Agate Type

how the 1920 NNL teams were built

The magnates: J. L. Wilkinson (Kansas City), Tenny Blount (Detroit), Rube Foster (American Giants), C. I. Taylor (Indianapolis), at the 1922 Negro National League meeting.

Writing about the meeting that established the Negro National League, the Chicago Defender claimed that “[t]he newspaper men had the day at the meeting.  No manager had aught to say about players.  They were selected on account of their RELATIVE STRENGTH to each team.” 

So, did it work?  Did the newspaper men succeed in their attempt to balance the league?  Their task was complicated by the fact two of the most important clubs in the NNL, the Kansas City Monarchs and the Indianapolis ABCs, hadn’t fielded teams in 1919, and had to be put together from scratch.  For C. I. Taylor, this basically meant assembling a collection of former ABCs players (with a few additions).  The Monarchs, on the other hand, were a brand-new club, with only a tenuous relationship to J. L. Wilkinson’s old All Nations teams (plus, the All Nations were not actually a black team, featuring many white players who probably wouldn’t have been much interested in joining the Negro leagues).

Since we now have the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, we can use win shares to get a quick idea of how each team was built that year.  I took the top 100 players in win shares for the 1920 NNL season, plus a few more, and for each team put them in five groups according to whether/how the players changed teams for 1920, including both off-season and midseason moves.

Players who moved during the 1920 season will appear in multiple groups.  I haven’t attempted to adjust the win shares for number of games counted for each team, which varies in the 1920 NNL from 40 to 95, so don’t take the figures too seriously as precise evaluations of the players’ performances.  (For example, Oscar Charleston earned the most win shares, but the real MVP was probably Cristóbal Torriente.)  The idea here is just to get a rough estimate of where talent was flowing, especially within the league, and how the teams were put together.

CHICAGO AMERICAN GIANTS

•RETAINED: Cristóbal Torriente (23.8 win shares), Dave Brown (18.6), Bingo DeMoss (14.5), Tom Johnson (14.2); Dave Malarcher (9.0), George Dixon (8.7), Judy Gans (4.9), Jim Brown (4.7), Bobby Williams (4.2), Leroy Grant (3.1). +105.7

•IN from NNL teams: Jelly Gardner (3.7) from Detroit (via Dayton). +3.7

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: Tom Williams (19.5) and Johnny Reese (0.9) from Hilldale; Jack Marshall (8.2) from Gilkerson’s Union Giants; Frank Wickware (4.6) from Bacharach Giants. +33.2

•OUT to NNL teams: Oscar Charleston (25.7) to Indianapolis; Bill Riggins (7.0) to Detroit; Tom Johnson (1.7) loaned to Detroit midseason. -34.4

•OUT to non-NNL teams: Richard Whitworth (7.7) and Jesse Barber (7.2) to Hilldale; String Bean Williams (6.7) to Bacharach Giants. -21.6

Balance with NNL: -30.7

The American Giants donated the most wins to other Negro National Leagues, mostly by giving Oscar Charleston to Indianapolis.  Foster also participated in an exchange of players with the east, losing Whitworth and Barber to Hilldale, and String Bean Williams to the Bacharachs, while getting Tom Williams from Hilldale, and Frank Wickware from the Bacharachs.  It’s not clear whether these were trades or reciprocal raids.  I’d suspect the latter, as Charleston was originally reported to be on his way to Hilldale, too, only to change his mind.  The value of the players lost to the east is greatly understated here, since Hilldale and the Bacharachs played fewer top-flight games than the American Giants.


CHICAGO GIANTS

•RETAINED: Willie Green (3.2), John Beckwith (2.7), Horace Jenkins (1.7), Bobby Winston (1.2); Harry Jeffries (0.3), Thurman Jennings (0.2), Joe Green (0.1), Walter Ball (0.1). +9.5

•IN from NNL teams: Frank Duncan (outfielder; 0.8) from Detroit; Luther Farrell (0.8) and Harry Bauchman (0.2) from St. Louis Giants midseason. +1.8

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: John Taylor (2.8),  Butler White (1.4), Bobby Anderson (0.6), and Frank Duncan (catcher; 0.4). +5.2

•OUT to NNL teams: Harry Bauchman (0.1) to St. Louis. -0.1

•OUT to non-NNL teams: none

Balance with NNL: +1.7

The Chicago Giants gained the outfielder Frank Duncan from Detroit and signed the young catcher Frank Duncan (no relation).  They won only 6 games against top-flight opposition in 1920, so these figures are almost meaningless.


