agate type

john donaldson 1925

This is old news, and I’ve already linked to it; but here is that John Donaldson footage from 1925 that was uncovered a few years ago.  Now it’s embedded, therefore it’s cooler.

footage of john donaldson

My nominee for Negro League research find of the year for 2006 would have to be some in-game footage of the All Nations great (and Hall of Fame nominee) John Donaldson, both pitching and batting.  Very little Negro League film exists at all; to find some of a semi-obscure figure like Donaldson, who labored mostly outside even the organized Negro Leagues, is astonishing.  Some people seem to think the big story is that Shoeless Joe Jackson might be in the crowd at the game.  I couldn’t care less.  We already know more than enough about Jackson, one of the more overstudied, overexposed, and undeservedly romanticized figures in the game’s history; Donaldson’s the point.