agate type

luis padrón, the yankees, and the braves, 1913

After Luis Padrón’s 1909 tryout with the Chicago White Sox, he had at least one more close brush with the major leagues, this time with both the New York Yankees and the Boston Braves in 1913.  Padrón, along with Dolf Luque, Angel Villazón, and Angel Aragón, was purchased by George Stallings from the Long Branch Cubans on August 6, 1913:

(Boston Globe, August 7, 1913)

The purchases of Padron, Luque, and Aragón were immediately disputed by the New York Yankees, who claimed they had already dealt for them:

(Boston Globe, August 8, 1913)

The dispute was decided in favor of Boston; according to the Braves’ president, the Yankees/Highlanders had not actually purchased the players, but instead arranged for a tryout at the Polo Grounds—so Henriquez was perfectly within his rights to sell them to Boston.

(Boston Globe, August 9, 1913)

The newspaper in Mansfield, Ohio, where Padrón had played in the Ohio-Pennsylvania League in 1911, ran a brief (but rather interesting) item when this happened:

(Mansfield News, August 9, 1913)

However, none of the players joined the Braves at any point during the season—they remained with the Cubans, though apparently still the property of the Braves, into September. I haven’t found any indications that they worked out with them or anything—though Braves did play at least one exhibition game against the Cubans during this time (and the Boston Globe commented on the Braves’ ownership of these players).  On August 25 the Boston Globe reported that Aragón had broken his kneecap in a game against the Cincinnati Reds and would be out for the rest of the season. (In the article he’s referred to as Boston Nationals’ property.) 

The September 13 Christian Science Monitor carried this brief article:

THREE RELEASED BY STALLINGS
CINCINNATI - Calhoun, first baseman; Gonzales, catcher, and Padrone, infielder, have been released outright by the Boston Nationals.  Calhoun is now playing first for Jersey City and the two Cubans are with the Long Branch (N.J.) team.

González (presumably Miguel Angel; it certainly wasn’t Gervasio) had also been reported, on August 2, as sold by Boston to Long Branch—it would seem either that Boston retained some kind of option on him or else had purchased him again.  He had appeared with the Braves briefly in 1912, and would turn up with Cincinnati in 1914.  I’m guessing that Aragón  was probably released around the time of his injury; he would play for the Yankees in 1914.  Luque, on the other hand, was probably retained by Boston, as he would appear with the Miracle Braves in 1914.

UPDATE 11/1/2007 I completely forgot to say, btw, that I found about this from Scott Simkus, who found a reference to the Braves releasing Padrón in 1913.

pythias russ

I’ve always been interested in Pythias Russ, the American Giants’ catcher and shortstop from the late 1920s whose career was cut short when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.  Here’s his obituary in the Chicago Defender (August 16, 1930):

To this point, Pythias Russ’s exact birthdate has been unknown.  However, it turns out that his death certificate gives his exact age at the time of his passing: 26 years, 4 months, 2 days.  Assuming this is correct (since his parents were present at his death and probably the source of the birth information, this is not a bad assumption), his birth date would be April 7, 1904.

Pythias Russ’s statistics in the extant sources are gaudy; here are his batting averages from Holway’s Complete Book:

1925 (age 21) .327
1926 (age 22) .268
1927 (age 23) .350
1928 (age 24) .405
1929 (age 25) .386

For 1928, I have Russ batting, not quite .405, but still pretty good: .346/.382/.449 in 77 games, including two home runs in the league championship series with the St. Louis Stars.

The thing to remember here is that from 1926-1929 Russ was playing his home games in Schorling Park, where offenses went to die in the 1920s NNL.  Looking at the raw numbers, you might assume that, while Russ was very good, he was not really comparable to Hall of Famer Willie Wells, his shortstop counterpart with the Stars, who batted .365/.425/.712 in 1928 (including the playoffs). 

But consider the vast difference between their home parks.  I have 14 box scores for Stars/American Giants games in 1928, including the playoff series.  In the seven games played in Chicago, the two teams combined hit .264/.315/.320, scoring 53 runs (3.79 runs per game), and hitting a single home run.  In the seven games played in St. Louis, the two teams hit .309/.361/.517, scoring 86 runs (6.14 runs per game), with 20 home runs. 