CUBAN STARS OF HAVANA

•RETAINED: José Leblanc (15.1), Bernardo Baró (14.1), Bienvenido Jiménez (6.5), Matías Ríos (5.3), Eustaquio Pedroso (3.2); Eufemio Abreu (2.1), Prudencio Martínez (1.6; last played for Cuban Stars in 1918). +47.9

•IN from NNL teams: none.

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: Valentín Dreke (10.1) from New York Cuban Stars; José Hernández  (14.9), Ramón Herrera (7.4), Marcelino Guerra (5.3), Faustino Valdés (4.8), and José López (2.5) didn’t come to U.S. in 1919. +45.0

•OUT to NNL teams: Bartolo Portuondo (13.4) to Kansas City. -13.4

•OUT to non-NNL teams: José Junco (1.9) and Tatica Campos (0.8) to New York Cuban Stars; Manuel Villa and Abraham Tolosa didn’t come to U.S. in 1920.  -2.7

Balance with NNL: -13.4

The Cuban teams always occupied a peculiar place in the Negro leagues, due to their semi-exclusive access to a foreign source of talent.  They did lose Portuondo to the Monarchs, and Junco and Campos to Pompez’s eastern Cubans.  They brought a number of new/newish Cubans to the U.S. to make up the deficit.


DAYTON MARCOS

•RETAINED: Koke Alexander (8.2), George Britt (6.9), Candy Jim Taylor (4.6), George Brown (3.0), John Cunningham (0.7). +23.4

•IN from NNL teams: Boots McClain (1.3), Mitchell Murray (0.2), and Samuel Dewitt (0.1) acquired from Indianapolis midseason. +1.6

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: Bruce Hocker (2.5) and William Webster (1.3) from Jewell’s ABCs of Indianapolis; Slim Branham (2.8), Isaac Lane (2.7), David Wingfield (2.0), and Charley Wilson (1.6). +12.9

•OUT to NNL teams: Dizzy Dismukes (10.6), Ed Rile (3.4), Samuel Dewitt (0.8), and Mitchell Murray (0.7) to Indianapolis; Lee Hill (4.0) to St. Louis; Charley Hill (3.5) and Mack Eggleston (3.1) to Detroit. -26.1

•OUT to non-NNL teams: none

Balance with NNL: -24.5

The Marcos lost Dizzy Dismukes and the promising Ed Rile, without really getting much in return.


DETROIT STARS

•RETAINED: Edgar Wesley (10.2), Frank Warfield (8.7), Pete Hill (8.3), Joe Hewitt (4.7), Bruce Petway (2.3). +34.2

•IN from NNL teams: Jimmie Lyons (20.2) and Bill Gatewood (16.3) from St. Louis; Bill Riggins (7.0) from American Giants; Chick Harper (3.5), acquired from KC mid-season; Charley Hill (3.5) and Mack Eggleston (3.1) from Dayton; Tom Johnson (1.7), loaned from American Giants midseason.  +55.3

•IN from non-NNL Teams, or rookies: Bill Holland (14.8) and Eugene Moore (1.0; loaned to St. Louis midseason) from Jewell’s ABCs of Indianapolis; Charley Hill (3.5), Andy Cooper (2.9), Gunboat Thompson (2.3), Smith (pitcher; 1.4), and Alonzo Longware (0.8). +23.2

•OUT to NNL teams: John Donaldson (14.7), Sam Crawford (14.4), José Méndez (7.0), and Vicente Rodríguez (3.1) to Kansas City; Dicta Johnson (13.5) to Indianapolis; Jelly Gardner (3.7) to Dayton; Eugene Moore (2.8) loaned to St. Louis midseason; Frank Duncan (outfielder; 0.8) to Chicago Giants.  -60.0

•OUT TO non-NNL teams: none.

Balance with NNL: -4.7

Detroit donated a huge amount of value to other NNL teams (nearly twice what they retained), include their entire pitching staff.  The main beneficiaries were the Monarchs, with 39 win shares going to Kansas City.  The Stars recouped most of their losses, though, picking up Lyons and Gatewood from St. Louis and Riggins from the American Giants, as well as a couple of choice rookies, Bill Holland and future Hall of Famer Andy Cooper.


