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Young Rube Waddell

George Edward Waddell, called Eddie, was born in October 1876 in Bradford, Pennsylvania near the New York border. As a teenager, he moved with his family to a farm in the town of Prospect, north of Pittsburgh in Butler County.

In his youth, he attended school and worked the fields. Part of his responsibilities included chasing off crows who fed on the harvest. He did so with rocks, becoming proficient in both accuracy and sheer force. Growing to over six feet and weighing around 200 pounds, Eddie would later intimidate batters as he did the scavenger birds.

In 1895 at age 18, Waddell joined the Butler team, a mediocre club which held contests with other local nines. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the state and Organized Baseball started hearing about this impressive lefty who sent more than his share of batters back to the bench. He would soon be known as the first great lefthanded strikeout pitcher.

1896

Around May 13, 1896, Waddell signed with George Tebeau of Fort Wayne (IN) of the Class-C Interstate League.

Fort Wayne Sentinel 5/14/1896

His actions here show the first signs of the erratic behavior which would plaque team officials throughout the big farmer’s travels in semi-pro and professional baseball.

Fort Wayne Sentinel 5/29/1896

Exasperated, Tebeau formally suspended Waddell on June 4, at which time the ballplayer was listed with the Franklin nine.

The above Fort Wayne references strongly suggest that Waddell was playing somewhere, most likely in Pennsylvania, Tebeau would have seen him pitch in mid-May – probably in or around New Castle. The May 14-article suggests that he was playing for an Eau Claire, PA nine, or perhaps for another team that happened to be playing in Eau Claire. As yet, confirmation has not been found.

In early June at the latest, Waddell joined the Franklin squad. Franklin had been in an organized circuit, the Class-C Iron and Oil League, the previous year with fellow Pennsylvania teams in New Castle, Oil City, Sharon, Titusville and Warren (and others outside the state). However, Franklin’s baseball status had diminished since 1895. Even their new, young pitching star couldn’t save the club.

Titusville Herald 7/1/1896

Waddell’s catcher with Franklin was Jack Nelson whom legend has it bestowed the famous nickname “Rube” on his young counterpart for both his country mannerisms and naïveté.

The nine disbanded in early July. Waddell immediately joined Runninger’s Athletes, a team composed mainly of Franklin and Oil City ballplayers under the management of popular local pitcher Honest John Runninger.

Titusville Herald 7/4/1896

Soon enough, Rube was twirling for Oil City, a club which also included his Franklin catcher Jack Nelson.

Titusville Herald 8/13/1896

Waddell returned to the farm for the winter.

1897

Rube may have played for mediocre clubs in 1896 but word got around about his exploits. The new manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Patsy Donovan, invited the big hayseed for a spring tryout in early April, or perhaps late March.

The pitcher headed south and met Donovan for breakfast. This must have occurred in Roanoke, Virginia, the Pirates training site where the manager had been since March 22. The two did not see eye to eye. Donovan cancelled the tryout. The pitcher headed back to Butler without even showing his stuff.

An unlikely suitor then approached the lefty. Volant College, a small private teachers’ college located to the west just outside Butler, offered to pay Rube a $1 per game plus room and board; he didn’t even have to attend classes. In the days before the Amateur Athletic Union stiffened eligibility requirements in the early 20^th century, this practice was more common than might be suspected.

Rube pitched his first game for Volant and its manager Thomas H. George on May 8 in Wampum, PA. He arrived late – in the 7^th inning – and took the mound for the final two frames, striking out 5 of the 7 men he faced.

He pitched for the school through June 23, dominating all opposition. While with Volant, Waddell also pitched a few contests for Greenville. One day while heading to meet George and his college squad, Rube was rerouted at gunpoint to Mercer by a couple of guys he tried to hitch a ride with. Missing his intended contest, Rube merrily decided to pick up a dollar and actually took the mound for the Mercer nine – when in Rome.

Waddell took the mound for Greenville for a few games at the end of June but soon joined Evans City. (He may also have pitched for the Homestead Athletic Club while with Evans City. He seems to have bounced back and forth with Homestead.) In mid-August, he faced the Pirates at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.

Soon thereafter, Fred Clarke, manager and left fielder, and Harry Pulliam, club executive, of the Louisville Colonels of the National League sent Pittsburgh native Frank Haller to Evans City to check out their star pitcher. Impressed, he signed Rube on the 25^th.

Waddell felt no need to rush to his new club; he remained in western Pennsylvania pitching for Evans City and Mars.

Sporting Life 9/11/1897

Soon after midnight on Wednesday, September 8, Waddell woke Fred Clarke at the Colonels’ Washington, D.C. hotel. He had arrived and was prepared to begin his major league career. Later that day, Rube, still just 20 years old, made his debut in Baltimore, a 5-1 complete-game loss to the Orioles.

Philadelphia Inquirer 9/9/1897

The Sporting Life, dated 18 September 1897, credited Rube’s initial outing as a fine performance, especially noting how well he fielded his position. In the local correspondent’s words, the team made a “good haul in the hayseed.”

Rube’s catcher for the contest was Osee Schrecongost, a New Bethlehem, PA native also making his major league debut.

A week later on the 15^th, Waddell made his only other regular season appearance for the Colonels in 1897. He relieved a struggling Bill Magee in the third inning of the day’s second contest. Louisville lost 8-2 to Pittsburgh but Rube pitched well enough to win the contest, the loss belonging to Magee.

On the 21^st, Waddell finally pitched in Fort Worth, for the Colonels though – a 10-7 victory over the home team. He remained with Louisville into October, pitching in a few exhibition contests but returning home.

When the National League posted its reserved roster on October 7, Waddell was claimed by the Colonels; however, they soon dumped him off. Two weeks later, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers of the Western League with John Richter for Pat Dillard according to reports. First, Tigers owner Frank Vanderbeck had to find Rube’s address; no one seemed to know more than a vague reference that he lived in Butler County.

The deal may not have actually happened that way. For one, Dillard remained in Detroit for 1898. So did Waddell and Richter. Perhaps the exchange was conditional, or perhaps an early form of placing and reserving players – farming – in the minors for seasoning took place.

