The number of posts on the blog may not indicate much progress on the Southern Minny front but last month I presented the Southern Minny League from the end of the 1953 season to the Class AA championship at the end of the 1957 season as part of the History Happy Hour held at the Hormel Historic Home. Following Emil Scheid and his band of traveling players through those seasons is a bit like playing Where’s Waldo?
Next month I present on integration / de-segregation in the Southern Minny between 1948 and 1957 at the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Birmingham. Thinking about Birmingham, I was finally able to follow up on this amazing (but badly photographed) piece of baseball history from Southern Minnesota hanging in that ciyt’s Negro Southern League Museum.
North Mankato’s Tanley Field hosted Bill Tanley’s Key City Beverages team in the Southern Minny in 1938 and continued to host Key City Beverage teams into the summer months of the 1940 baseball season. The Key City team is interesting as they played an independent schedule in 1940 with that scheduling including the Kansas City Monarchs, the Ethiopian Clowns, and Cincinnati Buckeyes.
Interestingly, I found no actual advertisements in the Mankato Free Press for the August 20th match-up between the Monarchs and Clowns even though the NLSM obviously has an advertisement piece in the Museum’s collection. The Free Press did, however, promote the upcoming match-up between the Kansas City Monarchs and Ethiopian on its sports page, noting the two “Top-Notch Teams Play Here Tuesday in Colored Game.”[1] The two teams played each other at St. Paul’s Lexington Park the night before, making any potential match-up between Schoolboy Impo and Hilton Smith in Mankato unlikely.[2]
George Walker started for the Monarchs at Tanley Field instead of Smith, but the crowd of 650 paid attendees still had the opportunity to see two future Hall of Famers play with Turkey Stearns banging out a double and scoring on Leandy Young’s single in the fourth. New Hall of Fame inductee Buck O’Neil played first base for the Monarchs. The Monarchs won 5 to 2[3]
Hilton Smith would, of course, return to Southern Minnesota to play with Fulda very near the end of his stellar baseball career. Of special interest to me is the presence of former Algona Brownie Jesse Warren playing at second base for the Monarchs alongside three former Texas Black Spiders with Leandy Young hitting behind the legendary Turkey Stearns, the previously mentioned Buck O’Neil at first base, and Jesse Williams playing short. Now to find time to get to the box scores for the Monarchs and Clowns earlier visits to Mankato that year.
[1] “Top-Notch Teams Play Here Tuesday in Colored Game,” Mankato Free Press, August 16, 1940.
[2] Ibid; “Monarch-Clown Game Tomorrow, 2nd in Series,” Mankato Free Press, August 19, 1940.
[3] “Both Negro Teams Play Brilliantly,” Mankato Free Press, August 21, 1940.
John Virtue establishes Mickey Owen’s experiences in Mexico as much different than the barnstorming participants of Max Lanier’s All-Stars. Like them, however, Mickey Owen received an offer that was too good to refuse from Jorge Pasquel. Pasquel offered Owen a $12,500 signing bonus on top of a salary $15,000 per year for five years to serve as the player-manager for the Torreón team. Owen’s 1945 contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers paid him $12,500.[1] Owen tried to use Pasquel’s offer to leverage more money from the Dodgers, but Branch Rickey didn’t even return Owen’s call.[2]
At one time an all-star catcher, Owen was probably most infamous for allowing a passed ball on what could have been the last out of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series. Tommy Heinrich swung through strike three, but Owen couldn’t retrieve the ball in time to throw out Heinrich at first. Heinrich eventually scored and the Yankees took the game and eventually the series.[3]
