Sir Lurksalot photopack (Negro League players)

[SPORTSMEM817]

Anyone have any type of photo of this player listed in the title....thanks for looking

[FatJack]

Hank Baylis was an infielder (mostly second and third) and sometime catcher who played in the Negro Leagues from 1948-1955, then spending two years in the minor leagues before retiring. He debuted with the Chicago American Giants in 1948, moved on to the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1949 and played the rest of 1949 and all of 1950 with the Birmingham Black Barons. He spent 1951-1955 with the Kansas City Monarchs. He was a slap hitter who was athletic enough to have spent some time playing with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Baylis is usually remembered as the man who gave Mamie Johnson her nickname of "Peanut". He was the first batter in the league to face Johnson in her mound debut and laughed about someone pitching to him who was "the size of a peanut". He promptly struck out.

This image is from the August 6, 1955 edition of The Pittsburgh Courier which, you'll recall, was an African-American publication.

[Cusick]

Leroy Breedlove recently passed away at Age 86. His obituary indicates that following his freshman year at Texas Southern University, he joined the Kansas City Monarchs where he was a teammate of Ernie Banks and Satchel Paige. The Pittsburgh Courier of 4/21/1951 reports on Breedlove's pitching in a college game, so I assume that he was with the Monarchs later in 1951. I have not seen any reports of his being a Negro Leaguer from the usual reference books, but the Baseball Necrology forum indicated that he was. Ernie Banks was with the Monarchs in 1951. As best I can discern, Satchel Paige was with the Monarchs in 1950, but not in 1951.

The photo is from Breedlove's obituary, as reported by The Orange Leader.

[Cusick]

Originally Posted by SPORTSMEM817

Anyone have any type of photo of this player listed in the title....thanks for looking

Sometimes it would help if the person making the inquiry would give us a clue as to where he found the player's name. The usual sources make no mention of a player with a surname of Browning ever appearing in the Negro Leagues. I checked seamheads.com, the register in SABR's Negro Leagues Book, and James Riley's BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUES.

[wunderman]

Originally Posted by Cusick

Sometimes it would help if the person making the inquiry would give us a clue as to where he found the player's name. The usual sources make no mention of a player with a surname of Browning ever appearing in the Negro Leagues. I checked seamheads.com, the register in SABR's Negro Leagues Book, and James Riley's BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUES.

James Browning Negro Leagues Statistics & History | Baseball-Reference.com

[SPORTSMEM817]

http://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo...31440432b.html

Eddie played with Charley Pride and is seen in the photo on the far left with Charley just to his right

[SPORTSMEM817]

http://obits.al.com/obituaries/birmi...&pid=184539002

[Cusick]

Since the link to the Cleophus Brown obituary in the posting above seems to no longer be working, I'm posting this image of him on the left from baseballinlivingcolor.com website. Cleophus was a first baseman and pitcher with the 1955 Louisville Clippers of the Negro American League.

The image on the right shows him in some apparel representing the Birmingham Black Barons. His obit mentioned that he was with the Black Barons for a brief time, and the book THE BLACK BARONS OF BIRMINGHAM, by Larry Powell, confirms it.

[FatJack]

Cusick posted an image of Willard with the Kansas City Monarchs a few years back, but this is Williard with the Monroe (La.) Monarchs. I just came across this at Paul Letlow's Louisiana Sports Shorts. The Monroe Monarchs were loosely associated with the KC Monarchs. They're frequently referred to as the Kansas City team's "farm club". But, from what little I've read so far, it sounds like they were a minor league team for the KC Monarchs in much the same way the Kansas City Athletics were a farm club of the Yankees. The team ran from sometime in the 20s to 1935, with 1932 being their peak year. In addition to Willard, Hall of Famer Hilton Smith played for Monroe.

[Cusick]

Pitcher A. J. Jackson was with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1958.

