Remember these four names: Rev. His salary was less than 5% of what white players were earning. He says, faced with segregation, Black owners and players kept pushing for organized baseball. Center for Negro League Baseball Research. It has been 47 years since anyone last saw this man. After contacting Lester, co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and chairman of SABR's Negro Leagues Research Committee, he provided data that was absolutely staggering. List of Negro league baseball players (AD), List of Negro league baseball players (EL), List of Negro league baseball players (MR), List of Negro league baseball players (SZ), List of first black MLB players by team and date, List of player profiles from the Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lists_of_Negro_league_baseball_players&oldid=1087987010, This page was last edited on 15 May 2022, at 16:27. He grew up in Cuba and says it was tough to adjust to segregation and racism he saw in the U.S. PEDRO SIERRA: It wasn't easy to see all the problems with the race. When the book was being put together, the Negro Leagues weren't even considered for inclusion. From 1940 to 1949, 1,705 men played at least one game in the National League or American League plus hundreds, maybe thousands, more in the Negro Leagues. A version of this story was first published in November, 2020, a few weeks before MLB announced that Negro League stats were being made part of the official record. In 1924, the first year of the Colored World Series, the share of the winners, the Kansas City Monarchs, was $307.96, says Lester. As it stands, Newcombe is the oldest living man to play in the Negro Leagues at their major-league level. For NPR News, I'm Doug Tribou in Ann Arbor, Mich. (SOUNDBITE OF A FOREST MIGHTY BLACK'S "REBIRTH"). Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame are noted with a . This is a list of the last handful of living major leaguers from the 1940s. I grew up with the distinct impression that no statistics could ever be compiled, that it was often unclear what happened at all, and that it was more or less impossible to find out anything for sure about many of the players., Our friends at Seamheads have added new 1926 statistics to their #SABR award-winning Negro Leagues Database, including a record-setting season by Mule Suttles: https://t.co/sCWIvkVMuB @scott_simkus @KJOKBASEBALL @DanHirsch pic.twitter.com/WlQhzB8q4u. Chris Haughey is the last player alive from 1943 and Tommy Brown is the last player alive from 1944, 1945 and 1947. Satchel Paige, At that meeting, they created the Negro National League. As with any sports league, I have to assume that there are still plenty of unknown or lesser known players still out there. Major League Baseball has a day to honor the leagues set for next month. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Please enable JavaScript on your browser and try again. The most important sources are the Black weekly newspapers (Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, Kansas City Call, etc.) Negro League Baseball historical stats. Like O'Neil, Minnie Mioso was still alive when he was denied entry in 2006, mostly because his time was so short in the Negro Leagues. Keys bought the Giants franchise after the 1921 season and built the newly named Stars a stadium in '22. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Newt still makes Kansas City his home. SIERRA: The Clowns are paid a hundred dollars a month. Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. ", "So take a ballplayer like Monte Irvin, in 1948, who made $5,000 with the New YorkGiants," Lester said, "or $833.33 a month. The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. That's almost 19 times what the Black players received. Josh Gibson holds the all-time home run record with 238 and Smokey Joe Williams struck out 1,571 batters in his 25-year career. Or write about sports? Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? But thousands of Black and Latino players endured bigotry and racist taunts. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Nat Rogers: Now 78 years old and a waiter at Memphis Peabody Hotel, Nat writes that he played for 45 consecutive seasons in organized baseball, compiling a batting average of over .340. "Going into the late 1930s and the early 1940s, we see player salaries jump to an average of $300 to $400 each month with the stars like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige getting about $600-$700 a month. Newt Allen: For 20 years, Newt starred as the Kansas City Monarchs slick-fielding 2nd baseman. Accuracy and availability may vary. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. Fortunately, that has recently changed with the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, but for decades that wasn't the case. And now I look back and I say, oh, my God. 65 In 2000, Major League Baseball supplied a grant to the Baseball Hall of Fame to conduct . Major League Baseball was segregated from 1887 through 1946. