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Monographs Forsyth Library
2023
Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California
Mark E. Eberle
Fort Hays State University
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Eberle, Mark E., "Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California" (2023).
Monographs
. 34.
DOI: 10.58809/ZVRB3611
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Black Pioneers of Integrated
Baseball in California
Mark E. Eberle
Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California.
© 2023 by Mark E. Eberle.
Cover: Rare images of early Black baseball players in California published in newspapers.
Left: Sketch of Horace Wilds, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 October 1893, p 10.
Right: Photograph of William Carroll, Los Angeles Times, 13 July 1903, p 12.
Both played for integrated teams in California.
Recommended citation:
Eberle, Mark E. 2023. Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California. Fort Hays State
University, Hays, Kansas. 76 pages.
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
Horace Maynard Wilds .................................................................................................. 3
Eddie T. Smith ................................................................................................................ 18
Charles Henry De Baptist Overton ............................................................................ 23
Philip Spencer Churchill and James Albert “Happy” Churchill .......................... 27
Robert Martin Booker ................................................................................................... 33
Eugene Sherman Hinds ................................................................................................. 36
Black Umpires, White Teams ..................................................................................... 41
William Carrol and the Trilbys of Los Angeles ....................................................... 43
Perspectives ..................................................................................................................... 51
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 61
Sources .............................................................................................................................. 62
Endnotes ......................................................................................................................... 64
Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California
Mark E. Eberle
Informal ball games of some sort have been played in California since at least 1847,
during the US–Mexican War. On March 6, while stationed in San Diego, Azariah Smith
of the Mormon Battalion wrote in his journal, “We drilled as before and through the day
we play ball and amuse ourselves the best way we can.” Smith was born in 1828 in Oswego
County, New York, on the southeastern shore of Lake Ontario. He provided no details of
the game, so exactly what type of ball game was played is unknown.
1
Newspaper reports of baseball games began at least as early as 1851, although the
phrase “game of ball” in newspapers of the time also referred to handball. A baseball
relative—town ball—was also reported. Thus, the note in the Marysville Herald on January
17 sounds like it refers to baseball, but that is uncertain. “It is becoming quite fashionable
for those who can spare time from the pressing cares of business, now so very brisk in town,
to have a game of Ball every afternoon [in] this fine weather.” Less than three weeks later,
on February 4, San Francisco’s Daily Alta California noted, “A game of base ball was played
upon the plaza, yesterday afternoon, by a number of the sporting gentlemen about town.”
2
The first formally organized baseball club (BBC) documented in California thus far was
the San Francisco BBC reported in the New York Clipper in March 1858.
3
In November 1859,
the Sacramento BBC was organized “under the rules of the New York Clubs,” followed a
month later by the city’s Union BBC. Clubs in other cities soon followed. The earliest known
Black club was the Grant BBC of
Alameda in 1868. As shown by the
notice for the Grant BBC, games were
initially played between teams from a
single club, but interclub and intercity
matches began for white clubs in 1860.
Games for Black clubs were rare enough that the San Francisco Examiner claimed in 1888 that
it was reporting “the first baseball game consisting entirely of colored players ever occurring
on a California diamond.” The umpire and scorer were also Black. However, in addition to
the Grant BBC game, there were intercity games between Black clubs in 1876. The Logan
BBC sponsored by the Oakland Literary and Aid Society defeated the Pacific Hotel BBC of
San Francisco in June, and the Keystones of San Francisco defeated the Logans in July.
4
There were two types of racial integration involving Black ballplayers prior to 1946–1947,
when Jackie Robinson broke the color line in the minor and major leagues. There were
integrated teams, which usually had predominantly white rosters with one or more Black
players. There were also segregated Black and white teams that played each other
independently, in a tournament, or as members of a league. The main focus of this research
is integrated teams. The history of these teams in Kansas has been examined in detail and
placed within the broader context of segregation and integration in the sport and the
community.
5
The research summarized here is an introductory exploration of the subject in
2
California, which is similar to Kansas in being both a United States territory and a state
beyond the western frontier of major league baseball shortly before the US Civil War.
One of the better-known instances of early integration in California came in 1916.
Jimmie Claxton, born to American parents in British Columbia, was pitching for the Oak
Leafs, a Black club in Oakland. He was then signed by the minor league Oakland Oaks of
the Pacific Coast League. To explain his dark skin, he was said to be an American Indian.
His heritage included African American, American Indian, and European ancestors.
Claxton was on the Oaks’ roster for only a week, and he pitched in only two games of a
doubleheader, both won by the Los Angeles Angels. The Oaks claimed his release was due
to his perceived inability to succeed at the highest level of baseball on the West Coast
based on a few innings of work. However, there was also talk about his Black heritage, and
Claxton was certain this was the real reason for his release.
6
As with the story of Jimmie Claxton, the two principal publications currently available
that deal with integrated baseball in California have focused on events during the
twentieth century in the California Winter League of 1909–1947 and the Pacific Coast
League of 1947–1952. The California Winter League was an instance of Black and white
teams competing against each other in a league. The study of the Pacific Coast League, on
the other hand, focused on the integration of each club’s roster from 1947 to 1952, making
it the first minor league to integrate all of its clubs with Black players.
7
Despite this focus on important events in the twentieth century, integrated teams took
the field in California during the nineteenth century. For example, Bud Fowler, one of the
best-known Black ballplayers of the late 1800s and an inductee into the National Baseball
Hall of Fame, spent the winter of 1888–1889 playing baseball on predominantly white
teams in southern California, mostly in San Bernardino.
8
In addition to Fowler, there were relatively unknown Black players on predominantly
white teams in the state during the 1880s and 1890s. Among them was “F. Mitchell,” the
“colored first baseman” of the Colton Athletic Club in 1887. (James Brunson listed him as
“M. Mitchell,” but his first name remains a mystery.) In addition to first base, he played in
left field and caught for Colton. The Los Angeles Herald reported that Mitchell developed a
reputation as a good ballplayer with the Chicago Gordons, first organized in 1884, and that
he was “the only colored ball player on the coast.” There were actually other Black
ballplayers on the West Coast at the time, including Horace Wilds, as noted in the first
essay. Mitchell played for Colton in April and May, but it is unknown if he traveled with
the team “to the mountains for repairs” in June. The trip was intended as a remedy for
Colton’s trouble winning games.
9
Another player reported only by his last name was Carroll, the “colored catcher” for
the 1899 Los Angeles Merchants, a member of the Southern California League. It was an
intercity league with clubs also representing San Bernardino and San Diego, as well as a
second club from Los Angeles. After San Bernardino defeated the Merchants, 13–1, the San
Bernardino Transcript disparaged several of the Merchants’ players on July 3, but the
newspaper was particularly harsh in its comments about Carroll. He was accused of giving
up after the seventh inning, with the Merchants down 6–1. He “played to get through and
3
not to win.” While Carroll had none of the four base hits for the Merchants, he had only
one error and one passed ball, so the basis for the criticism is unclear. The Transcript then
continued its tirade with racist comments. “Carroll, whose ancestors came over from
Africa, several decades ago, had a complexion of sink hole mud color. He should be peeling
potatoes or doing most any other thing than trying to play baseball.” In contrast, the Los
Angeles Times had praised his work as the catcher after the first game of the season in late
May, as did the Los Angeles Herald following a loss to San Bernardino in June. Nevertheless,
the Merchants released Carroll after a game on July 4, as the last-place club began to
rebuild by replacing the manager and several players (the changes did not improve the
team’s standing in the league).
10
The catcher was almost certainly William Carroll, as
explained in the essay about Carroll and the Trilbys of Los Angeles.
Other African Americans who played on predominantly white teams during the sport’s
era of segregation will come to light as more historical newspapers are searched. Six essays
included here introduce seven such players in California who played on integrated teams
engaged in intercity competition for multiple years from 1886 to 1909. The seventh essay
highlights Black umpires in the state who officiated games involving one or two white
teams. The eighth essay is the story of the state’s first prominent Black ball club—the
Trilbys of Los Angeles—and William Carroll. The last essay explores possible patterns
associated with where and when the integrated teams played and the experiences of three
Black soldiers who played for integrated teams west of the Rocky Mountains.
A final comment about minor leagues in California in the nineteenth century. Intercity
leagues were organized across the United States and Canada. Some are considered minor
leagues, though not all were part of the National Agreement, which offered protections for
clubs and their rosters.
11
For baseball organizers on the broad frontier of baseball west of the
Mississippi River, recognition by a distant organization was not always deemed necessary.
For the purposes of this narrative, a relatively conservative approach was taken with regard
to treating leagues in California as minor leagues, though this interpretation is open to
debate. In these essays, the California Leagues of 1890, 1896, and 1899 and the Pacific Coast
League of 1898 are treated as minor leagues, although only the 1890 and 1899 California
Leagues sought protection through the National Agreement (as did the 1892 California
League).
12
These four minor leagues represented the highest level of baseball in California at
the time and are important aspects of the stories of Horace Wilds and Eddie Smith.
Horace Maynard Wilds (1867–1902)
Horace Wilds played for several integrated baseball teams around San Francisco Bay for
12 years between 1886 and 1899 (Table 1). He was the most active Black player known to
have crossed baseball’s color line in California prior to 1946 and 1947, when Jackie Robinson
reintegrated baseball. Wilds was also among the first to do so. Given his status as a baseball
pioneer in a major metropolitan area on the West Coast, he was the worthy subject of a
recent biography published by the Society for American Baseball Reseaerch (SABR) written
by Stephen Rice. The essay presented here provides additional information to serve as
context for the broader history of California’s Black pioneers in integrated baseball.
4
Horace Maynard Wilds was born in Tennessee in 1867 to John Andrew and Elizabeth
“Lizzie” Wilds. He was the oldest of four children when the family moved to California in
1874.
13
Another daughter was born in California.
The first mention of John A. Wilds in the Oakland Tribune was in June 1876. He was
listed as one of the directors of the Oakland Literary and Aid Society when it filed for
incorporation. This is the same society mentioned in the introduction that sponsored the
Logan BBC in Oakland, which participated in the first known intercity competition
between Black teams in the state. Active in Republican politics, J.A. Wilds was considered
as a possible candidate for an at-large seat on the Oakland City Council in 1907. He was
also active in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and organizations such as
the Colored Citizens’ Union, Afro-American Protective League, Afro-American Council,
Afro-American Central Improvement Club, Free & Accepted Masons, Grand United
Order of Odd Fellows, and Ancient Order of Foresters. In addition, Wilds founded and
Table 1.—Baseball teams in California on which African American Horace Wilds (1867–
1902) is known to have played. The California Leagues of 1890 and 1896 are considered
minor leagues in this summary. He served as captain of teams marked with an asterisk (*).
Year
Team
League
Integrated
1886
Oakland Mystics
•
1887
(Oakland Evening) Tribunes
•
1888
Oakland Tribunes
California State League
•
1889
Oakland Tribunes
•
1890
Vallejo
•
Burlingtons (San Francisco)
•
Stockton
California League
•
1891
Burlingtons (San Francisco)
•
1892
Oakland
Central California League
•
Oakland *
—
1893
E.T. Allens (San Francisco)
Central California League
•
Petaluma
Central California League
•
1894
—
1895
Assembly Club (San Francisco)
—
Clippers (San Francisco)
•
Pacifics (San Francisco)
•
1896
Pacifics (San Francisco)
•
Californias (San Francisco)
California League
•
Imperials (San Francisco)
California League
•
1897
S.N. Woods (San Francisco)
•
1898
—
1899
Gamossi Kids (San Francisco) *
Pacific Coast Minor League
•
5
edited the weekly Oakland Sunshine to “inspire the Negro people to advance and contend for
their rights as American citizens.” The Oakland Sunshine Publishing Company was
incorporated in 1901, but the newspaper had been published “for some time” (perhaps
since 1897).
14
John A. Wilds was a well-known leader within the African American
community.
In May 1880, the Oakland City Council passed a resolution for the election of John Wilds
as the assistant janitor at the city hall. He had been working in that capacity since November
1879 but had not been formally appointed. He was considered to be “the most useful man in
the employ of the city about the Hall.” He was also granted backpay for his salary of $75 per
month. The position entailed duties other than cleaning, such as tending the stables adjacent
to city hall and helping to install telegraph poles and wires. It may sound odd today, but it
was a patronage appointment, and one of the few realistically open to African Americans.
