Adventures in Barnstorming II—Crawfords vs. Dean’s

4 Sep

This story has been told in a few books, but those books generally get the facts wrong.  The authors relied on the 50 and 60-year-old memories of participants, the same participants from whom I first heard the story from, but never checked the stories against contemporaneous accounts.

On October 23, 1934 the Pittsburgh Crawfords (the team was made up of many members of the Crawfords lineup, but also included Negro League stars from other teams) played the Dizzy Dean All-Stars (made up of the Dean brothers, a few current and former Major Leaguers and  minor leaguers from the Pittsburgh area) at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.  It was the final game of the Dean Brothers’ 1934 barnstorming tour.  As with most of the games, Dizzy Dean, and Satchel Paige pitched the first two innings.  After Dean was relieved by minor league pitcher Joe Semler, he went to left field.

In the bottom of the 5th, with the Crawfords trailing 4-3, Elander “Vic” Harris either bunted or “tapped the ball” in front of the plate and former and future major league catcher George Susce threw wide to first base.  Harris advanced to second on the throw.

Dizzy Dean came in from left field and told home plate umpire James Ahearn that Harris had interfered with the throw.  Ahearn called Harris out.

Harris ran from 2nd base to argue the call with Ahearn, a local Pittsburgh umpire with whom Harris had a contentious history.

Vic Harris with the 1930 Homestead Grays.

Accounts vary at this point.  Some newspapers said Harris picked up Ahearn’s mask and hit him with it.  Other accounts said Harris grabbed the umpire’s mask (this is what Harris also maintained until his death).

Susce then went after Harris and a melee broke out.  Josh Gibson came to Harris’ aid and wrestled Susce away from him.  Soon a group of fans attempted to join the fray, but all accounts agree that police, security and cooler heads on both teams quickly controlled the situation and the game resumed.

Versions of the story that came much later included an account of Josh Gibson taking on Susce and throwing “Dizzy” Dean off of him “some ten feet away,” when Dean and Ted Page attempted to pull Gibson away from Susce.  This version did not come out until the 1970s, and it strains credibility that the greatest star of the Negro Leagues “threw” one of the most popular white players in America ten feet during a fight and that the account failed to appear in any newspaper story.

Gibson did hit a home run in the 8th to lead the Crawfords to a 4-3 victory.

Harris was removed from the field and arrested for assault.  Other erroneous accounts credit Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney with interceding Harris’ behalf and ensuring he wasn’t charged with a crime.  The problem with that story is that Harris was charged, and convicted of assault and battery in March 1935.  Harris was fined and given six months probation.

This incident, other run-ins with umpires and his aggressive style of play earned Harris the nickname “Vicious Vic.”

Harris died in California in 1978.  He was one of the Negro League players considered for enshrinement in Cooperstown but was passed over in 2006.

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Adventures in Barnstorming

3 Sep

By 1908, Andrew “Rube” Foster was probably the best known African-American pitcher in the country.  The previous season, he and Pete Hill had jumped Sol White’s Philadelphia Giants to join the Leland Giants of Chicago, turning the Leland’s into a powerhouse.

As was the custom, the Leland Giants would play a number of games against small town teams when traveling to and from games against other professional teams and their 21 games against other National Independent Clubs teams.

In August of 1908, The Freeman related a story (apocryphal perhaps, but a good story nonetheless) about one of those small town games.

“On their way back from Cleveland, where they had been playing an engagement, they had an agreement to play a little ‘woods town’ team called ‘The Cow Boys,’  The contract called for the great Rube Foster to pitch.”

The story goes on to say that Foster noticed upon arriving that the locals knew him on sight.  Scheduled to pitch against a better team the following day, Foster instructed his team to begin calling the team’s catcher, James “Pete” Booker (who also jumped to the Leland’s from Philadelphia), “Foster.”

The story continues:

“Booker went in to pitch and Foster did the catching.  It worked fine, score 23-0.  The Cow Boys were more than delighted, as they had gotten five hits during the game…Everything went well until a commercial traveler who knows each player on the Leland Giants very well remarked ‘My friends, had Foster pitched that game he would have struck out every man.’ The whole town was in a rage in a little while, and it was a good thing the Lelands (sic) didn’t stop for supper, for those country people would have broke that team up.”

Leland Giants–Pete Hill, far left standing, Pete Booker, standing third from left, and Rube Foster, standing far right.