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. the Negro Leagues weren't even considered. Pittsburgh soon produced two of the greatest teams of all time, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, featuring such stars as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell and many . There's also Charley Pride (3/18/1935), famous country singer and one of the only black people to perform on Grand Ole Opry. Bill Evans: Bill (Happy) Evans enjoyed a brief career with the Homestead Grays in the early 1930s. Ted says shortstop John Henry Lloyd was the greatest ballplayer he ever saw. After spotting the Black newspaper The Chicago Defender in his universitys library stacks and knowing its historical importance, he dove into the reels for the 1920 season and was surprised to see incredibly thorough coverage and box scores for the Negro National League. That started to change in the 1980s and early 90s as researchers like Dick Clark, Larry Lester, John Holway, James Riley and Phil Dixon began assembling a more robust statistical record. In Cleveland, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League. He cites being selected to manage the East All-Star team in 1939 as his biggest moment. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. ","type":"markdown"},{"__typename":"ExternalEmbed","data":{"__typename":"ExternalEmbedContent","html":", #Spotlight In February of 1920, The Chicago Defender previewed the formation of the Negro National League - Kansas City Selected for Meeting of Baseball Magnates - https://t.co/VANcXcLmL0 pic.twitter.com/KfBEDCalWr, A copy of the 1969 Macmillan baseball encyclopedia for show and tell @sabr. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also began their careers in the Negro Leagues. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Meanwhile you still have jackalopes foaming at the mouth that girls shouldn't be allowed to play high school ball. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. While the weeklies tried to cover every game they could, deadlines and limited space meant they often had to leave out a few games. Join our linker program. Center for Negro League Baseball Research, First black player for St. Louis Browns and New York Giants, First black player for Philadelphia Athletics, First black player for Pittsburgh Pirates, "Negro League Players Who Made the Major Leagues", "Negro Leaguers Who Served With The Armed Forces in WWII", List of Negro league baseball postseason games, Atlanta Black Crackers/Indianapolis ABCs (IV), Indianapolis ABCs (II)/New OrleansSt. and daily newspapers in cities where games were played. ","contextualCaption":null,"contextualAspectRatio":null,"credit":null,"format":"jpg","templateUrl":"https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/{formatInstructions}/v1605643461/mlb/lv9mhm1fsyjmr30kii4r","type":"photo"},{"__typename":"Markdown","content":"Thats the type of work that Ashwill, who currently works as a freelance academic editor and runs the Agate Type baseball blog, has done since he began researching the Negro Leagues 20 years ago. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. Of course, Josh Gibson and some of the other big names have passed on, but a lot of the legendary stars are still alive and well and living in well, why dont we call the roll of some of the more familiar names, men like . We already knew they were equals, of course, it's just official now. Join our linker program. The responsibility to elect Negro leagues players shifted to the Hall's Veterans Committee, but with Roy Campanella as the only Black member, the committee was hamstrung by its lack of knowledge . I was wondering if there are any players left from those times, There's actually a good amount. Because we compile fielding statistics, we're able to know that, for example, Dobie Moore, the Kansas City Monarchs shortstop in the 1920s, was a great fielding shortstop. We will also be adding the Puerto Rican Winter League at some point.. With the game still years away from the multimillion-dollar contracts handed to star players, Aaron's annual pay in 1959 was around $30,000. Theyve established -- though its no surprise -- that the speedy Bell holds the single-season record with 49 stolen bases for the Stars in 1929. Born average. Buck O'Neil, Eventually, these two groups joined forces to create one comprehensive database. Sam Streeter: The star pitcher for the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the 1930s, Sam pitched for the West in the inaugural Negro leagues All-Star game in 1933. You know the names: Satchel Paige. So you won't let me play with you. The records, as they proved with Suttles, are not static either. The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a man who became bigger than the game. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. When I began speaking with Ashwill about the database in September, Hall of Fame slugger Mule Suttles held the Negro Leagues single-season home run record with the 30 that he hit as a member of the St. Louis Stars in 1926. Of them, only 9 are still alive as of Janury 26, 2023. **, Press J to jump to the feed. If history belongs to the record keepers, then these record keepers weren't interested. In fact, that's my long-term goal: to write a Negro League Baseball Abstract. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Charlie Neal Hank Aaron George Altman Maury Wills Donn Clendenon John Wyatt Blue Moon Odom Paul Casanova See also [ edit] List of starting black NFL quarterbacks List of black NHL players America's Pastime. Sports Pulse: Players, celebs and politicians tip their hats in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. March 10, 2007 - William "Bill' Van Buren passes away. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. A good right-handed hitter, Duncan is always mentioned as one of black baseballs best catchers. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Paige was the first Negro League player inducted . They played during the decline of the Negro leagues, after the beginning of integration. "There's a huge amount of information about Latin American baseball that still needs to be processed -- Black Americans played professional baseball in Mexico, Cuba . Willie Wells: A .338 lifetime hitter, Willie Wells is often called the best shortstop to play in the black leagues. How Cool Papa Bell was so fast that he could hit the light switch and be in bed before the lights went out. Soon he became involved in the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group and helped with an extensive study commissioned by the Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball. KENDRICK: These athletes never cried about the social injustice. Paige, now 65 and a Kansas City resident, is by far the best known of these old stars. The star pitcher for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro National League in the early 1920s was a young left-hander named Dave Brown. By the 1950s, enough black talent had integrated into the formerly "white" leagues (both major and minor) that the Negro leagues themselves had become a minor league circuit. Now a Los Angeles resident, Evans remembers playing against almost every great ballplayer, black and white, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Do you have a blog? Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseballs best 1-2 home-run punch. They also represent something else. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. But there are a group of researchers led by Gary Ashwill who are looking to change that. Major leagueplayersreceived from $300 to $2,000 a month and about $15 a day for meals. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. A charity baseball game that paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and their significance to the sport was held at Sacramento State's John Smith Field on Oct. 9. List of Negro league baseball players (A-D) List of Negro league baseball players (E-L) List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) List of Negro league baseball players (S-Z) Contents: M N O P Q R References An excellent all-round ballplayer and a teammate of such greats as Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston, Jimmie is a Chicago resident where he is employed at the post office. It was this sense of mystery combined with an increasing confidence that in fact all kinds of evidence was there to be found. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Willie Foster: Called by many the greatest left-handed pitcher in the black leagues, Willie won 4 World Series games in his long career, and may be the only pitcher, black or white, to have pitched a complete 9-inning All-Star game. Mays played his rookie year in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Pedro Dibut). The integration of Major League Baseball happened at the beginning of the 1947 MLB season when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. Then I'll create my own. One of two players in history to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP in his career (Verlander being the other). Chicago Team History, The unparalleled Rube Foster started the first Negro League in 1920, with such dominant teams as the Chicago American Giants and the Kansas City Monarchs. You know their stories, like how Paige once told his outfielders to sit down while he struck out the side. His career was spent almost entirely playing in all black minor or semi-pro leagues, most of which were located in southern Florida. Current Greats: Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, . So the problem of whether Roosevelt Jackson is a veteran of the Negro Leagues is really one of semantics. Created a hundred years ago, the leagues showcased Black baseball players, players who couldn't play on the major teams because of the color of their skin. O'Neil served as a representative of the Negro Leagues on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from 1981-2000, and 11 Negro Leagues players were inducted through 2001 for a total of 18. A family friend used to play for the Black Yankees, Bob Scott. The league ended in like 1950 so a 20 yr old then would be 86/7 this year. DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. FORBES: Unfortunately, some of the good players, by the time that the time came, they were too old to play. Suttles home run record isnt the only record theyve discovered. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. MINNIE. You will be redirected once the validation is complete. TRIBOU: Pedro Sierra pitched in the Negro Leagues for several seasons in the 1950s. Thats the type of work that Ashwill, who currently works as a freelance academic editor and runs the Agate Type baseball blog, has done since he began researching the Negro Leagues 20 years ago. Streeters biggest thrill in baseball was to hit a home run. And they couldn't go in places to eat, so one person would go to the back door and get the food for all the players. Now 66, Bell lives in St. Louis where he is a guard at City Hall. A great 3rd baseman, Dandridge compiled a .455 batting average in 3 Negro All-Star games. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. TRIBOU: Minnie Forbes owned the Detroit Stars from 1956 to 1958. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was bigger than mere numbers. SIERRA: Yeah, a hundred dollars a month. We know which were the pitchers' parks (Chicago's Schorling Park, for example) and which were the hitters' parks (Stars Park in St. Louis and the Catholic Protectory Oval in the Bronx, home of the New York Lincoln Giants). Is there any way to possibly send a baseball to try and get signed by Biddle. Don Newcombe (6/14/1926) played one season for the Newark Eagles before being allowed to sign with the Dodgers, where he went on to become the first person to win MVP and Cy Young in the same season (1956, the first year the Cy Young was introduced). Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. For our latest update I checked through the mainstream daily newspapers in St. Louis and picked up three more St. Louis Stars games -- and Suttles homered in two of them.. In 2020, MLB recognized the Nego Leagues as major leagues. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. Now 71, and a Pittsburgh resident, Sam says that Smokey Joe Williams was the greatest pitcher he ever saw while slugger Mule Suttles gave him the most trouble at the plate. The museum has pushed back its year-long celebration of the centennial to next year and renamed it Negro Leagues 101. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. She lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. FORBES: The players traveled, and they had nowhere to stay because of the discrimination. Mioso fell short on Golden Era votes in 2011 and 2014 . They receivedbetween $1 to $1.50 a day for meal money. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is honoring the Negro Leagues that showcased Black baseball players at a time the sport was segregated. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball. They went out and did something about it. Although Brown was never formally charged, there was not much question that the police suspected him. So, for example we've put together the first comprehensive analysis of Negro League park effects, and incorporated that into our metrics, Ashwill wrote. He stopped playing baseball when he was younger and became a Mason I believe. He is Dean of Men at Alcorn College in Lorman, Mississippi, and also serves as baseball coach. Dan Bankhead Sam Bankhead Bob Boyd Ray Brown Willard Brown Bill Byrd Roy Campanella Buster Clarkson Jimmie Crutchfield Ray Dandridge Leon Day Larry Doby Luke Easter Wilmer Fields Josh Gibson Junior Gilliam Sammy Hughes Monte Irvin Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. For example, here, courtesy of Ashwill, are the pages from a 1941-42 Baltimore Elite Giants scorebook showing the Elites beating the Philadelphia Stars on Aug. 16, 1942: The biggest myth of them all is that the history of Negro League baseball is nothing but blurry, hard-to-substantiate legends and tall tales, Ashwill wrote in an email to MLB.com. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. The coming seasons brought many more signings. Foster still retains a strong interest in baseball. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. , Season Summaries, Ballparks, Owners, Player Bios, 1946 Negro World Series, Contribute, Nat remembers a 31-game hitting streak as his best moment in baseball. FORBES: And I just wonder if I'm worthy of representing, speaking about the Negro League because when I got involved, things was easier for me than it was for the one before me. Do you have a sports website? . While baseball acknowledgingthese Black players is important, it should only be a first step. Pittsburgh soon produced two of the greatest teams of all time, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, featuring such stars as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and many more. He now operates a sporting goods store on the South Side. Aside from him, we also have Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (9/27/1935), the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues. RHP Satchel Paige: The most famous Negro Leagues player, the age-defying Paige stayed young long enough to pitch in the majors -- including the World Series -- as a 42-year-old rookie in 1948. Yet there was still a feeling that many more had been missed. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. TRIBOU: And they did. "Going forward, in the 1930s following the Great Depression, salaries of Black players were about the same amount as the 1920s," Lester said. Remembered as one of the few hurlers Josh Gibson had trouble hitting against, Lee writes that Martin Dihigo was the greatest player he ever saw. Those four names aren't just pieces of data, or clickable things on a site, they are human beings who excelled despiteliving under the thick anvilof segregation. TRIBOU: The last league folded in the early 1960s. Jimmie Crutchfield: A slender outfielder, Jimmie signed with the great Pittsburgh Crawfords when he was only 19 years old. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Bill Greason, Clyde Golden, Ron Teasley and Willie Mays. The list does not include Negro league players who only played in the minor leagues and White Hispanic players who played in both the Negro Leagues and MLB prior to full integration (ex. Phone: 602.496.1460 Chuck Harmon played under alias of Charlie Fine for the Clowns so as not to violate his college basketball eligibility. We present them here for purely educational purposes. January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. However, he played for minor-league clubs: What Jackson did not do was to play in any of the all-black leagues traditionally thought of as the Negro Major Leagues. Major League Baseball has finally decided that players from the Negro Leagues should be considered Major Leaguers. The list includes those who played on major Negro league teams prior to integration (and any caliber Negro league team after integration) as well as in Major League Baseball. And I really do mean today. Sports Reference . I believe the oldest living Negro League ballplayer is Roosevelt Jackson. Born May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is the youngest. Founded in 1990, the museum is the only one in the world . Do you have a sports website? Members were the Brooklyn (New York) Royal Giants, Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Club of Philadelphia, and the Cuban Stars (no relation to the Cuban Stars of the NNL) and Lincoln Giants of New York City. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, The subreddit for the bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. The text below has been updated to reflect that. Researchers are still looking to add fielding statistics, left/right splits and secondary pitching and batting stats for many Negro League seasons, especially those in the 1940s. Major League Baseball announced this week the 1920-1948 Negro Leagues was recognized as major league, meaning Black players who played during those years are officially acknowledgedas the same as their white counterparts. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. That mission continues today. The color line in baseball is also probably the most profound case of historical injustice in the history of modern sports -- and the injustice most definitely includes the failure to properly record both the identities and the achievements of thousands of professional ballplayers., Before the Seamheads database, Negro League statistics were sparse and spottily updated. For our latest update I checked through the mainstream daily newspapers in St. Louis and picked up three more St. Louis Stars games -- and Suttles homered in two of them.","type":"markdown"},{"__typename":"PhotoPart","caption":"The 1930 St. Louis Stars. Last I knew he was still alive but he is hard to contact sometimes. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Ernie Banks and Monte Irvin died a couple years ago. The integration of Major League Baseball happened at the beginning of the 1947 MLB season when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.By the 1950s, enough black talent had integrated into the formerly "white" leagues (both major and minor) that the Negro leagues themselves had become a . You knew the disparity in pay would be bad, but that gap is embarrassing for baseball. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. Richard Kent, Sam Sheppard, Dr. J.W McClelland and Dr. G.B. The list includes those who played on major Negro league teams prior to integration (and any caliber Negro league team after integration) as well as in Major League Baseball. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Frank Duncan: A Kansas City native, Frank, 69, now operates a tavern in his home town. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account. If baseball (rightfully) believes that recognizing those players is important (and it is) then why not fully recognize them? pic.twitter.com/qiMXrVD4RB. Then in 1947, he broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The service requires full JavaScript support in order to view this website. In 1934, led by 20-year-old left-hander Slim Jones, the Stars defeated the Chicago American Giants in a controversial playoff series, four games to three, for the Negro National League pennant. Forbes is 88 and worries about being one of the last left to tell this story. Bell, who regularly went from 1st base to 3rd on sacrifice bunts, enjoyed his peak years with the St. Louis Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords in the early 1930s. , Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. All rights reserved. Cronkite School at ASU On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Some defensive statistics Copyright Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. This is not a complete or exhaustive list of all the organizations and individuals who have kept the Negro Leagues alive, but it is easy to contribute to the four following organizations whether . And in 2021, Baseball Reference, a trusted source for baseball stats, expanded its coverage of the Negro Leagues and integrated Negro League data from 1920 to 1948 into its record books. There are a variety of reasons for that, Ashwill said, including a lack of capital and other resources, looser organization and less of a press infrastructure covering them.. When I began speaking with Ashwill about the database in September, Hall of Fame slugger Mule Suttles held the Negro Leagues single-season home run record with the 30 that he hit as a member of the St. Louis Stars in 1926. cnlbr.org is using a security service for protection against online attacks. Buck Leonard: Walter (Buck) Leonard combined with Josh Gibson for Negro baseball's best 1-2 home-run punch. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The Hilldale Club, the team that lost, took home $193.23. Just having a few stories here and there was not remotely enough.