Owen got cold feet on the way to Mexico and called Rickey. Rickey told him to look for another team and return to Brooklyn. Pasquel, meanwhile, was applying his own pressure, threatening to sue Owen for breach of contract. When Owen and his wife read a newspaper article suggesting that Rickey didn’t want him to catch for the Dodgers, they made their way to Mexico.[4] Needing a catcher to replace the injured Salvador José “Chico” Hernández, Pasquel assigned Owen to the Azules of Veracruz as a catcher.[5]
At that time, Ramón Bragaña was serving as the player-manager for the Azules and remained in the capacity until a dust-up following a supposed home run hitting exhibition by the legendary Babe Ruth. Ruth, visiting Mexico as a guest of Pasquel, was slated to demonstrate his home run hitting prowess against hittable balls thrown by Bragaña. Unable to hit any of Bragaña’s offerings for what would be a home run, Ernesto Carmona, serving as the Mexico City manager, accused Bragaña of trying to make Ruth look bad. Bragaña huffed off the mound, and he and Carmona came to blows in the clubhouse afterwards resulting in Bragaña’s suspension. Now needing someone to manage the Azules team, Pasquel appointed Owen as interim manager.[6]
Owen wasn’t happy in Mexico, however. John Virtue points to Owen’s upbringing in the Ozarks of Missouri and lack of exposure to Blacks as teammate or managers as being one source of frustration for him. Thomas Quiñones, a Black pitcher from Puerto Rico, quit the Azules because of Owen’s treatment of black players. Pacquel removed him as manager of the team after Quiñones quit the Azules but Owen as the team’s catcher. Owen’s status as catcher lasted until shortly after a July 25th game against Monterrey in which Claro Duany attempted to score from second on a double steal. Instead of simply tagging Duany at the plate, Owen knocked Duany to the ground. Duany jumped up swinging. and Owen received a beating for his questionable sportsmanship. Within the week, Owen and his wife left Mexico for Brownsville, Texas, paying a $250 taxi fare to get back to the United States.[7]
Once in Brownsville, Owen petitioned for reinstatement in major league baseball. His petition was denied by Commissioner Happy Chandler.[8] Unable to play major league baseball, Owen returned to the Ozarks and became “a farmer, not by choice, but by compulsion.”[9] Owen was happy to be with his family, but he missed baseball.[10]
It didn’t take long for Owen to get involved in baseball. By the end of June, he had organized the Mickey Owen’s All-Stars penciling himself in as catcher.[11] The All-Stars may also have been referred to as the Springfield Generals as team owner C. E. Russell, Owen, and his son Charley visited Sedalia to observe the drawing of teams for the state semi-pro tournament to be held at Sedalia.[12] Owen’s Generals ran into Hugh Bisges who had been cut for whatever reason by the Iola (Kansas) Cubs. Bisges struck out thirteen while allowing only five hits leaving Owen’s to wonder why a minor league manager would dismiss such a solid pitcher.[13]
Meanwhile, Owen and Pasquel duked it out in the courts. Owen sued for the remainder of his salary as a player-manager in 1946 and his potential salary for 1947 to 1950. Ultimately the suit didn’t end well for him as he was ordered to pay Pasquel $35,000, causing Owen to declare bankruptcy.[14]
To pass his time and earn an income while the case plodded through the court system, Owen entered Duncan’s National Auction school at Creston, Iowa. Once certified, Owen was expected to serve as a field representative for the Purebred Livestock Service Company of Des Moines.[15]
With weekends open while attending auctioneer school in Iowa, Owen decided to sell his services and baseball name to the highest bidder. The Council Bluffs Browns were the first bidder, hiring Owen to play against the Millard, Nebraska team in July.[16] Soon other teams started to jump on Owen’s bandwagon. Schuyler, Nebraska, hired Owen to catch against the Omaha Rockets on Labor Day and Humboldt, Iowa, hired him for a game to be determined.[17]