The fact that Wilds held the position was a source of pride among the city’s Black residents.
Thus, in the summer of 1881, when he was discharged with no reason given, it generated
anger in the Black community. At a mass meeting held in the Hall of the Oakland Literary
and Aid Society, a resolution was passed expressing dissatisfaction with the dismissal of “the
only representative of our race in the municipal government, John A. Wilds,” who was
replaced by a white man. At a contentious city council meeting, on a 4–3 vote, with
discussion blocked, the person who replaced Wilds was discharged, and Wilds was rehired
as night watchman and janitor. He later became the day janitor. In addition to his official
duties, Wilds was scheduled to pitch for the city officials in a game against the county
officials in 1897 to raise money for the Associated Charities. After 33 years on the job, Wilds
applied in June 1912 for retirement with a pension, a decision he had been considering since
April, when he injured his shoulder. He had turned 66, and the pension would provide him
with half pay for the remainder of his life. He claimed to have been more than 15 minutes late
for work only once—the morning of the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1906.
Wilds retired on 1 August 1912 with a pension of $60 per month.
15
The first mentions of his son, Horace Wilds, were reports of events while he was in
school. The younger Wilds attended the Swett School and graduated from the Commercial
Class at the Tompkins School in December 1883.
16
In November 1882, at about age 15,
Horace was elected to serve as the Recording Secretary of the Oakland Literary and Aid
Society, a position he held for several years. He also participated in other literary clubs.
17
In addition, Wilds was involved in organizations such as the Colored Men’s Protective
League and the American Citizens’ Equal Rights Association, as well as the A.M.E. Church
and the Free & Accepted Masons. Occasionally, he served as the master of ceremonies at
functions of these organizations, and he sang in a quartet at least once.
18
Wilds began appearing in California voter registers in 1888. His height listed in the
registers ranged from six feet to six feet, two inches (about five or six inches taller than
average at the time). In 1888, 1890, and 1892, he was living in Oakland, and his occupation
was listed as porter (misspelled as potter in 1888). In 1894, he was listed as a laborer in
Oakland. It was around this time that Wilds experienced firsthand the limits placed on
employment opportunities for African Americans.
6
In June 1893, two positions for mail carriers opened with the US Post Office in Oakland.
About 32 regular mail carriers were employed in Oakland and another six or seven additional
carriers filled in when regular carriers were unable to work. All were white. Two Black
men—Horace Wilds and William Rand—passed the exam to join the pool of extra carriers.
Although the San Francisco Call noted that Wilds was “a very bright fellow” and Rand “stood
very high in the examination,” the white mail carriers objected to working with them. The
color line Wilds crossed in baseball was firmly drawn at the Oakland post office.
19
In November 1894, Wilds lost an opportunity to receive employment through political
patronage similar to his father’s position. Secretary of State-Elect Lou Brown would appoint
the janitor at the state capitol in Sacramento, with a salary of $2,000 per year, a substantial
sum at the time. Two Black men from Oakland were vying for the position. Thomas Pearson,
“a colored Republican orator” who campaigned for white Republican candidates, and
Horace Wilds, whose candidacy was championed by his father and J.B. Wilson, editor of the
San Francisco Elevator, an African American newspaper. Wilds had the support of Black
residents, while Pearson stressed that only the support of Republicans mattered. “The fight
became so hot that Mr. Brown could not stand it,” and he appointed another person to the
post. The following year, Pearson tried unsuccessfully to take the job John Wilds held as
janitor of the city hall in Oakland.
20
Sometime between October 1894 and August 1896, Horace Wilds moved to San
Francisco, where he worked as a janitor. An 1898 city directory gave his employer as the
London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company.
*
In August 1898, Wilds was listed as a
porter, apparently with the railroad. His obituary mentioned he had been “in the Pullman
car service for a long time and was popular in railroad circles.”
21
He also earned money
playing baseball.
In January 2023, Baseball-Reference.com listed Horace Wilds on the roster of the
Oakland club in the California State League in 1885. However, this could not be confirmed
in contemporary newspapers, nor was it listed among the teams he played for by James
Brunson or Stephen Rice.
22
However, he would soon join another Oakland team.
A baseball team in Oakland named the Mystics was first mentioned in July and
October 1885. In January 1886, they played the Oakland High School team, which suggests
its roster included younger players, but their identities are unknown. On the same day
that the Mystics played the high school team, another team using the name Mystics also
played in Oakland. This team had formerly been named the Reliance club, first mentioned
in August 1885. Box scores for the Reliances in September and October 1885 did not
include Wilds in the lineup.
23
The Mystics (née Reliances) continued to play through 1886. Wilds joined the team at
least as early as 14 March 1886, but the roster had reportedly been “materially
strengthened” in late February. Wilds was initially listed as the left fielder, but he soon
became the team’s regular catcher. In a September game, he played third base, committing
*
Following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company
paid £1,750,000 (not adjusted for inflation) to 2,995 claimants (London and Lancashire Fire
Insurance Company, 1912, pages 48–50).
7
no errors and contributing two putouts and two assists. For some unstated reason, Wilds
planned to travel to Charleston, South Carolina about this time. However, the Oakland
Tribune reported on September 4 that he decided to cancel the trip “on account of that city
being ruined by the disastrous earthquake.” The quake, with an estimated magnitude
about 7, struck on the evening of August 31, killing 60 people and doing millions of dollars
of damage. Despite the irony of the seismic circumstances, Wilds remained in California
with the Mystics through the end of their season in October.
24
Prior to a game on September 12, the Sacramento Record-Union promoted the upcoming
appearance of “Wilds, the celebrated colored catcher,” who would play for the visiting
Mystics. An integrated team involved in
intercity competition was a rare feature of
baseball in California, and this was Wilds’
first known trip to play outside the Bay
Area. Following the Mystics’ 4–3 victory
over Sacramento’s Snowflakes, the Oakland
Tribune reported a special honor bestowed
on the young catcher. “Wilds, the noted
catcher, was presented, on behalf of his
numerous friends, with a gold watch and
chain. He gained an enviable reputation
yesterday at Sacramento, he being the first
colored catcher ever seen there.” Wilds had one hit, one stolen base, and one run scored,
along with three errors, one of which contributed to the Snowflakes’ runs, so the gift was
clearly not for his performance that day.
25
The Tribune’s statement about his “enviable
reputation” might have accurately explained this gesture of respect toward a young Black
ballplayer in 1886. It was a powerful historical moment, and his baseball career was just
getting started.
The principal rival of the Mystics was a team simply referred to as the Oaklands, and
the two teams contested for the “junior championship” of the city. The term junior referred
to the lower level of the teams, from which good players advanced to top-level professional
clubs. The Mystics was a semipro team that played on Sundays for purses and gate
receipts, which could be substantial. In a game on October 10 meant to settle the
championship question, each side put up $100. Oakland won easily, 16–4. Wilds had a
miserable day behind the plate, with six errors and five passed balls, to which the Mystics’
pitcher added three wild pitches. The team then disbanded for the season, but “Mr. Wilds,
late of the Mystics,” was still engaged in the sport. He served as the official scorer in a game
between two white amateur teams on November 7 and again on November 28.
26
In 1887, there were multiple amateur baseball leagues in the Bay Area during the spring.
In February, the Mystics were reorganized as members of the Oakland Amateur League
with the Bay City, Keller, and Reno clubs. However, a few days later, half the players and
the manager were listed as members of the newly organized Oakland Tribunes, named
after the local newspaper. After the Oakland Amateur League’s brief season ended in late
8
April, the manager of the Tribunes thought he would have a “first class amateur club” if he
could find another catcher to occasionally relieve Wilds from the toll the position could
take on its practitioners. However, in mid-April, the Oakland Tribune reported, “Horace
Wilds, the catcher of the Tribunes, has retired from the diamond, and will not participate
in any games this season.” No reason was given. In his place, “The Tribunes have signed
Bushong, a celebrated Eastern amateur catcher.” The new catcher was actually Bushnell
(first name unknown).
27
The Tribune might have initially confused his name with the well-
known catcher, Doc Bushong, of the St. Louis Browns in the American Association, a major
league at the time.
Bushnell and others caught for the Tribunes through August, including Wilds, who
returned to the team for a game in July. On 21 August 1887, Wilds became the Tribunes’
primary catcher through at least 18 August 1889. The San Francisco Examiner noted in 1888,
“Horace Wilds, the colored catcher of the Tribunes, is one of the finest backstops on the
Coast.” However, he was sometimes faulted for his weakness at throwing runners out
when they tried to steal second base. In September 1887, the Oakland Tribune reported,
“Horace Wilds of the Tribunes has improved considerably in his catching. Last Sunday he
had only one passed ball, and his only defect was his throwing to second.” In the coming
months, the newspaper generally praised his “fine work … with the willow and behind the
bat,” and even his throwing, on occasion.
28
The 24 months Wilds spent with the Tribunes from August 1887 to August 1889, while
he was in his early 20s and continuing to develop his skills, was his longest stint with a
single team. Stephen Rice compiled data from 45 box scores during Wilds’ time with the
Tribunes that placed his hitting in perspective. In these games, he had a batting average of
.246, which was substantially higher than the combined average for his teammates (.209)
and their opponents (.190) in those games.
29
With a few additional box scores subsequently available online, statistics were
compiled for Wilds from 50 games with the Tribunes from 21 August 1887 to 18 August
1889—13 games in 1887, 26 games in 1888, and 11 games in 1889 (Table 2). Wilds served as
the catcher in 45 games and parts of two others. He also played two games and part of a
third game in left field and parts of one game each in right field, at first base, at third base,
and as a relief pitcher. His batting average in these 50 games of .249 is essentially the same
as reported by Rice. Among his 53 hits, Wilds had at least four doubles, one triple, and
two homeruns. Other means of getting on base, such as walks or being hit by a pitch, were
poorly reported. Once on base, he stole at least 15 bases. Although Wilds committed 41
errors and had at least 61 passed balls, it is important to remember that the 1880s were a
period of transition in which pitchers began to throw harder with an overhand motion,
and catchers experimented with gloves and mitts to protect their hands. Thus, the
concerns expressed about Wilds’ defensive skills focused not on his catching but on his
trouble throwing to second base. The total numbers of stolen bases for the Tribunes and
their opponents were tabulated from 37 games for which the data were available. The
Tribunes stole an average of 4.2 bases per game, while their opponents stole 5.4 bases per
game. Of course, other factors would influence these numbers, such as the pitcher’s
9
delivery, the various abilities of players to steal bases, and so forth, but these numbers and
multiple comments in newspapers suggest his weakness was holding runners.
Nevertheless, Wilds caught 90% of the games he played for the Tribunes, so the team’s
manager and backers never chose to replace him during those three seasons, suggesting
the numbers did not concern them in light of the historical circumstances. (New catcher’s
mitts developed around 1888–1890 would improve a catcher’s chance to handle pitches
effectively and limit base stealing.) Overall, Wilds contributed to the success of the
Tribunes, who won 33 of the 50 games documented thus far with box scores, a respectable
.660 winning percentage.
30
During a portion of the Tribunes’ three-year run, the team was a member of the
California State League, which was organized in March 1888. The league initially included
five clubs—the San Franciscos and Emersons from San Francisco, the Clevelands and
Tribunes from Oakland, and the Dolphins of Santa Cruz. In April, the Atlas club from
Sacramento was added. An even number of clubs meant that none would be idle and lose
potential revenue from gate receipts. The league was scheduled to play each Sunday from
the end of April through mid-October. However, the league faltered in June, one of many
that failed to complete a full season during the nineteenth century. The Tribune,
Cleveland, and Atlas clubs managed to sustain their competition until August and then
played various teams through the end of the year.
31
Wilds was popular with a cross-section of fans in Oakland and elsewhere. Virtually
none of these newspaper reports specifically addressed his popularity with Black fans, but
an exception occurred in May 1888 on the Tribunes’ second trip that spring to Sacramento.
The Sacramento Record-Union predicted, “No doubt a large delegation of colored people will
be present, as on last Sunday they were not aware that a colored player figured in any of
the nines.” In June, the same newspaper simply reported that Wilds was “a favorite here.”
In 1889, the San Francisco Examiner noted, “Wilds, the colored backstop, is a great favorite
with the Oakland cranks.” In addition to these general statements, the Santa Cruz Daily Surf
praised Wilds after a game in which the Tribunes defeated the hometown Dolphins, 6–5.
