Editor’s note: The following article was graciously written by friend and fellow Negro Leagues fan Johnny Haynes. It’s a concise, on-point evaluation of the two segregation-era Black players on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s recently-released ballot of candidates for the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era Committee.

Earlier this month, the Baseball Hall of Fame named eight players for consideration in the next class to be enshrined in Cooperstown. Much has been written about six of the men, but knowledge of the two Negro Leagues nominees seems to fall woefully short outside of Negro Leagues research circles. I will attempt to distill as much as I can into a more complete picture of the two pioneers up for selection into baseball immortality: John Donaldson and Vic Harris. 

By Johnny Haynes, Article Contributer

John Donaldson’s groundbreaking career received some introduction to a new generation of fans in the popular MLB The Show video game series. His career spanned more than 30 years, though most of it occurred outside the confines of the organized Negro Leagues. By the time Rube Foster was organizing the first Negro National League in 1920, Donaldson was nearly 30 years old and had been pitching for more than a decade. As an aside, it was Donaldson who suggested naming the Kansas City entry the “Monarchs,” according to owner J.L. Wilkinson.

A brief statistical snapshot only tells a sliver of John Donaldson’s story; a casual fan looking up his statistics would find a .296 batting average in 817 at bats spread across five seasons. His recognized pitching statistics appear more mediocre: a 6-9 record and 4.14 ERA in just 22 games. According to Baseball-Reference, his comparable statistics place him closer to the likes of 1920s Indians backup outfielder Pat McNulty. The Seamheads version of his records paint a clearer picture but still only accounts for eight seasons of mostly independent ball.

However, one must consider the impact of John Donaldson on the game before and after his appearance in the “major leagues.” For decades after Cap Anson’s boycott of a game featuring Black players led to the infamous “gentleman’s agreement,” Donaldson remained an anomaly – a Black player on white teams. In addition, his barnstorming appearances on the All-Nations and Monarchs B side teams helped draw in fans and keep the lights on.

Admittedly, competition was mixed, but The Donaldson Network, which has chronicled the most complete snapshot of any Negro Leaguer’s career, lists him with 413 wins and 5,081 strikeouts across all levels of competition. For a stretch of time, no-hitters for Donaldson were nearly a yearly occurrence, including three in a row in 1914 and four in 1915. Double-digit strikeout totals were even more frequent on days he started.

Perhaps his achievements can be best measured in the accounts of his peers and the media of the day. So important was his appearance in a game in August 1925, a fan set up a camera and began filming as he worked on the mound. Consider that cameras in those days were expensive, cumbersome and rare. One can assume that the nameless fan that day was keenly aware of the greatness in front of him.

The highest honors were bestowed by his contemporaries. In 1943, Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, who spent years on the barnstorming circuit alongside Black players himself, described Donaldson as among the greatest he had ever seen. 

According to Buck O’Neil, he also pioneered the use of the slider, later teaching it to Satchel Paige. 

In the waning last days of the Negro Leagues, the Pittsburgh Courier saw fit to name an “All-Time All-American” team in 1952. Of the seven pitchers named, only Donaldson is not in the Hall of Fame.

A bittersweet end to his administrative career post-integration is his tenure as the first Black scout for the Chicago White Sox. In an illustration of the quota system in major league baseball throughout the post-integration landscape, younger players such as Willie Mays and Ernie Banks were sometimes intentionally overlooked. It was the signing of Banks to the crosstown Cubs that led to his resignation and disgust with

*******

The second name on the list is even lesser known among baseball fans: Vic Harris. It’s worth noting that in MLB’s brief write up of Harris, they noted that Harris’ “exact numbers are hard to pin down,” which should elicit a chuckle from anyone in the baseball research community who has been studying the game for a long time. 

Consider 19^th century star Cap Anson. MLB notes that his hit total is 3,011, Baseball-Reference credits him with 3,435, and ESPN has a tally of 2,995. This discrepancy arises from a brief rule in which walks were hits and the inclusion of earlier portions of his time in the National Association. The Hall of Fame itself lists the Baseball-Reference numbers in his biography page. 

As for Harris, a retrospective look at his career statistics is more complete than Donaldson’s, but I will admit that they too require additional context to understand clearly. Aside from brief stints with other teams early in his career, including the Cleveland Browns and Chicago American Giants, Vic Harris played for all three of Pittsburgh’s Black major league franchises: the Keystones, Crawfords and Grays. It is with the Homestead Grays that he made his greatest impact on the game. 

