Fats Jenkins

Stephen V. Rice has published a good SABR biography of Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, the basketball and baseball star of 1920s and 1930s New York City. A couple of months back he wrote to me about the photograph we use for Jenkins at the Seamheads Negro Leagues DB, saying that he didn’t think it was Jenkins.

Here’s the photo we use for Fats Jenkins:

It’s a detail from a photo showing two Harrisburg Giants players—“Jenkins” and Oscar Charleston:

I don’t remember where I first ran across this photo, but a few years back a print of it appeared in a Hake’s auction. On their website he’s identified as Jenkins—I have no idea if this attribution comes from them or an expert they engaged, or was attached to the photo by somebody else before they put it up for sale.

One detail to notice about this photograph is that “Jenkins” is wearing a glove on his right hand, indicating that he threw left-handed. According to Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia, Fats Jenkins (a left-handed hitter) threw right-handed. On the other hand (ha), I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jenkins playing a “throwing” infield position (3b, ss, 2b) in a game, even once. Any right-handed position player with a long Negro league career is bound to have done so at least a few times. Not ever doing it is a very strong indicator (though of course not proof) of being left-handed, at least in my view. This is a detail I had not taken notice of before. If this is Fats Jenkins, he threw left-handed.

He looks to be the same height as Jenkins, 5’7”, as he’s a little shorter than Charleston, who was 5’8”. (Yes, some reference sources list Charleston as 6’1”, but on official documents, including draft cards and passport applications, Charleston himself gives his height as 5’8”, and this is corroborated, in my view, by a number of photographs.)

Here is a more securely identified photograph of Fats Jenkins, from the cover of the Colored Baseball & Sports Monthly (September 1, 1939):

There are also many photographs of Jenkins from his basketball career, many of them showing him with the famous Renaissance Five.

 

 

(Above two from the Black Fives Foundation.)

 

(Elmira, N.Y., Star-Gazette, January 9, 1928, p. 17)

 

Slate: America’s Black Basketball Pioneers (April 27, 2014)

Let’s put the two together: on the left a stone cold certain photo of Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, to the right our presumed “Jenkins” from the photo with Oscar Charleston:

At first it does seem like these are obviously different men. The most notable contrasts would be in their noses, mouths, and jaws/jawlines. On the other hand, their ears are actually quite similar, as are their eyes and certain details of their cheeks and even lips.

You do have to take into account the differences in the photos. They are taken at (very slightly) different angles; on the right he is wearing a cap, covering the top of his head and obscuring his eyes and eyebrows. And on the right he's got an open-mouthed smile, which could be distorting some of his features a bit.

Still, the nose in the photo on the right flares out in a way that seems to be structurally different from the nose on the left. Could this just be a result of scrunching up your face in a smile? I don’t know. By the same token the corners of the mouth seem quite different in the two photos, but maybe this is again the result of the smile.

Although I find myself going back and forth on this, there’s enough uncertainty about the Harrisburg Giants photo that I think that for now we’ll use the photo from the Colored Baseball & Sports Monthly for Jenkins at the Seamheads DB (this change will appear in our next update). Feel free to weigh in if you’ve got an opinion.

Meanwhile, if it’s not Jenkins in the photo with Charleston, then who is it? I don’t have an answer yet. The apparent left-handedness of the player does limit our options.

(I replied to Stephen about this, but it bounced back every time I tried to send it. So this post is my way of writing back.)

Comments

[Gary Ashwill]

Yeah, after due consideration I agree it's Fats Jenkins. The facial expression is one that's not duplicated in other photos of him, and he's also much younger in this picture than in most images of him.

[Bob Poet]

Agree with Cabeb on all counts. I'm no expert, but it sure looks like the same man to me. Especially the ears and the way they are placed on his head. That's a tough thing to match if it isn't him.

Sidebar: Whatever happened to "Big Fats" Jenkins? Did he play any ball?

[Stephen V. Rice]

Hmm, I don't know why your email to me bounced back, but thank you for your post. I think the Harrisburg photo is another player because the shape of his face seems narrower and longer, with a longer jaw, even after taking account his smile.

Steve Rice

[Nicolas]

Based on Hake's Auction, picture was taken in 1925.

Did a quick search on Seamheads, there were 4 recorded lefties on the 1925 Harrisburg Giants:

1B Ben Taylor (5'11)
CF Oscar Charleston (Gary mentioned as 5'8)
P Willie Gisentaner (5'9)
P Wilbert Pritchett (no recorded height)

Charleston also played in 1924 for the Harrisburg Giants, maybe the photo was wrongly dated. Lefties on that team apart from Charleston:

1B Edgar Wesley (5'11)
P Fred Bell (no recorded height)
P Jim Jeffries (no recorded height)

I would start looking for pictures of those guys to see if they match the Hake's Auction "Fats Jenkins".

[Caleb Hardwick]

I think the smile, the lighting and the lines of his cheekbones are desceptively making his nose look wider than it actually is. The jawline might be an illusion of angle. Otherwise, it looks like the same person to me. (Though I've not had a good track record with photo IDs, so don't quote me).