The Tribunes’ captain, Rohan, and right fielder, Gimmel, were criticized for
“ungentlemanly and hoodlumish actions” as they argued with the umpire, who later fined
Rohan and put an end to the kicking. “The [Tribunes’] battery, Hyde and Wilds, and short
stop, Wilson, very much objected to the language of their companions.”
32
In February 1889, a game was played for the benefit of Horace Wilds. A box score for
the game was published in the Oakland Tribune, but the reason why the benefit was
organized was not stated. Typically, benefit games were played to raise money for a player
who had suffered some sort of serious injury, financial loss, or other form of personal loss,
such as the death of a close family member. The amount raised for Wilds was also not
reported. In the benefit game, he caught for a team called the Giants, who defeated another
picked nine referred to as the World Beaters. Some of the players were teammates of Wilds
on the Tribunes, some were members of other area teams, and some might have simply
been pickups.
33
Although the details are a mystery, it is another example of the high regard
in which Wilds was held.
10
Table 2.
—Data compiled from available box scores for selected baseball teams on which African American Horace Wilds played in
California. He was primarily a catcher for the first three teams and a firs
t baseman for the last two teams. All of the teams were
otherwise composed of white players,
except the Imperials
, for whom Black infielder Eddie Smith also played. Box scores were not
available for all games. The team records represent only the games docu
mented with box scores. AB = at bats; R = runs scored; H =
hits; BA = batting average; PO = putouts; A = assists; E = errors; PB = passed balls.
Date
Team
Games with
Box Scores
Record
AB
R
H
BA
PO
A
E
PB
Aug 1887
–Aug 1889
Oakland Tribunes
50
33–17 (.660)
213
46
53
.249
331
129
41
61
Aug 1890
–Nov 1891
Burlingtons
(San Francisco
)
31
12–19 (.387)
123
35
36
.293
190
43
27
38
19 October 1890
Stockton (
California League
)
1
0–1 (.313)*
4
0
0
.000
6
1
0
0
California League
July 1896
Californias (San Francisco)
2
9–6 (.600)
64
19
19
.297
132
2
8
—
Aug–Dec 1896
Imperials (San Francisco)
13
* Stockton’s record in the four
-team California League after the 5
–3 loss to Oakland on October 19 was .313 (the only club below .500).
11
The 1890 season featured the high and low points of Wilds’ baseball career. After four
years playing for teams from Oakland, Wilds signed with the team in Vallejo on the north
side of the bay at the beginning of April and was joined at the end of the month by his
former batterymate with the Tribunes, John “Jack” Rohan. Vallejo was a member of the
California Amateur League, one of several such leagues in the state. The league included
six clubs—Santa Rosa, Vallejo, Burlingtons, E.T. Allens, Reports, and Will & Fincks. After
Vallejo lost 14–3 to Santa Rosa on May 4, Wilds and Rohan were accused of throwing the
game. The Vallejo manager requested that the league president “black-list Rohan and
‘white-list’ Wilds.” The Oakland Tribune defended the players, sort of. “[T]he Oakland
battery was accused of selling out to the gamblers. The charge was entirely without
foundation, as both Wilds and Rohan had money bet that the Vallejos would win the
contest. They could have had no object in losing the game under those circumstances.”
34
After being released by Vallejo, Wilds disappeared from Bay Area newspapers through
early July. He might have played briefly in Portland, Oregon in June, but he found a longer-
term opportunity on August 3, when he caught for the Burlingtons of San Francisco in the
California Amateur League. This suggests he was not banned, as Vallejo’s manager had
wanted. Wilds became a regular member of the roster in September, even though the team
also had three white catchers that autumn. He remained with the Burlingtons through
November 1891. The Burlingtons had trouble defeating their peers in the amateur league,
but Wilds performed well (Table 2). In 31 games documented thus far with box scores, he
caught in 90% of the games, while also playing one game each in left field, in right field,
and as the catcher and relief pitcher. His batting average was .293, which was again higher
than the composite averages for his teammates (.199) or opponents (.234) in 30 games,
according to Rice. Defensively, he had fewer passed balls (1.2 per game versus 1.7 with the
Tribunes). However, opposing teams stole bases at a higher rate of 6.6 per game, while the
Burlingtons stole only 4.7 per game (compared to 5.4 and 4.2 per game, respectively, when
he was with the Tribunes). The number of errors he committed was similar (0.87 per game
with the Burlingtons and 0.82 with the Tribunes).
35
After being released under an accusation of cheating and being absent from local
diamonds through the summer of 1890, Wilds not only joined another amateur league club,
he got a chance to play at the highest level of baseball on the West Coast in October. The
California League, consisting of clubs from Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, and
Stockton, sought protection under the National Agreement as a minor league. On October
19, Stockton’s catcher and another player missed the train to Oakland. Thus, they had only
eight players, with the relief pitcher being used in right field. The Daily Alta California
described the arrangement made to field a team. “Wilds and Kelly, two members of the
Burlingtons, of the Amateur League, were hired to help out the game. Kelly occupied the
bench, and Wilds, who, by the way, is a gentleman of color, played behind the bat. His
play was surprisingly good.” The Burlingtons had defeated the Reports in an amateur
league contest that morning at the same ballpark (the Haight Street Grounds in San
Francisco), which facilitated Wilds’ opportunity to play for Stockton. The San Francisco
Call also commented about his defensive performance for Stockton. “Horace Wilds, a big,
12
brawny, colored backstop … had never caught [Mike] Kilroy before he went in and handled
the Philadelphian’s hot delivery like a veteran.” The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco
Examiner likewise made positive comments about Wilds’ performance. Surprisingly, the
Oakland Tribune did not mention Wilds at all.
36
Stockton was the worst club in the California League, the only one with a winning
percentage below .500 (.313 after the game on October 19). Yet, Stockton lost by a close
score of 5–3 in 13 innings, and Wilds contributed to the club’s strong performance. He had
six putouts, one assist, no errors, no passed balls, and “on his only chance to throw to
second he nailed his man.” Wilds batted fifth and was hitless in four official at bats (Table
2). However, he contributed to one of Stockton’s runs, as described in the San Francisco
Examiner. To set the stage, Stockton had a runner on first base and two outs.
37
[T]hen the colored catcher, Wilds, who was cheered when he came up,
rapped a hot one at [second baseman Joe] Cantillion [sic]. The ball passed him
and while the crowd jeered[,] Pasche kept on to third. Wilds then started to
steal second. [Catcher] Lohman landed the ball in Cantillion’s [sic] hands, but
the second baseman’s return of the ball to Lohman was as wild as his playing
is disreputable, and Pasche crossed the plate, Wilds taking third.
38
The description of the events leaves unanswered the question of why Cantillon did not
simply record the third out at second base when Wilds attempted to steal instead of
making an errant throw back to the plate that allowed Wilds to continue on to third base.
Wilds was stranded, however, when the relief pitcher filling in as the right fielder struck
out to end the inning.
Perhaps Cantillon was distracted. According to the Daily Alta California, “Cantillon …
was hooted and jeered by almost the entire crowd when he appeared on the field. This
exhibition of disapproval on the part of all decent people against hoodlumism on the
diamond drew forth the most insulting remarks from the player, who, throughout almost
the entire game, from his position at second base, talked back to the more demonstrative
of the crowd, even insulting spectators in their private boxes who disapproved of his
ruffianism.” Given that Wilds was one of those players who made known his dislike for
rowdyism in games, it is easy to imagine what he thought of this behavior during his first
opportunity to play at this level. Bad behavior at the other league contest in Sacramento
between the home club and San Francisco also marred that game, won by San Francisco,
6–5.
39
At the conclusion of the game the Sacramento manager protested the game on
the ground that [Charles] Sweeney had been drinking and was not in a fit
condition to umpire on that account. The manager also claims that whiskey
was passed to Sweeney from the boxes while the game was in progress. Many
of the umpire’s decisions, both on bases and on balls and strikes, were rank
and were loudly hissed by the audience. Sweeney jumped over the fence and
was going to whip a spectator who had applied an insulting remark to him,
but was prevented from doing so by a police officer.
40
13
Sweeney had expelled the spectator from the ballpark in the ninth inning for yelling,
“Sweeney, you had better take another drink and the San Franciscos will then be sure to
win.” Sweeney tried following him out of the ballpark, even though the game had not yet
ended. The people passing him drinks were also said to have bet on San Francisco.
41
In 1892, Wilds again played for Oakland. The city had a team referred to as the Colonels
that was a member of the California League, a Class B minor league, which also included
clubs from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose. It was the pinnacle of minor league
baseball in California during the nineteenth century and received the vast majority of
baseball coverage in newspapers. However, Wilds played for the semipro Oakland club in
the Central California League. In this league, the games were played for a share of the gate
receipts rather than a set salary for each player. The league started the season with four
clubs—Oakland, Vallejo, the Haverlys of San Francisco, and the J.T. Morans of Oakland, but
teams and rosters changed through the season. No attempt was made to assess the
performance of Wilds because of confusion in the box scores available for Oakland from
April through July, after which the Oakland team disappeared from the newspapers. Box
scores were found for six games in which Wilds caught. Four additional box scores were
found in which Oakland’s catcher was listed as Welch. However, the information about
extra base hits, passed balls, etc. published at the bottom of these four box scores sometimes
listed Wilds rather than Welch, and once listed both Welch and Wilds. Meanwhile, the
Oakland Tribune bragged about the team’s catcher on June 22. “Horace Wilds, the colored
catcher, is a very clever man in his position. He is one of the best amateur players in the State.”
On August 3, the Tribune reported, “Wilds, the Moran catcher, is improving in his work every
year.” The J.T. Morans used multiple catchers, none of whom was Wilds, although the team
was from Oakland. Given this and the possibility Wilds was mistakenly listed as Welch, the
extent of Wilds’ playing time for the league club is uncertain.
42
Wilds returned to the diamond in September and October 1892 in what was for him an
unusual circumstance. Two teams composed of Black players—one representing Oakland
and the other San Francisco—played two games, both won by Oakland. Wilds caught for
and captained the Oakland team. Only the San Francisco Chronicle covered the games, and its
long account of the first game was filled with demeaning racial stereotypes meant to be
humorous. The second story was respectful, and full box scores were provided for both
contests.
43
It was apparently the last time Wilds played for a team representing Oakland.
In March 1893, the city of Petaluma expected to play in a Central California League
with clubs from San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Vallejo. Instead of Vallejo, two teams from
San Francisco—the E.T. Allens and Scott & Gilberts—joined Petaluma and Santa Rosa.
The league schedule was to run from April to November, but as often happened, plans
changed. Petaluma won the championship of the first half of the season on August 6. Just
as the second half of the season was getting underway, the California League, composed
of salaried clubs from Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, and San Francisco, folded. The
Central California League was in better financial condition because players earned only a
portion of the gate receipts rather than a salary. Thus, the Central California League took
the opportunity to expand. Negotiations continued from mid-August to mid-September,
14
when Oakland and San Jose were invited to join the Central League. The two San
Francisco clubs named after businesses were replaced by clubs named the San Franciscos
and Pioneers. The league also instituted a policy of $50 fines for any team that hired a
player jumping his contract from another club without being released. Games were to be
played on Saturdays and Sundays through November 26. However, the league only lasted
until mid-October. The club in San Jose and the Pioneers disbanded, and word came that
the 1893 National League champions from Boston were coming to California to play teams
of local players in San Francisco and other cities in the state.
44
During these ups and downs, Wilds found a home in the league. On June 18, he
reportedly caught for the E.T. Allens in a game against Petaluma. Beginning on July 4, he
caught and played first base for Petaluma, and he remained with the team through
October. Box scores were not published for several of the games, so data regarding his
performance were not compiled.
45
However, something missing to this point in the
historical record of Wilds’ baseball career was published in October.
The only image found of Horace Wilds was a sketch published in the San Francisco
Chronicle on 3 October 1893. On Labor Day, October 2, four of the six clubs in the reorganized
Central California League played a pair of exhibition games at the Haight Street Grounds in
San Francisco. In the first game, San Jose easily defeated San
Francisco, and in the second game, the Pioneers did the same to
“still another new combination known as the Oaklands.”
