Transcript Men of The Negro Baseball League: Who Transformed Dilemmas

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“Makes you mad to hear players
squawk about jet lag. Try sleeping
in a car with your knees to your
chest, crammed with eight other
guys, only to play a game the next
day. Players today don’t know how
bad it could be. We look and
wonder.” How did we do all of
that? It’s simple. “We loved the
game so much we just looked past
everything else. We were
ballplayers. There was nothing we
would have rather spent our time
doing.”
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Baseball invented by Abner Doubleday in
Cooperstown, New York in the mid 1800’s
Baseball blossomed at this time in New York
and Chicago
People of all types loved to play and watch the
game
Mid 1860’s professional teams & organized
leagues established and consisted of mostly
White ballplayers
James “Cool Papa” Bell
- Outfielder
“We made
baseball out of
rags on balled up
tin cans and we
played with
broomsticks for
bats and hit
bottle tops for
practice”
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Negros that played were verbally abused by fans
Other teams refused to play a game if a Negro was
on the home team
Bud Fowler was the first Negro to play
professional baseball
White players were ordered to slide feet first in
order to do serious damage to the Negro players
Pitchers deliberately hit Negro batters in the head
Managers often gave Negro players the wrong
direction to the ball fields so they would get lost
and miss the game
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White owners got together in secret and let go
of all Negro ballplayers
1887 - Negros were prohibited from playing
professional baseball
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This law lasted nearly 60 years
“We loved to play baseball and
a lot of guys had genuine
talent. We could play semi
pro teams which paid little or
not at all. We could swallow
our pride and work in a
factory. Who wanted to do
that? Especially after tasting
the fruits of what professional
baseball had to offer. We had
no choice but to start our own
professional teams, our own
leagues.” - Josh Gibson
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Father of Black Baseball
Pastor’s son who was an old
time trick pitcher who came up
from the Texas leagues
Landed in Chicago with the
Leland Giants (who later
became Chicago American
Giants)
Brilliant man who was very
knowledgeable of baseball and
knew “how to win” games
Demanding manager
If a player did not follow his
directions, he did not last long
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February 20, 1920 - Rube along with owners of the
Black baseball teams founded the Negro
National League
Rube’s team known for its speed and famous bunt and
run plays where the fastest runner would wind up at
third base before the batter hit the ball
Ran the club like a major league team
Supplied the team with clean uniforms and balls, bats,
helmets
Organized an entire Negro Baseball League that
would exhibit a professional level of play equal or
better than the majors
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so when the time for integration, Negros would be ready
Gave Negro Baseball newfound dignity and set high
standards for the future
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Negro Baseball
Fast - People would come early to see players
practice
Flashy-They would whip the ball around the
field with such precision the crowd would
applaud
Funny- Some guys would clown around on the
field (throw the ball behind their backs & still
get the guy out at first base)
Daring- Players would use Rube Foster’s bunt
& run rule which turned singles into doubles &
doubles into triples
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“We played tricky baseball” – Cool Papa Bell
To a lot of players baseball was a serious
business & put food on the table
Everything was legal
very few rules
 whatever it took to win the game
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Pitchers threw anything & everything
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Spitters, shineballs, emery balls, cut balls
Pitchers would hit batters on the head and not be
penalized
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Spring training was non existent
Teams played 80-120 games during the regular
season
Players would barnstorm which meant they would
play additional games against any professional or
semipro team all over the North, South, West and
Midwest
Games would last two hours
Players were expected to participate in up to 4
games a day
Players would earn $15 per player/ per game
Teams consisted of 15-19 Negro league guys and 6
pitchers – (25 players in the major league)
If hurt during a game a player was still expected to
play
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Rule: If paid for 9 innings, you must play 9 innings
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“It’s a hurtful thing
when you’re starving
and have a pocket full
of money but can’t
find a place to eat
because they don’t
serve Negros”
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Buck Leonard Infielder
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Hotels and restaurants were
segregated in North and South
towns 1920’s – 1930’s
Restaurant owners would give
players food through the back door
because they were prohibited from
eating inside
Money would have to be placed on
a napkin so the owner did not
touch the player’s hands
Teams slept at the local jail, funeral
home, or YMCA
Players would stay at hotels that
had bedbugs
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They had to put newspapers
between the mattress and the
sheets so they would not get bit
If the Ku Klux Klan was having a
rally close to a game the team
would have to leave immediately
for their own safety
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“Baseball really is an
expensive thing to
operate.”
