Ten More Negro Leagues Stars for Cooperstown
Plus, news as spring training gets underway
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Leading Off
Ten More Negro Leaguers Worthy of Cooperstown
By Chris Jensen
Last month, I featured the ten Negro Leaguers I felt were most worthy of being in the Hall of Fame: Rap Dixon, Dick “Cannonball” Redding, Dick Lundy, Oliver Marcelle, Charlie “Chino” Smith, Newt Allen, Candy Jim Taylor, Sammy Hughes, Bill Monroe, and John Beckwith.
What follows are my recommendations for ten more Negro Leaguers who also deserve induction in Cooperstown.
C.I. Taylor—The first great strategist as a Negro League manager, Taylor and his brother Candy Jim should both be in the Hall as managers. In 1904, C.I. helped form the first Black professional team in Birmingham, Alabama, serving as player-manager of the Birmingham Giants, who he turned into the best team in the South.
Taking over as part-owner and manager of the Indianapolis ABCs, he led the club to the 1916 championship over Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants. He discovered and developed dozens of great players including Oscar Charleston, Biz Mackey, Dave Malarcher, and Bingo DeMoss.
Taylor was also instrumental in working with Rube Foster to form the Negro National League in 1920, the first successful Black professional league.
Grant “Home Run” Johnson—One of the top sluggers and shortstops in the Negro Leagues during the Dead Ball Era, Johnson helped form the Page Fence Giants in 1895 with Bud Fowler and batted .471 as captain. He also excelled in his early years as a submarine pitcher.
Johnson’s .316 lifetime average (158 OPS+) does not include many undocumented games. He batted .397 for the Leland Giants in 1910 and then averaged .452 to lead the Lincoln Giants to the 1913 Eastern championship.
Bingo DeMoss—Bill James ranked DeMoss as the greatest second baseman in Negro League history. During his prime (his playing career lasted from 1910-30), DeMoss combined spectacular fielding ability with blazing speed and excellent bat control. DeMoss was also considered by many to be the best bunter in Black baseball.
His aggressive playing style helped C.I. Taylor’s Indianapolis ABCs win the 1916 championship and Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants capture three straight Negro National League pennants.
Wild Bill Wright—A speedy switch hitter, Wright batted .325 in the Negro Leagues and .364 in the Latin leagues. But his nickname stemmed from his early days as a pitcher with control problems.
Wright was a huge star in Mexico, where he won the Triple Crown in 1943. He finished sixth in the Negro National League with a .362 average in 1939 and was ranked the fourth-best right fielder in the Negro Leagues by Bill James.
Bill Byrd—Byrd posted a 107-71 lifetime record, according to Seamheads, while other sources credit him with 156 wins in a career that spanned from 1933 to 1948. He relied on curves, knuckleballs, and spitballs to baffle batters, spending 13 seasons as the ace of the Baltimore Elite Giants.
Byrd was a workhorse, completing 122 of his 162 starts. Named to eight East-West All-Star Games, he was selected as a third-team pitcher on the 1952 Pittsburgh Courier’s All-Time All-Star Team.
Spottswood Poles—Using his blazing speed at the leadoff spot, Poles was the “Black Ty Cobb” of the Dead Ball Era. He averaged .342 across 10 seasons with the Lincoln Giants and the Center for Negro League Baseball Research credits him with a lifetime average of .328.
Poles led the 1912-13 Cuban Winter League with 26 stolen bases in 47 games, and he stole 40 bases in 61 games with the Giants in 1911. A superb defensive player in center field, he played on 12 championship teams.
Vic Harris—An accomplished leadoff hitter with power who averaged .305 across 25 seasons, Harris played outstanding defense in left field.
But he belongs in the Hall for his managerial record, which includes seven pennants and leading the Homestead Grays to the 1948 Negro World Series championship. His overall record as manager was 639-323-28 across 11 seasons, a .664 winning percentage.
George “Tubby” Scales— A slugging second baseman who averaged .328 across 26 seasons, Scales batted .390 at the age of 43 in 1944. He finished second in the Eastern Colored League with a .390 average in 1923.