The photo comes from Cam Perron's Negro Leagues website at https://www.facebook.com/negroleaguebaseballupdates/

[Cusick]

Bill Stewart claimed to be the oldest living former Negro Leaguer at age 103 when this photo appeared on Dec. 7, 2015 on the website of the alabamanewscenter.com. He had been a recent vistor to the Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham. Stewart played mostly on minor league versions of Negro League teams during the period of 1930-48, but he played for the Memphis Red Sox at some point within that time frame as well. He was an outfielder.

The photo on the right shows him during his playing days with the Algiers Giants of New Orleans, in 1940.

[Cusick]

According to Cam Perron's website, Gerald Sazon played with the Indianapolis Clowns during the mid-to-late 1950's. I have not found Sazon's name on Clowns' rosters from other sources.

The photo is from https://www.facebook.com/negroleaguebaseballupdates/

[DawnBTVS]

Tweaked some images not sure if they are upgrades necessarily but it was worth an effort IMO.

Chappie Johnson


Judy Johnson


A.J. Lockhart


Dave Malarcher


Jud Wilson

[FatJack]

Cusick posted an image of William "Showboat" Dumpson in his Harlem Globetrotter gear a few years back, following his death in 2014. But I came across an RMY Auction, tonight (closed last week, more's the pity), and among their offerings was this full body image of Dumpson with the 1952 Philadelphia Stars.

Cropped and greyscaled and did a tiny bit of clean up, so I'll give you the before and after.

[FatJack]

Bill Bethea passed away on July 8, 2017. He was 87. A lefthanded pitcher, Bill was something of a strikeout king and a legend in the Carolinas. He played for the Greensboro Redbirds, a black team that played against Negro League teams, from 1950-1952. He was then signed by the Braves and enjoyed a brief pro career. The information below is drawn from the book "I Will Never Forget" by Brent P. Kelley and the Greensboro News & Record piece by Nancy McLaughlin, "I'm Already Missing Him".

Bill was known in Greensboro for his prowess on the hardwood court and he played some softball. But he'd never played baseball until he was 18. "Believe it or not, I was kind of frightened of it because the pitcher would throw so close to the hitters, it looked like," Bill laughed. "I didn't want to stand up to the plate." But he happened to be nearby when the Greensboro Black Yankees, a semi-pro team that would play any black baseball teams passing through the area, came up a player short. They pleaded with Bill to play with them, though Bill insisted he didn't know anything about the game. Eventually, the team prevailed, promising to keep Bill in the outfield, as far from the "action" as possible. A few balls were hit Bill's way and it didn't take long for the rest of the team to figure out he was wasted in the outfield. Bill's arm was strong but what really caught everyone's attention was the movement on his throws. Bill took a lot more convincing, but soon the southpaw became the Black Yankees greatest weapon.

There weren't any radar guns at the time, but contemporary accounts suggest Bill threw in the high 90s, possibly hitting 100 or more. Both his fastball and his curve ball had a sharp bite and Bill started racking up the K's. "I was getting 16, 17, 18 strikeouts a game." In one game, he got 21. Bill's talents had the Black Yankees giddy about their new ace. They nicknamed him "Speed".

Bill's uncle (Hezekiah Day), who had no idea his nephew was playing ball, played for the Greensboro Redbirds. The Redbirds and Black Yankees had a scheduled game that got cancelled when they couldn't get the field. But Bill's uncle saw his nephew in uniform and asked what he was doing there. Bill didn't say, but his teammates, with obvious excitement, said, "You'll see why." Although, with the game cancelled, Hezekiah and the Redbirds' manager, Herman Taylor, did not see then, they were intrigued and invited Bill to come with them to their next game in Virginia. Bill felt the Redbirds were a more professional team. They carried themselves like professionals and dressed like professionals, so he went with them and, after striking out 13 or 14 against "a quality team", he stayed with him. The Black Yankees weren't too happy about it but, when Bill was signed by the Braves a couple of years later, they understood why it was the right thing for him to have done.

Bill pitched for Wellsville in 1953, but that was his only year in the Braves chain. He spent 1954 and 1955 in Iowa, playing on the Pirates' affiliate in Clinton (with a brief stop across the Canadian border in St. Jean). Then he decided to get a college education. As much as Bill enjoyed baseball, as much as he hoped to reach the majors one day, he'd done manual labor and decided he didn't like it much. A college education would give him a fallback in case baseball didn't work out.

