Baseball Profiles

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PAGE CONTENTS:

Jackie Robinson

Larry Doby

Bill Veeck

Moe Berg

Sandy Koufax

Satchel Paige

Rube Waddell

Adrian "Cap" Anson

Josh Gibson

Jackie Robinson

January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972

by Jessica McElrath

Jack (John) Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. In 1920, his family moved to Pasadena, California. After graduating from John Muir Technical High School, Robinson attended Pasadena Community College. He then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). While at UCLA, Robinson played baseball, football, basketball, and track.

In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the Army. He served in Kansas and Texas. He eventually became a second lieutenant. While serving in Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson refused to obey an order to move to the back of the bus. Because this was a violation of Army regulations, a court martial heard the matter. However, Robinson was acquitted.

When Robinson left the Army in 1944, he wanted to play baseball. At the time, baseball teams were segregated and had been since the early 1900s. Therefore, African American baseball players played in Latin America and in the Negro Leagues. Not unlike other African American players, Robinson also joined the Negro Leagues. He began playing for the Kansas City Monarchs.

However, Robinson's career in the Negro Leagues was short. In 1945, Branch Rickey, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, requested a meeting with Robinson. Rickey wanted to integrate the major leagues and was looking for a player who could withstand the hostility that would be faced. After determining that Robinson was up to the task, he asked him to first play for the minor league team, the Montreal Royals. On October 23, 1945, it became official when Robinson signed a contract with the team.

After a successful year playing for the Montreal Royals, Robinson was issued a Dodgers' uniform in April 1947. As expected, his entrance into the major leagues was not without controversy. Some fans were hostile, while others were enthusiastic. Regardless of the reaction, Robinson excelled on the team. For the first few years, Robinson did not respond to the insults. But in 1949, he began speaking out against racism. He attacked the jim crow laws in the South and promoted the desegregation of southern hotels and ballparks.

In 1947, The Sporting News, which had initially been opposed to the integration of the major leagues, awarded him its first Rookie of the Year Award. In 1949, he was also awarded the National League Most Valuable Player. In 1956, Robinson retired. From 1957 to 1964, he worked as vice president of personnel at Chock Full O' Nuts. Robinson was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1956. He died in Stamford, Connecticut on October 24, 1972.

More Jackie Robinson Tidbits:

Jackie Robinson was 28 years old when he broke into the Major Leagues, yet he still won the unified Rookie of the Year Award.

Fifty years after he became the first modern black player, Major League baseball chose his number as the first one to ever retire for every team.

In 1982, Jackie Robinson became the first Major League Baseball player to appear on a US postage stamp.

In 1949, Jackie Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and batting average, was named to his first All-Star Game, helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the pennant by one game, and was named the years Most Valuable Player.

Shortly before his death, Jackie Robinson was selected to throw out the first pitch at the 1972 World Series, the 25th anniversary of his breaking Major League
Baseball’s color barrier.

An outstanding athlete, Jackie Robinson was the first ever four-sport letter winner at UCLA (football, track, basketball and baseball). His accomplishments outside
of baseball included leading the Pacific Coast Conference (later the Pac-10) in scoring twice in basketball, becoming the NCAA champion in 1940 in the broad jump (25 feet, 6.5 inches), and achieving All-American status in football.

Larry Doby

Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003), was an American professional baseball player in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball. A native of Camden, South Carolina, he was the second black player to play in the modern major leagues, and the first to do so in the American League.

A center fielder, Doby appeared in seven All-Star games, and finished second in the 1954 American League MVP voting. Appointed manager of the White Sox in 1978, Doby was the second African-American to lead a Major League club. He was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 by the Hall's Veterans Committee. He is one of five Hall-of-Famers to have grown up in New Jersey, though he was born elsewhere.

A local star athlete from Paterson, New Jersey, Doby joined the Newark Eagles in the Negro Leagues at the age of 17 in 1942, starring as a second baseman. At that time he played under the name Larry Walker to protect his amateur status. His career in Newark was interrupted for two years for service in the Navy. He then rejoined the Eagles in 1946. Along with his partner, fellow Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, Doby led the team to the Negro League Championship.

Doby was signed by the Cleveland Indians by their owner Bill Veeck in 1947, eleven weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League.