Petaluma, for whom Wilds played, and Santa Rosa did not
participate. Regular Sunday league games had been played the
day before. Some of the Oakland players did not participate in
the exhibition game, so substitutes were recruited, including
Wilds. “It took quite a while for those of the Oakland team who
had no uniforms to get into the toilets discarded by the
’Friscos.” Thus, the sketch of Horace Wilds shows him in a San
Francisco uniform, rather than a Petaluma or Oakland uniform.
He is wearing a large mitt on his left hand, suggesting that he
threw righthanded, although he hit lefthanded. He also sports
a large moustache. The Chronicle reported, “A large colored man
known as Dark Wilds hovered like a cloud over first base and
played the bag in fine style.” In five at bats, Wilds had only one
hit—a double. Defensively, he played flawlessly, with twelve
putouts, one assist, and zero errors. The San Francisco Examiner
also commented on his performance. “Wilds, the tall, well built
and athletic first baseman of the Oaklands, played a pretty
game and made himself thoroughly popular.”
46
Baseball got off to a slow start in 1894. A California League was not organized until late
May with four clubs—Petaluma, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Vallejo. Wilds was not on
Petaluma’s roster, but the league quickly fizzled. In late July and early August, the California
Players’ Baseball League was organized. Initially, the Californias of San Francisco and the
15
San Franciscos tested fan support in a game on July 29. Sacramento and Stockton then
joined, but Petaluma and Santa Rosa were “not considered large enough to maintain teams
equal to those made up in” San Francisco. Nevertheless, the Petaluma Poison Oaks joined
the league in September, and the Stockton Evening Mail listed Wilds as Petaluma’s first
baseman prior to a game on September 2. However, no box score was found for that game,
and Wilds was not on Petaluma’s roster in other box scores through October.
47
Thus, no
record was found to confirm that he played for an organized team in 1894.
Wilds played on his second Black ball club in August 1895. The Assembly Club of San
Francisco defeated the visiting OKs from Sacramento, another Black team. Rosters for the
two teams were reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, but no box score was published
(not even the final score). Wilds was the catcher for the Assembly Club.
48
Later that August, Wilds caught for the Pacifics of San Francisco. The Pacifics,
Olympics, and Clippers of San Francisco played each other and teams in other towns, but
box scores or rosters were only occasionally published. In a September game between the
Pacifics and Clippers, Wilds was listed as a member of the latter, but other game reports
and box scores through January 1896 indicated he was a catcher, first baseman, or
outfielder for the Pacifics. After October, games were played on Sundays among the
Pacifics, Olympics, and San Franciscos (the “professionals”).
49
In May 1896, a San Francisco City League was organized with four teams—Californias,
Imperials, Orioles, and Pacifics. Wilds was the first baseman for the reorganized Pacifics,
but was switched to the outfield when new players were added to the roster in late July.
50
A few days after being moved to the outfield, Wilds was signed by a new team. The
Californias left the city league to join the California League with clubs from San Francisco,
Oakland, and Stockton. To make room for the Californias, the club from San Jose was
dropped. As a minor league, the California League would be more competitive than the
city league, so the Californias built a new roster, which included adding three players from
the Pacifics. Wilds became the Californias’ new first baseman. In their first game in the
California League on the grounds in San Francisco at Sixteenth and Folsom Streets on July
25, Wilds drove in the winning run against Oakland, as described by the San Francisco Call.
51
Wilds, the Herculean colored player, got his eye on the ball and swatted it
with all his might. It soared swiftly over the infield, high over the right
fielder’s head, and by the time the sphere was returned to the diamond
Wilds was on third and Mack, following McDermott, had scored the
winning run. Then the cheer that went up from the stands startled the goats
over on the Potrero.
52
Oakland won the second game the following day. A few days later, the Imperials also
left the city league for the California League, bringing the number of clubs to five.
However, the Californias failed to make their trip to Stockton for a game during their
second weekend in the league. Then the league decided to give Santa Cruz a trial the
following weekend as a possible replacement for Stockton. The situation with the league
had become unsettled. After playing for the Californias at the end of July, Wilds was
16
apparently off the diamond until the end of August, when he was added to the roster of
the Imperials as the first baseman. The California League settled into a four-club
arrangement with the Imperials, Oakland, San Francisco, and Stockton, who competed
through the end of the season in December. Box scores were found for 15 California League
games in which Wilds played—2 games with the Californias and 13 with the Imperials
(Table 2). His batting average was .297, and he committed only eight errors in the 15
games. In September, the Imperials strengthened their roster with the addition of another
Black ballplayer, Eddie Smith, the subject of the next essay. Initially, he played third base
but became the club’s shortstop in November. Wilds and Smith batted first, second, or
third in the lineup and contributed substantially to the Imperials’ success. The club
claimed the league’s championship trophy in December 1896.
53
After 1896, Wilds spent less time playing baseball. From June to at least August 1897,
he played for the S.N. Woods of San Francisco, mostly at first base but occasionally
catching or playing in the outfield. The team initially participated in the San Francisco
Examiner tournament. Afterwards, box scores became rare, so it is uncertain how long
Wilds remained with the team. However, he was not listed in the lineup for a game on
October 31.
54
No reports of Wilds playing in 1898 were found.
In August and September 1898, the California Amateur Baseball League was organized
in fits and starts. One of the 36 clubs was the Gamossi Kids of San Francisco, who won the
league’s opening game on September 4. Reports about the league and its players were
meager and rarely included box scores. Mismanagement of the league reportedly led six
clubs to depart and organize the Pacific Coast Minor League—the Alerts of Alameda; the
Altos, Gamossi Kids, and Golden Gates of San Francisco; and the C.J. Heesemans and Owl
Drug Company of Oakland. These clubs played through December 18, when the Altos
defeated the Golden Gates for the championship.
55
In January 1899, the Pacific Coast Minor League reorganized for the winter with four
clubs—the Altos, Gamossi Kids, Golden Gates, and Owls. The first games were played at
the end of the month, and the Gamossi Kids “reorganized to great advantage. Wilds is
acting manager and captain.” Eddie Smith, Wilds teammate with the Imperials, joined the
club in February. The Golden Gates claimed the league championship but split a pair of
postseason games with the Olympic Cycling Club in February and March. Reporting of
the league games and teams was again limited and inconsistent, so little is known about
the time Wilds spent with the Gamossi Kids. However, he apparently joined the club
when it was reorganized in January and did not play for the Kids in late 1898. Several
players on the “minor league” clubs were expected to move up to the professional clubs in
both northern and southern California, but Wilds was not among them.
56
In January 2023, Baseball-Reference.com listed Horace Wilds on the roster of the
Azusa baseball club of the Southern California League in 1900 as his final year in organized
baseball. This is apparently an error. After San Bernardino was dropped from the league,
Azusa joined two clubs from Los Angeles and one from San Diego. The league then
restarted its season on May 20. San Bernardino had a third baseman named Fred Wilding,
who was picked up by Azusa as league play resumed. The Los Angeles Record referred to him
17
as “an old Los Angeles favorite.” No player named Wilding was included on the Azusa
roster posted by Baseball-Reference.com, which suggests Wilds might have been
mistakenly substituted for Wilding.
57
Thus, the baseball career of Horace Wilds
apparently ended with the Gamossi Kids in 1899.
*
In the midst of his baseball career, Wilds married Joanna G.T. Dickson of San Francisco
on 10 August 1892.
58
Their daughter Constance was born in September 1893 and their son
Maynard in April 1895. In the 1900 census, Joanna and the children were living in San
Francisco, and she was recorded as the head of the household, but she was still listed as
married. In the notices of his death, Horace was referred to as the “dearly beloved husband
of Joanna T. Wilds and father of Constance and Maynard Wilds.”
59
Why he was not listed
with his family in the 1900 census is unknown. Perhaps he was working elsewhere.
Horace Wilds died at his parents’ home at 1008 Tenth Avenue in Oakland on 7
February 1902 “after an illness of a few weeks.” He was only 34 years old. The initial
announcement of his death in the Oakland Tribune noted that “he was identified with a local
baseball team and made a great record as a catcher. He was very popular with his
comrades.” An article from the Oakland Office of the San Francisco Call attributed his death
to the delayed effect of a baseball injury he suffered six years earlier, when Wilds played
primarily for the Pacifics and Imperials.
60
The game at which Wild [sic] received the fatal blow was being played in
San Francisco. He was struck accidentally on the left side of the head while
preparing to take his place at the bat. The pain did not annoy him much and
he paid little attention to it, although it recurred occasionally.
Until six months ago Wild [sic] was not seriously troubled with the pains.
Then, when he began to suffer considerably, he consulted a physician. He was
advised to go to a hospital, which he did, but got no relief, the pains seeming
to increase. Finally he lost the sight of both eyes, the pressure having
destroyed the optic nerve. This was followed by complete paralysis of the
body. The doctors then declared that he had progressive paralysis, resulting
from the blow on the head, and that he could not recover.
61
The official death record listed the cause of death as a “tumor” of the brain. Whether it was
medically related to the baseball injury is a matter of speculation. Following the funeral at
his parents’ home, Horace Wilds was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
62
It
is unknown if his grave is marked.
The feature story of early integrated baseball in California is that of Horace Wilds, the
big catcher and first baseman from Oakland. He played at least 12 years, almost exclusively
for teams predominantly composed of white players, including clubs at the top level of
competition available on the West Coast during the 1890s. Others might have preceded
him and others would follow, but none would surpass what he accomplished.
*
As described in later essays, Eddie Smith was also apparently listed incorrectly with a Los Angeles
club in the Southern California League in 1900, and William Carroll (not Riley Carroll) caught for
the Los Angeles Merchants in the league in 1899.
18
Eddie T. Smith (ca. 1874 – ?)
During the latter part of Horace Wilds’ career playing for integrated baseball teams
around San Francisco Bay, another Black ballplayer began a similar journey. Unfortunately,
little was learned about Eddie Smith. His name was too common in the area, and none of the
Eddie (or Ed or Edward) Smiths mentioned in different contexts in newspapers or other
records could be connected conclusively to the Black ballplayer. Even among the baseball
stories, there were several players named Smith on California teams who were often referred
to only by their surname. In January 2023, Baseball-Reference.com listed Eddie Smith with
several teams in California from 1892 to 1900,
63
but the only instances found in which a player
named Eddie, Ed, or E. Smith was identified as Black (“colored”) in newspapers were in 1896,
1898, and 1899. Additional information in newspapers connected him to a few other teams
during that period, documenting his baseball career from 1896 to 1899 (Table 3).
As an example of the difficulty in following Eddie Smith, a player by that name was the
shortstop for the C.J. Heesemans of Oakland in 1897. This apparently white Smith had
played earlier that year for Riverside in southern California. According to the Santa Cruz
Sentinel, his nickname was “Shifty” Smith. The two Eddie Smiths faced each other at least
once in November 1897.
64
Table 3.—Predominantly white baseball teams in California on which African American
Eddie Smith played. Teams listed by Baseball-Reference.com in January 2023 included
here in regular font (not in bold italics) could not be confirmed in contemporary
newspapers as having a Black ballplayer by that name. As explained in the text, it is likely
but not confirmed that he played for San Francisco in 1896 before joining the Imperials.
Year
Team
League
1892
Piedmont
Central California League
J.A. Folger & Co. (San Francisco)
Central California League
1893
—
1894
Oakland
California Players’ League
1895
—
1896
San Francisco
(as the Metropolitans)
California League
Imperials
(San Francisco)
California League
1897
Will & Fincks
(San Francisco; captain)
Santa Clara
1898
Olympics / Athletics
(San Francisco)
Pacific Coast League
San Francisco
Pacific Coast League
1899
Beachcombers or Sand Crabs
(Santa Cruz)
California League
Gamossi Kids
(San Francisco)
Pacific Coast Minor League
Californias
(San Francisco)
Mechanics’ Institute League
1900
Los Angeles
Southern California League
19
Given the challenges, the baseball story of Eddie Smith might begin in 1892, but the
available evidence is too weak to be certain. The Central California League had several
players named Smith, one of whom was identified as “E. Smith,” the first baseman for the
team from Vallejo, a position the Black ballplayer is not known to have played. Smiths also
played for the Piedmonts, J.A. Folger & Co., and other clubs in the Central California
League, but they were mostly identified only by their surname, and newspapers did not
mention that any were Black.
