Danger Talbert

Dangerfield Talbert

Dangerfield F. Talbert

Nicknames: Danger and Tal, both derived from his name, and ‘Old Reliable’ due to his steady fielding

Dangerfield Talbert was born in Platte City, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, on March 8, 1878 according to historian James A. Riley. The 1900 U.S. Census confirms much of this – that he was born in March 1878 in Missouri. His father was born in Platte County which lends validly to another part of the equation. (One of Danger’s brothers lived in Kansas City for a time as an adult which confirms a local connection.)

Danger is actually listed twice in the 1900 Census in Omaha (both on the same day, 1 June), once with his family as “Dangerfield” and the other as a lodger elsewhere as “Danger F.”

Family and Early Life

Danger’s parents were Henry (born in Missouri in December 1854), a day laborer, and Mary (born in Missouri in September 1862) Talbert. If the dates are correct (according to the 1900 Census) Mary was very young – age 14 – when she became pregnant with Dangerfield. This could be correct or a definite possibility is an error in her birth year or perhaps Henry was married once before to Danger’s birth-mother.

Talbert children:

• Dangerfield
• Charlotta, birth March 1880 in Missouri
• Harrison May 1882 in Iowa
• Freddie, March 1884 in Iowa
• Henry Clay, February 1891 in Nebraska

As seen above, the family relocated more than once. Henry was a day laborer and may have been following work opportunities. He may have been incarcerated in St. Louis when the 1880 Census was taken, which might also explain the family’s relocation to Iowa soon thereafter. In Nebraska the family lived in Omaha, which is just across the Iowa border.

The 1900 Census taken on June 1 finds Danger working in Omaha as a day laborer and porter, as there are two listings. He had various jobs as a teenager and young adult. His company clubs (listed below) in Omaha suggests some of them. The Omaha World Herald on 31 July 1899 also noted that, he “used to be the head bookkeeper in an Omaha livery stable.”

Teams (all confirmed by contemporary accounts)

• 1893 West Omaha Juniors
• 1894 Omaha ?
• 1895 Omaha Wilcox & Draper, Omaha Originals
• 1897 Omaha Poverty Knobs
• 1898 Omaha Haydens
• 1899 Lincoln (NE) ?, Sterling (NE) Sterlings, Tecumseh (NE) Tecumsehs, Omaha Hammonds
• 1900 Omaha Hammonds
• 1901 Chicago Unions Giants
• 1902 Chicago Unions Giants, Algona Brownies
• 1903 Algona Brownies, Chicago Unions Giants
• 1904 Chicago Unions Giants
• 1905 Philadelphia X-Giants
• 1906 Chicago Leland Giants
• 1907 Chicago Leland Giants
• 1908 Chicago Leland Giants
• 1909 Chicago Leland Giants
• 1910 Chicago Giants
• 1911 Chicago Giants
• 1912 Chicago Union Giants

(Hopefully, more information can be unearthed about his time in Omaha. References are scant – and under numerous variations of his name – in many years, particularly 1896, ’97 and 1900.)

Baseball

Versatile ballplayers like Talbert get pegged in retrospect as utility men, as substitutes. These terms seem to apply a fill-in role. This was not the case when he was a pro. As a young teenager, he began as a catcher and then moved to many spots. In the late 1890s with local clubs, he in fact did bounce between positions.

As a pro, he covered second base and shortstop for stretches but played much of entire seasons as at third base. His movement from position to position indicates not only his versatility but it just as much indicates his team’s needs on a year-by-year basis.

He played a decade with the top black clubs, mainly in the west for Frank Leland’s clubs, beginning at age 23. However, he had at least eight years of competitive experience before hitting Chicago permanently.

Omaha Baseball

Danger was a teenager when his family finally settled in Omaha, Nebraska near the Iowa border. According to Riley, Talbert was a catcher in high school and this pans out as at age 15 he covered the same position for the West Omaha Juniors in 1893.

In 1894 he played center field for an Omaha black club, name undetermined from available reference. The following year he played catcher and shortstop for the Wilcox and Draper Shoe House team of Omaha, from at least May into late July. The company team was one of the best in the area and was billed as the “colored champions of the west.” On July 28 (and perhaps other dates), he played for the Omaha Originals at shortstop. The Omaha Daily Bee of 12 May 1895 claimed that Talbert and teammate Dorcas Lewis had received offers from the Cuban Giants.

Omaha World Herald 7/29/1895

In 1897, Danger played catcher for a club known as the Omaha Poverty Knobs. In ’98, he played much of the season for the Hayden Brothers Department Store nine, at shortstop.