INDIANAPOLIS ABCs

•RETAINED: Jim Jeffries (10.6) and Russell Powell (6.3) last played for 1918 ABCs (Jeffries played one game for Jewell’s ABCs in 1919). +16.9

•IN from NNL teams: Oscar Charleston from American Giants (25.7); Dicta Johnson (13.5) from Detroit; Dizzy Dismukes (10.6) and Ed Rile (3.4) from Dayton; Samuel Dewitt (0.8) and Mitchell Murray (0.7) from Dayton; Charleston, Johnson, and Dismukes were former ABCs. +54.7

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: Ben Taylor (18.6) and George Shively (6.7) from Bacharach Giants; Morten Clark (14.2) from Lincoln Giants; Bob McClure (9.8), Biz Mackey (7.4), Ralph Jefferson (4.2), Henry Blackmon (3.1), Morris Williams (1.3), Namon Washington (1.1), and Robert Hudspeth (0.1), all from Texas; Connie Day (3.9) from Jewell’s ABCs; Boots McClain (0.2). +70.6

•OUT to NNL teams: Boots McClain (1.3), Mitchell Murray (0.2), and Samuel Dewitt (0.1) dealt to Dayton midseason. -1.6

•OUT to non-NNL teams: George Shively (1.0) left for Bacharach Giants mid-season. -1.0

Balance with NNL: +53.1
Excluding former ABCs: +3.3

Basically, the ABCs reacquired a bunch of their old players, then with the team mired in a midseason slump, C. I. Taylor signed half the roster of the Texas Negro League’s San Antonio Black Aces.  The Aces’ owner threatened to sue; it’s unknown whether he made good on the threat, but Taylor kept the players, nearly all of whom went on to decent Negro league careers.  Biz Mackey, of course, ended up in the Hall of Fame.

Former ABCs +105.2
Rookies from Texas +27.0
Other acquisitions +8.3


KANSAS CITY MONARCHS

•IN from NNL teams: John Donaldson (14.7), Sam Crawford (14.4), José Méndez (7.0), and Vicente Rodríguez (3.1) from Detroit; Bartolo Portuondo (13.4) from Cuban Stars. +52.6

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: George Carr (12.0) and Edgar “Blue” Washington (2.6) from Los Angeles White Sox; Reuben Curry (14.2) and Hurley McNair (14.0) from Gilkerson’s Union Giants; Bullet Rogan (13.8) and Dobie Moore (9.7) from 25th Infantry Wreckers; Otto Ray (2.1); Chick Harper (3.1); Joaquín Arumís (1.0) from Cuba. +72.5

•OUT to NNL teams: Chick Harper (3.5), dealt to Detroit midseason. -3.5

•OUT to non-NNL teams: none.

Balance with NNL: +49.1
Excluding former All Nations: +27.4

The Monarchs developed several interlocking networks for acquiring players.   Wilkinson evidently started with his old stars Donaldson and Méndez, making Méndez the manager.  Both had played for the Los Angeles White Sox in the late teens, and it must have been through this connection that LA players George Carr and Edgar Washington ended up in KC.  Wilkinson secured two more veteran players from Detroit, the pitcher Sam Crawford and Cuban catcher Vicente “El Loco” Rodríguez, and then was able to sign third baseman Bartolo Portuondo away from the Cuban Stars.  He tried to get two more Cubans, Cristóbal Torriente (another old All Nations star) and Bernardo Baró, but failed.  Most likely Foster, having had to give up Charleston to the ABCs, couldn’t face losing Torriente as well.  

Méndez and Wilkinson had to settle instead for two members of Gilkerson’s Union Giants, the veteran Hurley McNair and young pitcher Reuben Curry, a Kansas City native.  Wilber “Bullet” Rogan of the famous 25th Infantry Wreckers was a Kansas Citian who had appeared briefly for the All Nations while on furlough back in 1917.  Presumably it was Rogan who recommended his Wreckers teammate, Dobie Moore.  Wilkinson had already signed them both up by February, although their Army enlistments were not up until the end of June, so the Monarchs had to wait.