In his rookie season, Doby hit 5-for-32 in 29 games. During the 1997 season, when the long-departed Jackie Robinson's number 42 was being retired throughout baseball, and the still-living Larry Doby was being virtually ignored by the media, an editorial in Sports Illustrated pointed out that Doby had to suffer the same indignities that Robinson did, and with nowhere near the media attention and implicit support.

More pointedly, in The Great American Baseball Card Book, the writers included a picture of Doby's baseball card and said that being the second black ballplayer was, in the minds of the press, akin to being "the second man to invent the telephone". In 1948, Doby became an important piece of Cleveland's World Series victory. He also helped the Indians to win 111 games and the American League pennant in 1954.

At the end of the 1955 season, Doby was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Chico Carrasquel and Jim Busby. He returned to Cleveland in 1958 for a short period of time, finishing his majors career in 1959 with the White Sox (again hired by Bill Veeck) after a brief stint with the Detroit Tigers.

Doby was a .283 career hitter with 253 home runs and 970 RBI in 1533 games. He hit at least 20 homers in each season from 1949-56, leading the league in 1952 (32) and 1954 (32), and appearing between the top ten leaders in seven seasons (1949, 1951-56). He hit for the cycle (1952), and also led the league in runs in 1952 (104), RBI in 1954 (126), on base percentage in 1950 (.442), slugging average in 1952 (.541), and OPS in 1950 (.986).

In 1962, Doby became the third American to play professional baseball in the Japanese baseball league, after Wally Kaname Yonamine and Don Newcombe. After retiring, he managed the White Sox in 1978. In a coincidental parallel, Doby was also the second black manager in the major leagues, after Frank Robinson had become the manager of Cleveland in 1975. Once again, it was Veeck who hired Doby.

Larry Doby died in Montclair, New Jersey at age 79.

Bill Veeck

Perhaps best remembered for sending midget Eddie Gaedel to bat in a game against the Tigers at St. Louis in 1952, Veeck was baseball's most imaginative promoter. He grew up in a ballpark and was never happier than when he was roaming the grandstand and bleachers, mingling with fans. An admitted publicity hound and an imaginative innovator who frequently upset other club owners with his proposals and stunts, he was also a sound baseball man who created winners in Cleveland and Chicago.

His father, William Veeck, Sr., was a baseball writer when William Wrigley installed him as president of the Cubs. By the time he was eleven, Bill Jr. was selling soda in the stands, mailing out tickets, and helping the grounds keepers. When his father died in 1933 Veeck quit Kenyon College and went to work full-time for the Cubs. He became treasurer, but at twenty-seven he quit and bought the near-bankrupt Milwaukee team in the American Association. With $11 in his pocket he arrived in Milwaukee in 1941; four years later he sold the club for a $275,000 profit after setting minor league attendance records and winning three pennants. He gave away live pigs, beer, cases of food; he put on fireworks displays, staged weddings at home plate, played morning games for wartime swing shift workers. But he considered such stunts as extras, not lures, and usually produced them unannounced.

In 1943 he had the backing to buy the Phillies and planned to sign several Negro League players, but he felt the risk was too great and backed out, a move he later said he regretted. Wounds suffered fighting in the South Pacific with the Marines in WWII forced him to undergo several operations on his leg and eventual amputation. But it didn't slow him down.

In 1946 he put together a syndicate and bought the Cleveland Indians. In 1947 they doubled attendance to 1.5 million; a year later they drew an AL-record 2,620,627 while winning the pennant. He signed Larry Doby, the first black player in the league, and Satchel Paige. After selling the Indians for a large profit, he took over the moribund Browns, then in debt to the league for $300,000, a number about equal to a season's attendance. In 1952 attendance "soared" to 518,000; Veeck said he lost close to $200,000. Despite the opposition of his three partners, Veeck planned to move the team to Baltimore in 1953. August Busch had bought the Cardinals, who were paying $35,000-a-year rent to the Browns for the use of Sportsman's Park. The deal was to sell the park to the Cardinals and raise money by selling shares to the public in Baltimore. Believing he had seven votes lined up, he put it to the league on March 16, 1953. He lost 5 to 3; only former partner Hank Greenberg and Frank Lane of the White Sox supported him. Reasons given for the turndown were too many debts, not enough money, and too little time before the season was to open. He had failed to confer with the president of the International League over the Baltimore territory and had not contacted Washington and Philadelphia officials personally. Veeck said, "I am the victim of duplicity by a lot of lying so-and-sos. Every reason they give for voting me down is either silly or malicious, and I prefer to think they were malicious." Most of the press agreed with him. He was forced to sell out. A year later the club was moved to Baltimore.

