blainey hall

Over at the NLBPA message board there has been an off-and-on thread for a few months about Blainey Hall, the Lincoln Giants and Baltimore Black Sox outfielder from the 1910s and 1920s.  Some of his relatives have been involved in the discussion, so I thought I’d post the few documents I know about related to Hall.

He was named James Blaine Hall, presumably after the Republican candidate for president in 1884 (Blaine from Maine).  Here is his World War I draft card:

Here is his World War II draft card, where he has reversed his first and middle names (not an uncommon practice), possibly because he normally went by his middle name.  He is also younger here, giving a birth year of 1889 instead of 1886.  This is also a very common pattern; many, many people gave older ages in the World War I draft than in other official records.

 

(Btw, the reverse sides of Maryland’s World War II cards are currently unavailable.)

Going backward and forward in time from these two documents, in the 1900 census I was able to find Blaine Hall, born January 1888 in Maryland, living in Baltimore with his parents Caleb and Sarah (presumably the Sarah Hall listed as his nearest relative on both draft cards), a sister, Mary E., and a brother, William.

Lastly, in the Social Security Death Index, there is a James Hall, born 17 January 1889, with a Social Security number issued in Maryland, who died in Baltimore in March 1975.

Comments

[Julian Richardson]

My father, Julian B Richardson played with Blaine after his career in the Negro Leagues. Blane lived off of Oella Avenue near the intersection of Westchester Avenue. They played together for JW Dickey& Sons an armature league team at The Old Brick Yard off of Rockhaven Ave. They both loved baseball and enjoyed the times they spent together. My father told me that the Boston Red Sox were interested in Blaine if he would say he was Cuban, but Blaine wouldn’t do that. My father played second base for Dickey’s but he said Blaine was the best second baseman he had ever seen. And gladly moved to third. I believe that must been in the 1930’s and Blaine was probably in his 40’s. I spoke with him several times at a local store on Oella Avenue he was a friendly, kind man who talked with fondest of my father. I always enjoyed our conversations because Blaine always smiled and seemed happy.