Before Jimmie Newberry and Johnny Britton, and even before the mysterious Jimmy Bonna, the earliest African Americans to play professionally in Japan (though not in the Japanese leagues) were the Philadelphia Royal Giants, a Los Angeles-based team that made several winter-season trips to Japan, the Philippines, and elsewhere in East Asia in the late 1920s and early 1930s. A number of Negro league stars appeared for the Royal Giants over the years, including Rap Dixon, Andy Cooper, Frank Duncan, and Biz Mackey.
Probably the most iconic image from these tours is this, from 1927, usually identified as Biz Mackey with an unnamed Japanese player:
I should have known this, but as this article explains, the photo actually shows Japanese player and manager Shinji Hamazaki, a member of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame, standing alongside a different Royal Giants catcher—O’Neal Pullen. (The 1927 team, by the way, took three catchers with them—Mackey, Pullen, and Duncan. I’m thinking Mackey probably spent a lot of time as an infielder.)
Here’s a detail of a Royal Giants panoramic photo, showing both Pullen and Mackey, along with Ajay Johnson standing between them, and Lon Goodwin, organizer of both the Royal Giants and the Los Angeles White Sox:
Probably the most iconic image from these tours is this, from 1927, usually identified as Biz Mackey with an unnamed Japanese player:
I should have known this, but as this article explains, the photo actually shows Japanese player and manager Shinji Hamazaki, a member of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame, standing alongside a different Royal Giants catcher—O’Neal Pullen. (The 1927 team, by the way, took three catchers with them—Mackey, Pullen, and Duncan. I’m thinking Mackey probably spent a lot of time as an infielder.)
Here’s a detail of a Royal Giants panoramic photo, showing both Pullen and Mackey, along with Ajay Johnson standing between them, and Lon Goodwin, organizer of both the Royal Giants and the Los Angeles White Sox:
Posted by Gary Ashwill
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