Out of baseball, he tried to buy Ringling Brothers circus, researched the Pacific coast for major league possiblities for Phil Wrigley, publicized a passenger ship in Cleveland, worked for ABC sports and NBC game of the week, tried to buy the Tigers in 1957, and went after an NBA franchise for Cleveland. He was back in the game in 1959, heading a group that bought the White Sox. They won their first pennant in 40 years and drew a club-record 1,423,000. In 1960 Veeck unveiled the exploding scoreboard and drew 1,644,460 for a club record that still stands. On advice of his doctors he sold the club and retired to his Maryland farm. But after operating Suffolk racetrack, writing book reviews for newspapers and his own story, Veeck as in Wreck, he was back in Chicago in 1975 with Greenberg, paying $7 million for the White Sox. Five years later they sold the franchise for $20 million.

A heavy smoker and light beer drinker, Veeck gave up both in 1980 and underwent two operations for lung cancer in 1984. His tieless attire was due to a skin condition which made tight collars unbearable. (NLM)

Moe Berg
By Denis Mueller

Casey Stengel, known as an odd ball himself, called Moe Berg, "the strangest man ever to play baseball." Berg was a shortstop at Princeton University where he used to bark out his instructions to the second baseman in Latin. His father urged him to be a lawyer instead of this baseball thing but Moe Berg loved two things in his life and they were baseball and languages. In baseball, Berg played 12 years in the big leagues despite not being able to hit.

But it is because of his study of languages that led Moe Berg down the pages of history.
Moe Berg was born in 1902. His father owned a pharmacy and in this Jewish working class area of Newark, a young Moe Berg fell in love with baseball. He graduated at the top of his class and then went to Princeton where he graduated magna cum laude. Needing money, he turned to baseball and when the Chicago White Sox who asked him to switch to catcher. Berg did so understanding that he couldn't hit but his intelligence as a reserve catcher could keep him in the big leagues for a very long time. Moe became a good player and hit .287 in 1929 while earning some votes for MVP.

But Berg was not your typical baseball player. While at Princeton, Berg had honed another skill, there he studied and learned ten different languages. Moe Berg was somewhat of a mystery man to his teammates. On a tour of Japan, with Babe Ruth and Low Gehrig, Berg delivered an eloquent speech at the Meiji University and then went to top tallest building in Tokyo and took pictures which were later used for guides for American pilots in World War Two.

Berg volunteered for the service in World War II and was soon asked to join the OSS. Berg did but before he left he delivered one more speech in which he spoke to the Japanese about why they should avoid this war. Berg was no James Bond in this spy business. At first he kept dropping his gun until finally he gave it to an aid and said, "You hold this."

Berg was an active spy who parachuted into Yugoslavia and meet with resistance leader Marshall Tito. After meeting with Tito, Berg's next assignment was to help to determine how close Germany was developing an atomic bomb. So Berg studied physics and then went to Germany. Using various disguises and getting people to talk to him. Berg was able to determine where the German plants for the research were and that they had been bombed by the allies.

Berg lured German atomic physicist Werner Heisenberg, to Switzerland, where he would talk to him. Berg's orders were to kill but Heisenberg implied that Germany was behind the United States in the race for the bomb. Despite great danger, Berg stayed behind in Germany and helped recruit various German scientists who would become valuable to the United States after the war.

Berg quietly returned after the war and while some thought he squandered his life playing baseball, Berg as his brother said, "He loved the game." His teammate Ted Lyons said of Berg. "He was different. Because he was different; he made up for all the bores in the world. And he did it softly, stepping on no one."

Sources: Joe Posnanski, Kansas City Star

Sandy Koufax
By Denis Mueller

He straddled two different eras. Sandy Koufax began his career in the pre-television era and finished it in the age of celebrity. He was also the best pitcher in the modern era. But what makes Koufax different, aside from a plus-ninety mile an hour fastball and a curve that fell from a table, was his humility. He walked away from the spotlight at the top of his game while enduring tremendous pain from a continuing arm problem and never said a word about it.