The Lenox Time Table suggested the Owen would don a Viking suit for two of the three games scheduled for Stanton’s Baseball Day on August 7th. Owen played with the Stanton Vikings on July 27th when the Vikings beat the Council Bluffs Boosters by a score of 11 to 9. The Time Table proclaimed it was a great thrill to see Owen in action.[18]
Owen was criss-crossing the Midwest as he was scheduled to play against the North Platte Plainsmen in a game played in Lexington, Nebraska, the following Sunday.[19] With his schedule filling up, he and the Humboldt baseball association settled on him appearing for Humboldt against the Bancroft Lions on August 18th.[20]
Des Moines Register, August 11, 1947, 9, Newspapers.com
1,700 fans gathered in Humboldt, Iowa, to see Owen catch.[21] 2,000 fans attended a Tuesday night game at Felber Park at Hartington, Nebraska.[22]
Owen was the hitting hero for Norfolk, hitting three inside the park home runs against Plainview. The Norfolk Daily News offers some insight into how a major league catcher legged out ab inside the park home run indicating that the landing point for the second home run was somewhere “back of the centerfield light poles” allowing the ball to roll “almost to the fence some 500 feet away.”[23]
Carroll Daily Times, August 29, 1947, 7, Newspapers.com
The Central City Republican hoped on September 4, 1947, that “a large crowd will turn out to give” Mickey Owen and Lefty Haines “a chance to show their skills.”[24] Owen hoped so as well as he was playing for a percentage of the take over and above the average crowd. If the crowd were to small, his take home pay could be quite small as he played for a grand total of $14.85 in a late September Sunday game for the Lyons club.[25]
Even after the end of the baseball season, Owen used his baseball fame to draw people to his auctions.
Globe-Gazete (Mason City, IA), October 20, 1947, 17, Newspapers.com.
Owen’s ban from major league baseball for challenging baseball reserve clause ended in June of 1949. He eventually returned to the majors with the Chicago Cubs. Ironically, he actually had no actual contract with the Dodgers when he left for Mexico, but his ban allowed towns across Iowa and Nebraska to add major league talent to the roster if only for a single game.
[1] John Virtue, South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Racial Integration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.), 137.
[15] “Owen to Join Iowa Semi-Pros; Then Learn Auctioneering,” Oelwein Daily Register (Oelwein, IA), July 19, 1947, 3, Newspapers.com; “Mickey Owens to Join Council Bluffs Semipros,” Courier (Waterloo, IA), July 20, 1947, 31, Newsapers.com.
[16] “Owens to Join Iowa Semi-Pros;” “Mickey Owens to Join Council Bluffs.”
[17] “Mickey Owen to Appear Labor Day,” Colfax County Call (Schuyler, NE), July 31, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com; “Mickey Owens to Catch for Local Ball Team Soon,” Humboldt Republican, August 1, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[18] “Mickey Owens Comes to Stanton on August 7,” Lenox Time Table (Lenox, IA), August 7, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
Another casualty of the recent Hall of Fame selection process was Curt Flood. Flood had previously been considered by the Veterans Committee in 2003, 2005, and 2007. An outstanding hitter and fielder during the 1950s and 60s, Curt Flood sacrificed much of his career by challenging Major League Baseball’s reserve clause.[1] This time around, Flood’s name wasn’t even placed before the Golden Day Era Committee for their consideration.
The reserve clause, inserted into every white professional player contract and many semi-professional contracts including those in the Southern Minny Baseball League, tied each player to their current team for the duration of the contract and beyond as the team retained the sole right to negotiate with the player.[2] The St. Louis Cardinals elected to trade Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1969 season. The Phillies offered Flood more money to play in Philadelphia, but for Flood it was about more than money. Refusing to accept the contract, Flood said that a well-paid slave was still a slave.