Former All Nations: +21.7 (including Rogan, +35.5)
Union Giants: +28.2
Army: +23.5
L. A. White Sox: +14.6
Other Acquisitions: +5.2

ST. LOUIS GIANTS

•RETAINED: Bill Drake (13.1), John Finner (11.8), Charlie Blackwell (11.4), Dan Kennard (6.6), Dick Wallace (4.5), Sidney Brooks (3.6), Lorenza Cobb (3.2), Tullie McAdoo (2.8), Eddie Holtz (2.4), Sam Bennett (0.8); Robert Scott (0.1). +60.3

•IN from NNL teams: Lee Hill (4.0) from Dayton; Eugene Moore (2.8) loaned from Detroit; Harry Bauchman (0.1) from Chicago Giants. +6.9

•IN from non-NNL teams, or rookies: Lunie Danage (6.2), Doc Dudley (6.0), Wayne Carr (5.5), Jimmy Oldham (1.3), Joe Casey (1.1), Luther Farrell (1.1) from Lincoln Giants, Lonnie Torian (0.8). +22.0

•OUT to NNL teams: Jimmie Lyons (20.2) and Bill Gatewood (16.3) to Detroit; Luther Farrell (0.8) and Harry Bauchman (0.2) to Chicago Giants midseason. -37.5

•OUT to non-NNL teams: Robert Scott (1.6) to Royal Giants after 2 games; Sam Bennett left midseason to play in North Dakota. -1.6

Balance with NNL: -30.6

The St. Louis Giants gave up a lot of value to the Detroit Stars in Jimmie Lyons, one of the best position players in the league, and Bill Gatewood, one of the best pitchers.  They didn’t get anything back of value from NNL teams, and their rookie crop didn’t exactly set the league on fire.  They tried signing some players from the 25th Infantry Wreckers, but couldn’t hang on to the best of them, Heavy Johnson.

Here’s a table showing each team’s balance with the other NNL clubs.  In parentheses I’ve put figures excluding the former ABCs and All Nations players, just to highlight the adjustments made after Taylor and Wilkinson got their guys back.

Balance with NNL (excluding former ABCs & All Nations):
Indianapolis ABCs          +53.1 (+3.3)
Kansas City Monarchs       +49.1 (+27.4)
Chicago Giants             +1.7  (+1.7)
Detroit Stars              -4.7  (+30.5)
Cuban Stars of Havana      -13.4 (-13.4)
Dayton Marcos              -24.5 (-13.9)
St. Louis Giants           -30.6 (-30.6)
American Giants            -30.7 (+2.0)

In a nutshell, the American Giants and Detroit Stars gave a bunch of players to Indianapolis and Kansas City; Detroit was compensated with a couple of very important St. Louis Giants players; and the St. Louis Giants were, to put it bluntly, screwed. 

W. S. Ferance, who said he had been the “under secretary” of the St. Louis Giants for five years, wrote an article in 1923 attacking Rube Foster, and described the transfer of Lyons to Detroit this way:

(Baltimore Afro-American, February 2, 1923, p. 11)

Ferance doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if Oscar Charleston’s otherwise puzzling transfer to St. Louis for 1921 was actually some sort of delayed compensation for the loss of Lyons.

In any event, even the loss of Charleston didn’t stop the American Giants from dominating the league.  They were followed in the final standings by the teams that gained the most talent from other league teams—Detroit, Kansas City, and Indianapolis—while the teams that (aside from Foster) gave up the most, St. Louis and Dayton, were left to wallow in the second division.

the founding of the negro national league, 1920

Yesterday’s post about the birth of the Negro National League in 1920 got me thinking about how the organization was originally conceived.  Here’s an article from the Chicago Defender that discusses the league’s plans in detail, along with a list of players for the six teams that were at that point confirmed as members (Mark Aubrey posted an article from the Baltimore Afro-American that contains the same list):

(Chicago Defender, February 21, 1920, p. 9)

And here’s an article from the Kansas City Sun that covers some of the same territory:

(Kansas City Sun, February 28, 1920, p. 9)

A few notes about the NNL’s origins:

What we now know as the Negro National League, based in the Midwest, was originally the “Western Circuit” of the Negro National Baseball League.  The idea, as explained here, was that the organization would eventually expand to take in the eastern clubs, presumably to be called the “Eastern Circuit.”  When the Negro Southern League was organized the following month, it was commonly thought that it would eventually become part of Foster’s overarching structure, too.  The term “Western Circuit” was used through much of the 1920 season, but by 1921 it was gradually fading out as a proper name, to be replaced by “National League.” 