Fred Clarke and his young pitcher butted heads more than once in 1897. After the pitcher injured his finger while intoxicated, the manager fined him $50. The incident and others impressed on Clarke the need for the young lefty to get more seasoning/maturity. It also impressed on Waddell the need to avoid such a disciplinarian and spoilsport. Their parting was mutually appreciated.

Waddell did not remain idle back home. He played left guard for Butler’s football squad.

Name

Searches of the young Waddell found him listed under more than a handful of names:

• George E.
• George
• E.
• Edward
• Ed
• G.E.
• Rube
• Rubey
• Ruby
• Reuben

Personality

Stories of the eccentric Waddell were told long before he became a national celebrity.

Sporting Life 9/4/1897 (concerning his time in Evans City)

Sporting Life 9/18/1897

New Castle News 4/17/1914 (about his youthful exploits in New Castle)

1898

Waddell headed south to Nashville, the Detroit Tigers’ training site, in late March 1898, reporting in fine shape.

Sporting Life 3/26/1898

When the Western League season opened on April 20, Rube was on the mound for Detroit, a 4-2 loss to Indianapolis. He pitched for the club in nine contests, posting a 4-4 record with 38 strikeouts and 32 walks. His catcher was former major leaguer Art “Old Hoss” Twineham.

His final game with the club took place on May 21, a 12-5 loss to St. Paul. Rube allowed 13 hits and made some crucial miscues, including a glaring mental lapse during a steal of home. The Chicago Tribune lamented, “Detroit’s chump playing made it an easy game for [St. Paul].” The fact that Waddell was seriously hung over only antagonized owner Frank Vanderbeck who had been on the warpath for the last few weeks, firing his manager along the way.

Vanderbeck began to chide his pitcher for his performance. The insults combined with an earlier $25 fine for playing with a local club on May 8 alienated the young Waddell. He took off, jumping the club and landing across Lake St. Clair in Chatham, Ontario, Canada along the Thames River.

Chatham belonged to the Canadian League but wasn’t a signatory of baseball’s National Agreement, leading to the possibility that Rube would be blacklisted by Organized Baseball. As it was, Detroit suspended him.

Waddell was playing with Chatham by the 25^th, making a reported $60 a month. He also occasionally took the mound for nearby teams.

On June 2, Rube faced the Page Fence Giants, one of the top black clubs of the era. He lost 9-1, allowing 9 hits, to Sherman Barton who tossed a 3-hitter. Two of Barton’s allowed hits came off Waddell’s bat. What occurred that day in Chatham in all likelihood wouldn’t have taken place if the contest was played in the States. Rube went through three catchers, one via injury and two who weren’t experienced backstops and couldn’t handle the lefthanded fireballer. To see the game through, one of the Giants’ catchers, Pete Burns, stepped behind the plate for Rube and Chatham – effectively integrating the club, a practice nearly extinct in American minor league baseball.

On the 21^st, Rube struck out 17 Dunnville batters on the way to no-hitting the club, a 1-0 victory. To boot, he scored Chatham’s only run, in the 4^th inning. Miraculously, another 9 outs were handled by Waddell himself; thus, the pitcher almost singlehandedly accounted for 26 of Dunnville’s allotted 27 outs.

Saginaw News 6/23/1898

The next day, he struck out another 20 Dunnville batters.

In mid-July, Waddell met with Tigers’ manager George Stallings and agreed to re-join the club. First, he needed to return to Chatham and pick up some cash they owed him. There, he fell ill, some reports say malaria but that seems severe, and went home to Pennsylvania to recover.

The extent to his illness is questionable though; he was seen reported pitching for the Homestead Athletic Club, by July 31 at the latest.

Greenville Advance Argus 8/11/1898

As suggested above, Waddell’s status in Organized Baseball was under question. It would need to be settled in the off-season. The Brooklyn Dodgers also began expressing interest in the lefty around this time.

The Sporting Life announced that he was traded by Detroit to Columbus of the Western League as compensation for Bert Briggs.

Sporting Life 8/20/1898

In early September, Eddie left Homestead and joined the Butler nine. Rube seemed content, talking about managing the club in 1898. He was also running track for Butler. At some point though, he agreed to join Columbus (OH) and apparently signed with them.

In October the Louisville Colonels drafted Rube Waddell “of Detroit or Columbus,” whomever he belonged to. The transaction was announced by the National League secretary on the 18^th. (Louisville also drafted Ginger Beaumont, Kid Elberfeld and Deacon Phillippe)

Waddell once again kept busy during the off-season. He played left end for Homestead on the gridiron and also played for the club’s water polo and hockey teams.

1899 (briefly)

At the National League meetings on December 17, the circuit’s Board of Arbitration gave Harry Pulliam of Louisville free reign to sign Waddell for the upcoming season. Pulliam deposited the required $500 draft price. It would be up to the Western League to decide if Detroit or Columbus could claim the money.

On March 18, 1899, Waddell left with the Louisville group, headed to their training site in Thomasville, Georgia. On April 22 he was formally farmed out to Columbus, playing with the nine into September. He then joined Louisville for 10 contests.

At the end of the year, Louisville merged with Pittsburgh in a highly questionable syndicate deal which produced the first dynasty of the 20^th century.

