KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A big group of males — 33 ballplayers, six executives and two trainers — stood shoulder to shoulder for an iconic {photograph}. The second occurred minutes earlier than one of the vital necessary video games within the historical past of the Negro Leagues.
Oct. 11, 1924, marked the pivotal fifth sport of the inaugural Negro Leagues World Sequence, then referred to as the Coloured World Sequence. The lads, most representing the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs of the Negro Nationwide League or the Hilldale Membership of the Japanese Coloured League, stood in entrance of 1000’s of followers — Black and White patrons, many sitting beside one another — at Muehlebach Discipline. A handful of gamers, most sporting Hilldale’s highway uniform, smiled. In the meantime, the entire executives, together with the 2 males who helped create the 2 leagues, had clean, severe facial expressions.
On the time, they had been all amid one in every of baseball’s biggest championship sequence, a momentous event as entertaining because it was important for the rising viability of the Negro Leagues. The occasion was presupposed to be a nine-game sequence unfold over venues in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas Metropolis and Chicago. It was so loaded with dramatic play and stellar pitching that, due to a tie rating in Recreation 3 and the sport being referred to as on account of darkness, an surprising tenth sport was added to determine a champion.
The Monarchs received the sequence, successful 5 video games to 4 and taking 4 of the ultimate 5 contests. With this yr being the a centesimal anniversary of the sequence, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has spent the previous few months sharing particulars of the occasion.
“Most followers don’t know about this,” stated Bob Kendrick, the museum’s president. “Much more so than the Monarchs successful that World Sequence, it was to assist baseball followers perceive that this was the Negro Leagues including further credence to their existence.”
The museum’s latest exhibit — a free, self-guided tour referred to as “The Kings of KC” — consists of tales and statistics of the Monarchs’ most distinguished gamers and executives, together with lots of of images and artifacts that spotlight the legacy of Kansas Metropolis’s pioneer championship franchise.
The #NLBM has a brand new exhibit chronicling the historical past of the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs entitled, THE KINGS OF KC! The FREE exhibit is a part of our a centesimal Anniversary celebration of the Monarchs successful the first Negro League World Sequence! Open to most people till Thursday, October… pic.twitter.com/R59gIU4t0U
— Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (@NLBMuseumKC) August 13, 2024
The largest fixture within the gallery is centered on informing followers in regards to the 1924 sequence. The primary noticeable {photograph} on the big board is identical iconic {photograph} captured on Oct. 11, 1924.
Maybe probably the most attention-grabbing side of the {photograph}, one in every of only some taken in the course of the sequence, includes two males standing subsequent to one another between the Monarchs and Hilldale: Andrew “Rube” Foster, the membership proprietor of the Chicago American Giants and the person who led the Negro Nationwide League, and Ed Bolden, the proprietor of Hilldale and the person who led the Japanese Coloured League. The lads had been embittered rivals; the sequence nearly didn’t occur due to a battle between them. Bolden thought Foster misled him.
“Ed was underneath the assumption he can be allowed into the Negro Nationwide League in 1920,” Kendrick stated. “Rube didn’t let him in.”
The misunderstanding wanted greater than a yr to resolve, however Foster and Bolden in the end agreed to have the champion of their leagues play one another in a winner-take-all sequence.
“It’s similar to at the moment’s sport. It’s all these political agendas and ‘What’s in it for me?’” stated Larry Lester, an creator and historian who has helped codify and contextualize the Negro Leagues. “However they did it for the followers.”
Recognized earlier in his profession as an distinctive pitcher, Foster was Black baseball’s first main advertising and marketing innovator.
Foster had the thought to persuade seven different males to assemble contained in the Paseo YMCA, the historic constructing inside Kansas Metropolis’s 18th and Vine district, to ascertain the Negro Nationwide League on Feb. 13, 1920, with every particular person changing into a membership proprietor. The league’s motto was daring: “We Are the Ship, All Else the Sea,” with the symbolism of the eight NNL golf equipment representing the ships of hope to battle the ocean of racism. Wanting to compete towards the all-White main leagues, Foster initially needed the entire NNL membership homeowners to be Black.
Foster, although, made one exception: J.L. Wilkinson, a White man who was the proprietor of the Monarchs for a few years. Wilkinson embraced gamers of all nationalities, and most Monarchs gamers later thought of him an approachable, thoughtful and beneficiant membership proprietor.
