Definitely check out Geri Strecker’s article, “The Rise and Fall of Greenlee Field,” in the most recent issue of Black Ball. It includes many great photos, including a 1938 aerial shot of the Hill District that shows the former site of the Keystones’ Central Baseball Park as well as the first Ammon Field.
There’s much else to recommend about the issue. I’ll single out “Remembering the Bearcats: Black Baseball in France at the End of World War I,” by Pellom McDaniels III, which is about the 805th Pioneer Infantry’s baseball team. McDaniels includes brief profiles of three Negro leaguers (all erstwhile Kansas City Monarchs) who played for the 805th: Bill “Plunk” Drake, Otto Ray, and Hugh Blackburn, who had pitched for the Lost Island Giants in 1917.
Here’s an article from the Chicago Defender (June 7, 1919) reporting on a game played in Brest, France, between the 805th and the 803rd (“Taylor” of the 803rd, incidentally, might be the John Taylor who pitched for the Chicago Giants of the NNL in the early 1920s and later the Lincoln Giants, though this is not confirmed). Apologies for the quality of the image, but I think it is mostly readable, at least until you get to the box score.
From my own research I can add another ballplaying member of the 805th: Charley Lightner, who pitched briefly for the Kansas City Monarchs and the semi-pro Kansas City Allies in 1920. I don’t know whether or not he played for the 805th team in France.
There’s much else to recommend about the issue. I’ll single out “Remembering the Bearcats: Black Baseball in France at the End of World War I,” by Pellom McDaniels III, which is about the 805th Pioneer Infantry’s baseball team. McDaniels includes brief profiles of three Negro leaguers (all erstwhile Kansas City Monarchs) who played for the 805th: Bill “Plunk” Drake, Otto Ray, and Hugh Blackburn, who had pitched for the Lost Island Giants in 1917.
Here’s an article from the Chicago Defender (June 7, 1919) reporting on a game played in Brest, France, between the 805th and the 803rd (“Taylor” of the 803rd, incidentally, might be the John Taylor who pitched for the Chicago Giants of the NNL in the early 1920s and later the Lincoln Giants, though this is not confirmed). Apologies for the quality of the image, but I think it is mostly readable, at least until you get to the box score.
From my own research I can add another ballplaying member of the 805th: Charley Lightner, who pitched briefly for the Kansas City Monarchs and the semi-pro Kansas City Allies in 1920. I don’t know whether or not he played for the 805th team in France.
Posted by Gary Ashwill
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