will jackman, 1922 st. louis tigers

Here is (possibly) the earliest mention found so far of Will Jackman in a baseball context.  In 1922 a semi-pro team called the St. Louis Tigers took over the grounds formerly occupied by the St. Louis Giants, and, led by their manager, W.C. Wiley of Galveston, Texas, imported a bunch of players from the Texas Colored League and elsewhere.  “William Jackman, Houston, p,” appears in the tenth line from the bottom.  (Apologies for the faint image.)

(St. Louis Argus, April 14, 1922, p. 10)

There a few other players of note here, such as Thomas Gee (brother of Richard Gee), who would later catch for the Lincoln Giants and Newark Stars of the Eastern Colored League, and James “Baby” or “Babe” White, who I believe appeared briefly for the St. Louis Stars later in 1922.  As far as I can tell, Jackman didn’t stick with the team for long.

Anyway, I wish Dick Thompson were around so I could ask him about it.

As always, thanks to Patrick Rock for the great material from the St. Louis Argus.

UPDATE 2/9/2009 Per Bijan Bayne’s request in comments, here are the players for the St. Louis Tigers, as listed in the article above:

“Jas. “Baby” White, formerly with Beaumont Oilers, 2b; Elisha Warren, Galveston Sand Crabs, 3b; William Hines, Houston Buffaloes, 1b; Robert Davis, All Nations, p; Chas. Hunter, Beaumont, outfield; William Jackman, Houston, p; Lawson Perry, ss; Thomas Calloway and Lloyd Evans, outfield, all from Houston; Thos. Gee, c, and Curtis Boyce, p, from the Galveston Sand Crabs.”

Comments

[Bill Mullins]

Newsbank's GenealogyBank database has box scores for 4/26/1921 and 6/6/1921 games of the Houston Black Buffaloes, with "Jackman" pitching from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram.

Houston won the Apr game, vs Ft Worth Black Panthers, 10-7, and the June game (also vs Ft Worth) 5-2.

Even more interesting (to me) is a 1918 Dallas Morning News article about postings of local soldiers, mentioning Pvt. William Jackman as a chauffeur. Cannonball's draft notice showed him to be a mechanic, and he was a chauffeur after retiring from baseball, so I think it's likely that this is the same guy.

[Bijan C. Bayne]

Can you post the names of the players listed in the article? I'm a colleague of the late Dick Thompson's.