As usual, Waddell had no shortage of suitors:

Brooklyn Eagle 8/7/1899

SOURCE LIST

• Baltimore Sun, 9 September 1897
• Baseball-reference.com
• Bay City Times, Michigan, 26 May 1898, 23 June 1898
• Boston Herald, 18 December 1898
• Chicago Tribune, 1897-1899
• Cleveland Leader, 3 January 1898
• Cleveland Plain Dealer, 15 May 1898, 22 May 1898
• Debono, Paul. The Chicago American Giants. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007.
• Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, 22 May 1898
• Dubuque Daily Herald, Iowa, 31 August 1898, 4 October 1898
• Grand Rapids Herald, 15 February 1898
• Greenville Advance Argus, Pennsylvania, 17 June 1897, 16 June 1898, 11 August 1898, 8 September 1898
• Greenville News, Pennsylvania, 10 September 1898
• Levy, Alan H. Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist. Jefferson,
• Minneapolis Journal, 18 May 1898
• New Castle News, Pennsylvania, 4 November 1897, 1 April 1898, 17 April 1914
• New York Times, 7 October 1897
• Peterson, Todd. Early Black Baseball in Minnesota: The St. Paul Gophers, Minneapolis Keystones and other Barnstorming Teams of the Deadball Era. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010.
• Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 September 1897
• Retrosheet.org
• Rockford Republic, Illinois, 16 August 1898
• Saginaw News, Michigan, 23 June 1898, 1 August 1898
• Shenango Valley News, Greenville, Pennsylvania, 25 June 1897
• Sporting Life, 1897-1898
• Titusville Herald, Pennsylvania, 1 July 1896, 4 July 1896, 7 August 1896, 13 August 1896

 

The Society for American Baseball Research is introducing a new publishing initiative this spring.  The SABR Digital Library will be publishing new titles as well as reviving historical SABR publications that have gone out of print.

Two books mark the inception of the library: one new release and one revival.  Can He Play? is a new book examining the world of baseball scouting.  Run, Rabbit, Run is the autobiography of Walter “Rabbit” Maranville, published once again for the first time since 1991.  Both titles are available as paperback and digital editions.

Can He Play?, a production from SABR member editors Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin, is a collection of accounts of the lives of scouts, containing biographies, interviews, and historical essays.  From the beginning of more informal “ivory hunting” in the early 1900s to today’s intricate network of cross-country scouting, Can He Play? is a collection of stories that shows the development of the business over the last hundred-plus years.

Run, Rabbit, Run is Walter “Rabbit” Maranville’s recollection of years of baseball stories, collected only a year before his death.  From 1912 to 1936, he spent twenty-four years playing ball and getting himself into quite a few interesting situations.  The account also contains rare photographs and an introduction and conclusion from noted baseball scholars.

 

A Potential Interracial Crisis, Near-death on the Diamond

Imagine a black pitcher beaning and killing a white batter in professional baseball – at the turn of the 20^th century. The lucrative history of barnstorming may have taken a sour turn. It almost happened in 1903. Luckily, the incident didn’t spark any racial outrage. But, it very well may have if the batter failed to recover.

Bill Kelley

In 1903, the Winnipeg Maroons won the Class-D Northern League pennant with a 65-28 record. One of the stars on the nine was its 22-year-old captain William W. Kelley, the league’s top second baseman.

Kelley’s career as posted at Baseball-reference.com:

• http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=kelly-010wil
• http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=kelley006wil
• 1901 Meriden, Connecticut State League
• 1902 Fall River, New England League
• 1903 Winnipeg
• 1904 Winnipeg

In 95 games with Winnipeg in 1903, Kelley hit .251. He was the younger brother of Michael J. Kelley, a former major leaguer with Louisville in the National League in 1899. In 1903 Mike, a potent hitter, was the manager and first baseman for the St. Paul Saints in the American Association. He would manage in the AA through 1931, recalled during World War II.

Postseason

The Northern League’s season ended on September 8 in 1903. In this era predating million-dollar contracts, ballplayers often hit the road, barnstorming for a few weeks, or a month or more, after the season to pick up extra cash to support them through the off-season. Many black players and clubs actually made a lifestyle out of this and spent the winter in the warmer areas – the south, out west or even South of the Border – pitting their skills before baseball-craved audiences. In this respect, some men lived an itinerant life playing ball 10, 11 or 12 months a year. They often played two or more games a day, especially on weekends and holidays, and even more so in resort areas.

On the weekend of September 19 and 20, Winnipeg landed in St. Paul, Minnesota for the first two games of a series against the Algona Brownies, a top western black club from Iowa. In all, the teams scheduled 11 head-to-head contests.

Algona Brownies

The Algona Brownies were an impressive lot in 1903. They included some of the top men in western black baseball:

• Sherman Barton
• Pete Burns
• Johnny Davis
• Billy Holland
• Will Horn
• Rat Johnson, later better known as Chappie
• Whirlwind Johnson
• Bert Jones
• Willis Jones
• Mike Moore
• George Richardson
• Danger Talbert
• George Wilson

Algona topped both the Chicago Union Giants and Winnipeg in separate series, allowing them to claim the mythical title

 ”Colored Champions  of the West,” behind strong southpaw Billy Holland. Born in 1874, he had been playing with top clubs for a decade before joining the Brownies, most notably the Chicago Unions, Page Fence Giants and Columbia Giants. Before joining Algona he won state championships with an integrated Weseca, Minnesota nine that was sponsored by a local flour mill.

Saturday, September 19

On Saturday, September 18, 1500 fans at St. Paul’s downtown park paid to see Winnipeg take on the heralded black club, the Brownies. The Canadians won 8-6 with Frank “Demon” Shaw on the mound. Shaw had finished the year with a 12-15 record for nearby Duluth, a Northern League rival. He possessed an impressive fastball despite his size; one of the smallest men in the game he weighed 125 pounds.

Sunday, September 20

Algona and Winnipeg met again the next day at Lexington Park, before a Sabbath crowd pushing 2500. Twenty-five-year-old Perry Sessions of the Grand Fork (ND) club (another Northern League rival) who had gone 22-9 during the regular season, started for the Pegs but was wild, walking 6. Algona ceded a lone run due to an error in the first inning but shut the Maroons down thereafter, winning 4-1. The Brownies’ Bill Holland, age 29, struck out 14 along the way, scattering six hits. Algona beat Winnipeg again on Monday 5-1 in Alberta Lee and Tuesday at Mason City 9-8 on a home run in the ninth by George Wilson.

Beaning

Bill Kelley knocked in Winnipeg’s only run with a double. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the game:

was very exciting until the eighth when Capt. Kelley was hit in the head and rendered unconscious. After being taken over to the players’ bench he was conscious for a few minutes; then he relapsed and was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and at 8 o’clock the doctors in attendance had little hope for his life.