Sandy Koufax came from the streets of Brooklyn and was an all-around athlete who excelled at every sport he tried. His true love was basketball and at 6'2" his slender but muscular frame was made for the game. Baseball was almost and afterthought but Koufax showed enough to gain a scholarship from the University of Cincinnati. There he pitched only three games when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Dodgers were a veteran team who did not take kindly at first to the gifted young man. Sure he threw the ball hard but he was just as likely to heave one over the batter's head as hit the strike zone. As a bonus baby the Dodgers were obliged to keep him on the roster, so Sandy did not appear in many games. In 1958, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and Koufax left his Brooklyn home for the sun baked landscape of L.A.

At first he was just as erratic as he had been in Brooklyn, but in 1961 things began to change. By 1962 he had conquered his early wildness and began to assemble a record that showed dominance unheard of before or since. During the next six years, until an arthritic elbow forced him to retire, Koufax compiled a record of 111-37. During this time he also pitched four no-hitters and a perfect game.

In 1963, he was 25-3 and the light-hitting Los Angles Dodgers were the champions of the world. He was unhittable during this time but plagued with pain. He also was Jewish and his demur on the mound, his coolness, made being Jewish cool. With the move to Los Angles, baseball was no longer a game played in eastern cities. Television and the rise of the mass media created new superstars and Koufax was one of the first in the modern sports era.

But he was a different type of hero. Koufax, while not running away from it, never craved the spotlight, or money, for that manner. It was all about being the best he could be. In the 1965 World Series the pain was too much and Sandy decided to abandon his curveball and go entirely with his heater. "Fuck 'em, we'll blow them away," said Koufax. He sure did and, using only his fastball, Koufax made the hard hitting Minnesota Twins look like a bunch of little leaguers.

By 1966, the pain was too much and, despite going 27-9, Sandy knew the end was near. The pain was enormous but he never complained, so he retired at the top of his game. What made him so special was not only his ability, which was considerable, but the way he carried himself. He was gentlemen, a leader, a friend of minorities and pretty much the type of person that you wished your daughter would marry.

I have never seen anyone quite like him. He walked away from fame and the public eye but remains in our consciousness. I can still hear the Dodger announcer proclaim, "Sandy is going entirely with his fastball," while blowing the hard-hitting Twins away. It is not often we see such excellence in sports, or elsewhere for that matter. But Sandy was special and one of the great joys of my life has been watching him pitch.

Sources: Jane Leavy: Sandy Koufax

Spiral, Horizontal Line Spinning

What was Satchel Paige's legacy?
Born Leroy Robert Paige, Satchel Paige was a legend in the Negro Leagues for 29 years. Many of his records in the Negro League were never recorded. On his 42nd birthday in 1948, he was sold by the Kansas City Monarchs to the Cleveland Indians. Its owner Bill Veeck signed the old pitcher to a major league contract. Two days later, Paige became the oldest rookie ever in the major leagues of baseball when he made his first appearance late in a game. That night, he also became the first black to ever pitch in the American League, and the fifth overall to play in the major leagues. As the majors' oldest rookie ever, Paige had a 6-1 record, mostly in relief, as Cleveland won the 1948 pennant. He also pitched for the St. Louis Browns, and pitched three innings for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at the age of 59.

Satchel Paige

July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982

by Jessica McElrath

Satchel Paige was considered one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the Negro leagues. He could draw a crowd and pitch a no hitter. He was entertaining, talented, and always on the move to the team that offered the most money. Despite his unreliability, he was a highly desirable player, and teams were willing to take the chance of his departure just to have him on the team.

The exact date of birth of Leroy “Satchel” Paige is not certain, but it is estimated that he was born on July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Alabama. He was not given the nickname Satchel until he was 7 years old. According to a childhood story, Paige began working at a railroad station carrying bags for patrons. In order for him to carry more bags at once, he created a sling from a pole and rope. Other carriers believed that he looked like a Satchel tree, so they called him Satchel.

As a child, Paige often skipped school with friends. Local police soon knew him as a troublemaker. However, in 1918 the course of his life changed. He was arrested for stealing, and was sent to a reform school for black boys in Mt. Meigs, Alabama. It was during his five-years there that he developed his baseball skills and learned to pitch.

After being released in 1923, he returned to Mobile. One year later, he began pitching for the Mobile Tigers, a black semipro club where he earned one dollar per game. For the next few years, he played for various teams. By 1926, while playing for the Chattanooga Black Lookouts in the Negro Southern League, his income had risen to $50 per month.