Talbert bounced around in 1899. In April he played left field for a Lincoln, Nebraska club, nickname undetermined. He also played for the Tecumseh, Nebraska club. In July he played for the Sterling, Nebraska team at third base. In September, Danger played shortstop and third base for an Omaha company club, of the Hammond Packing Company.

In the spring of 1900, he returned with the Hammonds, listed with the team into May.

Some of Talbert’s recurring teammates in/around Omaha:

• Australian Jim Hall
• Dorcas Lewis
• William Monaghan
• Mose O’Bannon
• Harry Sage
• Eddie Welch
• Harry Welch

Indianapolis Baseball

Researcher Paul Debono cites Talbert as a pitching star for the Indianapolis Unions during some vague time around the turn of the century. Tracing Debono’s source for this – a Cincinnati Enquirer reference from 20 February 1909, it’s interesting to note that a Talbert, not Danger, pitched for the Indianapolis ABCs in 1909 (see Indianapolis Freeman on 12 June 1909). This could be a coincidence or perhaps Danger never played in Indianapolis.

Moreover, no indication was found that Dangerfield Talbert pitched extensively or much at all. In truth, only one such account was found – in a contest against major leaguers in 1908.

1900

Riley and fellow researchers Dick Clark and Larry Lester show Talbert breaking in with the Chicago Unions in 1900. Unfortunately, an extensive search of Union game accounts and box scores in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender and pulling from numerous sources at Genealogybank.com and Newspaperarchive.com yielded no references of Talbert with the Unions in 1900. It was confirmed that he did play with Omaha clubs at least into May.

It is clear though that the Unions traveled extensively in 1900 and game accounts are probably scattered out there waiting to be discovered. However, even late in the season, Talbert did not crack the lineup in found accounts. If he joined the Unions for the 1900 season, it was nothing more than in a brief, utility capacity.

(It is evident that Danger and at least part of his family relocated to Chicago some time in the latter part of 1900 or in 1901, as the senior Henry Talbert passed away in Cook County on February 7, 1902.)

1901-1902

The administrators of two strong Chicago-based black clubs, the Chicago Unions and Columbia Giants, consolidated under the management of Frank Leland for the 1901 season, becoming the Chicago Union Giants. Talbert, a righthander, secured the third base job for the new nine by June.

He opened the 1902 season with the Union Giants, playing shortstop. In early July, the Algona (Iowa) Brownies sent executive F. M. Curtiss to Chicago to secure additional talent for the club. He returned with Talbert, George “Rat” Johnson, a heavy-hitting catcher, and pitcher Whirlwind Johnson. Talbert manned third base for the nine through the end of the season.

1903-1905

Talbert once again manned third base for the Brownies in 1903. Behind pitcher Billy Holland, the club became identified as the western champions of black baseball after defeating the Chicago Unions Giants in a series of contests and claiming a victory over the Class-D Northern league champion Winnipeg Maroons. (Danger was gone from the club by the Winnipeg contest)

On August 3 and 4, the Chicago Union Giants traveled to Algona for some contests, losing three to the home club. However, they left with Talbert, who became their new shortstop, and later third baseman.

1903 Algona Brownies (Tal bottom left)

In March 1904, the Algona Brownies disbanded after much of their local competition settled into various league formats. Frank Leland picked up their stars Holland and Sherman Barton for his Union Giants. Talbert played the entire season with the club, manning second base in the box scores found.

In 1905, Leland renamed his club the Chicago Leland Giants. In the spring, Talbert was listed as a member of the club but instead he played the entire season for the Philadelphia X-Giants, at second and third base. It was his only eastern team. He traveled with the club to Havana in October for a series of contests. A ship’s manifest lists him departing Havana on November 28 with teammates, headed for New York City.

1906-1909

Danger rejoined the Leland Giants in 1906, playing with them through 1909.

• 1906 second base, third base
• 1907 third base
• 1908 third base
• 1909 third base

The Lelands were revamped in 1907, bringing in black baseball stalwarts:

• Pete Booker
• Rube Foster
• Bill Gatewood
• Nate Harris
• Pete Hill
• Mike Moore
• Jap Payne
• Bobby Winston

Foster, a dominant pitcher, took over the team’s captaincy. In 1908, the club joined the Chicago City League.

In at least 1909, Talbert played in Palm Beach, Florida with other black ballplayers, entertaining the guests of the Poinciana and Breaker Hotels. The players also worked at the establishments as porters, busboys, waiters and kitchen help or the like.

1909 Chicago Leland Giants

Hill, Payne, Booker, Walter Ball, Pat Dougherty, Gatewood, Foster

Talbert, Mike Moore, Leland, Winston, Sam Strothers, Harris

1910-1912

Before the 1910 season, Leland and his star and manager Rube Foster had a parting of the ways. Foster actually retained the rights to the Leland Giants name and absconded with many of the best players. Talbert remained loyal to Leland and played with his club known as the Chicago Giants, covering third base. Nevertheless, he was released at the end of July and doesn’t appear on local game accounts thereafter.