The headlines rang out:

Kelley, a righthanded batter, strode to the plate in the 8^th inning with two outs, both strikeouts. Holland’s fifth pitch of the at bat struck him near the left ear or on the temple. In this era long before batting helmets, he immediately dropped, bleeding from his ear, mouth and/or nostrils (as accounts vary). The pitch was a curveball that failed to bend over the plate, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

Grand Forks Herald 9/22/1898

Holland Arrested

At the end of the game, Holland was arrested but later released when it was determined to be an accident. The pitcher received a little sympathy from his hometown:

Aurora via Rockford Morning Star 9/23/1903

Recovery

Grand Forks Herald 9/22/1898

Kelley regained consciousness briefly at 9 pm and even spoke after an incision was made in the ear to remove “a gathering.” He then spent the night in “semi-consciousness.” Four days later, the same newspaper declared, “Captain Kelley is recovering nicely from his injuries and is now able to sit up.” It was hoped he would be able to re-join the club for the rest of the exhibition season but that wasn’t possible. A month later, he was out and about in St. Paul, where he took a job for the winter.

SOURCE LIST

• Algona Advance, 24 September 1903
• Algona Upper Des Moines Republican, Iowa, 23 September 1903
• Baseball-reference.com
• Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota, 18 September 1903, 22 September 1903
• Janesville Daily Gazette, Wisconsin,  21 September 1903
• Johnson, Lloyd and Miles Wolff. Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Third Edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007.
• Negro League Database at Seamheads.com
• Rockford Morning Star, Illinois, 23 September 1903
• Sporting Life, 19 September 1903
• Waterloo Daily Courier, Iowa, 21 September 1903
• Winnipeg Free Press, 21 September 1903, 22 September 1903, 26 September 1906, 26 October 1903, 2 December 1903, 7 December 1903

 

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

 

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

 

Doc Sykes 

Frank Jehoy Sykes 

Frank Jehoy Sykes was born on April 10, 1892 in Decatur, Alabama and grew up in the northwestern part of the city. 

Family Background 

In the 1840s Dr. Frank W. Sykes, a white physician, married Elizabeth Garth, the daughter of General Jesse W. Garth (commissioned in the War of 1812) who owned a great deal of land, plantations and slaves (about 200) throughout Morgan County in Alabama and surrounding counties. 

The newlyweds purchased the plantation of George W. Foster and Sykes retired his practice to run the plantation. Later, he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives and Senate. 

Baltimore Afro-American 4/8/1933 

When [Dr. Frank W. Sykes] married the daughter of a wealthy slave owner, he received as a wedding present a beautiful young slave girl who became the “house girl” in the family and the mother of six children while the white wife became the mother of five. 

The father…took good care of his colored offspring and they emerged from the institution of slavery with a substantial start on farm lands near here. 

The “beautiful young slave girl” was named Laura Sykes, born circa 1822; her oldest son from Frank was Solomon Sharper Sykes who was born into slavery in August 1852 on the Garth/Sykes plantation. 

Solomon was Frank Jehoy Sykes’ father. Thus, Doc Sykes’ father was actually born a slave to his grandfather.

Parents 

Solomon Sykes put his inheritance to good use. He became a leading member of the African-American community in Decatur, striving to develop and promote opportunities within the black community to help groups and individuals thrive in their emerging roles in American society after emancipation. (His three brothers did as well, becoming a physician, a city councilman and a businessman. The family also founded the Sykes Cemetery.) In fact, the Sykes and Garth families were among the prominent in the local black community. 

Solomon was a leading member of the African American Board of Trustees for education in Decatur. As such, he helped create the first black schools in the area in the late 1800s. He was described as self-made and self-educated and owned a good bit of local real estate of which he owed not a penny in mortgage. He was also a leading community benefactor, aggressively supporting local schools, churches and businesses. It’s not overtly referred to but some of the lands bequeathed Solomon and his brothers were probably used for public schools and other community facilities. 

Available references cite his hand in various businesses, farming projects, approximately 18 rental homes and the local cemetery, Sykes Cemetery. He is listed in the U.S. Censuses as a farmer and saloonkeeper before ultimately running the leading local mortuary and funeral home. His reach and influences, and hence respect and admiration, was such that upon his death the entire community shut down for part of a day in his honor. (Solomon died on May 3, 1925) 

Doc Sykes in an interview said that his father supported the family initially through a saloon business before one of his older sons, who had founded the community’s primary undertaking business, passed away. Solomon then took over the mortuary and funeral home. 

Solomon married Ada Garth in 1880. She was born into slavery on a nearby plantation in September 1862. (She died on October 4, 1938) Doc Sykes later recalled that she was part American-Indian, but he was unsure of the tribal affiliation.

Siblings 

The Sykes, a Baptist family, had eight children, plus four that didn’t survive childhood: 

• Newman, December 1887
• Leo, May 1891
• Frank
• Mamie Estelle, September 1894
• Carl, June 1899
• Melvin, circa 1901
• Eunice, circa 1907 

Frank later told a chronicler that he was the seventh of 12 children. The rest were not identified.

Education 

At age 14, Frank began working in the family undertaking business, transporting bodies and assisting with other duties. He grew up playing sandlot baseball in Decatur with his brothers and friends. In an interview with John Holway, Sykes said he admired the skills of his oldest brother the most and used him as a role model. Sykes later recounted playing briefly in Chicago. He said he went to the city circa 1909 to take a class on embalming. No game accounts were found but the city had hundreds of clubs during this time with games being played daily throughout the town. Sykes describe his participation here as part of a “Sunday school league.” 

Sykes went to high school in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s been reported that he attended the LeMoyne Institute which may lead to the conclusion that he attended a high school afflicited with this institution.

Solomon and Ada were strong proponents of education and, consequently, all of their children attended college. Frank ultimately followed his brother Leo to Howard University in Washington, D.C. Frank studied dentistry.

First, Frank attended Atlanta Baptist College (ABC), today known as Morehouse College, for two years from 1910 to 1912.  

At Atlanta Baptist Frank played baseball for the school in 1911 and 1912. The school played in an intercollegiate league with Morris Brown College, Atlanta University and Clark University. ABC won the championship in 1911 and finished second in 1912 to AU. In the latter year, Sykes lost the pennant-deciding contest 3-1 on May 11, 1912. 