Just as a quick test (not a full-blown study), I figured what Russ might have hit with Stars Park as his home field, using the above park statistics as a guide.  The hypothetical St. Louis version of Pythias Russ comes out at .375/.410/.587; still not quite matching Wells, but much, much closer than without the park adjustment.

(Willie Wells, incidentally, hit six home runs in the 1928 NNL championship series, all in the five games played in St. Louis; see Kevin Johnson’s article on the 1928 St. Louis Stars in the SABR collection Mound City Memories: Baseball in St. Louis, put together for last year’s convention.)

walter moore, detroit, 1942

We just might have found him.  Reader John Bowman went to the National Archives regional facility in Chicago to see if he could find Dobie Moore in the World War II draft cards for Michigan.  He writes:

Gary,

Here's what I found. First, the draft registraton cards are in a closed stack section of the archive, so I didn't actually see them. I have a copy, though.

Here's what's on it:
SN U1719
1. Walter Moore (No middle name or initial)
2. 1022 Alfred, Detroit, Wayne, Mich
3. (Mailing address) Same
4. (Telephone) Check mark (no number)
5. Age 46, DOB Feby 8 1896  (Winborn's handwriting)
6. Born Atlanta, GA
7. (Contact) James Simmons, 635 Adelaide  (Winborn's handwriting)
8. Unemployed  (Winborn's handwriting)
9. (No work address)

On the back:
Height 5'10", Weight 165
Race: Negro
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Complexion: Dark brown
Physical characteristics: 2 scars on forehead (Winborn's handwriting)

Registrar: R. E. Winborn
Local Board No 1, Detroit, Mich
April 27, 1942

So the date of birth matches the Walter Moore who served at Camp Stephen D. Little in 1920. No mention of a bad leg. Maybe the brace and the crutch in the 1943 photo were props related to the content of the newspaper article.

Dobie Moore lived just a few blocks from where Comerica Park is now. The buildings he and James Simmons lived in have been replaced by I-75.

It’s not 100 percent positive yet that this is Dobie Moore (a mention of the leg injury would have pretty much cinched it), but there’s a very, very good chance it is him.  No luck yet finding a corresponding death date, but we’ll see.  Many thanks to John for tracking this down.

UPDATE 10/26/2007 Here’s something from Larry Lester’s recent book on Baseball’s First Colored World Series:  “In September 1923, the illiterate Moore married the former Francis Davis” (p. 83), I’m assuming in Kansas City.  It seems like a good chance that his marriage license could be found, and that it might have a birth date (and place).

dobie moore

Dobie Moore’s Wikipedia entry gives the following dates for him: born January 9, 1895; died December 1, 1977, in Mableton, Georgia.  The BR Bullpen is more hesitant: “An unconfirmed research note says that [Moore] died at age 82 (1977) in Mableton, Georgia.”

There is a Walter Moore in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) who’s listed as born January 9, 1895, died December 1977, in Mableton, Georgia.  A look in the Georgia Deaths database at Ancestry.com reveals a Walter J. Moore who died on December 6, 1977, at age 82, in DeKalb County—but his last residence was in Cobb County (the site of Mableton).  His race is recorded as “W.” He’s one of only two Walter Moores listed as passing away in Georgia in 1977 (the other was aged 58).

There is also a World War I draft card for a Walter James Moore, “Caucasian,” born January 9, 1895, in Chattahoochee, Georgia.  Dobie Moore, of course, was already in the Army when the draft registration was first held in 1917, and would not have filled out a draft card.

In the addendum added for the 2001 edition of his Biographical Encyclopedia, James Riley has these dates for Moore: born February 27, 1890, Rome, Georgia; died April 1, 1963, Rome, Georgia.

The SSDI does have a Walter Moore, born February 27, 1890 (no place listed), died May 1978, Silver Creek, Georgia; Silver Creek is in Floyd County, the same county as Rome, Georgia.  The Georgia Deaths DB has Walter O. Moore, white, died May 5, 1978, age 88, in Silver Creek, Georgia.

