Dink Mothell

Carroll Ray Mothell

Carroll Ray Mothell was born on August 16, 1897 in Topeka, Kansas, the hometown of his parents Sandy Mothell and Scottie Lee Pillow Mothell.

Carroll barely knew his father. Sandy, born circa 1874, enlisted in the Army during the Spanish American War, serving as a cook from mid-1898 into April 1899 in the African-American 23^rd Kansas Regiment in Cuba.

• http://www.spanamwar.com/23rdkansasroster.htm
• http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/dispunit.php?id=32

Sandy only lived another year, dying on May 15, 1900 from consumption. Carroll hadn’t reached his third birthday yet.

Scottie Mothell – born in November 1877, died December 16, 1931

Carroll lived and grew up at 1508 Quincy Street at the home of his grandparents Charles and Celia Pillow. He had two brothers:

• Claude Mothell, born 12/1/1895, died 5/6/1965
• Ernest D. Mothell, born 8/13/1900, died 9/1973

Teams (all confirmed by contemporary sources)

• 1917 Topeka Giants
• 1920 Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants
• 1921 Chanute (KS) Black Diamonds
• 1922 Kansas City All-Nations
• 1923 Kansas City Monarchs, Kansas City All-Nations
• 1924 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1925 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1926 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1927 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1928 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1929 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1930 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1931 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1932 Cleveland Stars (player-manager), Kansas City Monarchs (player-manager)
• 1933 Kansas City Monarchs
• 1934 Kansas City Monarchs (player-manager)
• 1935 Kansas City McNair All-Stars (aka McNair Paseo Taverns)

Others’ listings: (unconfirmed)

• Riley: 1914 Topeka Giants, 1918 Topeka Giants
• Holway: 1914 Topeka Giants
• Clark/Lester: 1921 Kansas City Monarchs

Baseball

Carroll grew up playing baseball with his friends and extended family. The town had a prominent club which traveled the country at times – the Topeka Giants. The nine was run by Topeka Jack Johnson, well-known as a sparring partner of the heavyweight boxing champion with the same name. James Mothell, Carroll’s uncle, played for the Giants in at least 1906.

Dink was initially a catcher but developed into a valued utility player, playing all positions but heavily on the right side of the infield. Outside parts of two seasons, he played exclusively with clubs from his home state.

He was a righthanded thrower and switch-hit. Historian James A. Riley lists him at 6’ and 175 pounds.

It’s been listed in several sources – particularly from historians John Holway and Riley – that Mothell played for the Topeka Giants in 1914 at age 16 or 17. This wasn’t verified; however, a listing was found in 1917 which shows Dink at catcher and his 17-year-old brother Ernest pitching:

Topeka Daily Capital 9/23/1917

Mothell joined the Kansas City Monarchs during the first year of the Negro National League in 1920. He split with the club at mid-season in a salary dispute with owner J.L. Wilkinson and joined Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants, but played sparingly there. He remained close to home in 1921, working for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. He played ball that summer for Chanute, a stop on the railway.

Ernest also played for the Black Diamonds, a listing in May shows him at shortstop. Interestingly, Carroll’s least-played positions – pitcher and shortstop – are the ones Ernest covered in the found box scores.

Dink joined Wilkinson’s farm club – the Kansas City All-Nations – in 1922. The following year, he rejoined Wilkinson in the spring and was used for a time with the Kansas City Monarchs before being once again relegated to the All-Nations. In 1924, Mothell joined the parent club for good, remaining through the 1934.

He finished his career with the McNair All-Stars, a club composed mostly of former Monarch and Chicago American Giant players.

Later Life

Mothell lived in Kansas City until the mid-1940s when he moved back to Topeka, residing on Quincy Street two blocks from his childhood home. He died in a Topeka hospital on April 24, 1980 at age 82 and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Interestingly, both Dink and his father received interest in the past decade to have their gravestones updated – Sandy for his participation with the military and Dink by the Society for American Baseball Research.

(In newspaper accounts relating to Dink’s new grave marker his childhood home is listed as refurbished at 1506 Quincy Street. However, numerous Census and World War I registration cards – of all three brothers – clearly list their residence at # 1508)

SOURCE LIST

• Ancestry.com
• Baltimore Afro-American, 1932
• Canton Repository, Ohio, 24 April 1932
• Chicago Defender, 1920, 1923
• Chicago Tribune, 1920
• Clark, Dick and Larry Lester. The Negro Leagues Book. Cleveland, Ohio: Society for American Baseball Research, 1994.
• Cjonline.com
• Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1932
• Des Moines Daily Register, Iowa, 31 May 1921
• The Donaldson Network, Johndonaldson.bravehost.com
• Emporia Gazette, Kansas, 1935
• Familysearch.com
• Holway, John. Blackball Tales: Rollicking, all new, true Adventures of the Negro Leagues by the Men who lived and loved them. Springfield, Virginia: Scorpio Books, 2008.
• Kansas City Sun, 29 may 1920
• King, Dick, “King: Headstones Pay Tribute to Four Blacks,” Cjoneline.com, 4 March 2007
• Le Mars Globe-Post, Iowa, 24 May 1923
• Negro League Database at Seamheads.com
• Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1994.
• San Antonio La Prensa, 1932
• Sandusky Register, Ohio, 1932
• Schremmer, Mark, “Forgotten Star lacks Grave Marker,” Cjonline.com, 7 August 2010
• Sioux City Journal, Iowa, 21 May 1923
• Spencer News Herald, Iowa, 1923
• Topeka Daily Capital, 23 September 1917
• Topeka Plain Dealer, Kansas, 1900, 6 July 1906, 1920-1921, 18 December 1931, 1932