Hall of Famers Foster and Hill have been written about extensively and their prominent place in Dead Ball era Negro League Baseball is firmly established.  Less has been written about Booker, overshadowed by Hall of Famer Louis Santop and Bruce Petway (arguably the best defensive catcher ever, whose presence with the Leland’s in 1910 pushed Booker to first base), he was an excellent hitter and solid defensively behind the plate and at first.

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The Sad Story of Alan Hill

31 Aug

Alan J. Hill seemed destined for the major leagues.

Nicknamed “Mooney,” he had a mediocre first season as a 20-year-old with the Richmond Colts in the Virginia League (Thirty-five year-old teammate Chief Bender went 29-2 with a 1.06 ERA for the Colts that season).  Hill followed that up with three excellent seasons with the Toledo Mud Hens in the American Association.

As a reserve outfielder in 1920 he hit .366.  In 1921, playing in the same outfield as Jim Thorpe, Hill hit .318 in 137 games, and hit .296 in 152 games in 1922 for a terrible Mud Hens team that went 65-101.

Hill moved to the Columbus Senators in 1923 and was the starting centerfielder.  A month into the season he was struggling, hitting .204 through 23 games when he suffered a nervous breakdown.

Nothing is known about the cause of his illness or what his prognosis might have been.  Hill was committed to the Woodville State Hospital in Collier Township, Pennsylvania.

On February 25, 1924 Hill wandered away while working on the grounds with other residents.  The next morning his body was found on the train tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  He was 25.

Hill was most likely buried among the nearly 700 graves marked only with numbers on the grounds of the hospital, which was closed in 1992.

Update:  As noted in the comments, a relative of Alan Hill informed me that he is buried at McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

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More “Chief” Johnson

30 Aug

Last week I told you about George “Chief” Johnson’s release from the Chicago White Sox in the spring of 1913, allegedly because of his affiliation with the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Native-American Tribe.

Cincinnati Reds owner August Garry Herrmann and manager Joe Tinker were apparently more concerned with a good arm than the so-called “Winnebago ban,” and signed Johnson.

George “Chief” Johnson

Through the first month of the season, Johnson was the only effective Reds pitcher, winning three games (including two shutouts) for a team with a record of 5-16.

The New York Times took notice in an article, the racist tone of which was typical of the era:

“Big Chief Johnson of the Winnebagos [sic] is copper-colored and fat. At bat he displays as much activity as the wooden Redmen who hold forth at the doors of countless cigar stands. But on the mound this latest Indian to edge his way into the select circles of major leaguedom can deal out ciphers with as much success as the more illustrious Johnson of Washington.”

Johnson ended the season 14-16, with a 3.00 ERA for a team that finished 25 games under .500.

In 1914, the Federal League came calling.  Otto Knabe, Manager of the Baltimore Terrapins sent a telegram to Johnson asking for his terms.  According to Knabe, Johnson replied with a telegram sent collect saying “Will sign for $10,000 bonus and reasonable salary.” Knabe telegrammed Johnson collect “Asked for your terms, not Walter Johnson’s”

Otto Knabe

Johnson signed the following month with the Federal League Kansas City Packers for a more modest $3000 advance and $5000 salary; the only problem was that Johnson had already signed a contract with the Reds for 1914.

Johnson’s 1914 season was highlighted by a series of injunctions and court rulings that kept him sidelined for much of the season while organized baseball battled the upstart Federal League.  (The saga of the Federal League has been rehashed in numerous books and blogs, no need to reinvent the wheel here—I recommend this book)

Johnson played for Kansas City in 1914 and 1915 posting records of 9-10 and 17-17.  Throughout his tenure in Kansas City Johnson had numerous run-ins with the law over his drinking and was cited for desertion and non-support of his wife. Additionally, his weight ballooned to well over two hundred pounds.

Johnson’s major league career was over after 1915, but he pitched three more seasons in the Pacific Coast League.  Pitching for the Vernon Tigers near the end of the 1916 season Johnson was so out of shape that it was reported in the Los Angeles Times that the Portland Beavers chased him from a game in the third inning by having several hitters in a row lay down bunts that the overweight pitcher was unable to field.

Johnson reportedly returned in better shape in 1917 and was 25-23 pitching for Vernon and the San Francisco Seals.  Johnson returned  in 1918, posting a 2-6 record, and was joined in San Francisco for a short time by his brother John who appeared in one game for the Seals.

