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 was one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin was an American left fielder and right fielder in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who played with the Newark Eagles,New York Giants (1949–1955) and Chicago Cubs (1956). He grew up in New Jersey and was a standout football player at Lincoln University. Irvin left Lincoln to spend several seasons in Negro league baseball. His career was interrupted by military service from 1943 to 1945.
Henry Curtis Thompson was an American player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball who played primarily as a third baseman. A left-handed batter,he played with the Dallas Green Monarchs (1941),Kansas City Monarchs,St. Louis Browns (1947) and New York Giants (1949–56).
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City,Missouri and owned by J. L. Wilkinson,they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J. L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team. In 1930,the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night,five years before any major league team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration,and triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record. The team produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
William Julius "Judy" Johnson was an American professional third baseman and manager whose career in Negro league baseball spanned 17 seasons,from 1921 to 1937. Slight of build,Johnson never developed as a power threat but achieved his greatest success as a contact hitter and an intuitive defenseman. Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of the Negro leagues. In 1975,he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being nominated by the Negro Leagues Committee.
Willie James Wells,nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924-1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America.
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. But 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.
Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe was a professional baseball player in the Negro leagues. An accomplished two-way player,he played as a pitcher and a catcher,became a manager,and in his old age became a popular ambassador for the game. He is one of only a handful of professional baseball players who lived past their 100th birthdays,next to Red Hoff and fellow Negro leaguer Silas Simmons.
Elwood"Bingo" DeMoss was a baseball player and manager in the Negro leagues from 1905 to 1943.
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.
Andrew Lewis Cooper,nicknamed "Lefty",was an American left-handed pitcher in baseball's Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. An alumnus of Paul Quinn College,Cooper played nine seasons for the Detroit Stars and ten seasons for the Kansas City Monarchs,and briefly played for the Chicago American Giants. The Texan was 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall and weighed 220 pounds.
Joseph Black was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league and Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers,Cincinnati Redlegs,and Washington Senators who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game,in 1952.
The Boston Royal Giants were a Negro league baseball team in Boston. The team was also known as the Boston Giants,Quaker Giants,Philadelphia Giants and Boston Colored Giants. The Royal Giants served as a farm team of sorts for the league. They played as far north as Canada's Cape Breton League,and games against mill or industrial teams in Maine,Vermont and New Hampshire.
Arthur Lee Wilson was a professional baseball player. He was an all-star for the Birmingham Black Barons of Negro league baseball before playing part of one season in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants in 1951. He was born in Springville,Alabama.
Eugene Benson was an American center fielder in baseball's Negro leagues. He played for the Philadelphia Stars in 1937,moved to the Homestead Grays in 1938,and returned to the Stars from 1939 to 1948. He stood 5-foot-8 and weighed 185 pounds at the peak of his career.
William Hipple Galloway,nicknamed "Hippo",was an American-Canadian professional baseball player. Born in Buffalo,New York,Galloway grew up in Dunnville,Ontario,and is considered "the first black Canadian to play organized baseball."
