Sir Lurksalot photopack (Negro League players)

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Johnny Williams, P, is shown in the uniform of the Indianapolis Clowns.

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I had posted a photo of Satchel earlier in a Pittsburgh Crawfords uniform. This is a much better one of Robert Leroy "Satchel" Paige, pitcher, in a Crawfords uniform.

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L. C. Williams was an outfielder with the New York Cubans from 1939 to 1942. He is shown here in the uniform of the Miami Ethiopian Clowns.

P.S. As noted by the seamheads.com website, his full name was Lincoln C. Williams.

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Reuben "Rube" Williams, SS, is shown in the uniform of the Indianapolis Clowns.

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Robert A. "Cotton" or "Bobby" Williams, P/INF, is shown in the uniform of the Newark Eagles.

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Jim "Cannonball" Willis, P, is shown in the uniform of the Nashville Elite Giants.

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Charles Wilson, P/OF, is shown in the uniform of the Detroit Stars. This is a different player from the Chuck Wilson posted previously.

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Felton Wilson was a catcher with the Detroit Stars in 1937. He is shown here in the uniform of the Detroit Cubs.

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Woodrow "Lefty" Wilson, P, is shown in the uniform of the Kansas City Monarchs.

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"Boogie" Wolf was pictured in this Baltimore Elite Giants uniform along with some other Elite Giants players in 1939. I don't find any record of Boogie in any of the Negro League registers and don't know what position he played. It appears that he possesses a catcher's mitt in the photo.

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Danny Wright, P, is shown in the uniform of the Birmingham Black Barons.

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George "Ed" Wright, SS/2B, is shown in the uniform of the Lincoln Giants.

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Henry "Rev" Wright, P, is shown in the uniform of the Nashville Elite Giants.

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R. Wright, P, is shown in the uniform of the Nashville Elite Giants. He was with the Elite Giants in 1935.

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Richard "Red" Wright, C, is shown in the uniform of the Birmingham Black Barons.

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Zollie Wright, OF, is shown in the uniform of the Nashville Elite Giants.

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Ralph "Pepper" Wyatt, SS, is shown in the uniform of the Chicago American Giants.

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Leandy Young, OF, is shown in the uniform of the Kansas City Monarchs.

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Charles "Zomp" Zomphier played second base, third base, and shortstop for eight teams in the Negro Leagues during the 1926-31 period. He was also an umpire in the Negro National League. He is shown here as a younger lad.

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The participants in this thread have posted images of roughly 1,900 Negro League players, managers, executives, and umpires. So how far along are we in our quest to cover them all? I really don't know, because I'm not sure that it's possible to count precisely the universe of individuals who were players, managers, executives, and umpires in the Negro Leagues.

The first problem is defining how long the era of the Negro Leagues lasted. If I understand the Seamheads database correctly, they stop at the end of 1948. Their database incorporates data developed by the Hall of Fame, and those researchers chose 1948 because that was the final year of the Negro League World Series. John Holway, the noted Negro Leagues historian, chose the same year as his final point for his THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BASEBALL'S NEGRO LEAGUES. The Negro Baseball Register in THE NEGRO LEAGUES BOOK, a SABR publication edited by Dick Clark and Larry Lester, runs through the 1955 season. So does James Riley's BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES. The website of the Negro Leagues Museum carries profiles of some players whose careers in the Negro Leagues spanned the latter part of the 1950's. The Negro American League lasted through the end of the 1960 season. I have found rosters of Negro League teams which run as late as 1962.

Other problems include spelling of names, absence of first names, difficulty of discovering names of executives and umpires, and the like.

So I've built my own database for the purpose of tracking progress on finding images and having a sense for what images we are missing. It's just a simple spreadsheet, and I don't claim that the count which derives from it is useful for anything other than a rough yardstick. I chose 1959 as the final year, just to finish off the decade of the 1950's and to be more inclusive than some of the other efforts. I started the database with the names in the Negro Baseball Register by Clark and Lester, and added to it the names in 1958 and 1959 team rosters which I found on-line. (1956 and 1957 team rosters weren't available). I also picked up other player names from various books and sources like the Negro League Players Association website, as well as Seamheads.com. I have not gone through the full Seamheads database meticulously to ensure that I have every one of their players.

The result of my database construct is that I estimate that the universe of players, managers, executives, and umpires for the period ending with the close of the 1959 season is around 4,460 individuals. So we have about 43% of the universe covered at this point covered, if one buys my assumptions and methodology. The main point here is that we still have a long way to go. I'm under no illusion that we'll ever get close to 100% coverage, but I would hope that we could attract more participants to this thread and thereby gain more contributions to expand the number of those associated with the Negro Leagues whose images are displayed here.

At this time, I don't have any additional players, managers, executives, or umpires whose photos I can post. I will continue to search for more, and hope that we can expand this display.