65
Information provided later in this essay indicates that the
Black ballplayer named Eddie Smith would have been about 18 years old in 1892, so it is
possible he was among the players mentioned that year, but no evidence was found to
document this. Similarly, it could not be confirmed that a Black ballplayer named Eddie
Smith played for Oakland two years later in 1894 (Table 3).
In June 1896, the California League, a professional minor league, opened its season with
four clubs—Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Stockton. The San Francisco club had
a second baseman named “Ed Smith” until he resigned at the beginning of August (Table
4).
66
There was no indication he was Black, but it seems likely. His position and the timing
of his resignation from the club fit subsequent events in the Black ballplayer’s career.
Later in August, the Imperials of San Francisco added a third baseman named Smith.
In September, the San Francisco Chronicle identified him as a Black ballplayer, one of two in
the lineup. “Little Eddie Smith, the colored third baseman of the Imperials, and [Horace]
Wilds, the ebony-hued guardian of the first cushion for the same team, put up high class
ball.” The newspaper continued to refer to him as “Little Eddie Smith,” suggesting he was
small in stature. In November, he became the shortstop (Table 4). The Sporting Life
correspondent “King Chocolate” reported a rumor on December 5, “That Connie Mack is
watching the work of Eddie Smith, the Imperial short stop, and may sign him for
Milwaukee” of the Western League. Smith and Wilds remained with the Imperials
through the end of the season in December 1896, when the club claimed the league
championship.
67
In 1897, Smith played not for Milwaukee but for the Will & Fincks of San Francisco. He
was not identified as Black, but newspapers published in 1898 referred to the Black shortstop
formerly of the Will & Fincks. Information on an application for entry into the California
Championship Baseball Tournament for amateur teams was published in the San Francisco
Examiner on 18 April 1897. The roster of the Will & Fincks included “E. Smith, twenty-four
years, 613 Howard street.” The application was amended a few days later and listed “E.T.
Smith, age 23 years, 613 Howard street.”
68
Thus, Eddie Smith was born about 1874, perhaps
1873. The Examiner also published data for Smith’s performance during the tournament—11
games, 42 at bats, 10 runs, 13 hits, a .309 batting average, and an .875 fielding percentage.
69
In addition to playing shortstop, Smith pitched for the Will & Fincks in early games and,
more significantly, served as the team’s captain. The tournament was a big draw that even
brought Ed “Shifty” Smith north with his teammates from Riverside. However, by
September, the San Francisco Call reported that teams were dissatisfied with their treatment
by tournament organizers associated with the rival San Francisco Examiner. The principal
complaint was money. The Call reported that the teams each received 10% of the gate
20
receipts, with 60% going to the tournament managers and 20% to charities. The teams
argued for 20%, which would leave 40% for the organizers. The organizers countered with
15% per team and increasing the share going to charities from 20 to 25%. As this was
happening, two of the strongest teams were expelled for playing an exhibition game in
Sacramento, and the dissatisfied managers of several teams demanded that they be
reinstated. In the end, the Will & Franks and another team accepted the 15% shares, but
other teams left to play independently. The tournament was restarted with seven teams.
70
From October to December, Smith continued to play for the Will & Fincks, but he also
bolstered the rosters of other teams, such as Santa Clara, when the Will & Fincks had days
off. However, announcements that he would play for Santa Clara were not always accurate.
71
In March 1898, the Will & Fincks essentially became the Olympics, whose line up
included “Little Ed Smith, the colored wonder.” The name Olympics only lasted until mid-
April when it was changed to the Athletics. It was one of eight clubs in the Pacific Coast
League, the highest level of competition in California and composed of professional clubs.
The other seven clubs were Fresno (replaced by Watsonville), Oakland, Sacramento, San
Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Stockton. (In 1898, there was also a Pacific Northwest
League in Washington and Oregon, with teams in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Portland,
that would later join California clubs in the Pacific Coast League.) In preseason games
with the Athletics, Smith played second base, but he was moved to center field when the
regular season began. At the end of June, Smith was released by the Athletics “at his own
request.”
72
Any hints as to why he made the request were not found.
Mindful of the fact that Ed “Shifty” Smith had played in the Bay Area in 1897, no
indication was found that he continued to do so in 1898. This suggests it was Eddie Smith,
formerly of the Athletics, who joined the San Francisco club in the Pacific Coast League
on July 10, and he remained with the club through December (information in the following
paragraphs supports this conclusion). With San Francisco, Smith returned to the infield
at second base, third base, and shortstop, starting only one game in left field. He also batted
first in the lineup in nearly every game he played. In addition to Eddie Smith, the club in
Stockton had a second baseman named Nick Smith, the league’s only other player with
that surname.
73
Data for league players published by the San Francisco Chronicle in December listed “E.
Smith” as the second baseman for San Francisco with a fielding percentage of .915, which
put him in second place behind Stockton’s Nick Smith at .922. As a hitter in 27 games (104
at bats), E. Smith’s batting average was only .221, which was in the lowest third of league
players.
74
Data from box scores published by the San Francisco Call were compiled to compare with
the Chronicle summary (Table 4). The similarity of the data reported by the Chronicle and those
compiled from box scores for both the Athletics and San Francisco supports the assumption
that the infielder named Smith with San Francisco was the same person identified as a Black
ballplayer with the Olympics and Athletics. Thus, Eddie Smith completed his second full
season (with a short gap between teams in June and July) playing professional minor league
baseball for clubs otherwise composed of white players.
21
Table
4.—Data compiled from box scores for African American Eddie T. Smith when he played in three
minor
leagues. In
1896, it was not confirmed but
is probable that
Smith
played
for San Francisco
. Data compiled by the
San Francisco Chronicle
in
1898 did not separate do
ubles and triples and reversed the numbers of assists and errors, which were corrected here. In 1899,
Smith
filled in with Santa Cruz after the club’s shortstop was injured. AB = at bats; R = runs scored;
1B = singles
; 2B = doubles
;
3B = triples
; SB = stolen bases
; PO = putouts; A = assists; E = errors; BA = batting average
.
1896 California League
Games
Position
AB
R
1B
2B
3B
SB
PO
A
E
BA
San Francisco
7
2b / cf
35
12
14
0
0
0
16
13
7
.400
Imperials (San Francisco)
12
3b / ss
55
11
12
3
2
7
35
11
7
.309
Totals
19
All
90
23
26
3
2
7
51
24
14
.344
1898 Pacific Coast League
Games
Position
AB
R
1B
2B
3B
SB
PO
A
E
BA
Athletics (San Francisco)
9
cf
36
7
6
2
0
6
6
1
2
.222
San Francisco
6
2b
23
8
3
1
0
1
18
12
2
.174
San Francisco
4
ss
16
2
4
0
0
1
11
14
4
.250
San Francisco
6
3b
21
4
4
1
1
1
8
16
5
.286
San Francisco
1
lf
4
1
1
1
0
1
2
0
0
.500
Totals from box scores
in the
San Francisco Call
26*
All
100
22
18
5
1
10
45
43
13
.240
San Francisco Chronicle
,
19 December 1898, p 8.
27
All
104
24
23
—
—
9
51
47
9
.221
1899 California League
Games
Position
AB
R
1B
2B
3B
SB
PO
A
E
BA
Santa Cruz
2
ss
8
0
2
0
0
1
2
3
4
.250
* Box scores were not found for three games played by San Francisco
on September 11, October 16, and November 20.
22
In 1899, Eddie Smith began to fade from the historical record. In January, the Lash’s
Bitters team of San Francisco had an Eddie Smith on the roster as a shortstop, but there is
no information to confirm that it was the Black ballplayer (more about Smith and Lash’s
Bitters later in this essay). In February, Ed Smith was to play shortstop for the Gamossi
Kids, with teammate Horace Wilds at first base. In May, “Colored Ed Smith” was listed as
the second baseman for the Californias of San Francisco, who were members of the newly
organized Mechanics’ Institute League, along with the Bay Citys of San Francisco and
clubs from Napa and Santa Rosa.
75
Mixed with these possible activities in 1899, Eddie
Smith returned briefly to the minor leagues.
In a game on May 8, Abel Arellanes, the shortstop for the Santa Cruz Beachcombers
(Sand Crabs), seriously injured his shoulder and collarbone in a collision with another
player. Santa Cruz was a member of the California League, a minor league organized by
clubs in the 1898 Pacific Coast League. On May 13 and 14, “Eddie Smith, formerly Captain
and second baseman of the Will & Fincks and Athletics,” filled in for Arellanes in a pair of
games against San Francisco. After that, a player named Kleiber took over as shortstop for
Santa Cruz, ending Smith’s brief return to an integrated minor league club. He had two
hits in eight at bats and committed four errors (Table 4). In the opinion of the Santa Cruz
Sentinel, “Arellanes is now more appreciated than ever.”
76
On 20 May 1899, six days after Eddie Smith filled in with Santa Cruz, “Ed Smith” was
listed as the shortstop for the Los Angeles club in the Southern California League.
77
This
was likely Ed “Shifty” Smith or another white player. In June, the Sacramento Record-Union
reported another possible Shifty Smith sighting. “Ed. Smith, formerly of the Hessmans
[sic],” was to be the shortstop for Lash’s Bitters of San Francisco in a game against the
Sacramento Athletic Club. However, Halsey Smith, Sacramento’s shortstop, was the only
Smith listed in the box score. In August, the Colusa Sun reported that “Eddie Smith” would
play for Lash’s Bitters against the home team, but no one named Smith was listed in the
box score. That changed in January 1900, when a player identified as “Eddie Smith” played
shortstop for Lash’s Bitters against the Heesemans in the “second game of baseball for the
amateur championship of the Pacific Coast.”
78
It is reasonable to speculate that this might
have been the Black ballplayer, and it might have been him in the earlier reports for Lash’s
Bitters that could not be confirmed. However, as with Horace Wilds, no information was
found to suggest that Eddie T. Smith moved to Los Angeles to play baseball in the Southern
California League in 1900, as reported by Baseball-Reference.com. If Wilds and Smith had
done so, it seems likely the presence of Black ballplayers on two of the league’s four clubs
would have drawn comments in newspapers, as it did with Carroll in 1899, as described
in the introduction.
Thus, the short story of Eddie T. Smith, a Black baseball player in the San Francisco
area, ends at the turn of the century, at least for the time being. Nevertheless, his rare
opportunities to play for predominantly white teams, including four (probably five) minor
league clubs in northern California, and to serve as captain of the Will & Fincks during a
prominent tournament in San Francisco were reported in contemporary sources and are
worthy of recognition.
23
Charles Henry De Baptist Overton (1875–1938)
Most records and newspaper articles indicate that Charles Henry De Baptist Overton
was born in San Jose, California in 1875. His 1936 Social Security application listed his
birthdate as 22 January 1875, and the year fits the 1920 and 1930 censuses. The 1900 and
1910 censuses recorded his birthdate as February 1878. The 1894 and 1896 voter registers
listed ages that indicated he was born in 1873 and 1874, respectively. The 1880 census might
provide some clarity, but the family was not found in that census, even though his father
was listed in the voter register that year.
The parents of Charles and his sister, Harriet (Hattie), were Jacob and Sarah (Massey)
Overton, two well-known residents of San Jose. They were so well known that their
photos were published by the San Jose Mercury in 1912 and 1914 and are shown in subsequent
paragraphs.
79
Jacob Overton (1846–1922) recalled decades after the events that he was
born into slavery in Missouri and that he, his mother, and his sister were sold and
separated from his father. They moved to Kentucky, which most records list as his
birthplace. It was here that he and his sister were adopted by Dr. C.E. Overton and freed
in 1853. That April, they joined a party of 56 emigrants who crossed the continent to
California. The Overtons initially settled in Nevada City, California, where Jacob would
later work, driving a stage to and from Carson City, Nevada. In November 1867, he drove
Dr. Knox, a friend of Dr. Overton, back to San Jose, where he was constructing a large
building known as the Knox Block. However, Dr. Knox died on the journey while in San
Francisco. Overton completed the trip to San Jose with Knox’s wife and the body of her
late husband. She then arranged for Jacob to take care of the Knox Block as its janitor.
Overton’s genial nature made him popular, and as one of the San Jose’s early residents, he
was occasionally interviewed about his many years in the city. An observation he made in
1920 does not sound out of place to us a century later.