“Wilkinson had been selling baseball, and he had entry to stadiums,” Kendrick stated. “The Monarchs had been a Black group that had a Cuban supervisor in José Méndez and a White (membership) proprietor.”
Although the league started with eight constitution members from the Midwest, the league additionally accepted three affiliate members from the East: Hilldale (from Darby, Penn.), the Atlantic Metropolis (N.J.) Bacharach Giants and the Cuban Stars out of New York. Although these three golf equipment couldn’t compete for the league’s championship, they paid $1,000 every to be affiliate members, twice the quantity of constitution members.
OTD in 1920 baseball was modified perpetually.
Andrew “Rube” Foster organized the founding of the Negro Nationwide League incomes him recognition because the “Father of Black Baseball.”
Impartial black baseball group homeowners held conferences in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri to prepare the governing… pic.twitter.com/8gkMZvALxb
— Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (@NLBMuseumKC) February 13, 2024
By 1922, Bolden withdrew Hilldale from the NNL, upset that two member golf equipment refused to journey to Darby, simply eight miles south of Philadelphia, to play his group.
“Ed asks for his $1,000 deposit again, and Rube says no,” Lester stated. “I believe Rube was getting 5 p.c of the receipts of each sport. Rube stated, ‘We don’t refund the deposit,’ and Ed stated, ‘We’re not doing something till I get my cash.’”
Inside Philadelphia’s Christian Road YMCA on Dec. 1, 1922, Bolden led the institution of the Japanese Coloured League, which started with six golf equipment. Bolden wrote a letter to Foster two weeks later in protest of his resolution.
Proprietor Ed Bolden and the Hilldale Daisies. (Darby, Pennsylvania, 1923) Winners of the Japanese Coloured League pennant, 1923-25. pic.twitter.com/ZJxje2CCgy
— Alex Cheremeteff (@AlexCheremeteff) July 3, 2017
The monetary stress between the boys intensified when Bolden persuaded a number of prime gamers from the NNL — together with catcher James “Biz” Mackey, first baseman George “Tank” Carr, pitcher Rube Curry, outfielder Clint Thomas and second baseman Frank Warfield — to signal with Hilldale.
“I inform individuals there’s received to be a dramatic TV sequence accomplished on the Negro Leagues,” Kendrick stated. “In 1925, Rube was uncovered to a fuel leak in his lodge room. He was one of the vital sensible minds in baseball historical past. He died (in 1930 at age 51) in an insane asylum.
“There’s nice perception that Rube may’ve been arrange as a result of so many individuals didn’t like him, together with Ed Bolden.”
By late August 1924, followers and newspaper sportswriters had been conscious that the Monarchs and Hilldale had been going to win their respective league’s pennant for the second consecutive season. The success of each golf equipment generated loads of buzz in regards to the potential of an inaugural Coloured World Sequence. Foster and Bolden, nevertheless, wanted somebody to arbitrate the circumstances of the sequence.
Considerably surprisingly, Foster and Bolden agreed to have the arbitrator be Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former federal choose who was Main League Baseball’s first commissioner. A identified segregationist, Landis helped Foster and Bolden negotiate a number of points, together with standardized participant contracts, salaries and the schedule of the sequence’ video games. Bolden additionally promised to waive his $1,000 protest.
“It makes me re-examine Landis,” Kendrick stated. “I’ve at all times theorized that perhaps he wasn’t as vile as he’s been portrayed to be. He and Foster had a really attention-grabbing relationship that I believe was past cordial. I do suppose that Landis, in some ways, was finishing up what the (major-league) homeowners needed as a result of the homeowners didn’t need to be portrayed as racists.”
Sept. 2, 1924: The primary Coloured World Sequence of baseball might be held in October, between the champs of the Midwest’s Negro Nationwide League and the Japanese Coloured League, says NNL chief Rube Foster. White Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis will act as arbitrator. pic.twitter.com/IL7pbndw9v
— 100YearsAgoNews (@100YearsAgoNews) September 2, 2024
The larger winner within the negotiations, Lester stated, was Foster.
Though the Monarchs and Hilldale needed the sequence to be organized and executed underneath the identical plan as the most important leagues’ championship sequence, Foster was in a position to get what he needed: a nine-game sequence (as an alternative of seven) set to be performed in 4 cities.