Atlanta Constitution 4/23/1911

Sykes entered Howard University in the fall of 1912 and remained until receiving his DDS degree in 1918. 

At Howard, he played baseball for four years, from 1913 to 1916. 

New York Age 4/20/1916

Baseball teammates at Howard include: 

• George Brice
• George Gilmore
• Hudson “Hutty” Oliver
• Bullet Slaughter
• Wabishaw “Doc” Wiley 

Researching sports at Howard during this time is a bit confusing because his brother Leo was also there. It appears that Leo played center field for the champion Howard club in 1912. Whether he played in subsequent seasons is undetermined. Frank played for Atlanta Baptist in 1912 and game accounts show a Sykes playing for both colleges within days of each other. Hence, the Howard University Sykes must be Leo at that time. No box scores were found at Howard listing two Sykes on the field at the same time. 

Frank told interviewer John Holway that he also played varsity basketball for 4 years at Howard. However, Leo also played and appears to have been the stronger player. A Sykes playing left forward for Howard is listed every winter from 1911 into1917.  

Baltimore Afro-American 6/12/1926

(Leo’s grave marker at Sykes Cemetery notes a birth date of May 7, 1890 and death on July 18, 1943. He was a Sergeant in the military during WWI.)

Furthermore, this article shows that Leo was a star basketball player:

New York Age 3/29/1917

At Howard Frank joined the Omega Psi Fraternity. 

Frank Sykes later boasted to Holway that he never lost a college game but that doesn’t pan out with found game accounts. Even if limited to Howard University, it’s not correct.

Type of Ballplayer 

Doc Sykes was a righthanded pitcher, a side-armer, whose later career was defined by the spitball, a pitch he threw with one of three velocities – slow, slower, slowest. In the Chester Times on 14 August 1914, he is “known as the black Walter Johnson.” Being early in his career, this suggests that he may have started with a decent fastball; however, no references were found to support a legitimate comparison to the heat Johnson threw.

Sykes told Holway that indeed he did have decent speed in his youth, “I was a strikeout pitcher until I learned better.” He found that he could take the stress off his arm by relying on the spitter which was thrown at a greatly-reduced speed. The stress it could be said was transferred to the batter.  His slow spitter broke away from righthanded batters and he mixed it with a rising fastball.

A righthanded batter, Sykes also played first base throughout his career. His strong arm also allowed him time in the outfield on rare occasions. He is listed as 6’2” and 185 pounds by James A. Riley and that’s mimicked by the Negro League Database. However, he appears to be taller than that. Louis Santop, who was a mountain of a man, was said to stand as tall as 6’4” by some. In the accompanying photo, Sykes appears to be taller than him. Similarly, Doc stands out in the 1917 Hilldale photo below. (In other photos Sykes appears just shorter than Santop)

Sykes was most-familiarly nicknamed “Doc,” obviously because of his dental degree. The Negro League Database also shows a moniker of “Sally.” 

Sykes played exclusively for eastern clubs swinging from Baltimore up into New York, professionally that is. He in fact hopped between clubs at times almost at a whim. It seems this had a lot to do with his studies and emerging dental practice; he needed to remain close to home, especially during the school year. 

Teams (all confirmed via contemporary accounts, except ?) 

• 1911 Atlanta Baptist College
• 1912 Atlanta Baptist College
• 1913 Howard University, Philadelphia Giants
• 1914 Howard University, New York Lincoln Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants
• 1915 Howard University?, New York Lincoln Stars, Philadelphia Stars, Cuban Giants, Lincoln Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants
• 1916 Howard University, Philadelphia Giants, Lincoln Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants
• 1917 Hilldale Daisies, Lincoln Giants, Philadelphia All-Stars
• 1918 Hilldale Daisies
• 1919 Norfolk All-Stars
• 1920 Baltimore Black Sox
• 1921 Baltimore Black Sox, Harrisburg Giants
• 1922 Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Daisies, Harrisburg Giants
• 1923 Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Daisies
• 1924 Baltimore Black Sox 

 

Melvin Elijah Sykes

Some reports claim that Frank Sykes played for the Lincoln Giants and Hilldale Daisies in 1926 but it was not Frank; in fact, he relocated to Decatur before the season began. It was his younger brother Melvin. In fact, James A. Riley in his biographical encyclopedia even identified Frank as nicknamed Melvin. However, the 1926 accounts are all Melvin: 

• The above article from the Baltimore Afro-American dated 6/12/1926
• Baltimore Afro-American 6/19/1926 with Hilldale
• New York Age 8/7/1926 at second base for Lincoln Giants
• Baltimore Afro-American 8/7/1926 Hilldale recently releasing infielder Sykes 

Franks said that Melvin couldn’t hit a curve ball and thus didn’t stick with the top clubs.

Melvin was born on January 10, 1901 in Decatur and died in March 1984. He was a graduate of Morehouse College and also played baseball and basketball there. He became a physican, graduating from Meharry Medical College. 

1913-1914 

In a 1933 interview with Bill Gibson of the Baltimore Afro-American (5 August), Sykes proclaimed, “It was back in 1913 with the old Lincoln Giants [that I got my start]. I had done a little playing around Decatur (his home town) and in Chicago. I also played on the Howard University nine for four years, pitching and sometimes playing in the outfield.” 

Unfortunately, only one game account was found in 1913 and that was with the Philadelphia Giants, a 4-2 loss to the Brooklyn Royal Giants on September 14 with Sykes playing first base. 

New York Age 9/18/1913

The indication here is that after returning to Howard from summer break he got the opportunity for some cash playing ball. Note his teammate Oliver at shortstop, which is Howard teammate Hutty Oliver. Moreover, the third baseman that day was Frank Forbes, also a Howard man. 

Sykes’s first steady professional work indeed came with the New York Lincoln Giants of Harlem in 1914. Riley says that he obtained the job through his catcher at Howard, Wabishaw “Doc” Wiley, another dental student, who was five years older and had already been playing with the professionals. 

Sykes joined the club on May 31 after the college season ended. At the beginning of August, he moved to the Brooklyn Royal Giants. 

