The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and,to a lesser extent,Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
Roy Campanella,nicknamed "Campy",was an American baseball player,primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for nine years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948 for the Brooklyn Dodgers,for whom he played until 1957. His playing career ended when he was paralyzed in an automobile accident in January 1958. He is considered one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
Oscar McKinley Charleston was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. In 1915,after serving three years in the U.S. Army,the Indianapolis,Indiana,native continued his baseball career as a professional with the Indianapolis ABCs;his career ended in 1954 as a player-manager for the Indianapolis Clowns. In addition to a forty-three-year career with more than a dozen teams,including the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords,Negro league baseball's leading teams in the 1930s,he played nine winter seasons in Cuba and in numerous exhibition games against white major leaguers. Charleston was known for his strengths as a hitter and center fielder. Alongside Josh Gibson,he has the record for most league batting titles among players of the Negro leagues with three,and he is the only one among all nine players who won multiple titles to win batting titles in multiple leagues. He was the second player to win consecutive Triple Crowns in either batting or pitching,a feat matched just one time by a batter. Retroactively,he is credited with having won the Triple Crown three times,which is the most for any player in Major League Baseball. To this day,he holds the record for the second-highest batting average of all-time among major league players. He also has the fourth-highest career OPS. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
Joshua Gibson was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. Baseball historians consider Gibson among the best power hitters and catchers in baseball history. In 1972,he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Martín Magdaleno Dihigo Llanos,called The Immortal,was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played in Negro league baseball and Latin American leagues from 1923 to 1936 as a two-way player,both as a pitcher and a second baseman,although he excelled at several positions.
Willard Jessie Brown,nicknamed "Home Run" Brown,was an American baseball player who played outfielder in the Negro leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs and in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Browns. For the Monarchs,he led the Negro American League in hits for eight seasons and runs batted in (RBI) seven times during his career. His eight times leading a league in hits is tied with Ty Cobb for most in baseball history while his seven times leading in RBI for a league is tied for second-most in baseball history with Josh Gibson;Gibson and Brown also finished in the top two in batting average in five seasons each,most in Negro league history. He is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Adolfo Domingo De Guzmán "Dolf" Luque was a Cuban starting pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1914 to 1935. Luque was enshrined in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957 and the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1967,as well as in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985. Luque was not only the first Latino pitcher in MLB,but also the first to win a World Series victory,and the first to lead the Leagues in wins and shutouts.
The color line,also known as the color barrier,in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947. Racial segregation in professional baseball was sometimes called a gentlemen's agreement,meaning a tacit understanding,as there was no written policy at the highest level of organized baseball,the major leagues. A high minor league's vote in 1887 against allowing new contracts with black players within its league sent a powerful signal that eventually led to the disappearance of blacks from the sport's other minor leagues later that century,including the low minors.
Emilio Navarro,better known as "Millito Navarro",was the first Puerto Rican to play baseball in the American Negro leagues. At the time of his death,at age 105,Navarro was the oldest former professional baseball player and the last surviving player from the American Negro League.
Luscious"Luke"Easter was a professional baseball player in Major League Baseball and the Negro leagues. He batted left-handed,threw right-handed,was 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m),and weighed 240 lb.
Henry Allen Kimbro,nicknamed "Jimbo",was an American Negro league outfielder from the late 1930s through the early 1950s. He played for the Washington Elite Giants,Baltimore Elite Giants,and the New York Black Yankees and managed the Birmingham Black Barons from 1952-1953 before retiring from baseball.
Ulysses Franklin Grant was an American baseball player in the 19th century. Early in his career,he was a star player in the International League,shortly before race-based restrictions were imposed that banned African-American players from organized baseball. Grant then became a pioneer in the early Negro leagues,starring for several of the top African-American teams of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is widely considered to have been the greatest African-American player of the 19th century. In 2006,Grant was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Miguel Angel González Cordero was a Cuban catcher,coach and interim manager in American Major League Baseball during the first half of the 20th century. Along with Adolfo Luque,González was one of the first Cubans or Latin Americans to have a long off-field career in the U.S. Major Leagues.
Spottswood Poles was an American outfielder in baseball's Negro leagues. Born in Winchester,Virginia,he died at age 74 in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania.
Juan Esteban Vargas Marcano,better known as Tetelo Vargas,and nicknamed "El Gamo Dominicano" or "The Dominican Deer",was a baseball player from the Dominican Republic.
Bud Fowler,born "John W. Jackson",was an American baseball player,manager,and club organizer. He is the earliest known African-American player in organized professional baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Robert Burns Thurman was a professional baseball pitcher,outfielder and pinch-hitter. He played in the Negro leagues,the Puerto Rican winter league,and for a few years at the end of his career,in Major League Baseball with the Cincinnati Reds. He is a member of the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame.
Armando Marsans Mendiondo was a Cuban professional baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1918. He played in three different major leagues in his career:with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League (1911–1914),with the St. Louis Terriers in the Federal League (1914–1915),and with the St. Louis Browns and New York Yankees (1916–1918).
Ramón "El Profesor" Bragaña Palacios was a Cuban baseball pitcher and outfielder in the Negro leagues and the Mexican League.
Bertrum "Nate" Hunter was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played professionally from 1931 to 1936 with several teams. He pitched for the East in the inaugural East-West All-Star Game in 1933. Hunter played in Mexico,after his negro league career,until 1944.