80
I really don’t think people are as HAPPY now as then. We have more
improvements, more scientific achievements, life is softer and easier in many
ways. But we are LIVING TOO FAST. We have to keep up with the times—
but I wish folks would take time to WALK UNDER THE WILLOWS
oftener—as they used to do, enjoying the beautiful things of life.
81
After Jacob moved to San Jose, he was active in the community, promoting opportunities
for the Black residents. When the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution granting
African American men the right to vote was ratified in February 1870, Jacob wrote in his
official capacity as the secretary of the Sumner Club in San Jose to the
editor of the San Francisco Elevator, an African American newspaper. He
reported in April that “25 colored men voted in this township without a
single challenge.” In 1875, he was one of three members of a committee
tasked with writing and presenting a petition to the local board of
education, seeking the “abolition of the colored school, and access to the
regularly organized schools.” Jacob remained active in the community into
the next century. His work as the janitor of the Knox Block left him time
24
to operate a successful catering business, assisted on occasion by Sarah, Charles, and Hattie.
The phrase “well known caterer” was frequently associated with Overton in newspaper
articles through the decades, whether referring to a formal dinner or an outdoor barbecue.
82
Sarah Massey Overton (1850–1914) was no less active than her husband. She was born in
Massachusetts in 1850 and moved to California with her family, eventually settling in San
Jose, where she attended school. She married Jacob in 1869. Sarah was
active in groups promoting “the interests of Afro-American voters” and
served as an officer in the San Jose Suffrage Amendment League, advocating
for the right of women to vote. In addition, Sarah served as president of the
local Victoria Earle Mathews Club, which sought to help girls and women
who had been sexually abused and to protect those who were threatened
with abuse. She also promoted the right of Black children to receive an
education. In pursuit of her causes, she traveled extensively through
California and western Nevada, sometimes at her own expense.
83
The first newspaper reports of their son, Charlie Overton, dealt with his progress
through the public schools in San Jose. Charles Overton was promoted to the high school
in 1889 and graduated in 1892.
84
However, he stopped appearing on the school’s rolls of
honor about the same time he began playing for the high school baseball team, primarily
as the catcher (Table 5). He also played occasionally for other local teams, such as the
Coyotes, Fourth Wards, Oak Streets, Bowen’s Business College, and picked nines.
85
In the spring of 1891, Overton was the regular catcher for the S.E. Smiths, an amateur
team in San Jose named after a local business (Table 5). In April 1893, he was elected to
serve as the team’s treasurer, although he seems to have left the team shortly thereafter.
Their opponents were mostly from San Jose but also included amateur teams from other
Table 5.—Baseball teams in San Jose, California involved in intercity
competition on which African American Charles Overton (1875–1938) is
known to have played. He also played occasionally for other local teams and on
picked nines. In eleven games for which box scores were found when Overton
played for the S.E. Smiths and T.W. Springs, he had 11 hits in 46 at bats (.239).
In eight games as the catcher, he had five errors and eight passed balls.
Year
Team
Integrated
1890
San Jose High School
•
1891
San Jose High School
•
S.E. Smiths
•
1892
S.E. Smiths
•
1893
S.E. Smiths
•
1894
T.W. Springs
•
1895
—
1896
T.W. Springs
•
25
cities in Santa Clara County, such as Mayfield (Palo Alto) and Santa Clara. The
performance of Overton was praised several times. However, he committed an error off the
diamond at a game in Santa Clara in August 1892. Overton “failed to tie his horse secure,”
and “the animal ran away.” The cart was badly damaged as the horse traveled on its own
back to San Jose.
86
In 1894, Overton caught and occasionally played at first base and in the outfield for
another San Jose team sponsored by a local business—T.W. Springs (Table 5). Their
opponents were usually teams from other cities, including Monterey, Santa Clara, and
Watsonville. Winning most of these games, the T.W. Springs boldly claimed the
championship of three counties—Monterey, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz.
87
In 1895, no mention of Overton playing baseball was found. However, he did
participate in competitive bicycling in September.
88
The following year, he played for
multiple baseball teams involved in intercity competition against opponents closer to
home in Santa Clara County, including another stint with the T.W. Springs (Table 5). In
December 1897, Overton played first base for a picked nine against a team representing the
local Gun Club. The Gun Club won, 12–10, but the game was loosely played, according to
the San Jose Herald. “As a matter of fact the game was pretty much a guessing affair from
beginning to end, not only on account of the peculiar actions of the players, many of whom
appeared to have base-ball and foot-ball rules considerably mixed, but also on account of
the umpires, who persisted in running the game according to the rules of ‘one old cat.’”
89
It was the last report found of Charles Overton as a ballplayer.
In addition to baseball, Overton played the mandolin at various events, usually
sponsored by fraternal organizations or the A.M.E. Zion Church. Hattie sometimes
accompanied him on piano, and on at least one occasion, she performed a banjo solo.
90
Like
his father, Charles was active at the local and state levels in fraternal organizations,
including the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the Free and Accepted Masons, and
the Knights of Pythias. Similarly, he was active in the Afro-American League as early as
1896, and after World War I, he was active in the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
91
Overton served on juries in at least two trials. In 1895, the San Jose Evening News reported
a trial for petty larceny under the headline “The Color Line Drawn.” At the request of the
Black defendant accused of stealing a suit of clothes, “the color of the jury was allowed to
be in his favor.” Seven of the 12 jurors, including Overton, were Black. The allegedly stolen
suit could not be identified, and the judge ordered the jury to acquit the defendant. The
trial in 1898 was a case of disturbing the peace, in which an intoxicated Black defendant
was being taunted by a group of boys and responded with language that “was rather
powerful for street use.” The defendant asked for a jury trial and suggested “he could look
for more equal and exact justice from a jury of his fellow colored citizens.” The judge seated
an all-Black jury, including Overton, who returned a verdict of guilty but “recommended
him to the extreme mercy of the court.” The judge admonished the defendant, who
promised never to drink again. The $5 fine was paid by members of the jury.
92
26
On 3 June 1912, Charles Henry De Baptist Overton married Augusta Madge (Hawley)
Farr. The couple moved into a bungalow next to his parent’s home at 456 South Eighth
Street. A resident of San Jose, Augusta was born in Connecticut in 1871 or 1872 according
to the 1880 census for Bridgeport. The San Jose Mercury mentioned that her great-
grandfather was Nero Hawley, a slave who enlisted in the Second Connecticut Regiment
of the Continental Army in April 1777. Hawley served at Valley Forge and the Battle of
Monmouth with George Washington, among other engagements. For his service, he was
emancipated in November 1782.
93
While Overton played amateur baseball, he stayed busy earning a living. He worked
with his father as a janitor in the Knox Block and as a caterer. Charles occasionally
supervised banquets on his own. However, the employment he typically listed in censuses
and other records was his job at the Bushnell Photo Company (later Bushnell Studio) in
San Jose. (There were Bushnell Studios in several California cities, following the
establishment of the first studio in San Francisco.) In the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses
and his marriage announcement, Charles’ occupation was listed as “photographer,” but in
the 1930 census, his occupation was listed as “finisher” for the studio. His role was
apparently that of an assistant rather than the principal photographer of the studio. The
photo of Jacob Overton included in this essay and perhaps the one of Sarah were taken at
Bushnell’s.
94
Charles Overton died on 19 November 1938. Augusta died less than two years later
“after a long illness” on 30 September 1940. Notice of her death was even published in the
New York Age, because she “was well known in the East.” Jacob, Sarah, Charles, and Augusta
were buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose. What became of Hattie after she was
mentioned in Jacob’s obituary in 1922 could not be determined.
95
In addition to the photos of Jacob and Sarah Overton taken later in life, perhaps by their
son, Charles, who worked in a photography studio, sketches of Charles, Jacob, and
Sarah were published in newspapers in 1896.
96
27
Philip Spencer Churchill (1873–1920) and
James Albert “Happy” Churchill (1877–1946)
Two brothers played for several years on integrated baseball teams in their hometown
of Marysville and other cities around the northern Central Valley. Their father, James B.
Churchill, was an early immigrant to California. He was born in Kentucky about 1827
according to the July 1852 California census, which listed him as a 25-year-old cook in
Sacramento. The 1872 voter register for Yuba County listed him as a 44-year-old farmer in
August, which would make his birthdate about 1828. The June 1880 census and other voter
registration records from 1870 to 1896 indicated he was a farmer in Marysville who was
born about 1826. The August 1870 census erroneously listed Churchill’s age as 33, which
would have made his birthdate about 1837. A list of the oldest men in Yuba County
published in the Marysville Appeal in November 1902 gave his age as 82, indicating a
birthdate of 1819 or 1820. His obituary published in February 1908 gave his age as 88 years,
1 month, and 2 days, which puts his birthdate in January 1820. Information posted on
findagrave.com taken from Book I, Record of Burials—City of Marysville—from 1870 to 1939 (page
108) at Marysville City Hall recorded his age as 88 years, 1 month, and 21 days, which places
his birthdate in December 1819. Thus, the dates vary by nearly a decade. The records prior
to 1900 indicate he was born about 1826–1828, which seems more likely than the years
1819–1820 indicated by the records and newspaper reports after 1900.
97
Churchill was born into slavery but was freed by his owner prior to the US Civil War.
As he recalled late in life, he was a member of a party of emigrants departing St. Louis for
California in 1849 that consisted of 30 people—21 white and 9 Black. “Our journey across
the plains was a hard one. On one occasion we suffered terribly for water and we were
quite often found with scarcely anything at all to eat. About half of the party had perished
before we had finally crossed over the great mountain divide between California and the
east.” They reached the Sacramento River Valley in October. Churchill married Mary Anne
Burns in 1861 (according to information posted on findagrave.com). They farmed and
raised a family in Marysville. The first mention found of “James Churchill (colored)” in a
newspaper was in the Marysville Appeal in 1869. Sadly, it was the report of a fire in the barn
at the family’s ranch on June 2 that was likely started by two of the children. An unnamed
six-year-old boy was badly burned and a girl about three years old was killed. The boy was
probably William Henry Churchill, who was listed as 8 years old in the August 1870
census and 17 years old in the June 1880 census.
98
According to the 1910 census, Mary gave birth to 15 children, nine of whom survived.
Philip and James Albert Churchill were two of the nine children recorded in Marysville’s
1880 census. Philip and Daniel Churchill were identified as 7-year-old twins. The City of
Marysville Record of Burials indicates Philip’s date of birth was 9 February 1873. James
Albert Churchill was listed as 2 years old, the family’s youngest child. His World War I
and World War II draft registration cards listed his birthdate as 23 August 1877.
There were numerous baseball teams in Marysville, and several were associated Chub
Casey, who became the elder statesman of early baseball in Marysville. Simon Jerome
Bernard “Chub” Casey was born in Illinois about 1848 to Irish immigrants and arrived in
28
Marysville in 1861, making it his home until his death in December 1926. Little detail was
published about baseball teams in Marysville during the 1860s, but Casey was listed in a
box score for the Marysville Americans in 1871. He played for the team through early 1872
and was a member of the Marysville Alerts later that year.
99
The first of the Churchills to play baseball was the eldest son, William. In 1882, he
played for a Black team named the True Blues, who lost, 18–10, to the Red Rovers, a white
team from Yuba City, across the Feather River. The True Blues’ roster consisted of four
Moultons and two Pinckards, joined by Jerry King, G. Washington, and W. Churchill. For
their victory, Chub Casey presented the Red Rovers with a ball and bat.
100
The earliest mentions of Philip and James Albert Churchill in local newspapers was
their progress through public school. For Philip, this came during the 1880s. The notices
extended into the 1890s for James. He was usually referred to by his middle name, Albert,
probably to distinguish him from his father. Philip also made the local news in April 1891,
when he broke his “forearm” after falling from a bar while playing at their home near the
fruit cannery. Two months later, an unnamed Churchill was one half of the battery for the
printers in a game against the harness makers.
101
The first confirmed instance of Philip Churchill on a Marysville baseball team came in
1892 (Table 6). He was nearly always identified simply as Churchill, but an April roster
listed “P. Churchill.” Philip, whose height was listed in the 1894 and 1896 voter registers
as 5 feet, 3 inches, typically pitched or caught but occasionally played in the middle infield.
The team was christened the Empires in April and was managed by Chub Casey. Casey
was now in his early 40s, but he still played various positions for the team that season.
Their opponents on Sunday afternoons from March through July included nearby town
teams.