To sum up: I think the Walter Moore who died in Mableton, Georgia, in 1977 is assuredly not Dobie Moore the ballplayer.  And the fact that a  white man named Walter Moore was born on the exact same day (February 27, 1890) and in the same Georgia county that Riley’s addendum lists for Dobie is troubling, though I don’t know what to make of the totally different death dates.

We’re left with two pieces of evidence I know of: the Walter Moore found in the 1920 census at Camp Stephen D. Little in Nogales, Arizona, born in Georgia, age 24 (on the same page as Branch Russell and William Linder); and a photo and caption in the September 11, 1943, Chicago Defender—the latest mention I have found of Dobie Moore’s life:

I have found a couple of mentions in the late 1930s of a Pete Moore, supposed to be Dobie Moore’s younger brother, playing third base on Detroit semi-pro teams.

Since Moore was in Detroit in 1943, it’s almost certain that he registered there for the World War II draft (in the so-called “old man’s registration”); unfortunately the Michigan cards have not been microfilmed by the National Archives, and thus are not slated to be digitized by Ancestry.com or anybody else anytime soon.  It might be possible, though, to locate his card in the National Archives’ Great Lakes Region headquarters in Chicago, where the Michigan draft cards are housed.  If anybody living around there is reading this, you might want to think about checking it out if you have the chance.

UPDATE 10/21/2007  See this post for more on Moore, including the box score for his first appearance in the Negro National League, and this category for more information in general on the Army ballplayers that joined the Monarchs.

UPDATE 10/24/2007 If you haven’t seen it already, this post has the result of John Bowman’s trip to the National Archives facility in Chicago.  He found a World War II draft card for an African-American man named Walter Moore living in Detroit, born in Atlanta on February 8, 1896.  (Dobie Moore was known to have said himself he was born in Atlanta.)  Also, as comments indicate, the Wikipedia and BR Bullpen entries have been updated.

UPDATE 10/24/2007 Also, I might not have been clear in the post above: the birthdate of January 9, 1895, is definitely in question, as it has been linked (via two sources) to a white man named Walter James Moore, the same man who passed away on December 6, 1977.

1908 cuban summer league

Here are statistics for the 1908 Premio de Verano, which was played along similar lines to the summer championships of 1904, 1905, and 1906: three teams, each representing one of the three winter league clubs (Azul = Almendares, Carmelita = Fe, Rojo = Habana), each playing a few regulars mixed in with marginal players and rookies.  Several promising young players made their first professional appearances here: Pastor Pareda, Pelayo Chacón, Eusebio González, and Octavio González.

Download 1908_cuban_summer_league_1.0.xls

I’ve found box scores for 14 of 16 known games; again, since no standings were published, it’s hard to know for sure whether I have all the games.  Azul had the best record in known games (6-3-1), just edging Carmelita (7-4-0).

Interest was definitely waning in the summer league by this time, largely because most of the best Cuban players were now spending their summers in the United States.  The previous year, 1907, was an exception to this trend, as no All-Cubans team toured the U.S.*, resulting in summer competitions that approached the winter league in quality.  But 1908 was nothing like that.  And the 1909 summer league would become an amateur circuit, with only a few young prospects mixed in.

UPDATE 10/20/2007 *-Not true: there was a Cuban team touring the U.S. in 1907, though the team, or at least a number of its players—Rafael Almeida, Luis González, Francisco Morán, and Inocencio Pérez —returned in time to participate extensively in the summer series, which were mostly held from mid-August to early October.  Plus Luis Padrón returned from Jacksonville in mid-September, in time to play in two of the series; and a larger number of the good players than usual never left.

george branham III

On November 23, 1986, the bowler George Branham III became the first African-American to win a PBA event when he took the Brunswick Memorial World Open in Glendale Heights, Illinois.  He has enjoyed a substantial career since then, winning five major championships (including the Tournament of Champions in 1993).  Branham was born on November 21, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan, to parents Betty and George Branham II.

