A couple years ago, I went to a black memorabilia show in a hotel in North Jersey. I wanted to see what was selling and for what price. That was before I discovered auctions.
The show had lots of vendors hawking Aunt Jemima items – vintage and new – black sheet music, magazine covers, black figurines. It had also black history exhibits with slave artifacts. One year, the U.S. Post Office set up tables on a sidewalk outside the event hall showing off its black-themed stamps. This summer, the Post Office will issue a Negro League stamp created by black artist Kadir Nelson.
I was reminded of that show last weekend when the 6th annual Black History Showcase was in Philadelphia, featuring its “Real People. Real Artifacts. Real Stories.”
Among the real stories that it tells each year – and was told at the shows I had visited in North Jersey – was that of the Negro Baseball League. Players from a time when baseball was segregated sat behind tables to reminisce about their games, take pictures with fans, and autograph baseballs and anything else you asked them to touch.
At one of those shows, I took one of my most prized pieces of artwork: a long rectangular photograph of the First Colored World Series’ Opening Game, Oct. 11, 1924, in Kansas City, Mo. The Kansas City Monarchs vs. the Hilldale Giants.
I’d had the photograph for awhile and saw this as a great chance to get real players (obviously not the ones from the actual game) to sign it. And they graciously did: Jim Robinson. Armando Vazquez. Jimmy Dean. Pedro Sierra.
I also “discovered” something new at one of those showcases: Black women played in the league. One was Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, who pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953-1955. According to the website of the Negro League Baseball Players Association, she won 33 games and lost 8, and her batting average ranged from .262 to .284. I did get a signed baseball and card of Johnson.
Johnson was one of three women; the others were Connie Morgan and Toni Stone.
I’m not much of a baseball-in-general fan, but I am a fan of the Negro Baseball League and its history and struggles. The first, the Negro National League, was founded in 1920 by Andrew “Rube” Foster with eight teams: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Giants and the Cuban Stars. He was followed three years later by the Eastern Colored League, and was joined by several others over the next four decades (some lasted, some didn’t), according to the players website. The last league was around until the 1960s.
But blacks in baseball had begun years earlier as amateur teams in Brooklyn and Philadelphia during the 1860s, according to the players website. Professional teams got started in the 1890s (Foster himself had been a pitcher), and most participated in barnstorming exhibition games – immortalized in the 1976 movie “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.”
There are league players whose names we all remember: Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, James “Cool Papa” Bell. And some we may not (or I didn’t know about): Oscar Charleston, who played for a host of teams and was considered an All-Star in the league from 1933-35.
Like any diehard collector, I have picked up bits and pieces of memorabilia about the league and its players. In addition to the photo, I have a Jackie Robinson 50th anniversary patch – purchased from a shop in Brooklyn, NY – an Atlanta Black Crackers baseball (closest to my Southern roots) and several T-shirts.
I don’t collect or buy much of the paraphernalia any more – you can own only so many T-shirts – and I’ve never come across anything at auction, but the players still have a special place in my heart. And on my wall.