From 1928 to 1930, he played for the Black Barons, which gave him the opportunity to improve his pitching skills. In 1931, he began playing for the Nashville Elite Giants. Shortly thereafter, the team moved to Cleveland. They adopted the name the Cleveland Clubs. They quickly disbanded, and Paige began playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

By 1934, Paige had become known as one of the best pitchers and was the highest paid player in the Negro leagues. He used his popularity to his advantage by often entertaining and accepting offers that promised more money. Naturally, he did not hesitate when he left the Crawfords to play for a semipro white club in Bismarck, North Dakota for $250 for the remaining season. He came back in 1936, only to leave the Crawfords again. This time he played in the Dominican Republic.

He returned in 1938, but a dispute over money ensued, and he was traded to the Newark Eagles. His time with the Eagles was short. As he had done to the Crawfords, he broke contract, and pitched the summer season in the Mexican league. While there, his right arm gave out. He was told by a doctor that he would never pitch again.

He returned to the states, and received a job as a pitcher and first baseman with the Kansas City Monarchs’ second team. His arm eventually healed, and he continued to play for the Monarchs. From 1939 to 1942, with Paige as pitcher, the Monarchs won the Negro American League pennant each year.

One year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, Paige had the opportunity to play in the big leagues with the Cleveland Indians. On July 9, 1948, Paige became the first African American to pitch in the American League. By this time, he was over 40 years old and his right arm was not as it used to be. Thus, his time with the Indians was short, lasting only until 1950. He did not give up baseball, but instead returned to barnstorming. From 1951 to 1953, he was given a second chance in the majors with the St. Louis Browns.

After playing in the major leagues, he returned to barnstorming. He also played for Miami in the International League for a few years. By 1968, his pitching days were over. He took a job as a pitching coach with the Atlanta Braves. In 1971, he became the first Negro leaguer inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Paige died in Kansas City, Missouri on June 8, 1982.

Sources: Peterson, Robert W., Only the Ball was White. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Hogan, Lawrence D., Shades of Glory. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006.

Rube Waddell

By Denis Mueller

Connie Mack called him "one of the best lefthanders I ever saw." His fastball was compared to that of Walter Johnson’s and he had a curve ball that fell off a table. Waddell was from a different era and the moralists on today’s talk radio would have crucified him, but fortunately they did not exist at the turn of the 20th century.

Waddell grew up on farm in Pennsylvania and often missed school, where he often chose to follow fire engines instead of schoolwork. He started pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates but his flaky nature kept him at odds with the Pirate manager Fred Clarke. Hall of Fame owner-manager Connie Mack picked him up.

In 1900, during the first season of the American League, Waddell pitched an entire 17-inning game, winning a 3-2 decision. The second game was shortened to five innings by the consent of both teams, and when Mack promised him time off so he could go fishing, Waddell responded with a shut out.

In 1902, Waddell went 24-7 for the Philadelphia Athletics. He also led the American League in strikeouts for six straight seasons. In 1904, he struck out 349. This record would last over 40 years. But Waddell’s eccentric nature was as well known as his pitching ability. He wrestled alligators in Florida, played marbles with kids, which often delayed games, chased fire engines, was married twice and became his own best customer while tending bar.

In exhibition games he would wave his teammates off the field and then strike out the side. In regular season games he had his outfielders sit down on the grass while he retired the batters swinging. Waddell had no concept for money, and the A’s would pay him in dollar bills so the money could last longer. He spent it anyway.

In those days, the players shared a double bed while on the road, and his catcher had the team insert a provision in his contract that forbid him to eat Animal Crackers in bed.

Never a favorite of his teammates, Waddell was forced off the A’s, only to come back to haunt them while pitching for the hapless St. Louis Browns. He had drifted back to the minors by 1910, but could still pitch. Never able to hold on to his money, Waddell was found drunk and wandering the streets in 1913.

In 1914, while in Kentucky, a flood developed and Waddell’s heroism would cost him his life. Standing knee deep in the icy waters, Waddell filled sand bag after sand bag to contain the flood. This would lead to a bout of tuberculosis. He died less than a year later.

Waddell was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946. They don’t make them like they used to.

Sources: Baseball Library.com

Adrian "Cap" Anson

Adrian Constantine "Cap", Anson was the first man to reach 3,000 hits, the first manager to rotate pitchers, and the first player to draw the color line against blacks in baseball.

A hard-driving disciplinarian, Anson was perhaps the most influential player in the nineteenth century. He played in the first professional league, the National Association, from its inception in 1871 and hit .331 in the NL twenty-five years later.