Looking at it from the other direction, our George Branham, the Jewell’s A.B.C.’s pitcher (and possibly pitcher for NNL teams in the 1920s) and brother of Finest/Finis Branham, had a son named George, his youngest child (listed as one year old) in the 1930 census (in Detroit).

So it seems like there’s an awfully good chance that the first black bowling champion in PBA history was the grandson and great-nephew of Negro League ballplayers.  Though I can’t yet definitively link George Branham III to the Negro League George Branham, it should be easy enough to figure out eventually.  I’m going to be looking into getting in touch with Branham.  In the meantime, if anyone knows anything about this, drop me a line.

forgotten negro leaguers #6 & #7: george branham & finest ernest branham

Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues has the following entries:

Branahan, J. Finis (Slim, Legs)
1922-1923 Cleveland Tate Stars
1923 Toledo Tigers
1923 Chicago American Giants
1924 Harrisburg Giants
1924 Homestead Grays
1924 Lincoln Giants
1925 Detroit Stars
1925 St. Louis Stars
1926 Cleveland Elite Giants
1927 Cleveland Hornets
1931 Indianapolis A.B.C.’s

Branham, Slim (a.k.a. Brannon)
1917 Jewell’s A.B.C.’s
1920 Dayton Marcos
1922 Cleveland Tate Stars
1923 Cleveland Tate Stars
1923 Toledo Tigers
1926 Cleveland Elite Giants

Having studied 1920-1922 pretty closely, I’ve concluded that “Branham” and “Branahan” were almost certainly a single pitcher who appeared with Dayton in 1920 and the Cleveland Tate Stars in 1921 and 1922.

From Patrick’s 1923 Negro National League Yearbook, I can see that he has concluded similarly, that Branham/Branaham of Toledo/Chicago/Cleveland was one person.

And looking through the Pittsburgh Courier in 1924 I was able to determine that Branham/Branahan of Homestead and Harrisburg were definitely the same person, and that he was also the Branham/Branahan of Cleveland and the American Giants the previous year (I haven’t found him with the Lincoln Giants yet.)  Here’s the only photo I’ve found that shows his face with any (though not much) clarity (Pittsburgh Courier, March 29, 1924):

 

Again like Patrick, I had tended to think that this player’s real name was “Branahan,” though “Branham” tends to be predominant in 1920-1922 and in April and May of 1924 (and you sometimes see the hybrid “Branaham”).  “Branahan” is more prevalent in 1924 from June and July on; and back in December 1922 the Cleveland Tate Stars listed “Finis Branahan” among their reserved players.

But I was curious about the anomalous appearance of “Slim Branham” with Jewell’s A.B.C.’s in 1917.  Checking in Marion County World War I draft cards for “Branahan,” “Branham,” “Brannon,” etc., I found this guy:

George Branham was in fact a professional ballplayer, employed by “Flemmings” (Henry Fleming was the business manager of the club known as Jewell’s A.B.C.’s), at Northwestern Park (where the A.B.C.’s played).

So I figured I had identified a different person from the later Branahan, someone who had wrongly been conflated with him (particularly given the gap of three years).  However, I also noticed this guy, with a rather significant name:

Not “Finis Branahan,” but “Finest Branham”—awfully close.  Note that Finest Ernest Branham, though not a professional ballplayer at this point, lived at the same address in Indianapolis (1410 Mill St.) as the ballplayer George Branham (though they registered a year apart).  Finest’s birthplace is not listed, but his father is Millard Branham of Castalian Spring, Tennessee—which is George’s birthplace.

I was also able to find, living at 1410 Mill St. in Indianapolis in 1917-18, Phoenix Branham, born 9 June 1881, with “nearest relative” listed as Susan Branham of Castalian Spring, Tennessee, and John Branham, born 5 January 1897 in Castalian Spring, Tennessee, father Millard Branham.  (Neither was listed as a ballplayer.)

Looking forward, I could not find anyone whose name resembled Finest Branham in the 1920 census—but I did find George Branham, 27, born in Tennessee, living in Detroit, Michigan, with wife Willie and daughter Gwendolyn, age six.  His occupation appears to be “machinist” or something similar, not ballplayer.  George also appears in the 1930 census, still in Detroit; his children now include a son, “Finis Branham,” three years old.