Scales’s .428 lifetime OBP in the Negro Leagues is tied for fourth with Oscar Charleston. He is ranked the third-best second baseman by Bill James.
Dobie Moore—No shortstop can top the seven-year stretch that Moore produced from 1920-1926 with the Kansas City Monarchs. He batted .344 with unmatched defense, power, and speed. He was batting .400 in 1926 when his career ended prematurely—after he was shot by his girlfriend while jumping out a brothel window.
Moore was the best player for a Monarchs club that won four straight Negro National League championships. To get him to the ten-year Hall of Fame eligibility requirement, one must include the four and a half years he spent starring for the 25th Infantry Regiment “Wreckers” team in the U.S. Army, and the five winters he played in Cuba and California.
William Bell— The righthanded Bell posted a career record of 134-61 with a 3.23 ERA (129 ERA+), spending eight seasons with the Monarchs and four seasons with the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
A pitcher who possessed excellent control, Bell went 10-2 to lead the Monarchs to the Negro World Series championship in 1924, then went 11-5 the next season to spark a second straight pennant.
Those Negro League stars were denied a chance to play in the major leagues, and the deck has always been stacked against them to make it into the Hall. Harris was on the Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot for 2024, but he failed to get enough votes. The 16-person committee included just two individuals with expertise on the Negro Leagues.
Chris Jensen has written for Seamheads, Start Spreading the News, Elysian Fields Quarterly and the Yankees Annual Yearbook. He is the author of the recently released Baseball’s Two-Way Greats: Pitching/Batting Stars from Ruth and Rogan to Ohtani as well as Baseball State by State: Major and Negro League Players, Ballparks, Museums and Historical Sites. Email him at chris.jensen81@hotmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Meanwhile, as Spring Training Opens . . .
I’m Eighteen Dept.—Future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw is returning to the Dodgers for an eighteenth season—just as he more or less predicted at the Dodgers’ World Series victory parade.
Terms aren’t yet disclosed at this writing, and his deal is pending a physical, but Kershaw reported to the Dodgers’ spring training camp on Tuesday.
Mr. 3,000 Dept.—Whenever he takes the mound for the first time this season, Kershaw will be 32 strikeouts from 3,000 in his career. Reaching it would make him only the fourth lefthander (behind Hall of Famers Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, and CC Sabathia) to reach that milestone.
(Yes, 32 is also the uniform number of Kershaw’s mentor and friend, Hall of Fame lefthander Sandy Koufax.)
Just Call Me Angel of the Ninth Dept.—Veteran relief ace (and former Dodger) Kenley Jansen has signed a single-year, $10 million contract with the Angels.
Prodigal Dept.—Farhan Zaidi, deposed Giants president of baseball operations, has returned to the Dodgers as a special advisor.
Prodigal Part Two Dept.—Former Royals manager Ned Yost, who led them to back-to-back pennants as a 2015 World Series triumph before retiring in 2019, has returned to the Royals as a special advisor to general manager J.J. Picollo.
Well, the Door Was Open Dept.—Also returning to the Dodgers: Veteran utility star Kiké Hernández, on a single-season deal, pending a physical examination. Terms were not disclosed at this writing.
Class in Session Dept.—Yankees manager Aaron Boone vows to “handle things with a little more class” if his team goes all the way to win the 2025 World Series.
Miffed over remarks from utilityman Chris Taylor and former reliever Joe Kelly aboard a Mookie Betts podcast, Boone harrumphed, “some guys are more inclined to spout off and be a little more colorful than others—and that's their right. They won. And again, hopefully we're in that position and do things a little better.”
Extra Innings
C.I. Taylor’s brother, Ben, is enshrined in the Hall of Fame thanks to being one of early 20th Century black baseball’s most dominant first basemen.
Vic Harris managed both the Baltimore Elite Giants (1949) and the Birmingham Black Barons (1950) following Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the major league colour line.
Only one man in Negro Leagues baseball has a higher managerial winning percentage than Harris—Bullet Rogan (elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998), with a .696 percentage as player-manager of the Kansas City Monarchs (1926-31; 1933-34).
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HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Thanks Chris. You've highlighted some of the very best yet unheralded Negro League players!