one of the few hurlers Josh Gibson had trouble hitting against, Lee writes that Martin Dihigo was the greatest player he ever saw. They played during the decline of the Negro leagues, after the beginning of integration. In Cleveland, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League. They also decided not to count the interleague games which were an important part of Negro League seasons, especially in the 1940s. (Though many seasons featured approximately 50 league games, "Negro League teams played 150-175 games a year overall -- the rest of the schedule being filled up with games against white semi-pro teams, lower-level Minor Leaguers, minor Black teams, and other teams whose games we haven't counted yet," Ashwill explained.). Of course, Josh Gibson and some of the other big names have passed on, but a lot of the legendary stars are still alive and well and living in well, why dont we call the roll of some of the more familiar names, men like . A native of Texas, Brown is reported to have pitched as early as 1917 with the Dallas Black Giants. They didn't care about making history. There's also Charley Pride (3/18/1935), famous country singer and one of the only black people to perform on Grand Ole Opry. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Josh Gibson, But you've got to establish a basic record first.. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. 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. TRIBOU: The last league folded in the early 1960s. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. In 2020, MLB recognized the Nego Leagues as major leagues. 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.. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. He played for the Louisville Clippers, and later was traded with Jesse Mitchell to the Birmingham Black Barons for a used team bus. Baseball needs to retroactivelypay the newly recognized Negro League players and their surviving families. December 15, 2006 - Medal of freedom awarded to Buck O'Neil. A select few were All-Stars and one (Aaron) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. James Bell: Cool Papa Bell was probably the fastest ball player ever to don spikes. 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. 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. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. There was Oscar Charleston who hit .400 multiple times. "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. pic.twitter.com/qiMXrVD4RB. 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. Lester said the average monthly salary of a Black player in the early 1920s was $175 a month. Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. 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. TRIBOU: And they did. Suttles home run record isnt the only record theyve discovered. The text below has been updated to reflect that. If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. A charity baseball game that paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and their significance to the sport was held at Sacramento State's John Smith Field on Oct. 9. Today . Do you have a blog? Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. While there are roughly 130 players alive from the Negro Leagues, according to baseball historian Larry Lester, only those four players are alive from that 1920-1948 window. Among the most captivating features of Stars Park was the trolley car building that served as the left-field barrier. Negro League Baseball historical stats. RHP Satchel Paige: The most famous Negro Leagues player, the age-defying Paige stayed young long enough to pitch in the majors -- including the World Series -- as a 42-year-old rookie in 1948. A lifetime .312 hitter, Ray remembers 1950 as a banner year when he was selected as MVP in the Triple-A American Association, while playing with the Minneapolis Millers. One of two players in history to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP in his career (Verlander being the other). Satchel Paige, He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. I grew up with the distinct impression that no statistics could ever be compiled, that it was often unclear what happened at all, and that it was more or less impossible to find out anything for sure about many of the players., Our friends at Seamheads have added new 1926 statistics to their #SABR award-winning Negro Leagues Database, including a record-setting season by Mule Suttles: https://t.co/sCWIvkVMuB @scott_simkus @KJOKBASEBALL @DanHirsch pic.twitter.com/WlQhzB8q4u. 1920 Chicago American Giants, Major League Baseball has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. Phone: 602.496.1460 He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. FORBES: And I just wonder if I'm worthy of representing, speaking about the Negro League because when I got involved, things was easier for me than it was for the one before me. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. 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). The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum estimates there are about 100 former players still alive. That mission continues today.\n\nAnd I really do mean today. Pedro Dibut). They are symbols for what should happen next. I remember reading about a living umpire from those times when he was interviewed, say, 3-5 years ago? Although Brown was never formally charged, there was not much question that the police suspected him. Nat Rogers: Now 78 years old and a waiter at Memphis Peabody Hotel, Nat writes that he played for 45 consecutive seasons in organized baseball, compiling a batting average of over .340. Find out more. Born average. The museum has pushed back its year-long celebration of the centennial to next year and renamed it Negro Leagues 101. 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. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Many thanks to him. The World Series winners that same year earned $5,959.64 and the losers $3,820.29. 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. At the onset of the digital age, enough now-aging players were still alive to share their experiences. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Bell, who regularly went from 1st base to 3rd on sacrifice bunts, enjoyed his peak years with the St. Louis Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords in the early 1930s. A speedy switch-hitter, Newt writes that Martin Dihigo and Dave Brown were the two greatest pitchers he ever faced. Of these, nine have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and two of them (Greason and Mays) are still alive. Many thanks to him. 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. , Season Summaries, Ballparks, Owners, Player Bios, 1946 Negro World Series, Contribute, He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. You know the names: Satchel Paige. The 57 Texas native was certainly one of the smartest players of his day. That means numbers are always changing here and there. March 10, 2007 - William "Bill' Van Buren passes away. But before Paige there was baseball's serial pay disparity. Copyright 2020 NPR. Willie Foster: Called by many the greatest left-handed pitcher in the black leagues, Willie won 4 World Series games in his long career, and may be the only pitcher, black or white, to have pitched a complete 9-inning All-Star game. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. Rookies earned $75 and the stars $375. The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a man who became bigger than the game. And now I look back and I say, oh, my God. 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. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Josh Gibson. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. Use Mays, Greason, Golden and Teasley as the faces of a compensation plan, like lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit, and account for what was a wide disparity in pay between Black and white players during those 28 years. Today, stars like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 2006 Negro League Baseball News December 17, 2006 - Willard Brown inducted to LA. Ernie Banks and Monte Irvin died a couple years ago. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. 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. A select few were All-Stars and one (Aaron) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. By the 1950s, enough black talent had integrated into the formerly "white" leagues (both major and minor) that the Negro leagues themselves had become a minor league circuit. Jackie Robinson had an immediate impact on baseball's short and long-term future. By August 1, 1947, three Major League teams had already integrated. Players he signed as a scout with Chicago then the Royals included Lou Brock, Oscar Gamble, Lee Smith and Joe Carter. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. "Going forward, in the 1930s following the Great Depression, salaries of Black players were about the same amount as the 1920s," Lester said. But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. 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. He is Dean of Men at Alcorn College in Lorman, Mississippi, and also serves as baseball coach. We still have to separate truth from hyperbole, but more analysis has become available. To this day, no one apparently has any idea of his whereabouts or even whether he is still living. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. Mays played his rookie year in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons. I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. 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 . Just think, he was playing baseball on a team that would become the Homestead Grays years before the US entered World War 1, but he lived long enough to become a fan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. 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. Keys bought the Giants franchise after the 1921 season and built the newly named Stars a stadium in '22. Following the 1924 season, he disappeared after a homicide in New York. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. Among them Fowler, Frank Grant, George Stovey, and Fleet Walker were notable players especially during the 1880s, before complete segregation. Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. Phoenix, AZ 85004 Not even 60 years old. Jack Marshall: A star 2nd baseman for most of the top Chicago ballclubs, Jack still lives in the Windy City. It's just that you rarely get where are they nows on the guys who played 3-4 forgettable seasons,whether they were in 1930s or 1990s. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. That means its taken countless hours of research to fill in the gaps and put together the database. Ted Page: Ted starred with the great Josh Gibson on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s. Wells, 66, is a New York City resident. Jimmie Crutchfield: A slender outfielder, Jimmie signed with the great Pittsburgh Crawfords when he was only 19 years old. Third baseman Hank Thompson appeared in a game for the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) on July 17, two days before outfielder Willard Brown joined him on the Browns' roster. His biggest thrill came in the 1924 Negro World Series when he shut out the Kansas City Monarchs for 7 innings in relief. Our statistics are based on box scores and game stories found in contemporary newspapers, as well as the small number of scorebooks and filled-in scorecards that can be tracked down, Ashwill wrote. 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. 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. 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. 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. America is about democracy and opportunity but it's also just as much about cash. A native of Talladega, Alabama, Scales now lives in New York City. 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. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. In 1954, he signed with the Indianapolis Clowns at the age of 16. Or write about sports? Basically, 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. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Paige, now 65 and a Kansas City resident, is by far the best known of these old stars. The Encyclopedia and various books and projects over the years printed stats for a selection of Negro League stars," Ashwill explained -- picking and choosing what information to present, and often excluding players who appeared in fewer than 10 games. Part of that was simply how the Negro Leagues recorded their statistics, which wasn't as robust a system as the Major Leagues'. Find out more. I knew about it. And they couldn't go in places to eat, so one person would go to the back door and get the food for all the players. . March 16, 2007 - Hubert "Country" Glenn, passes away. They receivedbetween $1 to $1.50 a day for meal money. MINNIE FORBES: It was terrible for the players at that time. MINNIE. This Month in Sports ReferenceFind out when we add a feature or make a change. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. 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. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. 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. We present them here for purely educational purposes. So you won't let me play with you. 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. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. This list comprises players who have appeared in Negro league baseball. 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. This article was written byJohn M. Coates, This article was published in 1972 Baseball Research Journal, The recent election of Satchel Paige to the Hall of Fame brings back memories of the old Negro leagues and the men who starred in them. Holsey Lee: A great pitcher for over 20 years, Scrip Lee spent most of his long career in the Eastern Colored League. Simkus says the work taught him how important major league recognition would be for the families of Negro Leagues veterans, few of whom are still alive. From there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. An outfielder and a solid hitter, Page resides in Pittsburgh, where he operates a bowling alley. A great 3rd baseman, Dandridge compiled a .455 batting average in 3 Negro All-Star games. Recovering it is a constant, ongoing struggle. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. A family friend used to play for the Black Yankees, Bob Scott. His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Nat remembers a 31-game hitting streak as his best moment in baseball. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Well Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are still alive. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. 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 . It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. 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 Accuracy and availability may vary. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. Foster still retains a strong interest in baseball. 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. So the problem of whether Roosevelt Jackson is a veteran of the Negro Leagues is really one of semantics. Pre-integration players. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account. Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/research-collection4_350x300.jpg, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png. While there are roughly 130 players alive from the Negro Leagues, according to baseball historian Larry Lester, only those four players are alive from that 1920-1948 window. If you think white players made more money because they were more talented that's just false. Cronkite School at ASU Marshall remembers occasionally playing 4 games a day when he was with the Philadelphia Stars and he says Satchel Paige was the fastest pitcher he ever saw. The complete list is divided into four pages to reduce the size: The players below are some of the most notable of those who played Negro league baseball, beginning with the codification of baseball's color line barring African American players (about 1892), past the re-integration in 1946 of the sport, up until the Negro leagues finally expired about 1962. We already knew they were equals, of course, it's just official now. Current Greats: Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, . 65 In 2000, Major League Baseball supplied a grant to the Baseball Hall of Fame to conduct . Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Just a humbling reminder that Jim Crow laws and segregation was less than a generation ago. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. All rights reserved. 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. Hall of Fame. 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. Fortunately, that has recently changed with the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, but for decades that wasn't the case. We will also be adding the Puerto Rican Winter League at some point.. 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. 1928 St. Louis Stars, That's about five times more in salary than Black players. Its also why there are always new updates. O'Neil served as a representative of the Negro Leagues on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from 1981-2000, and 11 Negro Leagues players were inducted through 2001 for a total of 18. The leagues were full of talent and it went beyond the names you may know like Mays or Satchel Paige. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. While baseball acknowledgingthese Black players is important, it should only be a first step. Paige probably took a pay cut when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.". I know it seems that the civil rights movement was a while go, but it's truly just recent. Although there are two players who played before 1946 none of them appeared in 1946, thus no players from 1946 are still alive. 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. ***** Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. This process is automatic. But Minnie Forbes sympathizes with the many athletes who were good enough to play in the major leagues but never got a shot. Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame are noted with a . Rogers was one of the few players, black or white, who hit Satchel Paige consistently well. Do you have a sports website? TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes owned the Detroit Stars from 1956 to 1958. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. All rights reserved. But more interesting, in my opinion, are some of the larger patterns we've found. Is there any way to possibly send a baseball to try and get signed by Biddle. His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. Bill Greason, Clyde Golden, Ron Teasley and Willie Mays. 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. SIERRA: Yeah, a hundred dollars a month. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. 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. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. At 5'3", she hit .273 and pitched to a 33-8 record for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953 to 1955. He says, faced with segregation, Black owners and players kept pushing for organized baseball. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Major League Players. The most important sources are the Black weekly newspapers (Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, Kansas City Call, etc.) Only a few members of the leagues are alive to celebrate the centennial. Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. Remember these four names: Rev. Then in 1947, he broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. They went out and did something about it. I wanted to see them as flesh and blood people, real players who had the same kinds of complex profiles we have for players today. 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. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. \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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Michigan Radio's Doug Tribou spoke to the only surviving team owner and others about the legacy of the legendary leagues. Mike Trout You go through the most important sources for a given year, collect the box scores, construct a schedule, go back and try to fill in gaps, double and triple check everything, then type in the games.. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. At that meeting, they created the Negro National League. TRIBOU: Today, Sierra lives in New Jersey. I read Bill James in the 1980s, and I wanted a Negro League Baseball Abstract. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. In 1934, led by 20-year-old left-hander Slim Jones, the Stars defeated the Chicago American Giants in a controversial playoff series, four games to three, for the Negro National League pennant. Suttles pictured back row, far left. Charlie Neal Hank Aaron George Altman Maury Wills Donn Clendenon John Wyatt Blue Moon Odom Paul Casanova See also [ edit] List of starting black NFL quarterbacks List of black NHL players Pedro Dibut). Chicago Team History, But there are a group of researchers led by Gary Ashwill who are looking to change that. And I really do mean today. This is a list of the last handful of living major leaguers from the 1940s. Willie Wells: A .338 lifetime hitter, Willie Wells is often called the best shortstop to play in the black leagues. So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote. Negro League Players Who Made the Major Leagues Player Negro League Team Major League Team Debut Year Jackie Robinson Kansas City Monarchs Brooklyn Dodgers 1947 Larry Doby Newark Eagles Cleveland Indians 1947 Hank Thompson Kansas City Monarchs St. Louis Browns 1947 Willard Brown Kansas City Monarchs St. Louis Browns 1947 .