“He needed the ultimate video games to be performed in his hometown (Chicago) as a result of he might earn more money, no matter who the 2 league champions had been,” Lester stated of Foster. “He might get a minimize of the gate receipts. That’s why he needed the ultimate video games in his ballpark.”
Previous to Recreation 3 of the sequence, Foster and Bolden shook arms in entrance of followers in Baltimore, which served as a symbolic gesture to show their working relationship was amicable.
Within the two weeks main as much as Recreation 1, performed Oct. 3, 1924, most sportswriters thought Hilldale was the favourite. Hilldale, which received the ECL pennant with a 47-26 file, was led by three future Corridor of Famers: Mackey, third baseman Judy Johnson and catcher Louis Santop.
Johnson, the Negro Leagues’ greatest third baseman, was identified for being a clutch hitter in the course of Hilldale’s lineup. Santop’s batting was so potent that he was believed by some to be thought of the primary Negro Leaguer nicknamed “The Black Babe Ruth.”
“Hilldale had a superb outfield, most likely a quicker outfield than the Monarchs, primarily based on scouting stories,” Lester stated. “However the Monarchs had higher pitchers.”
The Monarchs entered the sequence having performed probably the most video games of any membership within the two leagues, boasting a 57-22 file. One benefit the Monarchs had, Kendrick stated, was having the sequence’ greatest participant: future Corridor of Famer Charles Wilber “Bullet” Rogan.
“As Satchel Paige would say, Rogan was the onliest ballplayer that pitched and hit cleanup and performed the outfield,” Kendrick stated. “Ever since Shohei (Ohtani) grew to become this phenomenon right here (in the USA), it has opened up the chance to speak in regards to the nice two-way stars of the Negro Leagues. Rogan was that nice, first two-way star.”
5 future Corridor of Famers performed within the 1st Negro Leagues World Sequence in 1924 (KC Monarchs vs Hilldale Membership): Bullet Rogan & Jose Mendez (KC), Biz Mackey, Judy Johnson & Louis Santop (Hilldale). Add Monarchs proprietor, JL Wilkinson & Rube Foster (NNL Prez) for a tremendous complete of seven! pic.twitter.com/vW3eKnazyO
— Bob Kendrick (@nlbmprez) February 24, 2024
Recreation 1 was the primary time the Monarchs ever performed in Philadelphia. That sport was held on the Baker Bowl, the house venue of the Phillies. With a lot of the followers in attendance pulling for Hilldale, the Monarchs had been led by Rogan, who pitched a whole sport, permitting two runs on eight hits. Rogan additionally recorded two hits, an RBI and a stolen base.
The Monarchs received the sport 6-2 by scoring 5 runs within the sixth inning. In the identical inning, Hilldale dedicated six errors, together with 4 throwing errors by pitcher Phil Cockrell.
In Recreation 2, James Henry “Nip” Winters, a 20-game winner and a lefty with a quick curveball, threw a complete-game shutout in Hilldale’s 11-0 victory. However Recreation 3, which went 13 innings, was the primary indication of how shut the groups had been. As the house group, Hilldale tied the rating within the fifth, ninth and Twelfth innings after trailing. The sport was referred to as after the thirteenth inning due to darkness with the rating tied at 6. As an alternative of continuous Recreation 3 the subsequent day, the groups agreed to start Recreation 4.
4 of the subsequent 5 video games had been determined by one run. 5 of the ultimate seven video games had been determined within the ultimate inning, together with a Twelfth-inning run by the Monarchs — pushed in by Rogan, who hit a single off Winters — in Recreation 7.
“That’s why it’s the best World Sequence ever performed,” Lester stated.
The Monarchs received video games 6, 7 and eight, all by one run, however Hilldale stayed alive within the sequence with a 5-3 Recreation 9 victory. Recreation 10 resulted in one of many biggest performances of Méndez’s Corridor of Fame profession, as he pitched a complete-game shutout whereas coping with a viral an infection. Méndez used his misleading fastball and a knee-buckling curveball to give up simply three hits. He by no means let a Hilldale runner attain second base.
Armed with a deceptively onerous fastball and a pointy curveball, Corridor of Famer José Méndez – nicknamed “The Black Diamond” – dominated hitters within the Pre-Negro Leagues and Negro Leagues eras.