First Game for Lincoln on May 31, note Wiley (listed as “Wabisha”) catching: 

New York Age 6/4/1914

A 16-0 shutout soon followed on June 14: 

Brooklyn Eagle 6/15/1914

While playing ball in New York, Sykes also worked as a red cap at Penn and Grand Central Stations.

1915-1916 

In interviews Sykes intimated that he played baseball for Howard in 1915. If he did, he left the club by May and joined the professional squads. The Amateur Athletic Union was rather relaxed in its enforced of the mixing of amateurism and professionalism until the Jim Thorpe affair. Moreover, it’s not clear if they were much concerned with black institutions anyway. 

Sykes appeared with three professional clubs in May, probably in an effort to remain close to home to maintain his academic responsibilities. On May 1 he appeared with the Lincoln Stars. Throughout the rest of the month and into early June, he played for the Philadelphia Giants. On May 17, Doc appeared for a club called the Cuban Giants which bore no relation to the famed squad of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. In fact, it appears to be a second-tier club with ballplayers named Fells, Randolph, Green, Cooper, Falkenberg, Wade, Kelly and Smith. 

By June 12, Sykes rejoined the Lincoln Stars and played with them into September. On September 20, he appears in the Brooklyn Royal Giants lineup. 

Likewise, he moved around a bit in 1916: 

• March to May, Howard University
• Late May to mid-June, Philadelphia Giants
• At Least June 20 to September 19, Lincoln Stars
• Early September and At least September 23 to October 12, Brooklyn Royal Giants 

Sykes and catcher Louis Santop together jumped the Stars for the Royal Giants in early September but seemed to vacillate between the clubs. 

New York Age 9/23/1916

1917 

In 1917, Sykes’ academic career was winding down and he seems to have played ball somewhat sparingly. 

In mid-May he signed with Ed Bolden of the Hilldale Daisies. His first two starts for the club were shutout victories. He continued with the club at least into July. In August, Doc pitched for the Lincoln Giants in the “World Series” versus the western Chicago American Giants. Chicago won the 7-game contest 4-3. Sykes registered all the loss but also had a save. In the August-13 game, he battled Frank Wickware for 12 innings, finally suffering the 1-0 loss. Sykes also appeared in a game for a hastily assembled club called the Philadelphia All-Stars, which also included Spots Poles, Bill Pettus, Bunny Downs and others. 

(James Riley lists Sykes with the Brooklyn Royal Giants in 1917 but no such game accounts were found) 

1917 Hilldale Daisies

Ed Bolden in suit, Sykes top right 

(Hilldale was in the process of converting its squad to a top-rate professional one. The photo shows the early group. Numerous star players would soon start flooding in. Note: this photo appears to be reversed) 

1918-1919 

When Sykes was drafted and called for his physical in 1917 during World War I, he asked for a deferment to finish his studies. He did graduate in 1918 but U.S. Army records show that he was active from December 18, 1917 until April 21, 1919. (His brother Leo, a sergeant, also served in the Army) 

He was stationed stateside and found time to finish his studies and graduate in 1918. He also played a few games for Hilldale in May. 

The Baltimore Sun on 16 April 1920 lists Sykes as playing for the Norfolk All-Stars in 1919. This suggests that he was stationed in the Virginia area. 

According to James A. Riley, Sykes set up his first dental practice in Anniston, Alabama. By the end of 1919 however, he moved to Baltimore and established himself there. (He’s listed in the society pages by October) 

1920-1921 

Sykes joined the Baltimore Black Sox in 1920 and would play with the club through 1924. He played the entire 1920 and ’21 seasons with the club, into November each year. 

On August 29, 1920, he took a no-hitter into the 9^th inning but lost, 2-1. Two errors by infielders and the inability to field two bunts himself accounted for the loss. The Sox only run came off a Sykes homer. 

On September 22, 1921, he also pitched for the Harrisburg Giants. 

1922 

Doc pitched the entire 1922 season for the Black Sox, into November. Indications are that he had his finest season at age 30, as did the Sox. At home, the club was 52-19-2 plus a forfeit – thus, claiming the title “Champions of the South.” In 27 starts, Sykes posted a 22-4 mark with 6 shutouts. Overall, he was said to register over 30 victories. 

Baltimore Afro-American 12/8/1922

On September 11 (not the 16^th as so often reported), he posted a no-hitter against the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants; though, he lost a perfect game in the ninth. According to historian John Holway, the first batter in that inning hit a ball to third that was booted. The opposing pitcher, Sam Skeeter, cede only 4 hits, 2 to Sykes. 

Baltimore Sun 9/12/1922

On October 15, Sykes shut out a mixed major league nine: 

Baltimore American 10/16/1922

 

In 1922, he also played for: 

• Hilldale, at least 2 games, one on September 4
• Harrisburg Giants, September 28 

1923-1924 

The Black Sox joined the Eastern Colored League in 1923, the first successful top-ranked league in the East. Sykes continued with the club but according to Riley his playing time was reduced. Less than a year after his spectacular 1922 season, he was released for ineffectiveness in mid-August – after several rough outings: 

• Knocked out of the box in third inning on July 19
• The August 3 Baltimore Afro-American headlined: “Sykes is Hammered”
• The August 10 issue headlined: Sykes Spitballist is Chased” 

As the Baltimore Afro-American (17 August) declared, he was “unable to pitch winning ball.” He then pitched at least one game for Hilldale on August 19. 

In a sign of the split with the Black Sox, Sykes placed a classified ad in a local paper: 

Baltimore Afro-American 9/7/1923

The Black Sox completely revamped for the 1924 season. For one, Sykes was brought back but there was friction with field manager Pete Hill. Sykes balked at traveling with the club, citing the demands of his practice, and was released on July 27. His final game was on the 20^th, an ineffective relief appearance. 

Baltimore Afro-American 7/25/1924 

Doc Sykes relieved Force in the fifth, but the onslaught was too great and the visitors continued to hammer the old pill to all corners of the lot at will. 

From the Baltimore Afro-American on 5 August 1933: 

Outside of Baseball 

Sykes’ baseball career was over in July 1924, but this just gave him more time to devote to his more lucrative dental career

 located at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Lanvale Street. 