Using a split grip, he hit .300 or better in twenty-five seasons, won two batting titles and eight RBI crowns, averaging an RBI every five at-bats over the course of his career. Anson spent a year at Notre Dame, turned pro with the NA Rockford Forest Citys, played third base for the Philadelphia Athletics for four years, and joined Chicago when White Stockings owner William Hulbert formed the NL.

Anson became the White Sox captain in 1878 and switched to first base exclusively when he took over as manager in 1879. He managed Chicago to pennants from 1880 to 1882, 1884, and 1885, rotating his pitchers and using signals to his hitters and fielders. He has a claim to originating platooning and initiated preseason training. He also was fined regularly by umpires and league officials, earning the nickname "Baby" (for crybaby) before cleaning up his act to earn the nickname "Cap" (for captain). He used bed checks to keep tabs on his charges but also got them first-class hotel rooms and personally marched them onto the field single file before every game.

In 1883, Anson refused to play in an exhibition game at Toledo because the home team had a black catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker. Although Anson backed down when threatened with forfeiture of the gate, he used his position and popularity to ban black pitcher George Stovey in 1887 when John Montgomery Ward tried to sign him to the Giants; no one tried to upset this "gentleman's agreement" until 1947.

Despite this black mark on his character, Anson later mellowed and eventually became known as "Pop" Anson. When he was fired in 1897, Chicago briefly became known as the Orphans, because they'd lost their Pop. Anson managed the Giants for just twenty-five days, turned down $50,000 donated by Chicago fans, opened a billiard saloon, tried to organize a rival major league-the abortive American Association of 1899, entered vaudeville (doing skits written by Ring Lardner), and served a term as city clerk in Chicago.

He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1939

Josh Gibson

December 21, 1911 - January 20, 1947

by Jessica McElrath

Mark and Nancy Gibson welcomed their first-born son Joshua Gibson into the world on December 21, 1911. He was born in Buena Vista, Georgia where he lived until he was thirteen. Seeking a better life for his family, Mark Gibson moved north to Pittsburgh, and sent for his family three years later in 1924.

It was in Pittsburgh that Gibson was introduced to baseball. He loved the game, and was always anxious and was willing to travel far in order to play in sandlot pick-up games. At sixteen, just one year after dropping out of high school, Gibson played as catcher for the Gimbel A.C., an all black amateur baseball team. Josh Gibson, often called the black Babe Ruth, could hit a homer with amazing ease. He was one of the most powerful hitters in the Negro Leagues, and stories of his homers were legendary. According to his Hall of Fame plaque, he hit almost 800 home runs in his 17-year baseball career. With such remarkable ability, he would have been a prime candidate to play in the major leagues. However, just three months before baseball was integrated, Josh Gibson died.

A few years later, in 1929, he began playing as a catcher for the Pittsburgh Crawfords Colored Giants. His extraordinary hitting ability became known throughout the area. It was estimated that he often hit homers of about 500 feet. According to one story, while playing in Monessen, Pennsylvania, the mayor ordered the measurement of one of his homers; it was measured at 512 feet.

In 1931, after hearing about Gibson’s amazing hitting ability, the Homestead Grays enthusiastically gave him a spot on the team as a catcher. One year later, however, he returned to the Pittsburgh Crawfords where he played several seasons with teammate Satchel Paige. In 1937, he was traded back to the Grays, where he remained until his death. That same season, with help from Gibson’s powerful hitting ability, the team won the Negro National League championship. They went on to win it the next eight consecutive times.

In the 1940s, Gibson, was one of the highest paid players in black baseball. While a journeyman player earned about $1250, Gibson was paid from $4000 to $6000 for a season with the Grays. During off-seasons, plus the 1940 and 1941 season, Gibson played in the Mexican League earning about $6000 per season. After the Grays filed a lawsuit and received a judgment against him, Gibson returned in 1942.

In 1943, after blacking out, it was discovered that Gibson had a brain tumor. He refused to have an operation because of his belief that he would lose his mental ability to function normally. Therefore, he suffered from headaches and blackouts that became increasingly more frequent. As Gibson suffered physical ailments, he took to drinking. He died of a stroke on January 20, 1947.

Sources: Peterson, Robert W., Only the Ball was White. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Hogan, Lawrence D., Shades of Glory. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006.

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