Méndez, who was born on this present day in 1885, received a World Sequence with the Monarchs in 1924. pic.twitter.com/udxdWcZZo9
— Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) January 2, 2022
The sport’s ultimate surprising twist occurred within the eighth inning. In a scoreless sport, Lee determined to alter his pitching supply for the Monarchs, going from his typical submarine type to overhand. Offensively, the Monarchs scored 5 runs within the inning, incomes a 5-0 win.
As champions, the Monarchs earned $10,000, half of which went to Wilkinson.
Although the sequence proved entertaining, the 18-day occasion was not an amazing monetary success. The Negro Leagues had a worthwhile sequence, grossing $52,114 on ticket costs that had been $1.65 for a field seat and $1.10 for a seat within the grandstand. However the general attendance, simply 45,857 for the sequence, was thought of a disappointment.
“The (gamers’) successful share was $308,” Lester stated. “The Washington Senators received the (MLB) World Sequence the identical yr, once they beat the New York Giants. The successful share for every Senator was about $6,000.
“A Black participant was making roughly what a manufacturing facility employee, a packing home employee, a postal worker or a schoolteacher was making on the time.”
Based mostly on information and newspaper accounts, the Monarchs didn’t obtain a trophy or a championship banner for successful the Coloured World Sequence. No celebratory picture was captured. Hours after Recreation 10, although, the Monarchs had been acknowledged in Chicago at a banquet contained in the Sundown Cafe. A number of gamers commemorated their championship on a single baseball, every utilizing the identical pen to write down their identify and their major place above 1924.
Bolden and Foster had been happy with the sequence’ affect on the game. The occasion generated loads of nationwide protection, furthering the subject of sportswriters and followers evaluating the excellence of the Negro Leaguers to main leaguers.
“It might’ve been attention-grabbing for those who would’ve staged a real sequence between the winners,” Kendrick stated, relating to the Negro Leagues champion and the MLB champion. “I believe the most important leagues would’ve felt that they had an excessive amount of to lose, as a result of in the event that they misplaced this sequence, there’s no foundation by any means for conserving these guys out (of MLB). You’re speaking about one other 23 years earlier than (Jackie) Robinson broke the colour barrier.”
In honor of the inaugural Coloured World Sequence, the museum created a crimson, white and blue commemorative emblem featured on a number of merchandise gadgets akin to caps, clothes and baseballs. Kendrick and Kiona Sinks, the museum’s neighborhood engagement and advertising and marketing supervisor, additionally secured partnerships with native firms that can donate a portion of the proceeds to the museum.
On Salute to the Negro Leagues Day, Bob Kendrick joins the printed to have fun the a centesimal Anniversary of the primary ever Negro Leagues World Sequence.
📺: Bally Sports activities | 📱: Bally Sports activities app pic.twitter.com/YaANutzIeE— Bally Sports activities Kansas Metropolis (@BallySportsKC) July 28, 2024
A limited-edition set of baseball playing cards was made for museum guests to study in regards to the sequence. Jay Caldwell, a baseball collector and a enterprise companion with the museum, considered making a set of illustrated playing cards. This summer season, 4 artists — Brian Kong, Mike Kupka, Jeff Suntala and Darryl Matthews — created 67 playing cards, one for each participant and their statistics, every stadium and the important thing spotlight in each sport of the sequence.
“It was one thing I at all times needed to do, to have my work on a baseball card,” stated Matthews, whose father, Francis Oliver Matthews, performed elements of 5 seasons with the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues. “These gamers actually beloved the sport. That is one other method of honoring the gamers. They opened the door for Black gamers now.”
Guests will be capable to see the free exhibit via Oct. 30. Together with info on the 100-year historical past, Kendrick likes sharing with guests that one of many biggest baseball franchises within the sport’s historical past was owned by Wilkinson, a diminutive White man from Algona, Iowa, who grew to become one of many greatest figures in Black baseball historical past.
“You’ll be able to’t make these things up,” Kendrick stated. “This historical past is simply so fascinating. Our mission is to coach. If we don’t inform these tales, who will?
“It’s incumbent on this museum to make it possible for these milestones don’t go unnoticed.”
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; photographs: Nate Taylor / The Athletic)