Remember that “J. Finis Branahan” is supposed to have played for the Detroit Stars in 1925.  Moreover, Riley also has a “George Brannigan (a.k.a. Branigan)” listed with the 1926 Cleveland Elite Giants and 1927 Cleveland Hornets—both teams that Branahan and “Slim Branham” are listed with.

Meanwhile, “Finest Branham” also turns up in the 1930 census, living in Cleveland, 28 years old, born in Tennessee (though his occupation’s not listed as ballplayer).

Turning to the Social Security Death Index, I was able to find:
George Branham, born 29 November 1893 (draft card above has 29 November 1891), died April 1977 (the Michigan Deaths database has the date April 14), Detroit, Michigan.
Finis Branham, born 7 April 1900 (same date as Finest Branham’s draft card), died January 1957 (no location), Social Security number issued in Ohio prior to 1951.
Finis Branham, born 31 December 1926, died 1 May 2005, Henderson, Nevada.

Some interesting quandaries here:

1) George Branham is the only one I can definitely identify as a baseball player, yet it seems awfully clear that Finest Branham is in fact the pitcher otherwise known as “Finis Branahan.”  Yet did George in fact continue his pitching career, perhaps with Detroit in 1925, or on the 1926-27 Cleveland teams?

2) Finest Ernest Branham signed his name “Finest” on his draft card; yet it appears as “Finis” in Social Security records.  His nephew, who would appear to have been named after him, appears in all the records as “Finis.”  He only passed away two years ago; it’s too bad no one got the chance to ask him about it.  But then, there may be other relatives around who know something about their family’s baseball connection.  (At least we probably know how “Finis” was pronounced, though.)

UPDATE 4:24 p.m. Forgot to add a couple of things: 1) in the 1910 census (in Sumter County, Tennessee), the enumerator spells Finest Branham's name “Finace”; and 2) Finis Branham, his nephew, was a Korean war veteran (wounded in a missile attack in 1951), who may have briefly entertained a political career; a “Finis Branham” of Detroit is listed at The Political Graveyard among Republican candidates for delegate to the  Michigan state constitutional convention in 1961 (he evidently lost in the primary).

padrón and muñoz in north carolina, 1914-1915

I finally got a chance to look up some 1914-15 North Carolina newspapers to see if Francisco Muñoz and Luis Padrón played for the Raleigh Capitals of the North Carolina League (as evidence collected by David Skinner and Patrick Rock seemed to suggest). 

First, Padrón in 1914:  According to the Raleigh News and Observer, a certain “George Pennele,” who came from Baltimore and had played briefly for the Orioles, was acquired by Earle Mack for the Raleigh club and played his first game on June 11, 1914.  Then the next day his name changes (without explanation) to Pedrone, then alternates between Pedrone and Pedone (in the box scores he is "Pedone" seven times, "Pedrone" three times, and "Pennele" once).  I'm certain they're the same person, as the newspaper was pretty scrupulous about recording the comings and goings of players.  Altogether Pennele/Pedrone/Pedone played 11 games, June 11 through June 24; according to the box scores, he batted 10 for 40 with no extra base hits, collected 26 putouts and 2 errors, all in center field. The stats are very slightly different from what David Skinner found in the Spalding Record Book for "Pedrone" in 1914, but not by much.  He batted eighth in the first three games, then second in the next five, then led off in his last three games.  When he was released, the News and Observer commented: "Pedone is a nice little outfielder, but is almost invisible in front of a catcher.  He just naturally hits weakly."  That just doesn't sound like Padrón, whose heavy hitting was always remarked upon wherever he went.  Plus, Padrón was always a story when he played in the minors; it seems unlikely he would have made such an underwhelming impression for a Class D club.