Harris led the Grays to seven pennants and most notably a championship in the last ever Negro League World Series in 1948. At least two of those pennants occurred without the services of Josh Gibson, who had a three-year gap in his resume. Second on the list of most pennants is a six-way tie between Candy Jim Taylor, Dick Lundy, Frank Warfield, Dave Malarcher, Rube Foster and Jose Mendez, with three each. He was selected to the East-West All-Star Game seven times, and his 547 wins rank him first in Grays franchise history (Seamheads credits him with 631 factoring in independent, all-star and postseason play).

A register of everyone he managed lines up with a list of nearly every recognizable great player in Black baseball history: Leon Day, Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson are just a few of the names on a list that includes 13 members of Cooperstown. This and his record places Harris among the all-time greats to ever manage in the major leagues — regardless of race, era or league.

At the plate, Harris also maintained a steady presence in the Grays lineup. Mostly playing leftfield throughout his career, his currently listed statistics in league play include a .303 batting average, 738 hits and an OPS of .798 over 17 seasons. How’s all that for “hard to pin down” numbers?

As for my personal thoughts on the selection process in general: these two pre-integration Black men have deserved their due for a long time, as have many other players, managers and executives from that time in baseball history. The players on this ballot are all certainly deserving of consideration, but they benefit from playing in a time in which their careers occurred in an integrated game with much more exposure due to readily available accounts including television and radio.

Outside of the timeline and geography defined as the Negro Major Leagues, Harris made additional impacts as a coach on the 1949 Baltimore Elite Giants (who won an additional title following the merger between the NNL and NAL) before ending his career in 1950 after a season with the Birmingham Black Barons. In addition, Harris managed in the Cuban and Puerto Rican winter leagues.

Most baseball fans are aware of the likes of Dave Parker and Luis Tiant for this very reason. To include Donaldson and Harris among better known names — who come from a different time period — threatens to bury and diminish their accomplishments again.

Let’s keep in mind that the Negro Leagues were only recently recognized as a major league caliber operation by the same establishment that kept them out for 60 plus years, and the recognition occurred after most of the people who took part were dead. Coincidentally, another worthy post-integration Black nominee, Dick Allen, also faces consideration after he is dead. To be selected, a player must appear on 75% of the total ballots. All that said, it is my hope that the voters (who have yet to be revealed) do the right thing and select both in December. 

For Satchel Paige, 1937 was, shall we say, an unusual baseball season. And given the unpredictable, chaotic, whirlwind life that was Satchel’s, that’s saying something.

After all, it’s not every year that a star baseball pitcher signs up for a dictator’s baseball team and spends a few months in the Caribbean flinging fastballs with the vague threat of physical violence lingering literally just beyond the foul lines.

But that’s what Paige’s summer of ’37 was like when he pitched for the team owned by Dominican Republic strongman Rafael Trujillo and, by the skin of his teeth, helped Ciudad Trujillo win the Dominican league championship. It was a grueling, hair-raising experience for Satch and the Negro League compatriots he convinced to come with him to the DR, especially when Trujillo stationed armed troops around the stadium to make sure the Americans won the championship or else.

But this post will be about how the city of New Orleans fit into Satchel Paige’s nutty 1937.

In one way, the Big Easy did play somewhat of a crucial role in Satchel’s epic voyage to the Dominican Republic – as Averell “Ace” Smith details in his excellent book about the Negro Leaguers who played for Trujillo in 1937, “The Pitcher and the Dictator,” details, it was in New Orleans that Satchel met with representatives of the Trujillo regime and agreed to come pitch in the Dominican Republic. 

It might be worth noting that Paige’s spring had already been a little turbulent by the time he arrived at the Dominican Republic in May, namely because he jumped his contract with Gus Greenlee’s Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro National League; a fact that ticked off Greenlee and the other power brokers of Black baseball in the States. (In fact, Paige’s clandestine meetings with Dominican agents was facilitated by the fact that Satchel was already in New Orleans with the Crawfords for spring training games.) An article in the May 1, 1937, issue of the Chicago Defender reported that in addition to protests from Greenlee and other NNL officials, “complaint has been made to the president of the Dominican Republic … about player theft from Race baseball clubs.”

