negro leagues database: update

Here’s a recap of the last couple of months at the Seamheads Negro Leagues DB, in case you haven’t been keeping track.  Since November we’ve added:

1) Patrick Rock’s 1923 Negro National League, including Turkey Stearnes’s rookie year, the Monarchs’ first pennant, and 39-year-old Candy Jim Taylor’s bizarre 20-homer season.

2) The little-known Cuban Summer League from 1904 to 1908, plus the Cuban Winter League,1902/03 & 1903/04, which covers quite a bit of great hitting by Julián Castillo and great pitching by Carlos Royer.

3) 1914 & 1915 independent black clubs, which pushes our Negro league coverage back to the dawn of C. I. Taylor’s tenure with the A.B.C.s, and includes some great seasons by his brother Ben Taylor, Cristóbal Torriente, and Dizzy Dismukes.

Plus we’ve made innumerable additions and improvements to the biographical record of players and managers.  This is just me, but I’m especially happy about tracking down some obscure Indianapolis players from the 1910s, such as Jack Hannibal, Arthur Coleman, and McKinley Brewer.   We’ve also gotten significant help from Brian McKenna, who has recently done a series of biographies of early black ballplayers such as Danger Talbert, Doc Sykes, Bingo DeMoss, and Tullie McAdoo.

There hasn’t been a huge amount of commentary about the contents of the Database yet, but Alex King at the Baseball Think Factory’s Hall of Merit has used DB figures to help with his analysis of Cannonball Dick Redding’s pitching and Cyclone Joe Williams’s hitting.

Coming next to the Negro Leagues DB: 1912 & 1913 Negro leagues and 1913/14 & 1914/1915 Cuban leagues.

Also: if anybody can help us get box scores in Atlantic City, Kansas City, or Chicago, it would be greatly appreciated (email me if you’re interested).