102
Baseball was less organized in Marysville in 1893. Casey attempted to revive the
Empires, but they did not show up for some of their games. A second team in Marysville,
the Saddle Rocks, named for a local restaurant, had been organized in 1892 and became
the city’s primary representative in intercity competition in 1893. Late in the summer,
Churchill, Casey, and some of the other Empires played under the name V.O.F.s (Very Old
Folks). It was at this time that “Padre Casey” referred to Churchill as “the best ball player
in Northern California.” In October, Churchill joined another team named after a local
business—Holt & Wallace. Whatever team Churchill pitched for in Marysville usually
won, and his pitching was credited as the primary reason.
103
In 1894, Churchill again played with Casey and others from the V.O.F.s on the
Marysville team. He also played for local Black teams, including the Black Gnats, who
played the Hard to Catch team, with Chub Casey on the roster. No results were reported.
A player named Churchill was in center field for the Saddle Rocks in a game against the
Chico Champions in June. It might have been Philip, but William played center field for
the Black Gnats that summer, so the outfielder’s identity is unknown.
104
The only mention
found of a Churchill playing baseball in 1895 was in a game during an annual picnic. He
was part of the battery, which suggests it was Philip.
105
29
It becomes a little difficult to discern who was playing in 1896, when Philip was joined
by his younger brother on the diamond (Table 7). Although James Albert Churchill was
often referred to by his middle name, he was just as frequently referred to as Happy
Churchill as an adult. He typically pitched, while Philip spent more time catching. The
brothers sometimes comprised the battery of both Black and integrated teams. On Black
teams from Marysville, they were sometimes joined by their brother, William. On June 6
and 7, Philip was reportedly engaged to catch for Oroville in a two-day tournament, which
also included teams from Biggs, Gridley, and Honcut. However, a box score for a game on
June 7 between Biggs and Honcut listed Churchill as the winning pitcher for Honcut,
Table 6.—Selected baseball teams in California on which African American Philip
Churchill (1873–1920) is known to have participated in intercity competition.
Year
Team
Integrated
1892
Marysville Empires
•
1893
Marysville Empires
•
Marysville V.O.F.’s (“Very Old Folks”)
•
Holt & Wallace (Marysville)
•
1894
Marysville
•
1895
—
1896
Marysville
•
Grass Valley
•
Gridley
•
Honcut
•
1897
Marysville
•
Honcut
•
1898
Marysville
•
G.W. Hall (Marysville)
•
1899
Yuba City
•
1900
—
1901
—
1902
Red Bluff
•
1903
—
1904
Marysville
•
Yuba City
•
Unnamed Black team in Marysville
—
1905
Rose City BBC of Chico
—
Morgan’s Tigers of Marysville
•
1906
Rose City BBC of Chico
—
Marysville Giants
—
30
which claimed first place in the tournament. Meanwhile, Albert began his baseball career
pitching for a Marysville team referred to as the Young Intrepids by the Marysville Democrat
and as the Appeals in the Marysville Appeal. Philip also played for the Free Silver team from
Marysville that year, as did Chub Casey. In August, Albert joined Philip on the Free Silvers
as the team’s battery. In October, Philip apparently played the Gridley town team during
a ten-game series with Biggs, while Albert continued to pitch for the Young Intrepids.
Philip joined the young players as his brother’s batterymate for a game in early November.
The brothers played together again that month, when they filled in for players from Grass
Valley who could not reach Gridley for a game because of a broken wagon.
106
In short, the
Churchills played wherever opportunities arose.
Philip and Albert played together often in 1897 and 1898, usually as the Marysville
battery, “the only colored battery on the coast.” Philip also played occasionally at
shortstop, at second base, and in the outfield. During the sixth inning of a game in June
1898, Philip received an unspecified injury. Another player took over as catcher, and Chub
Casey, the “father of baseball,” filled his place as the ninth player in the lineup. The
Churchills were also recruited to bolster the roster of Honcut early in the 1897 season
before the Marysville nine was organized. In terms of intercity competition, these were
the two most active years for the brothers, and box scores were more numerous.
Opponents included town teams spread from Redding 110 miles north to Sacramento 40
miles south. Marysville also hosted a traveling team from San Francisco. An additional
Table 7.—Selected baseball teams in California on which African American
James Albert “Happy” Churchill (1877–1946) is known to have participated
in intercity competition. Newspapers not yet fully available online indicate
he played occasionally through at least 1908.
Year
Team
Integrated
1896
Marysville
•
Grass Valley
•
1897
Marysville
•
Honcut
•
1898
Marysville
•
G.W. Hall (Marysville)
•
1899
—
1900
Oroville
•
1901
—
1902
Red Bluff
•
1903
Red Bluff
•
1904
Confidence Engine No. 1 of Red Bluff
•
1905
Rose City BBC of Chico
—
31
opponent in October 1897 was the Boston Bloomer Girls barnstorming team composed of
female and male players. Maud Nelson, the most famous player on the roster, pitched for
the Bloomer Girls and was praised by the Marysville Democrat. However, the player at first
base, listed as Georgia Devere, “was one of the visitors who raised an objection to playing
with the colored members of the local team.” However, there was no report of the
Churchills being replaced as pitcher and shortstop. In July 1898, the name of Marysville’s
first nine became G.W. Hall, after a local business. In August and September 1898, Albert
also pitched for the cannery team from Lincoln against the Marysville cannery team.
107
The main event for “Philip Churchill, the well known baseball player,” off the diamond
in 1897 was his marriage to Mamie Brock on September 22. The following spring, he was
one of five Black bicyclists to compete in a one-mile race on Decoration Day (Memorial
Day). It was part of a program to raise money for a path in the city for bicyclists and
pedestrians. One race pitted teams of bicyclists from Marysville and Yuba City against
Woodland (near Sacramento) in a 10-mile relay. There were also shorter races for boys less
than 16 years old, letter carriers, police, Chinese Americans, and African Americans, which
was won by Churchill. The previous day, the Churchill brothers had been the battery for
Marysville in a 9–4 victory over the Sacramento Athletic Club.
108
After playing several years for Marysville and occasionally other town teams, Philip
agreed to catch for Yuba City during the summer of 1899, but games apparently ended in
mid-July. That autumn, Philip and Albert also played for the cannery team in Marysville.
Sadly, Augustus Churchill, the 20-month-old son of Philip and Mamie Churchill, died
from pneumonia in December.
109
There was little mention of the Churchills and baseball in 1900 and 1901. Albert pitched
for Oroville in a loss to Gridley in May 1900 and umpired a game between Erie and
Wheatland at a picnic a few days later. The following weekend, Philip traveled to
Wheatland to fill in for their injured catcher against Grass Valley, but he did not play. In
1901, the brothers played in games at picnics. That November, Philip traveled to Sacramento
to watch the home ball club play San Francisco in a California League contest.
110
Albert apparently moved north to Red Bluff in 1901, where he operated a shoeshine
stand. He returned to Marysville in February 1902 to marry Jennie Harris, who “like her
husband, is possessed of a happy and cheerful disposition.” Philip joined Albert in Red
Bluff as his batterymate for the town team in a few games from May to July 1902.
111
Off the diamond in March 1902, Philip was an active participant in a meeting called in
Marysville. Despite playing baseball on teams with white players who represented the city
since 1892, integration was not supported by everyone in the community. The “meeting of
colored voters” was called to “demand equal rights.” The city council had refused to
include an African American on the election board. Philip was one of five people chosen to
prepare a set of resolutions to be published in the Marysville Evening Democrat. The preamble
to the resolutions noted that “two well known colored citizens … were unhesitatingly
rejected, solely upon account of color, notwithstanding the fact, one of these men had been
recommended for an appointment by the Republican City Central Committee.” The
preamble further stated that after one city council member expressed “himself as being
32
unfavorable to the appointment of colored men as members of the Board of Election,” none
of the other council members objected, suggesting they were all in agreement. The Black
voters attending the meeting voiced their opinion. “Resolved, That we do protest in
unmeasured terms against the action of said City Council, and declare it as being unfair,
unwise and unjust discrimination.”
112
Integration on the baseball diamond often did not
spill over into other aspects of the community.
Albert continued to play on integrated teams in Red Bluff in 1903 and 1904. He also
umpired games hosted by the local high school.
113
No report was found of Philip playing
baseball in 1903, and the following spring, his wife, Mamie, passed away “after an extended
illness.” In May 1904, he was captain and first baseman for a Black team in Marysville that
competed with Black teams in other cities. In July, they organized as a “baseball and social
club.” Later that month, Philip caught for a picked team otherwise composed of white
players who defeated the team from Yuba City, with musical entertainment provided by
the “Independent Chinese Band of seven pieces.” Marysville imported a “professional
pitcher,” and he “was assisted in an excellent manner by Churchill, the colored catcher,
who proved that he has lost none of his old-time tenacity and skill behind the bat.”
Marysville, with the same battery, also won the rematch in August. The following month,
Yuba City added Philip to their roster as the catcher when they traveled to Chico for a
game.
114
Now entering his 30s, Churchill was still sought by town teams in need of a
catcher, but those days were coming to an end.
In 1905 and 1906, Philip and Albert Churchill played for a Black team in Chico named
Rose City, sometimes serving as the team’s battery. Chico is about midway between their
homes in Marysville and Red Bluff. The Rose City team played both Black and white teams
in the region. After playing against a team from Marysville referred to as Morgan’s Tigers in
July 1905, Philip caught for the Tigers in October. In addition to playing for the Rose City
team again in 1906, Philip played for the Marysville Giants, a Black team organized in June.
Philip is not known to have played for organized teams in subsequent years. Albert might
have done so until 1908, according to newspapers not yet fully available online, and he was
among some of the older ballplayers in Red Bluff who “gave the High School boys a few
lessons on the local diamond” in 1917. The Churchill legacy continued in 1930 and possibly
1931, when a Black umpire from Marysville named Churchill, probably a younger relative of
Philip and Albert, umpired games in which Marysville’s Colored Giants played.
115
Outside baseball, Philip was active in the Masons and other organizations, as well as
various civic causes, such as raising funds for a new church and school. After Mamie’s
death, he also traveled more frequently in California for recreation, including trips to
Sacramento and San Francisco. All through this time, he operated his shoeshine business,
and in May 1905, he ordered a new, ornate stand. “It will be dark oak with marble step
and top.” However, he promised his customers would not pay more. That August, he
married Pearl Amelia Breeden, and the wedding was described in detail on the front page
of the Marysville Appeal. “Phil Churchill, the groom, needs no introduction in this, his native
city. … Every baseball player in Northern California knows Phil, the baseball catcher.” He
and Pearl had one adopted son.
116
33
Philip Churchill died on 28 March 1920 of pneumonia and was buried in the Marysville
City Cemetery. He was only 47 years old. The summary of his life published in the
Marysville Democrat spoke of his life through his association with baseball.
117
Phil Churchill, as he was familiarly known to his many friends in this city,
was an unassuming, gentlemanly and kindly man. In his younger days he was
an athlete of considerable prominence and together with his brother Albert
(Happy) Churchill, now of Red Bluff, composed the battery for Marysville’s
leading baseball team during many seasons, Phil acting as catcher and his
brother as the pitcher, and many a game was won by reason of their effective
team work.
During the past several years Phil conducted a bootblack stand in front of
the barbershop on D street near the corner of Third …. In early days it used to
be a popular hangout for the baseball fans and many a game was “won and
lost” there by Chub Casey and the old-time players who liked to talk of days
gone by.
Phil Churchill was always a clean and sportsmanlike player and never
resorted to petty wrangling or low practices to win a game. Win or lose he
always took results philosophically and let the umpire decide. And thus he
went through life trying to play the part of a good citizen and a good father.
Albert continued to live in Red Bluff and was involved in fraternal organizations and
groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). He also traveled in northern California for pleasure and business. In January
1905, he took a break from working at his shoeshine stand and served as a porter in the
state legislature while it was in session at a salary of $3 per day. He may have had other
short-term employment in Sacramento, but newspapers did not mention his specific jobs.
While the Churchills were in Sacramento in 1919, the house they rented in Red Bluff was
destroyed by fire, with only a portion of their belongings insured.
118
According to
California death records, James Albert “Happy” Churchill
passed away in Red Bluff in
January 1946.
