"Jackie With The Monarchs" Presentation Video

Video of the presentation I gave at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on Jackie's '45 season with KC.

1942 Kansas City Call Calls Out The Blues For Segregating Ruppert Stadium Fans

May 22, 1942 Kansas City Call

This photo spread shows fans attending the 1942 Kansas City Monarchs home opener. The arrows point out white fans sitting peacefully in the integrated seating. The caption reprimands Ruppert (later Municipal) Stadium management for segregating the very same stands at KC Blues games:

TRUTH IS THE LIGHT- These candid shots, made at Ruppert stadium during the Kansas City Monarchs-Memphis Red Sox game, which opened the Negro season in Kansas City, Sunday afternoon, May 17, prove that white baseball fans DO sit beside, in front of, and behind Negro fans; prove that the mixed group of fans enjoy the game without starting a race riot, yes, right here in Kansas City. These shots prove, among other things, that when a ball game is in process, the fans center their attention on the game and NOT on WHO sits beside, behind, or in front of who- Why, then, does the Ruppert stadium management segregate Negroes who must buy a GENERAL ADMISSION ticket? The white fans do not raise the howl. Instead, it is the orange clad ushers who say in a most belligerent manner, "You can't sit there" to Negroes when they are sitting, and quite comfortably, too. White fans laugh at the antics of the ushers trying to get Negroes out of the grandstand. Truth is a bitter pill for SOME FOLK, but these pictures sure force the issue. The truth, pure and simple, is that it is the Ruppert stadium management, not the fans, who bring up and enforce segregation when the Blues play. Why would a white fan sit beside, behind and in front of a Negro one day and refuse to do the same thing another day? These pictures prove that nothing happens when it is done, so why does the management continue "carrying the ghost"?

Buck O'Neil's 1950 Letter To The Sporting News Defending Negro Leagues

Black baseball historian Gary Ashwill recently posted a fascinating profile of Halley Harding, who played Negro league baseball between 1926-31, and for the Kansas City Monarchs 1928-30. Harding also played football and basketball, did some acting, and in later life became a sportswriter. The whole post is interesting and worth a read, but I was especially intrigued by the mention of Harding and Buck O'Neil trading barbs in the press in 1950. Harding penned a column disparaging the Negro leagues for the Los Angeles Sentinel that was also published in The Sporting News soon after. Ashwill mentions and quotes some of a letter to the editor published in  The Sporting News that Buck wrote in response to defend the leagues that he was so passionately proud of. Here is that letter in full, from the May 10, 1950 issue:

In a recent issue, Halley Harding, news editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, seemed to derive much pleasure--laughs he calls it--in taking a 'crack' at Negro league baseball in his article: "Negro Club Played Game on Way to Training Camp." 

In his attempt to ridicule colored league baseball and its training program, Harding's loud laughs are based on complete ignorance of certain facts. As a newspaper man and as a former participant in Negro baseball, he should be better informed and weigh the pertinent facts before going into hilarity over his misinformation. 

In your time, Mr. Harding, the Negro league teams, as well as some of the major league teams, trained from three to four weeks before playing exhibition games because the players required that much time, if not more, to sweat the winter beer out of their systems. The American boys of today report in much better condition. 

The teams that played a regulation game while en route to training camp, of which you speak and from which you get such glee, probably was an incident which happened once in a lifetime. It might have happened with either Negro teams or white teams and most likely resulted from impulse or conditions about which neither you nor I know about. 

But it is a fact that the major league teams started exhibition games after being in camp only 12 days, which was three days sooner than some of the Negro teams. 

You may have another laugh, Mr. Harding, when you learn that the major league teams started training on March 1 and began paying salaries on April 18. Negro league teams, particularly the Kansas City Monarchs, started training April 1 and salaries start on May 1. 

Your charge that players in Negro league baseball must play whether ill or injured is not true. And the fact that you had to play while suffering from the flu is no proof in point. It might have been that you merely thought you had the flu. 