In 1960, Bachelor's Degree in hand, Bill returned to the diamond with the Lexington Indians of the Western Carolina League (aka The South Atlantic League). The south was still heavily segregated at the time and Bill's first game in Lexington was a memorable one. As he was warming up, the name-calling started and a "little riot" broke out. Police were called to calm things down. "I just pulled my shirt up to make sure that I had 'Lexington Indians' on my shirt. I said, 'I'm supposed to be with you all. This is the home team and I'm with the home team.'" Bill decided he was going to win them over. He gave a baseball to each of the kids who were hanging around. When a bat broke, he'd tape it up and give that to them as well. Along about the 7th inning, he'd struck out 15 and he heard a "white gentleman" in the stands call out, "Come on, Bill." After that, Lexington "opened up" a little bit. There were places blacks were not allowed to eat but, if Bill tossed a shutout, they let the team (black players included) come in and have lunch for free.

That year, Bill had the best season of his career. He went 11 - 3 with 158 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.35, which is still the league record today, more than half a century later. Bill was impressive enough with Lexington that the expansion Mets purchased his contract, placing him with the Raleigh Capitals in 1961. Raleigh wasn't very good and Bill was now 31. He was 0 - 5 with a 7.75 ERA for Raleigh. Even so, Ken Free, a Raleigh teammate would later say, "All things being equal, Bill should have made it to the big leagues. Billy deserved to be called up." 1961 was to be Speed's final pro season, though he got a bit of a look with the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs in the spring of '62.

Bill went to work for Greensboro's parks and recreation department and spent much of his time working with the area youth, mentoring them. In 1996, he was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame. In addition to his record low ERA, Bill also holds the league record for strikeouts in an extra inning game (25) and strikeouts in consecutive games (41).

For all the legend of his baseball exploits, Bill is remembered by friends and family for who he was off the field. Close friend Hunter Haith summed it up. "He was a man of meager means, but he would take people into his home and provide for them. If he had a little bit, then they got a part of what he had. I'm already missing him."

The attached images accompanied the article in the Greensboro News & Record. The custom baseball card shows Bill with the Greensboro Redbirds. There are no names attached to the team photo of the Lexington Indians, but that's clearly Bill in the back row on the far right.

[Cusick]

Roosevelt Jackson was a second baseman and outfielder who played for what I would consider some minor league teams of the Negro Leagues. He was on teams like the Mack Junkins Tar Buckets, the Miami Globetrotters, Florida Cuban Giants, the Lucky Stars, and the Danny Dodgers. But when he is recognized by a former US President as a Negro Leaguer, it seems that he ought to be displayed on this thread. Furthermore, the AP article which accompanied this photo back in 2011 declared him to be the oldest living former Negro Leaguer at the time. Cam Perron's Negro Leagues page reported last month that Roosevelt was still alive at Age 99.

[Cusick]

Leo Westbrook was a pitcher for the Raleigh Tigers in what was left of the Negro Leagues in 1961. The image is from Cam Perron's website.

[Cusick]

Though cited as Lionel Steward in the caption of this photo, I think this is Leoniel "Leon" Stewart who appeared in one game in 1940 for the Newark Eagles as a pitcher and who also was with the 1942 Birmingham Black Barons as an outfielder. He is shown here with the 1940 Algiers Giants of New Orleans, a team which had several other players rise to teams in the Negro Leagues.

[Cusick]

Zack Clayton, a first baseman and catcher, was with the New York Black Yankees in 1943 and 1944. Photos of Zack have been posted previously on this thread, but not in a Black Yankees uniform.

This photo is from the seamheads.com website.

[Cusick]

Douglas Sydnor was an outfielder with the New York Black Yankees in 1944. The photo is from the Hartford Courant of June 18, 1944.

Seamheads.com correctly lists him as Sydnor. Earlier publications like THE NEGRO LEAGUES BOOK, by Lester and Clark, listed him as (unknown first name) Sydney.