After his release by San Francisco Johnson barnstormed with a variety of teams throughout the Midwest and West and sold “snake-oil” in a traveling tent show.  On June 11, 1922, Johnson was in Des Moines, Iowa with his tent show when he was killed in a dispute over money during either a dice or poker game (news accounts varied).  Johnson’s killer, an African-American gambler named Ed Gillespie, was originally charged with first-degree murder, but the charges were reduced to manslaughter based on eye-witness accounts that claimed Johnson was “drunk and belligerent.”  He was buried at the Winnebago Cemetery in Winnebago, Nebraska.

A postscript.

A few days after Johnson’s death a small item appeared in Iowa newspapers; it was about a druggist in Des Moines who had agreed to put a display in his store window to promote Johnson’s tent show. The story said:

“Anyone anxious to own a nice horned rattlesnake may have one by taking the one left in his show window by the late Mr. Johnson.”

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Filling in the Blanks—Fletcher Hodge, Fletcher Hodges

29 Aug

Baseball Reference lists Fletcher Hodge, a pitcher for Cleveland, Tennessee in the Appalachian League in 1921 and Grand Rapids in the Michigan-Ohio League in 1924, and Fletcher Hodges appearing in six games with the Rochester Tribe in the International League in 1924.   He was the same player, with a life that spiraled out of control after an arm injury.

Born Ernest Fletcher Hodge (various sources give his birth date between 1898 and 1900) in Advance, Missouri, Hodge pitched for local teams around Sikeston, Missouri. There’s no record of how big Hodge was, but newspaper stories described him as “The giant righthander.”

He went 8-11 in the Appalachian League in 1921 and there is no record of him in professional baseball again until 1924.  Hodge was 9-6 with 3.00 ERA in 16 games at Grand Rapids when his contract was purchased by Rochester.

Hodge appeared in six games with Rochester.  Although no statistics exist, it is clear Hodge did not pitch well in the International League.  When his contract was sold to Terre Haute in the Three-I League in August the Rochester Journal said “In all his starts with the Tribe he was wild as a tornado.”  Hodge also reportedly injured his arm while with the Tribe.

Shortly after his contract was sold to Terre Haute, Hodge had his first confirmed brush with the law; he was arrested in Cincinnati for attempting to pass several bad checks drawn on a Rochester bank.  There’s no record of the disposition of the case, but it was reported that Rochester owner Walter Hapgood had interceded to get the charges either reduced or dropped (depending on the source).

In either case, Hodge never played for Terre Haute or Rochester and it appears he never played professionally again, although there were at least five pitchers identified only as “Hodge” who pitched for various teams from 1925-27. (here, here, here, here, and here)

By 1930 Hodge was living in Sikeston, Missouri.  On the evening of June 13 he went to a rooming house in Blytheville, Arkansas where his wife was visiting her mother.  Hodge shot and killed his wife Anna and fired four shots at his mother-in-law, who escaped injury.  He escaped to Sikeston and then Poplar Bluff, Mo before being taken into custody.

Hodge’s trial was scheduled to begin on November 4, 1930 when he instead pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.  There is no record of Hodge’s death, or if he was ever released from prison.

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Nath McClinic—Negro Leaguer, Southern Lawman

24 Aug

Nathaniel “Nath” McClinic (often incorrectly referred to as “Nat”) was humble about his abilities.  Every Negro League contemporary of McClinic I had the opportunity to speak with over the years described him as being one of the best centerfielders of the post-integration era Negro Leagues, possessing great speed and an excellent arm.

McClinic would simply say “I could run and throw, but I couldn’t hit the curveball.”

Born in Georgia in 1924, McClinic served in the Army on Iwo Jima and led the Army baseball team to island championships before his discharge in 1946.

Nathaniel “Nath” McClinic

Upon his return from the service, McClinic and fellow Georgian Earnest Long were signed by the Chattanooga Choo Choo’s in the Negro Southern League.  McClinic also spent time with the Cleveland Buckeyes and Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro American League.  The only official records for McClinic are two at bats with no hits for Cleveland in 1948.

McClinic settled in Rome, Georgia after his professional career, managing and playing for the Lindale Dragons in the semi-pro Georgia Negro State League—also called the Josh Gibson League—Lindale was one of the best semi-pro clubs in the south throughout the late forties and early fifties, and had great success against local white teams.

In 1965 McClinic became the first African-American police officer in Floyd County Georgia, a year later he became the first African American graduate of the Georgia State Police Academy.

McClinic often told the story of one of his first arrests after joining the force.  He and the only other African-American officer arrested a white man for public intoxication.  Upon bringing the man to the police station, McClinic was told, “Don’t ever arrest a white man, regardless of what you see him doing.” Later that year a new police chief was appointed and the order was rescinded.