Here is more news for you, Mr. Harding. Organized Ball is not killing the Negro game, and it never will. The cities that lost Negro franchises were never good baseball towns. 

There are approximately 200 men in the Negro league now. They earn from $200 to $800 monthly for five months. Some 80-odd of these will draw this amount from Winter League baseball. These salaries, of course, will not compare to those of Williams or DiMaggio with their multi-thousand-dollar draws. But it beats hell out of loafing on Central avenue or Beale street or Eighteenth and Vine. 

JOHN (BUCK) O'NEIL

Manager of the Kansas City Monarchs

Monarchs Pitching Stats & Leaders

Wilber "Bullet" Rogan

You probably know the drill with Negro League stats by now: only certain games have been uncovered, they were not always reported on completely and accurately, etc. I like to think of them as a split; instead of something like a lefty/righty or home/away split, the split is "games researchers have uncovered." So as always, a huge grain of salt is required.

I've tried to total up Monarchs pitching stats found on the new Baseball Reference database to come up with the below leaderboards. Only 28 players have at least 100 discovered innings pitched with the Monarchs. I've limited the rate stat leaderboards to those 28 pitchers.

Happily, a few names show up on the lists that I'm not familiar with. I'll have to look into guys like Alfred Cooper, George Mitchell, and Provine Bradley.

Bullet Rogan...wow. Check out Bullet's hitting numbers in my post on Monarchs hitters, then check out his pitching numbers below. The dude was seriously another Babe Ruth, and it's a shame he isn't better appreciated in KC and in all of baseball. His Wikipedia entry is a reliable primer, and Phil Dixon goes in depth in his book Wilber "Bullet" Rogan and the Kansas City Monarchs. I suggest all residents of Kansas City legally change our first names to Bullet in order to draw attention to him.

Leaders after the jump

Monarchs Hitting Stats & Leaders

There was much rejoicing among a segment of baseballdom this week when Negro Leagues stats compiled many moons ago finally saw the light of day with their posting on Baseball Reference. There are many issues and complications with trying to compile Negro Leagues stats, and we will never be able to have a full accounting, so it is important to take all Negro Leagues stats with a mountain of salt. Certain eras were better reported on than others. There are no era or ballpark adjusted stats included yet. So far, the stats don't break down performance by team for seasons that players spent with more than one squad. Full season totals are given with a note such as "stats are for two teams." So in compiling Monarchs stats, I've had to divide some season stats evenly between those teams, not knowing how much time was actually spent with the different clubs. The end point for the Baseball Reference stats is 1948, though the Monarchs were a going concern in Kansas City through '55 and limped along through '63 as a Grand Rapids, Michigan based operation. 


So with all that in mind, I've compiled some highly dubious Monarchs franchise leaderboards. It is at least a starting point to help identify some of the great Monarchs in a quantifiable way to complement the oral histories we already have.


Some things that have jumped out to me so far:

Heavy Johnson

• Oscar "Heavy" Johnson was a beast. The former catcher played the outfield for KC in '22, '23 and part of '24. He tops the leaderboards in batting average, OBP, slugging, wOBA, doubles per plate appearance and homers per plate appearance. From the numbers available, no other Monarch hitter was in his class when it comes to the rate stats. Heavy had played with future Monarch greats Bullet Rogan and Dobie Moore on the Army's 25th Infantry "Wreckers" team before joining the Monarchs at the age of 27. He was a murderous slugger while with KC, and moved on to play for Negro Leagues teams in Harrisburg, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Memphis through 1930. Heavy very well may have been a Hall of Fame caliber player. As tough as it is to quantify his Negro Leagues performance, his time with the Army team is even murkier.