This was after a bizarre instance in which rumors started floating around that he was in ill health and near death after what the Chicago Defender termed “an auto mishap,” scuttlebutt that was swiftly shown to be untrue.

But the Crescent City also figured further into Paige’s epic season in ’37 because the legendary hurler actually took the mound for a New Orleans team on his way back from the Caribbean, a fact I’d previously not recognized.

Paige was certainly not unfamiliar with New Orleans; throughout his illustrious career, Satch visited the Big Easy often. He allegedly pitched for the New Orleans Black Pelicans early in his career (circa 1925), something I explored in this ancient blog post; and he pitched a few times in the annual North-South All-Star game, held in New Orleans by promoter Allen Page (more on him in a bit). Later in his life, Satchel came to the Big Easy to take part in one or two of the local Old Timers Baseball Club’s annual reunion and old-timers game at Barrow Stadium.

And, with the arduous experience in the DR safely behind him, Satchel Paige – along with his “personal catcher,” Bill “Cy” Perkins – flew out from Hispaniola, headed Stateside. His destination? Why, New Orleans, of course, where he had signed on to pitch for the New Orleans Senators. 

The who?

The New Orleans Senators, one of the numerous teams founded, managed, owned and/or operated by the aforementioned Allen Page. I’ve discussed Allen Page many times on this blog, and it’s still not enough, because Page is, in my mind, indisputably the most important figure in New Orleans Black baseball history. As an entrepreneur, baseball magnate, executive and sports promoter, Page is unrivaled in the Crescent City.

And in 1937, he owned the New Orleans Senators, for whom he’d lured Satchel Paige to pitch after the latter’s epic Dominican journey.

Managed by George Sias and previously known as the New Orleans Black Pelicans (one of many team incarnations under that moniker), the Senators played pro and semipro teams in the city, from around New Orleans and into neighboring states. In July of 1937, they squared off against the Oakdale White Sox from Oakdale, La.; later that same month, The Senators grabbed a pair of wins over the Alexandria Black Sports from Alexandria, La., as examples.

The Senators played their home games at Lincoln Park, a private, paid-admission amusement park for the city’s African-American population created in 1902 by the Standard Brewing Company that included a ball field, rides, a skating rink and even hot air balloon ascensions. In addition, the park featured concert and performance facilities, at which early jazz greats like Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson and Freddie Keppard played, and that hosted vaudeville shows and prize-fighting. Benevolent societies, labor unions and civil-rights groups also coalesced there.

Thus, wrote Kevin G. McQqueeney in his master’s thesis at the University of New Orleans, titled, “Playing with Jim Crow: African American Private Parks in Early Twentieth Century New Orleans”:

“Lincoln Park, similar to parks in the nineteenth century previously discussed, thus served as a space for African Americans to congregate and advocate for more equal treatment. Parks would later serve as venues for rallies and marches during the Civil Rights era in New Orleans, but their significance for African American identity formation can be seen in this time period, and date back to enslaved gatherings in Congo Square.”

But, McQueeney added, “The park existed until approximately 1930, but its role had changed; during the latter half of its existence it was used primarily as a location for African American baseball league games.”

The Louisiana Weekly excitedly reported on Paige’s imminent arrival. Satchel was scheduled to land in New Orleans from the Caribbean at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, July 18, and added:

“… Satchell [sic] Paige, regarded as the greatest Colored pitcher in the world, will be accompanied by his catcher, Perkins, and will form the batteries in one game for the New Orleans Senators in their doubleheader against the Austin Black Senators …

“Satchell [sic] Paige needs no introduction to Crescent City fans. He has pitched to tremendous crowds here in the past. …”

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ most popular newspaper, likewise praised Paige and did a decent job of hyping up his reputation before the contest, noting that Satchel “is hailed as the greatest negro [sic] pitcher in the history of baseball” and that Paige “will show his dazzling speed and curves” in the first game of a doubleheader against the Austin club at Lincoln Park.

The T-P seemingly spoke with Cy Perkins, Paige’s catcher, who asserted, according to the paper, that “Paige’s fast ball [sic] looked just as fast to him as [Bob] Feller’s. He said that Paige gets better as he goes along and is as strong in the ninth inning as in the first. … Perkins says Paige’s fast ball [sic] floats in when pitched overhand and has a wicked bend when from sidearm.”