McClinic served as an officer and investigator for the next twenty years, retiring in 1986.

Nath McClinic

After his retirement, McClinic was a regular attendee at Negro League reunions and was honored in Cooperstown in 1991 as one of the “Living Legends of the Negro Leagues.”

McClinic passed away April 3, 2004, in Rome, Georgia.

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“Chief” Johnson and the “Winnebago Ban”

23 Aug

George Howard “Chief” Johnson was born on the Nebraska Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Reservation to an Irish father and a mother who was likely only half Native American, yet like almost all players of his era with any tribal blood, he was branded “Chief.”

Johnson began his pro career at age 23 in 1909 with Sioux City and Lincoln in the Western League, after having played for several seasons with Guy Green’s barnstorming Nebraska Indians team.

Chief Johnson

Chief Johnson

Johnson constantly battled weight and alcohol issues; “The Chief is not noted for the care he takes of himself,” is how The Milwaukee Sentinel put it—but after a 23-10 record for the Saint Joseph Drummers in 1912, he was purchased by the Chicago White Sox.

Johnson appeared destined to make the Sox pitching staff according to The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Examiner, but was released before Opening Day by the Sox and signed with the Cincinnati Reds.  His release by Sox Manager Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan was explained the next season in several newspapers, including The Milwaukee Journal:

“The Chief…had shown ability and class; he had behaved well, but when Callahan learned that he was a Winnebago he decided to turn him away.”

The story, a tour de force of early 20th-century bigotry, went on to say:

“For many years the Winnebago tribe has been under a blacklist by all circuses, Wild West shows and film companies.  There are plenty of Winnebagoes, very conveniently located; they are fine-looking people, and, as a rule educated, so they would be the finest material for show purposes.  Nevertheless, the reputation of the tribe for love of firewater has been such that managers shun their reservation, and they can’t get work in the professions which yield big wages to the Sioux, Pawnees and Chippewa’s.”

White Sox Manager Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan

I’ll include another chapter in George Johnson’s short and eventful life next week.

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Filling in the Blanks–D. Rambo

22 Aug

Baseball Reference lists D. Rambo as a first baseman for Greenville in the South Atlantic League in 1919, and for St. Petersburg and Tampa in the Florida State League during the 1920s.

Dexter Lovelle “Legs” Rambo was born in Sumter, South Carolina on April 10, 1900.

Rambo hit .146 in 13 games with Greenville in 1919 and became one of the original St. Petersburg Saints in 1920.

An excellent fielder with a weak bat, Rambo was a fan favorite in St. Petersburg and played on and off for the Saints until the team disbanded after the 1928 season.

Rambo was also was a pioneer in the popularization of “Diamond Ball” or softball in Florida.  Rambo managed and played for the St. Petersburg Saints Diamond Ball team throughout the 1930s, including the state championship team in 1931.

Dexter Rambo (Standing 5th from left) with his Florida State Diamond Ball Championship team

Rambo worked for the United States Post office until his death on September 2, 1952 in St. Petersburg.

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Caught a Bullet

16 Aug

Elmira Pioneers Centerfielder Milt Joffe made an unusual catch at the start of the top of the sixth inning in an Eastern League game against the Hartford Chiefs on May, 15, 1952.

A .22 caliber bullet ripped the glove off Joffe’s hand and lodged in the webbing.

Shaken but unhurt, Joffe stayed in the game which resumed after a short delay.

Police found a group of kids with the .22 rifle near the ballpark, they claimed they were firing at a target and missed.

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“The Phlinging Pharmacist”

15 Aug

In addition to having one of the best names in the history of organized baseball, Phifer Fullenwider had one of the best nicknames also.

A minor league pitcher for 13 seasons, Fullenwider went to spring training with the New York Giants in 1912 after a 26-9 record the previous season for the Columbia Commies in the Sally League.

Phifer Fullenwider

A Pharmacist in the off season, Fullenwider was a fan favorite in Buffalo, where he pitched four full seasons and part of a fifth for the Bisons in the Eastern League, including a 20-win season in 1913.

The Buffalo fans and sportswriters tagged him with the sobriquet “Phifer Phullenwider the Phlinging Pharmacist.”

Fullenwider pitched until 1923 compiling a record of 192-135.  Born in Rowan, North Carolina December 13, 1886, after his playing days he returned to North Carolina where he died in Durham on June 15, 1982.

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