• Bullet Rogan is on the very short list of best players ever. The list may be about this long: Babe Ruth and Bullet Rogan. Bullet comes in the top five Monarchs leaders for just about every offensive category in both rate and counting stats. Add in his playing time, and Bullet looks like the most valuable hitter the Monarchs ever had. And he was a dominant pitcher when not playing the outfield. I don't know of another player besides Babe and Bullet who was both an elite hitter and pitcher. But in the Babe's case, his career was split fairly cleanly between a pitching phase and a slugging phase. Bullet did it all, all the time.



• Hilton Smith could swing the stick. Unlike Bullet, pitching great Smith did not usually play the field when it wasn't his day to pitch, so there aren't a ton of plate appearances compiled for his Monarchs career (257). But those appearances are impressive, including an average of .327, good for seventh best among Monarchs with at least 100 PAs. He apparently didn't walk much, but had impressive doubles power. When you can get that from an all-time great pitcher, that's amazing. Hitters of the '40s said Hilton was just as tough to face as Satchel Paige. Satchel's hitting (.207/.208/.244 with KC) didn't hold a candle to Hilton's though (.327/.331/.434).



Below are top 10 lists for various offensive categories.

Merry Christmas Baseball Fans!

December 24, 1947 Kansas City Call

Monarchs Video Update

"To Satchel Paige, World's Greatest Pitcher, From the Chicago Defender, World's Greatest Weekly, July 26, 1942"

Well, this is a little embarrassing. After getting all proud of myself for identifying the date this wonderful footage was taken, baseball historian Dwayne Isgrig emails to point out that it appears the Monarchs and Memphis Red Sox are in Wrigley Field. And of course he is right. (Wrigley is especially recognizable in the clip where Satchel Paige is being presented with a gift.) So...never mind about all that opener of 1942 in Kansas City business I wrote about.

But - I do think I've pinpointed a new date on which the footage was surely taken: July 26, 1942. The Monarchs and Red Sox played a doubleheader at Wrigley that day, and the Chicago Defender report on the games even includes specifics about a tribute to Paige that took place between the two games. The gift we see being handed to Paige in the video is probably an engraved pocket watch presented by the Chicago Defender mentioned in the game summaries. Mr. Isgrig passed along this link of the very same pocket watch showing up on Antiques Roadshow in 2006. Incredible.

As you can see in the summaries and boxes below, the teams split the doubleheader, with Hilton Smith not having a good day on the mound in the first game for Kansas City, and Satchel beating Verdell Mathis in the second. (Note Buck O'Neil is called "Joe" O'Neil in the summary.)

1942 Monarchs Home Opener

(Edit: I originally thought this incredible 27 second video came from the Monarchs home opener on Sunday, May 17, 1942, which inspired the below, edited post. Turns out the video is actually from July 26, 1942.)


The date was May 17, 1942. The opponent was the Memphis Red Sox. The Monarchs won the first half of the doubleheader 7-0 and dropped the second game 1-4. In the first game, Jack Matchett (second from the left in above picture) pitched a complete game, five-hit shutout with 4 Ks and 1 walk. He also went for 2-4 at the plate with a run scored. In the second game (a 7 inning affair), Satchel Paige, squaring off against Red Sox ace Verdell Mathis, didn't have his usual legendary control, and gave up 4 runs on 10 hits, with an un-Satch-like 6 walks.

The 1942 squad was one of the best teams in baseball history, plowing their way over the Negro American League, and then sweeping the National League Homestead Grays for the World Series title.

Summaries from the May 23, 1942 Chicago Defender:


("Duppert" Stadium is a typo - they were at Ruppert Stadium, later called Municipal Stadium, at 22nd & Brooklyn.)

RIP Slick Surratt

Alfred "Slick" Surratt, Kansas City Monarchs and Detroit Stars outfielder between 1947-52, has passed away. Claire Smith and Fay Vincent have written tributes to their friend. If you can track down a copy of the Monarchs documentary film Ain't Seen Nothing Like It Since, you can see Slick interviewed.

Former Monarchs Bid Municipal Stadium Adieu

Kay Cee Aces, 1938