[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 15 (Friday, February 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL

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                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 14, 2002

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, I want 
to call to the attention of my colleagues here in the United States 
House of Representatives an event that will be held in Newark, New 
Jersey, a Tribute to Negro League Baseball. Six months before the 
Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, on April 12, 1861, two Black 
baseball teams played in Brookyln, New York. Throughout the 1860s 
amateur Black baseball clubs sprang up around the Northeast and 
Midwest. Players for the Mutuals of Washington, DC included Black 
Activist Frederick Douglass' sons, Charles and Fred.
  The first all Black professional baseball team was composed in 1885 
of employees of the Argyle Hotel in Babylon, New York and in 1883, 
Fleet Walker, a catcher, signed with the Toledo Blue Stockings along 
with his brother Welday. The Blue Stockings then joined the American 
Association, which was considered a major league, thereby making the 
Walkers the only Black players to play in the major leagues until 
Jackie Robinson in 1947. In 1886, the Southern League of Colored Base 
Ballists became the first Negro League with teams in Memphis, 
Jacksonville, Savannah, Atlanta, Charleston and New Orleans. In 1900 
only five professional Black baseball teams existed: the Genuine Cuban 
Giants, the Cuban X Giants, the Norfolk Red Stockings, the Chicago 
Unions and the Columbia Giants. By 1910, there would be more than 60 
professional Negro teams barnstorming the country. During 1902, in an 
attempt to circumvent the color barrier and get infielder Charlie Grant 
on his team, Baltimore Orioles manager John McGraw changed Giant's name 
to Charlie Tokohama and tried to pass him off as a full blooded 
Cherokee Indian until his plan was exposed by Chicago White Sox owner 
Charles Comiskey. Future Hall of Famer, pitcher Rube Foster, went 51-4 
for the Philadelphia Giants in 1905. In an exhibition game against the 
Philadelphia As, Foster beat 26 games winner Rube Waddell and became 
known as the ``colored Rube Waddell.'' On February 14, 1920, Rube 
Foster organized a meeting in Kansas City of owners of several Black 
touring teams. The owners organized the first successful Black 
professional league, the Negro National League, which was comprised of 
the Chicago American Giants, the Chicago Giants, the Dayton Marcos, the 
Detroit Stars, the Indianapolis ABC's the Kansas City Monarchs, the St. 
Louis Giants and the Cuban Stars. Foster became the league's president 
and members agreed to honor each other's player contracts, which 
brought stability and organization to Black baseball. In 1924, the 
pennant winners of the two Black leagues met in the first Negro World 
Series with the Kansas City Monarchs defeating Hillsdale in 10 games. 
In 1926, thirty years before Don Larson's perfect game, Red Griers of 
the Atlantic City Bacharachs pitched a no-hitter in game three of the 
Negro World Series against the Chicago American Giants. In 1930, five 
years before the major leagues turned on the lights, the Kansas City 
Monarchs became the first team to regularly play night baseball with a 
portable lighting system. In 1937, the Negro American League was formed 
and the Kansas City Monarchs won five of the first six Negro American 
League pennants. The Negro National League Homestead Grays won eight 
pennants between 1937-45 with John Gibson, the greatest hitter of the 
Negro Leagues (962 career homeruns). In 1945 Kansas City Monarchs 
rookie shortstop Jackie Robinson signed to play for the Brooklyn 
Dodgers at $600 per month, thereby breaking the color barrier in major 
league baseball. Since baseball's integration from 1947 to 1953, six of 
the seven National League Rookies of the Year were former Negro League 
players, including Jack Robinson, Don Newcombs, Sam Jethrol, Willie 
Mays, Joe Black and Jim Gilliam. After the integration of baseball, the 
Negro leagues began to decline in 1948, due to the fact that its best 
players were now signing with major league teams. The Negro American 
League finally dissolved in 1963. Sixteen Negro League baseball stars 
have been inducted into the Hall of Fame including former Newark Eagles 
and local Major League players, such as Larry Dolby, Monte Irvin and 
Ray Dandridge. From 1920-1955 over 30 communities located throughout 
the Midwest, Northeast and the South were home franchises comprised of 
the Negro National League, Eastern Colored League, East-West League, 
Negro Southern League and the Negro American League. The City of 
Newark, New Jersey was the home of the Newark Browns, Newark Dodgers, 
Newark Eagles and the Newark Stars. Of all the Newark teams, the Newark 
Eagles were the most memorable. The team was managed by a woman, Mrs. 
Effa Manley, who along with her husband Abe Manley owned the team. They 
were also entrepreneurs, owning Club 83 on New Street in Newark. I had 
the privilege of attending Newark Eagles games as a youngster. The 
games were very memorable occasions.
  There was great excitement in the air when the Newark Eagles won the 
1946 Negro League World Championship over the Kansas City Monarchs in 
the seventh and final game of the series held at Newark's Ruppert 
Stadium on September 29. Mr. Speaker, it is with much pride that we 
remember and pay tribute to the athletes of Negro League Baseball 
during Black History Month. I know my colleagues here in the United 
States Congress join me in sending best wishes as the City of Newark 
pays homage to those who made history and made us proud.

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