Instead of accepting the Phillies’ contract offer, Flood wrote to Baseball Commissioner Kuhn demanding that he be allowed to negotiate with any major league team. Kuhn denied his request resulting in litigation that eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. Ultimately, the Supreme Court avoided the issue, finding that Congress was in the best position to regulate baseball’s interstate commerce activities. In 1975, an arbitrator effectively ended the reserve clause after two players played an entire year without contracts, allowing those players to argue there was no contract for their clubs to renew.[3]
Flood’s challenge to the reserve clause was the second such case to work its way through the courts. With major league baseball united in favor of the reserve clause, Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League offered an alternative, although a potentially costly one, for the players that accepted Pasquel’s offers. New York Giant Danny Gardella was one of the first white major leaguers to travel to Mexico after being cut by the Giants in spring training.[4]
Gardella called back to his New York teammate Sal Maglie to see if Maglie would travel south as Maglie had already been contacted by Pasquel. Maglie wasn’t interested in playing in Mexico, but Roy Zimmerman and George Hausmann were. Zimmerman and Hausman made their call to Mexico from Maglie’s room. When word of the contact with Mexico got back to the Giants’ management, all three players were cut. All three wound up in Mexico and eventually barnstormed through Austin during the Austin Packers 1948 season.[5]
Other players soon followed them south including the St. Louis Cardinals’ Max Lanier. Lanier was off to a great start for the Cardinals with six wins with no losses while holding a 1.93 ERA. Lanier wanted a larger increase from his $10,500 salary than team owner Sam Breadon was willing to give Lanier while holding the apparent leverage of the reserve clause. Breadon offered Lanier a raise of only $500 while Pasquel offered Lanier a $25,000 signing bonus and $20,000 per year for five years to play in Mexico.[6] At thirty years old, the money was just too good to pass up even as Major League Baseball Commissioner announced that any player that “jumped” to Mexico would be banned for five years.
Those bans would last until June 5, 1949, when Commissioner “Happy” Chandler withdrew them while Danny Gardella’s litigation against major league baseball worked its way through the courts. Even so, Gardella’s suit against Major League Baseball remained in play. To prevent any adverse ruling and fearing the chaos of free agency if the reserve clause was ruled illegal, Gardella was offered a $60,000 settlement.[7]
While the ban was in place, baseball players did what baseball players do: play baseball. They just couldn’t play in the major leagues or against team controlled by major league teams. Designated as baseball outlaws, many of them barnstormed across the United States as the Max Lanier All-Stars in 1948. The All-Stars visited Austin’s Marcusen Park on July 8, 1948.
The All-Stars lineup included Stan Beard at short, George Hausmann at second, Lou Klein at short and Roy Zimmerman at first base. The All-Stars starting outfield included James Steiner, Danny Gardella, and Max Lanier. Sal Maglie started for the All-Stars with Austin’s Bob Albertson tasked with holding the major leaguers in check.[8]
Albertson generally pitched well, giving up eleven safeties while walking only one. The Packers’ defense committed three errors behind him.[9]
The All-Stars took an early lead in the first on Klein’s double and Zimmerman’s run scoring single. The All-Stars added another run in the second as Myron Heyworth scored on Stan Beard’s double after reaching on a walk. Austin’s three errors in the fourth and Beard’s single resulted in two more runs in the fourth.[10]
Sal Maglie, starting pitcher for the All-Stars, would ultimately win 119 games in the major leagues. The Packers managed to tag Maglie for nine singles with Bob Beckel, Red Lindgren, and Roy Heuer collecting two hits a-piece. Beckel scored the Packer’s only run after his single, Earl Mossor’s ground out, and Heuer’s run scoring single through the box that reached centerfield.[11]
Maglie struck out ten using his curveball effectively. The All-Stars won, 5-1. Gardella, the first player to challenge baseball’s reserve clause, went 1 for 4.[12]
Maglie returned to the Giants after Chandler withdrew the ban and became one of baseball’s dominant pitchers in the early 1950’s. He started the 1954 World Series Game in which Willie Mays made “the catch” in center. He also started and pitched a complete game in a loss to Don Larson when Larson threw the only perfect game in World Series history. It was Maglie’s second complete game of the Series.
Earl Mossor and Maglie would meet again. Maglie was the starting pitcher for the New York Giants when Earl Mossor made his major league debut as a relief pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951.