While the Bacharach Giants and Hilldale Club were associated with the NNL from 1920 through 1922, Rube Foster could not reach a deal with Nat Strong, who controlled the other big eastern clubs, and so the projected “Eastern Circuit” never materialized.  In the end Ed Bolden and the Bacharachs’ ownership, stranded by themselves hundreds of miles from the rest of the league, made a separate peace with Strong, and the Eastern Colored League was born, completely independent of Foster.

(Chicago Defender, April 24, 1920, p. 9)

As I mentioned yesterday, the NNL’s original plan was to begin operation in 1921, not 1920.  This was supposed to be so that all clubs, including the traveling Cuban Stars and Chicago Giants, could find a home park.  “The circuit will not officially operate until each city has a park, either leased or owned,” the Defender says.  The status of the traveling clubs—the Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, and (according to the Sun) Dayton Marcos—is a little unclear, but they were apparently considered not full league members at first.

The Kansas City Sun explains that in 1920 Rube Foster’s booking agency would assign dates between the clubs “instead of a regular league schedule being played”—I’m not sure I understand the distinction they’re drawing, unless they just mean that league clubs would play each other without the pennant being contested.  By May 2, when the Chicago Giants met the A.B.C.’s at Washington Park in Indianapolis, all this had been forgotten or revised, and the NNL’s first season was officially on.

Lastly: although the building at 18th Vine that hosted the meeting is commonly called the Paseo YMCA, at the time it was known as the Community Center or the Community Club Rooms (with the YMCA housed within).

(Kansas City Sun, February 14, 1920, p. 8)

I don’t have space in this post, but next I want to discuss the roster list above, and how the teams of the NNL’s first season were put together.

the negro national league’s birthday

Joe Posnanski is uncertain about the “birthday” of the (first) Negro National League—was it February 11, 1920, or February 13?  Since I’m here to fill the internet with obscure, useless details, know that the meeting establishing the league was held in Kansas City on February 13 and February 14, 1920, as a number of contemporary sources establish. So you can celebrate the NNL’s 93rd birthday today, if you are so inclined. Here are a couple of relevant Chicago Defender articles from February 7 & 14, 1920, the first looking forward to the meeting, the second a report on the first day (datelined February 13).

UPDATE 8:55 a.m.  One thing you might have noticed about the second article is that it discusses plans for 1921, not 1920.  That was originally the idea—they were planning a year in advance.  But at some point they realized they might as well start the league that very year.

 

lockout league

Mark Anthony Neal suggests that NBA players might respond to the lockout by forming their own league.  He also points to the Negro leagues as a possible inspiration, given that 80 percent of NBA players have African heritage.  The Negro National League, he writes,

did much more than entertain; it was a logical extension of the Black owned world that Blacks were forced to navigate in the era of State sponsored racial segregation.  Ironically, as William C. Rhoden notes in his book Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete, the Negro National League “marked one of the last times that African Americans controlled their own major-league sports organization.” (102)

A basketball Players League would, obviously, be quite different from the historical Negro leagues, for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain.  The parallel between the Negro leagues and the proposed league does work to the extent that an ex-NBA league, assuming it really was largely self-financed by players, would certainly involve a lot more input and control by black athletes than any other major sports league since the Negro leagues.  However—the Negro leagues were not really self-financed.  Yes, a few players or former players—most notably Rube Foster—eventually became owners, and Foster of course founded the Negro National League.  But most of the ownership ranks were filled out with non-players, many of whom were white.  The Negro leagues were not players’ leagues in any sense.   

A better baseball parallel might be the actual Players League of 1890.  There were no black players involved, but it was the literal equivalent of what Professor Neal is suggesting.  At that time the players collectively commanded much less capital on their own, and so had to seek outside financial backing.  This proved the league’s weak point (as I understand it anyway). A. G. Spalding was able to exploit the investors’ lack of commitment and solidarity, and the Players League never played a second season.

Would it happen this way again?  Clearly NBA players have greater collective financial resources, although I have no idea whether they have enough clout to finance a league completely by themselves.  One suspects some form of outside investment would have to be secured.  I really don’t know how practical or likely the whole scheme is—probably not very, but who knows?