I briefly thought that perhaps the "Pennele" name and the bit about Baltimore might have been a cover story (soon abandoned) to hide his identity.  The publisher of the News and Observer at the time was still Josephus Daniels, one of the men who had orchestrated the 1898 coup d'etat that ended the last vestige of reconstruction in the south (the so-called "Wilmington race riot"); certainly the climate could not have been friendly for someone suspected of African ancestry.  Still, that didn't quite add up, since claims of a Baltimore origin would hardly deter suspicions of blackness.  Cuba would have been much safer (that was the whole point of using "Cubanness" as a dodge).  Plus, Francisco Muñoz (as well as J. M. Gutiérrez) did play for Raleigh the next season, as it turns out, and were openly known as Cubans, and nobody seemed to care.

Anyway, according to Marshall Wright’s book of International League stats, "Pedone," no first name, did play for the Baltimore Orioles in 1914.  He appeared in 7 games as an outfielder and hit 2 for 19 (two singles).  Then I searched for Pedone in the WWI draft cards.  It was actually a fairly well-represented name (87 Pedones registered for the draft).  Several were in Baltimore; one was named George, the same first name the News and Observer had given "Pennele"  when he first arrived.  And, as his card shows, he listed himself as a professional ballplayer:

So the whole thing turns out to be an odd coincidence, a similar name rendered even more similar by a typo (“Pedrone” for “Pedone”), on a team for which one (actually two) of Padrón’s Long Branch teammates would play the following season.

And Francisco Muñoz did indeed play for Raleigh in 1915.  The Long Branch Cubans, evidently playing their way north, visited Asheville in April, 1915, for a three-game series, during which the Asheville Mountaineers signed Muñoz and catcher Manuel Jiménez to form a Cuban battery.  Shortly thereafter (though I haven't checked for the precise circumstances) the Raleigh Capitals signed J. M. Gutiérrez to catch and play right field.  Muñoz pitched well for Asheville, going 5-2 as they led the Carolina League toward the end of May; however, rosters had to be reduced from 15 to 13 on May 25, and for some reason never explained Asheville manager Jack Corbett decided to get rid of his Cuban battery.  Earle Mack pounced immediately (the Capitals were actually in Asheville at the time), and Muñoz was signed; Jiménez, however, was sent back to the Long Branch Cubans.  The move did not work out for Asheville; in first place at the time they dumped the Cubans, the Mountaineers ended up dead last with a 43-73 record (the Capitals weren't great either, finishing fourth in a six-team league).

A couple of random notes:

1)    The North Carolina League was usually referred to as simply the “Carolina League.”

2)    The Asheville News-Gazette in 1915 carried an astronomy column by H. P. Lovecraft, and also featured a “Socialist Column,” put together by the “Socialist Local of Asheville.”

Soon to come: Luis Padrón’s minor league peregrinations in 1909-1911.

forgotten negro leaguer #5: robert a. prior

Here’s someone I found in the World War I draft cards: Robert A. Pryor Prior (see below), a pitcher for the St. Louis Giants, the Louisville White Sox, and three A.B.C.’s teams, 1914-17.  He appears in Riley (p. 643) and The Negro Leagues Book (p. 216) without a first name.

In the Indianapolis Freeman (June 17, 1916) he is referred to as “Pryor, the big colored southpaw,” though the draft card lists his height and build as both “medium.”

UPDATE 4:01 p.m.  Unbelievably, I only just now noticed that he signed his name “Prior,” with an “i,” on the card.  Which, by the way, raises a point about these draft cards: I believe that standard procedure in many places was for the examiner to fill the card out, while the registrant only signed it at the end.  In many, many cases (and I think this is one of them, though isn’t an especially dramatic case) the handwriting on the form does not match that on the signature line; and though I’m not a handwriting expert, it doesn’t seem to be merely a matter of a person's signature hand being somewhat different from his regular hand.

lightner (& dave brown) in minnesota?

Check out this article about the Pipestone Black Sox of Minnesota, an independent African-American team that played in 1926.  The big story here is that the authors believe that Dave Brown, the brilliant pitcher who went on the lam after killing a man in a bar fight in 1925, played for the Black Sox under the name “Lefty Wilson.”  They also identify a couple of other black big leaguers on the team, including “Lightner.”  I’m not sure whether they have independent evidence that this Lightner was the same guy who pitched with the Monarchs in 1920, or if they just looked up his name in Riley’s encyclopedia (which they cite).