Over the years, he also occupied his time: 

• Watching boxing matches, especially enjoying Joe Louis
• Loved to hit the race track, Pimlico, daily for stretches at a time
• Competitive bowling
• Competitive billiards
• Officiating local basketball contests
• Traveling to California and Alabama to visit relatives
• Member of the Elks
• Member of the Masons
• Member of the National Dental Association
• Officer of the Maryland Dental Society 

In mid-1926 he married Alice West, a Baltimore elementary school teacher who was a 1924 graduate of Temple University. A Media, Pennsylvania native born circa 1903, she ran track and played basketball in college. (She died on August 4, 1992) The couple had four children, Alice, Charles, Frank and Lawrence. 

In 1925, Doc’s father passed away and, consequently, moved back to Decatur in March 1926 to oversee the family finances, including the funeral home, tend to his mother and to see to the education of his youngest sister. 

In March 1931, nine young males between the ages of 13 and 19 were arrested for the alleged rape of two white females on a train and remitted to Jackson County Jail in Scottsboro, Alabama. Thus, they became famously known as the Scottsboro Boys. 

Within two weeks, they were tried, convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. The ensuing uproar led to numerous retrials through 1937 and changes to the Southern trial system. 

During the retrial of one of the boys on March 30, 1933, Sykes testifies to the inherent unfairness of the Southern justice system – specifically that it systematically excluded African-Americans from sitting on juries. He presented the court with a list of over 200 names of African-Americans he deemed qualified to sit on a jury. His testimony was dismissed at the time by the white legal system in Alabama but it highlighted the need for integrated juries. 

Sykes also contributed behind the scenes. He helped house northern reporters and ferry them from house to house as they became a target of the KKK and other agitators. At least one of the car trips became harried as they came upon some KKK backers. 

He also drove a couple of the accused home upon their release. Naturally, he came under fire for his participation. He received hate mail, death threats and a cross was burned on the property outside his dental office building on Bank Street – which also housed the family’s funeral home. 

In late 1937, the Sykeses returned to Baltimore and Doc re-established his practice at the corner of Monument and Caroline Streets. 

On November 10, 1986, Frank Jehoy Sykes passed away in a Baltimore hospital from complications of pulmonary pneumonia at age 94. His ashes were scattered on the campus of Morehouse College. 

SOURCE LIST 

• Ancestry.com
• Atlanta Constitution, 1911-1912, 1916
• Baltimore Afro-American, 1914-1928, 6 April 1935, 8 January 1938, 2 December 1972, 15 January 1977
• Baltimore American, 16 October 1922
• Baltimore City, “The First Colored Professional, Clerical and Business Directory of Baltimore City, 9^th Annual Edition, 1921-1922
• Baltimore City, “The First Colored Professional, Clerical and Business Directory of Baltimore City, 13th Annual Edition, 1925-1926
• Baltimore Sun, 1920-1924, 18 November 1986, 8 August 1992
• Baseballhistoryblog.com
• Brooklyn Daily Star, 29 May 1916, 21 June 1916
• Brooklyn Eagle, 1913-1916
• California Eagle, Los Angeles, 1 February 1945, 8 January 1948
• Chester Times, Pennsylvania, 14 August 1914
• Chicago Defender, 1918, 8 December 1934
• Familysearch.com
• Findagrave.com
• Greensboro Daily News, North Carolina, 27 April 1912
• Harrisburg Patriot, Pennsylvania, 23 September 1921
• Holway, John. The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History. Fern Park, Florida: Hastings House Publishers, 2001.
• 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.
• Indianapolis Freeman, 1909, 1914-1915
• Lanctot, Neil. Fair Dealing and Clean Playing: The Hilldale Club and the Development of Black Professional Baseball, 1910-1932. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1994.
• McClean, Tony, “Former Negro League Pitcher Doc Sykes Remembered for Off-field Stand against Racism, Lasentinel.com, 20 May 2010
• McDaniel, Deangelo, “Local Historians nominate Center of Scottsboro Boys Trial for Sports Hall of Fame,” Decaturdaily.com, 15 September 1909
• Miller, Sammy J., “The Negro Leagues Courier: The Newsletter of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee,” April 2000
• Negro League Database at Seamheads.com
• New York Age, 1911-1924, 4 September 1937, 8 February 1941
• Philadelphia Inquirer, 1917, 1922
• Richardson, Clement, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Decaturcvb.org
• Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 March 1915
• Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1994.
• Saunders, James Edmonds. Early Settlers of Alabama, Part 1. L. Graham and Sons, Ltd., Printer, 1899 via Google Books
• Sykes, Alice M., “July 2004 in Alabama – A Genealogy Road Trip,” October 2004
• Washington Bee, 28 February 1914
• Wikipedia.org 

Plus numerous other contemporary references to verify movement between teams

 

Bingo DeMoss 

Elwood DeMoss 

Elwood DeMoss was born in Topeka, Kansas on September 5, 1889. 

Family 

• Father: Mansfield DeMoss, born in Tennessee in March 1848, listed as a day laborer
• Mother: Aley (or Alie or Eley) DeMoss, born in Tennessee in March 1861
• Siblings: Lulu, Thomas, James, Willis, Elwood, Lillian, plus three that died young 

His father died between the 1900 and 1910 Censuses, making Elwood most likely a teenager at the time. Mansfield may have been marries once before; according to the 1895 Kansas Census, Lulu was born circa 1874. Lulu was the only child born in Tennessee.