[2] John Virtue, South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Integration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008), 158.
My research in townball was triggered, in part, by Peter W. Gorton’s article “John Wesley Donaldson, A Great Mound Artist” in Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota[1]combined with the text on card #104 of the 1994 of The Ted Williams Card Co. The back of that card reads as follows: “In 1914 Donaldson no-hit Austin, Minnesota then returned in May of 1915 to hurl two no-hit games in the same month.”[2] My quest to identify those members of the Hall of Fame that had played in the Austin was officially “on.” Surprisingly, Donaldson actually lost the no-hit game at Austin, the game’s only run scoring after a walk, stolen base, and throwing error by the All Nations’ third baseman Crow who threw wildly to first. Donaldson struck out fifteen in the game.[3]
Donaldson’s amazing career started in 1908 and he would continue to play baseball until 1941. His career as a pitcher includes 413 verified wins, 5,091 strikeouts, 14 known no-hitters, and 2 perfect games.[4] When not on the mound, he played in centerfield and is also credited with mentoring Satchel Paige. Donaldson was passed over for the Hall of Fame in 2006 as much of his career pre-dates the formation of the Negro Leagues and he was compared with players whose prime years were in the Negro Leagues. Since that time, the Donaldson Network continued to document a seemingly ever-rising total of appearances, wins, and strikeouts. This year, he was on the final ballot for the Early Baseball Committee along with many other worthy candidates.
Last Sunday, John Donaldson somehow did not meet the high hurdle of selection not because he isn’t worthy of selection but because the Hall of Fame established an unduly restrictive system for the election of candidates. The Early Baseball ballot included ten players all of whom were deemed Hall-worthy by a screening committee. There were sixteen members appointed to the Early Baseball Committee that afforded a broad cross-section of interests and experiences, including former players and baseball historians. The process, however, was seriously flawed as each committee member was given only four votes to use and a candidate had to receive affirmative votes from at least twelve of the committee members to gain admittance. As such, the committee could elect, at most, five of the candidates otherwise deemed worthy of consideration by the selection committee and then only if there was clear consensus from the Early Baseball Committee that only those four or five candidates were the ones worthy of admittance. What transpired in the committee voting remains unclear as the Early Baseball committee was only able to elect two new members to the Hall of Fame: John “Buck” O’Neil and “Bud” Fowler.
Donaldson received the fourth highest vote total, receiving affirmative votes from eight of the committee members. The vote totals, however, suggest that there was some horse trading involved as Committees wrangled with ballots filled with worthy candidates and a very limited opportunity to admit enough of them. The end result likely being that worthy candidates were not considered on their own merit and, instead, considered against the rest of the pool of candidates. As such, the process seems flawed especially when the Golden Days Era Committee was pointed to as a “court of appeals” for those passed over the Baseball Writers Association of America. In the cases of players like Donaldson, Vic Harris, and Cannonball Redding, none of them ever received their first day in court as the BBWAA could not consider them as they were not allowed to play in the American or National League because of their skin color.
I suppose we should be grateful that Buck O’Neil finally received his due. After all, it is shocking that it took until 2021 for him to be elected to the Hall of Fame. I consider the failure to admit him in 2006 when Negro League players, managers and owners were last considered for admission as one of baseball’s many travesties particularly as Buck passed away so shortly after the subsequent inductions. He may not have been the best player or manager to ever be involved in the game, but he was a tireless promoter of baseball including black baseball. Without Buck, Ken Burn’s Baseball would be far less interesting, and we would know far less about the Negro Leagues. One of my fondest memories as a baseball fan is seeing Buck work the crowd at Miller Park following his induction into Milwaukee’s Wall of Fame many years ago. Other honorees might disappear to their box seats but not Buck.