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Effa Manley (Owner)
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Great Depression - October 1929 the U.S. Stock
Market crashed, businesses collapsed, banks
closed, and people lost their jobs
People barely had money for food and heat
Depression hit White baseball hard
Rube Foster’s Negro National League fell apart
after twelve seasons
Rube was committed to a mental institution and
saw all his hard work go down the drain
He died within a short time of the end of his
beloved Negro National League
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During this time intelligent Black men became
“numbers men” racketeers
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As a result of segregation they were unable to become
stock brokers and general managers
Illegal numbers men would take peoples’ penny
bets on the games and use it to finance team
expenses
Most owners did not make much money from
their teams but betting was a vehicle to make
their illegal money look legitimate
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King of the numbers game in Pittsburg
Owned the bar where the big Negro stars
performed including Lena Horne, Bill Bo
Jangles Robinson and Heavy Weight Champ
John Henry
1930 - Reorganized the whole Negro National
League
Many of the owners made their money in the
numbers business and used it to support their teams
 During this time Black doctors, celebrities, and
entrepreneurs took over the ownership of Negro ball
clubs (i.e. Louis Armstrong, Joe Louis, Cab
Calloway)
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“The greatest
untapped reservoir of
raw material in the
history of our game is
the black race.”
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Branch Richey
(owner)
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Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Oscar
Charleston, and Cool Papa Bell were great athletes
who played everyday with other Black athletes who
threw just as hard, pitched just as fast and hit just as
well as White players
These men could have written the record books if
given a chance to play in the majors
They played hard and would do anything to win- even
sustain racial prejudice and inequality
The world never had the luxury to view their talents
and these events were not covered by the media
Negro players changed the country’s stereotypes of
Blacks
The world gradually realized that these players were
just as intelligent, gifted, and equal in every way to the
White players
Leroy “Satchel” Paige pitcher
“We were
worked.
Worked like the
mule that plows
the field during
the week and
pulls the
carriage to
church on
Sunday
morning.”
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Pitcher threw so hard that catchers
tried to use steaks to cushion their
gloves
Had such control that he could
knock a lit cigarette out of the
mouths of teammates
Took the mound every night from
January through December, tossed
three games in a day and 2,500
games over 41 years
Relied on his skills, salaries were
in the thousands not millions
Kept his own records
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The league could not afford to
keep the records so the players
had to keep their own statistics
Symbol of athleticism and fun
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Quietly subversive against Jim Crow Laws
He refused to play in a town unless it supplied
lodging and food to him and his teammates
His equality shown through on the field
Pitched so spectacularly at beating White major
league teams that White sports writers turned out
to watch Black baseball
Proved that Black fans would fill ballparks and
White fans would turn out to see Black superstars
It was the courage and tenacity of Satchel Paige
that cleared the path for new racial equality,
allowing a new generation of Black players to
enter the Majors
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Satchel Paige drew
spotlight first to
himself, then to his all
Black KC Monarchs
team members,
particularly to the
rookie Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson opened
the door to the new
reality of racial equality
when he signed with
Brooklyn Dodgers in
1945
Dilemmas
 Discrimination
 Segregation
 Deplorable conditions
 Low pay
 Humiliation
Opportunities
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Gifted athletes
Determined owners
Overcame segregation
Deep love for the game
Changed minds and
hearts of a nation
Led the way to racial
equality both on and off
the baseball field
Hall of Fame Induction of Satchel Paige – 1971:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/expandedbooks/videos/90/