The Austin Black Senators, meanwhile, had existed off and on and under several iterations and in various leagues, for several decades. The 1937 version was managed (at least at first) by L.S. Cobb and played its home games at Samuel Huston College, a small, private HBCU located right in Austin and now named Huston-Tilletson University. (The school is not to be confused with the much larger, public university Sam Houston University near Houston.)

The 1937 Black Senators seem to be a very tough team, beating various Texas semipro and company nines all spring and summer. In June ’37 the Kansas City Call dubbed the Austin club “one of the strongest semipro teams in the southwest,” while the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times wrote that the Black Senators were “regarded as one of the strongest semi-pro teams in a state.” The paper added that the team “recently was reorganized and now is at full strength.”

When it came time for Satch to toe the rubber and face down the Austin club, he didn’t disappoint, and despite periodic rain and a resultingly disappointing sized crowd, he definitely sent the New Orleans fans home happy.

The best pitcher in Black baseball hurled four near pristine innings and fanned nine Austin batsmen, including striking out the sides in both the second and third innings. His fantastic flinging paced the home team to a 5-1 win over the hapless Texas lads.

“Seldom has pitching of the brand Paige displayed been seen here,” exclaimed The Weekly. “Though he gave up one hit in the first inning, his dazzling speed and puzzling curves had the Austin batters up in the air throughout his stay on the mound. Coupled with a deceptive change of pace [pitch], it was an exhibition worth going miles to view.”

The New Orleans Senators, with Paige on the mound, were then scheduled to host at Lincoln Park a team called the St. Louis Giants in a contest in which Satchel was advertised to be pitching all nine innings. Unfortunately, that big event had to be called off after several Giants were injured in a bus accident.

(It’s unclear which team the advertised “St. Louis Giants” were, exactly. Some media reports implied that they were members of the Negro American League, but St. Louis’ representatives in the NAL in 1937 were called the Stars, not the Giants. Several articles in 1937 in the St. Louis Argus, a Black newspaper, referred to a “Titanium St. Louis Giants,” which could have been a company team representing the titanium dioxide plant in St. Louis operated by the National Lead Company. Later on in the ’37 season the Argus reported that a team called the “Old St. Louis Giants” team was being formed for exhibition games, including one against the Titanium aggregation; this “old” team was reportedly made up of Black baseball old timers who played for the first St. Louis Giants, a powerful professional Black team from the first two decades of the 20th century. That original Giants team eventually morphed into the original St. Louis Stars, one of the charter teams of the first Negro National League under Rube Foster. But I digress.)

Paige completed his brief post-Trujillo foray with the New Orleans Senators concluded on July 28 of the ’37 campaign by traveling with the Senators to his hometown of Mobile, Ala., to face the Mobile Red Sox. The Louisiana Weekly reported that Satchel pitched four innings with 12 strikeouts – yes, that’s every out he got against the Alabama squad – against only two hits. A crowd of roughly 1,400 showed up to watch the hometown hero perform his feats, and after the game, Paige reportedly stayed in his hometown for a short visit.

Further details about exactly how Satch hooked up with Page and played for the Senators are somewhat murky. Averell includes no information about the New Orleans Senators gig; in his book; neither does Larry Tye in his definitive biography of Paige, “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.” Moreover, Satchel himself says nothing about the New Orleans Senators stint in his famous autobiography, “Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever.”

However, there is another wrinkle in the tale that is known – that when Paige returned to the States from the Caribbean, he was facing a ban from the formal Negro Leagues for jumping his contract with the Crawfords. Many of his Negro League compadres also were threatened with a ban.

So Satchel gathered many of them together – largely, like him, blacklisted baseball fugitives and “desperadoes,” as Tye calls them – to form a barnstorming club called the Trujillo All-Stars, designed to provide Paige and his peers a little income while they waited out the drama over their blackballing. The team was soon renamed as the Satchel Paige All-Stars, and they turned out to be somewhat successful, winning the Denver Post tournament, the prestigious national showcase of the best in semi-pro baseball.

While other versions of the “Satchel Paige All Stars” did play once in a while in New Orleans and/or against New Orleans clubs at other locales in the country, I’m not sure if this version – the 1937 one formed from the rebellious crews that bolted the American Black leagues for the Dominican Republic – did actually play in New Orleans.