Playing for and managing the Kansas City Monarchs, Buck crossed Iowa many times. He also crossed Iowa and into Minnesota before he signed with the Monarchs. In 1936, he played with a team nominally called the Shreveport Acme Giants. I say nominally as they played part of their season as the Dunseith Giants in North Dakota and many of the players including Buck eventually joined with the Texas Black Spiders for a later season tour of Texas and Mexico. Before heading south to Texas and beyond, Buck’s Acme Giants and the Black Spiders played across Iowa facing local competition and each other numerous times.[5]
Hoping to make the Monarchs team in 1937, he settled for the Memphis Red Sox and ultimately settled in with the Zulu Cannibal Giants. The Giants played to racial stereotypes “appearing in full festive regalia consisting of grass skirts, ornamental headgear, painted faces, and in some instances, even bare feet.”[6] The players adopted African sounding names such as King Chebami, Wahoo, Nyassass. O’Neil’s assumed name when played with the Cannibal Giants was Limpopo. Despite the carnival-like costumes, the Giants players and teams were solid, advertising 104 games won out of 129 games played during the 1936 season.[7]
O’Neil traveled to Austin with the Cannibal Giants in 1937, but the weatherman did not help the situation at Marcusen’s Park. Excessive rain provided a muddy field for the teams. Hitting lead off for the Giants was “Limpopo,” playing first base. Buck, playing as Limpopo, fielded his position flawlessly despite a muddy field.
Buck would join the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938 and be forever tied to Kansas City and the Monarchs. It is certainly possible that Buck and the Monarchs may have come to Austin as well as they continued to play until 1965 and I’ve only worked Austin’s microfilm through 1957. It is also entirely possible, and, quite frankly, likely that between the Shreveport Acme Giants in 1936, Zulu Cannibal Giants in 1937, or Monarchs thereafter, that Buck played elsewhere in Southern Minnesota during what is now a Hall of Fame career.
With his election, Buck O’Neil can be added to the list of Hall of Fame players that played in Austin at some time during their career, joining Burleigh Grimes, Jose Mendez, and Satchel Paige as players and potentially J.L. Wilkinson as a team owner / manager. As to when John Donaldson might join Buck and his teammate Mendez on that illustrious list, under current Hall rules the Early Baseball Committee does not meet again until 2030. Let’s hope that the Baseball Hall of Fame realizes that four ballots per member is far too few when considering the quality of the candidates already deemed Hall-worthy and accelerates further consideration of those players not eligible for consideration by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
[1] Peter W. Gorton, “John Wesley Donaldson, a Great Mound Artist,” in Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota, edited by Steven R. Hoffbeck, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005,
[2] “John Donaldson,” Card 104, The Ted Williams Card Co., 1994.
[3] “Two Great Games,” Austin Daily Herald, September 17, 1914, 4.
[5] Paul R. Spyhalski, “How Buck Became a Texas Black Spider: John “Buck” O’Neil’s 1936 Baseball Season,” Black Ball: A Negro League Journal 8 (Dec. 2015): 82-95.
[6] “Cannibal Team to be Here for Baseball Stew,” Austin Daily Herald, June 23, 1937.
[7] “Zulu Cannibals Will Meet Austin Packers Here Friday,” Austin Daily Herald, June 24, 1937, 10.
I can’t honestly say when exactly I took an interest in what is generally called Negro League baseball. I can, however, say that much of my baseball research is due to card 104 of The Negro Leagues subset from the Ted Williams card company.
Even while reading about baseball greats like Satch, Rube or Josh playing on or even creating great Negro League teams like the Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants or Homestead Grays, early on, I failed to grasp two very important concepts underlying black baseball: 1) black baseball teams, even League teams, weren’t confined to playing games only in League stadiums or only against League competition and 2) black ball players and more often that not, entire teams of black ball players could and would play outside of “organized” Negro League baseball barnstorming across the country or even establishing local connections.