Teams (all confirmed by contemporary accounts) 

• 1910 Kansas City (KS) Giants, Oklahoma City Giants
• 1911 Kansas City Giants
• 1912 Kansas City Giants, West Baden (West Baden Springs, IN) Sprudels
• 1913 French Lick (French Lick Springs, IN) Plutos (captain), Chicago Giants, Chicago American Giants
• 1914 West Baden Sprudels, French Lick Plutos, Indianapolis ABCs
• 1915 Indianapolis ABCs
• 1916 Indianapolis Bowser ABCs, Indianapolis ABCs
• 1917 Palm Beach Poinciana, Chicago American Giants
• 1918 Palm Beach Poinciana, Chicago American Giants
• 1919 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1920 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1921 Palm Beach Poinciana, Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1922 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1923 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1924 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1925 Chicago American Giants (captain)
• 1926 Indianapolis ABCs (player-manager)
• 1927 Detroit Stars (player-manager)
• 1928 Detroit Stars (player-manager)
• 1929 Detroit Stars (player-manager)
• 1930 Detroit Stars (player-manager)
• 1931 Detroit Stars (manager) 
• 1935 Newark Dodgers (manager)
• 1936 Chicago American Giants (manager) 
• 1938 East-West All-Star Game (coach of West) 
• 1942 Chicago Brown Bombers (manager)
• 1943 Chicago Brown Bombers (manager)
• 1944 Chicago American Giants (manager)
• 1945 Chicago Brown Bombers (manager)
• 1946 Chicago Brown Bombers (manager)
• 1947 Chicago Brown Bombers (manager)
• 1948 Chicago Bombers (manager) 

(DeMoss lived in Chicago; he was the manager of the Chicago Brown Bombers in 1945. No evidence was uncovered that he managed the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers of Branch Rickey’s United States League as has been reported.) 

Baseball 

• 5’11” and 180, righthanded
• Second baseman
• Nicknamed Bingo, by 1910 

DeMoss was a good, solid ballplayer who would make any team better. At the plate, he was a superb bunter and contact hitter. He rarely struck out and was an excellent man with the stick during the hit-and-run. Once on the bases, he was very fast, a good base runner and a threat to steal. 

In the field, he had quick hands and an accurate arm. A second baseman, Bingo was among the top double-play men in black baseball. 

DeMoss was 20 years old when he joined the Kansas City Giants in 1910. Historian James A. Riley notes that he was a member of the Topeka Giants in 1905, as a shortstop. He would have been 15 years old at that time. It was found that the club had recently changed its name from the Bees, but that was all. 

The story goes that DeMoss injured his arm pitching early in his career which necessitated his permanent shift from shortstop to second base. 

In 1910, he played with the Kansas City Giants (owned by Tobe Smith) until July when he was picked up by owner C.H. Young of the Oklahoma City Giants shortly after the clubs played each other.

In March 1912, the Kansas City Royal Giants and Kansas City Giants merged under the latter’s name. The best players were consolidated with Bingo taking over second base for the revamped club.

 In 1913, he opened the season with French Lick, playing with them into at least June. In July and August he was playing with the Chicago Giants. He also played with the Chicago American Giants in August. (The Negro Leagues Book lists DeMoss with West Baden in 1913) 

Chicago Tribune 7/21/1913

C.I. Taylor was the manager of the West Baden club before buying into and performing the same duties with the Indianapolis ABCs, owned by Tom Bowser, in 1914. Taylor brought a strong contingent to the ABCs including George Brown, Morty Clark, DeMoss, Dizzy Dismukes, George Shively and Ben and James Taylor. C.I. then went out and signed the great Oscar Charleston. 

Bingo sparked an ugly incident in October 1915 during a contest against major leaguers, bringing unfavorable light on interracial contests. On the 17^th at Federal Park in Indianapolis, the ABCs took on a major league squad led by Donie Bush. ABCs pitcher Dicta Johnson defeated Reb Russell of the Chicago White Sox 3-2, ceding only 4 hits. 

On the 24^th, same location, things became heated: 

Indianapolis Star 10/25/1915

 

After the game, DeMoss and Charleston headed to Cuba with ABCs. Upon returning from Havana, they were arrested again for missing their court date. In January, the pair did not go to Palm Beach with the club; presumably they had legal issues to iron out. 

Prior to the 1916 season, Taylor and Bowser, who each owned half the Indianapolis ABCs, split and two ABC clubs developed. DeMoss stayed with the Bowser ABCs until the club finished up in September and then joined Taylor’s nine. 

DeMoss was to take over the field management of the Detroit franchise in the new Negro National League in 1933 but the deal fell through. 

On March 27, 1944, DeMoss was named manager of the Chicago American Giants after Double Duty Radcliffe resigned. Bingo was fired in mid-June. 

Family 

• First wife: Virgil “Virgie” Robinson, a Topeka native born on May 18, 1890 – they married on August 20, 1913 in Chicago – Virgil died on May 10, 1938 in Chicago
• Second Wife: Miranda Fulton, on March 22, 1946
• Children: Cecil (circa 1923), Bessie, Norma Jean - all by Virgil

Virgil seems to have been married before. Her parents were named Williams and in her marriage application to Elwood she refers to herself as Mrs. Robinson.

Member and at one time treasurer of the Old Ball Players Club of Chicago 

Elwood DeMoss passed away at Cook County Hospital “after suffering a long illness” January 26, 1965 at age 75. (He died early Tuesday morning which places his death on the 26^th, not the 25th. The Cook County Death Index however states the 25th) He was interred at Burr Oak Cemetery in Cook County, Illinois. 

 (I could not locate DeMoss’ WWI registration card. I found the link at Ancestry.com but it led to the wrong listing. However, I don’t think that it would hold anything else of significance other than maybe an off-season employer and maybe the correct spelling of his wife’s name.)

SOURCE LIST 

• Ancestry.com
• Baltimore Afro-American, 13 February 1926, 7 October 1933, 16 April 1934
• Chicago Defender, 1913-1925, 2 April 1932, 25 February 1933, 1 June 1935, 1942-1946, 16 February 1957, 27 January 1965
• Chicago Tribune, 1910, 10 September 1911, 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.
• Familysearch.com
• Heaphy, Leslie A. Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games of the Negro League’s most important City. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006.
• Indianapolis Freeman, 23 July 1910, 16 March 1912, 1913-1915
• Indianapolis Star, 1911-1912, 26 October 1915
• Kansas City Star, 2 July 1911, 23 July 1911
• Kansas City Whip, 22 May 1936
• Madden, W. C. Baseball in Indianapolis. New York: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
• Muskogee Times Democrat, Oklahoma, 7 September 1911
• Negro League Database at Seamheads.com
• New York Age, 1918, 8 June 1935, 1 February 1936, 24 September 1938
• Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1994.