However, he rejoined the Chicago Giants at third base for the entire 1911 season. In 1912, he appears in the Chicago Tribune on 28 April for a second-tier club, the Chicago Union Giants. Though they carried the same moniker, there was no relation to the earlier top-level nine.

This appears to be the end of his baseball career.

Benefit

Talbert’s career ended in 1912 at age 34 with the onset of tuberculosis. On May 6, 1913, Rube Foster organized a benefit game for his former teammate. The game raised over $250, part of which was donated by Charles Comiskey and Jimmy Callahan.

Chicago Tribune 5/5/1913

The benefit contest, really an all-star game, boasted some of the top players of the era in the west:

Chicago Tribune 5/7/1913

Death

By September, Danger was home with his family in Omaha. The Midway Giants organized another benefit there for him on the 6^th, though to meager attendance. No immediate death notice or reference was found for Talbert, but Dave Wyatt in a column in the Indianapolis Freeman on 24 February 1917 mentioned that Danger had previously died in Omaha from tuberculosis. No date was given but a good guess would be late 1913 or in 1914 at age 35 or 36

Danger’s Family

Danger’s love of and skill for baseball probably saved him from a childhood of delinquency and reform school and an adulthood of illicit behavior and incarceration. His father, as previously noted, may have been incarcerated and this derives more credence when examining Danger’s brothers.

All three of his brothers – Harrison, Fred and Henry – had significant run-ins with the law. Even as young as 11 years old, they were in and out of police stations and court rooms and periodically locked up. The Omaha World Herald is littered with their exploits – from the 1890s into the 1930s.

Harrison had a particularly troubled life. He was involved in numerous felonies including drugs charges, assaults and murder. Consequently, he served significant jail time. Plus, he did much of this using Danger’s name.

Initial newspaper searches of Dangerfield Talbert pulled up numerous legal issues in Omaha under his name ranging from 1909 well into the 1930s. The question arose; did he survive the tuberculosis only to fall into a life of crime? The answer is no. Harrison was using his name – for decades.

The first indication was an arrest under Danger’s name in October 1909 for charges in Omaha stemming from when the baseball Danger was in Chicago playing ball. This was confusing but became even more suspicious as the charges, arrests and imprisonments (too numerous to mention) accrued over the next three decades.

Enough information was gleaned though that showed Harrison, under his own name, to be a shady character. Was he or another brother using their deceased brother’s name as a shield? The answer was found with Harrison’s death listing in the Omaha World Herald on 7 April 1943. He is cited as “Dangerfield Harrison.”

Was this his actual name? It seems not and is listed as simply “Harrison” on his WWI registration card and in the Censuses. It was however evidence of the innocence of the baseball Dangerfield Talbert whose name remains unsullied. He may have pulled off some impressive feats on the diamond, but even more so to avoid the wayward lifestyle which seemed to engulf his brothers.

SOURCE LIST

Gary Ashwill, author of the Agate Type website and the Negro League Database at Seamheads.com, proved to be an invaluable resource as usual. He pushed me to further examine Talbert’s time in Omaha and provided me with his insight into Danger’s life after baseball. He helped me tie things together.

• Algona Courier, Iowa, 1902-1903
• Algona Upper Des Moines Republican, Iowa, 1902-1903, 2 March 1904
• Ancestry.com
• Gary Ashwill’s Agate Type Baseball website
• Chicago Broad Axe, 23 January 1909, 25 March 1911
• Chicago Defender, 17 May 1913
• Chicago Tribune, 1900-1913
• Clark, Dick and Larry Lester. The Negro Leagues Book. Cleveland, Ohio: Society for American Baseball Research, 1994.
• Debono, Paul. The Indianapolis ABCs: History of a Premier Team in the Negro Leagues. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997.
• Figueredo, Jorge S. Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2003.
• Familysearch.com
• HeritageQuest.com
• Holway, John. The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History. Fern Park, Florida: Hastings House Publishers, 2001.
• Indianapolis Freeman, 3 August 1907, 12 June 1909, 1910, 1 July 1911, 24 February 1917
• Omaha Daily Bee, Nebraska, 17 June 1894, 12 May 1895
• Omaha World Herald, Nebraska, 1893-1900, 24 June 1901, 6 March 1904, 29 October 1909, 7 September 1913, 28 February 1917, 26 November 1921, 20 December 1930, 11 June 1933, 7 April 1943
• Philadelphia Inquirer, 1905
• Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1994.
• St. Paul Appeal, 19 September 1903
• Wikipedia.org