The back of card 104 tells of just a few of the amazing exploits of one such player who just so happened to have accomplished but one of his many amazing exploits in my adopted hometown of Austin, Minnesota. Even so, it took Pete Gorton’s chapter on John Wesley Donaldson in “Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota” for me to begin to grasp the concept that the history of black baseball can not only take place anywhere but it actually took place here in Austin, Minnesota.
Seeking confirmation of the no-hit game for this great mound artist led me to the microfilm collection at the Austin Public Library. The Mower County Transcript noted that Austin’s pitcher Crouse pitched a wonderful game on August 16th winning 1-0 without even mentioning Donaldson or really much about the All Nations team.
The Herald, however, published a box score indicating the run scored as an unearned run and that Donaldson no-hit Austin behind 15 strikeouts. The no-hitter is notable as one of 13 or 14 known no-hitters thrown by Donaldson.
Pete Gorton has undertaken an incredible effort to bring Donaldson’s amazing career to light by bringing together a network of local researchers all contributing what they can to find one more win, one more strikeout or even just a reference to where Donaldson’s many traveling teams might play next. Please visit the John Donaldson Network to get a sample of Donaldson’s decades of dominance and impact on the game of baseball.
At last count, 403 wins and 5,034 strikeouts have been verified. The 1914 stop in Austin didn’t result in one of those wins but Donaldson was still clearly dominant striking out 15 and tossing one of his many no-hitters.
But for the color of his skin and baseball’s color line, Donaldson would certainly have been playing for a major league team in 1914 if not well before. Instead, he was forced to travel from town to town displaying his wonder arm and motion by pitching three days a week without the benefit of a bullpen, by playing center field on his “off” days and hitting third or fourth in the lineup at nearly all times.
Donaldson has rightfully been called the Greatest Colored Pitcher in the World and is certainly one of the greatest pitchers the game of baseball has ever produced given his dominance and decades of durability. The fact that his amazing baseball ability was on display at all in Austin, Minnesota in 1914 and across the Midwest for decades instead of the Polo Grounds is, in fact, part of black history.
For more information on Donaldson’s greatness, visit the Donaldson network line above. A documentary feature film is also under production called 39 Seconds to restore his legacy as the Greatest Colored Pitcher in the World. Information on the trailer for the film can be found at 39 Seconds Film.
On May 16, 2015, the Boston Red Sox wore the uniforms of the Boston Royal Giants as part of a Negro League Tribute game at Seattle. You might wonder what a game played 1,600 miles to the west of southern Minnesota in tribute to a team 1,300 from the east of Southern Minnesota has to do with this blog.
Well, here it is. Burlin White re-formed the Boston Royal Giants in 1934. The Royal Giants reported 97 wins against 30 losses during a 1935 campaign that began in Canada.
For the 1936 season, the Royal Giants would again visit Canada but on their eastward swing towards Chicago and a return to “League” play, they stopped over in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. Stops in northern Iowa included games at Algona and Charles City.
On July 16th, the Royal Giants entered Austin’s Marcusen park to face the town’s Hormel aggregation. Burlin White’s Giants featured Dick Mapp as a veteran shortstop, Ed Coleman in the outfield as well as Lefty Stern, greatest of all portsiders and Babe Robinson as a righthander. Robinson was said to have a record of 20-3.
The Giants jumped out to an early two run lead after a double by Walker scored McKnight and Coleman. The hometown Hormels scored in the bottom of the inning. Until the eighth, the lead see-sawed back and forth.
Walker and Coleman of the Giants were credited with finding the fence in right while Mapp parked a three-bagger into centerfield. Dick Faulk and Burlin White were credited as the leading clowns with Smith arguing several calls. Faulk walked on his hands, bothered the Hormels catcher Olson, shadowboxed and made himself into a big bother.
Ed Jarmon started the game for the Giants with Riff Tally taking over for Jarmon. Big George Dugan went the distance for Austin.
Although hardly a pitcher’s duel at 12-9, both teams were credited with heavy hitting and making spectacular catches.
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