Robert Martin Booker (1867–1914)
Robert Booker was one of several Black immigrants from North Carolina to settle in
Redding at the northern end of the Central Valley. He was born in Charlotte, North
Carolina, probably in December 1867. His birthdate was listed as December 1868 in the
1900 census, but he was listed as three years old in the 1870 census. His family moved to
Redding in 1887, and Robert was recorded in the January 1889 voter register for the city.
He would reside in Redding the rest of his life, except for a brief period when he lived in
Seattle, Washington, where he was recorded in the 1892 census. He returned to Redding
in November 1893.
119
The first newspaper report known of a baseball game involving a team from Redding was
between the Locomotives (or the O.K.’s) of Redding and the Turnpikes of Shasta in March
1873. Redding won, and the Turnpikes disbanded, to be replaced by the Shasta BBC. The
34
Redding and Shasta clubs continued to play each other and treat the visiting club to suppers
and dances through the spring.
120
The first instance found of an integrated team in Redding involved a series of three
games between two local teams in 1885. The first game between nines of “railroad and
town boys” was on August 23. The Sacramento Bee published a box score for the game. The
following Sunday, a brief report in the Redding Republican Free Press of a “one-sided” game
indicated that one team had a Black player. It was probably the railroad team, which had
a player named Twiney at shortstop in the first game, according to the box score. The Free
Press suggested, “They had better tie the colored member’s legs together with Twine the
next time he plays in right field.” The 1880 census for Redding included Charles Twine, a
17-year-old Black laborer born in California to parents from Maryland and Washington,
DC. In the voter register for Redding in 1886, he was listed as a 23-year-old blacksmith.
Other voter registers and censuses listed Charles Andrew Twine holding various jobs in
towns around Redding. He died in Weaverville on 13 May 1937, the only Black resident of
the town and with no known relatives. He was buried in the Weaverville Cemetery.
121
The next instance of an integrated team came in 1891, when Lacey Booker, Robert’s
brother, played for Redding. After losing to Shasta in February, the Redding team was
reorganized. Local merchant Chambers & Campbell provided money for the uniforms,
which would feature a “C & C” across the front of the jerseys. “L. Booker” was listed as the
team’s shortstop for the upcoming rematch with Shasta. In April, Booker and another
player “tendered their resignations, but they were prevailed upon to reconsider.” In a
victory over the team from Cottonwood in May, Redding’s two Overholser brothers
crashed into each other while chasing a fly ball, “injuring Charley so severely that the
captain was obliged to substitute Lacey Booker.”
122
Robert Booker was not mentioned, but
he might have moved to Seattle by this time.
In July 1894, the Redding Free Press responded to a comment from an unidentified
newspaper that claimed, “Redding imported a colored catcher from Anderson.” The Free Press
identified the catcher as “Robert Booker, who caught for Anderson five years ago.”
Confirmation of his tenure with the team in Anderson was not found, but access to
newspapers was limited, and some covered baseball in little detail. The Free Press went on to
note that Booker had moved back to Redding from Seattle and was, in fact, a resident of the
city. This note was also the only mention found of Booker playing for Redding in 1894.
123
In the spring of 1895, Reading had a team named the Black Diamonds (or Black
Dimonds). It was “a kind of mixed team of negroes [sic] and whites.” The manager was
initially Charley Overholser, but he left the team, which was then composed solely of Black
players, captained by Lacey Booker. Few details of the team were published, so it is
unknown if Robert Booker also played for the Black Diamonds. Redding had a white team
that played at least two games against the Black Diamonds and lost both. As noted in the
other essays and in the study of early integration in Kansas, nearly all integrated baseball
teams at this time were composed of white players and one or two Black players. The
Redding Black Diamonds of 1895 was one of the rare exceptions in which the integrated
team was predominantly Black.
124
35
Robert Booker played for Redding’s predominantly white town team from 1896 to 1898
(Table 8). During portions of this period, the team went by the names Kahny & Burgbacher
(K & B) and the Golden Eagles. Ten box scores were found for 1897 and 1898. (Booker played
in more than ten games, so additional box scores may come to light.) From July 1897 to May
1898, Booker had 14 hits in 54 at bats (.259). He caught six games and part of a seventh, when
he moved to third base. He also played two games in center field and one at first base. In his
six full games as catcher, he had ten assists, three errors, and eight passed balls. Among the
games without a box score was a victory on 22 October 1897 against the Boston Bloomer
Girls barnstorming team composed of female and male players. Maud Nelson pitched for the
visitors, and Georgia Devere was at first base. Booker was the Redding catcher, but there
was no report of Devere complaining about playing against Black players as had happened
in Marysville with the Churchill brothers five days earlier. In May 1898, the Redding Free Press
reported that the baseball team had been reorganized, and Booker was now one of three
players listed as substitutes. No subsequent reports of him playing were found.
125
Booker’s retirement was likely due to his age (30 years old) and his responsibilities off
the diamond. Games were typically played on Sunday afternoons and the Fourth of July, but
practice took place during the long workweek. Booker married Ellen Dry of Redding,
another native of North Carolina, on 19 February 1896. Their only child, a daughter named
Beulah, was born on September 6.
126
To support his family, Booker worked as a brick mason,
and he eventually supervised crews of masons. He was employed by the Holt & Gregg
Company, and “that firm always gave him the most difficult work that came to them in their
contracts.” This sometimes took Booker away from Redding for weeks at a time, with
occasional visits home on the weekend or visits by his wife to the city where he was working.
He worked in towns from Dunsmuir (over 40 miles north) to Chico (over 60 miles south).
127
His athleticism with the baseball team and his long workweeks as a brick mason made
it all the more shocking to the Redding community when Booker suffered an unspecified
five-week illness and died at his home on Center Street on 4 November 1914 at age 46. His
death was reported in extended obituaries in the local newspapers. Robert Booker was
buried in the cemetery in Redding.
128
Table 8.—Cities in California represented in intercity
competition by baseball teams on which African American
Robert Booker (1867–1914) is reported to have played.
Year
Team
Integrated
1889
Anderson?
•
—
1894
Redding
•
—
1896
Redding
•
1897
Redding
•
1898
Redding
•
36
Eugene Sherman Hinds (1882–1962)
According to his 1942 draft registration card, Eugene Hinds was born on 11 June 1883 in
Centerville, California, about 16 miles east of Fresno. The 1900 census listed his birthdate as
June 1882, and his 1937 Social Security application gave the date as 11 June 1884. The year
recorded closest to his birth is used here. It seems more likely in view of the earliest dates he
played baseball. His name also varied somewhat. The 1900 and 1910 censuses listed his name
as Eugene S. Hinds, and the 1920, 1930, and 1950 censuses listed his first name simply as
Gene, but he was listed as Sherman Eugene Hinds on his 1917 draft card, a property transfer
to his wife (Irene) in 1918, and Irene’s obituary in 1933.
129
In 1880, Gene’s 23-year-old father, Frank, a native of Arkansas, lived in Centerville and
worked on a farm. He was listed as single in the census but apparently married Elizabeth
Baker later that year. Gene was the eldest of their four children, who were born between
June 1882 and December 1887, according to the 1900 census. They grew up in Visalia, about
30 miles south of Centerville. Frank found work at Visalia as a farm laborer at a dairy.
130
The first reports of Gene Hinds in newspapers were his promotions in the Visalia
public schools during the mid-1890s. At the same time, he served as the catcher for teams
of “young ball players” mentioned in Visalia newspapers in November 1895 and May 1896
(the 1882 birthdate would make him 13 years old). In 1899, he and another ballplayer from
Visalia covered first and second base for the Black team in nearby Hanford, who defeated
the Black team from Bakersfield.
131
Visalia, Hanford, and Fresno would be associated with
Hinds’ baseball career during the early twentieth century (Table 9).
Table 9.—Cities in California represented in intercity competition by baseball teams
on which African American Eugene Hinds (1882–1962) is known to have played. Also
noted are the two years he umpired an intercity game between two white teams.
Year
Team
League
Integrated
1899
Hanford
—
—
1901
Hanford Stars
—
1902
Visalia Trilbies
—
1903
Visalia
San Joaquin Valley League
•
Visalia Trilbies
—
1904
Visalia, umpire
•
1905
Visalia
•
1906
Visalia, umpire
•
1907
Visalia
•
1908
Visalia
•
1909
Visalia
•
—
1917
Fresno Colored Giants
—
37
Few reports were found for Hinds from 1900 to 1902. In 1901, he played first base or
center field for the Hanford Stars, the town’s Black team. The following year, he pitched
for the Visalia Trilbies, his hometown’s Black team, against the Hanford Stars.
132
Hinds’ reputation as a player was established during the 1903 season in the San Joaquin
Valley Baseball League, which was scheduled to play from April to October. Initially, the
league consisted of two clubs from Fresno and one each from Hanford and Visalia. The
Fresno clubs were so weak that the city was reduced to a single club, and another club from
Bakersfield was added. Despite the attempt to sustain the league, it folded in late July. Hinds
then pitched for the Visalia Trilbies, playing alongside his brothers, Eddie and Jimmie,
against the Hanford Stars. He also joined Visalia’s second nine for a game in Bakersfield.
133
Hinds was considered an excellent center fielder, but there were occasional miscues. In
one instance, he made a long run to deep center field but was unable to catch the ball. “His
throw to Keller at home was accurate and for a distance of over 100 yards.” However, the ball
was high, and the runner scored before Keller “pulled it down.” Hinds made amends when
he and the third baseman were credited with a double play in the same game. His long,
running catches were often praised by area newspapers, but he was not a strong hitter based
on data from box scores (Table 10).
134
Nevertheless, he was regarded as the city’s best
outfielder, which gave him the opportunity to integrate the first nine in coming years.
Table 10.—Data for Eugene Hinds with his hometown Visalia club in the San Joaquin
Valley Baseball League in 1903, the only season during his career for which box scores
were regularly available (three were not found). The only Black player in the league,
Hinds was known for his defensive skills in center field. He compiled a batting average
of .243 in the nine games. AB = at bats; R = runs scored; 1B = singles; 2B = doubles; 3B =
triples; HR = homeruns; SB = stolen bases; PO = putouts; A = assists; E = errors.
Date
AB
R
1B
2B
3B
HR
SB
PO
A
E
May 3
4
2
1
0
0
0
0
2
1
1
May 10
May 17
5
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
May 24
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
May 31
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
June 7
3
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
0
June 14
June 21
4
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
June 28
4
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
July 4
5
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
July 12
July 19
5
3
2
1
0
0
0
2
1
0
Totals
37
7
8
1
0
0
1
12
2
2
38
In 1904, Visalia fans were excited about possible exhibition games with clubs in the
Pacific Coast League, which were holding spring training in the warmer, drier climate of the
Central Valley. Oakland was in Hanford, and Tacoma was in Fresno. However, “Gene Hinds,
the greatest fielder of the past season,” was in Los Angeles or thereabouts. If he came home
to rejoin his hometown team in an exhibition game, it would be “his first appearance in fast
company” against the top professional clubs on the West Coast. Hinds missed Visalia’s first
two exhibitions, a 3–0 loss to Oakland and a 4–1 loss to Tacoma, but the Visalia Delta
fancifully related the circumstances of his return before a rematch with Tacoma.
135
Last Sunday Visalia was weak in center field, but it will be different this
time. Gene Hinds was strolling down the beach the other day somewhere
between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and his attention was suddenly
attracted by the fluttering of a newspaper, caused from a hard gale of wind.
He had read nothing for several days, so [he] at once established a library.
The first article that his optics fell upon was headed Visalia. He became
interested and began to read. When he saw that Visalia was taking a whack
at the big league players and meeting with success, Mr. Hinds knew that his
services would be appreciated and started for home. … Gene was glad to get
back and his team mates are more than tickled to see him home once more.
136
These were rare sentiments expressed about a Black ballplayer on a white town team at
the beginning of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, Visalia lost again to Tacoma by a
larger margin, 8–1. No details were published, so the measure of Hinds’ performance is
unknown.
137
Nevertheless, Hinds was back home as summer baseball was ready to begin. Yet the
next role he played was a rarity for a Black baseballist at the time. Hinds umpired a game
between the team from Farmersville and a picked nine from Visalia, who hosted the
contest. The few players named were white. Farmersville won, 5–4, and Hinds “gave
satisfaction” as the “official umpire.”
138
That spring, Hinds joined his white teammates, usually in center field, as they
practiced “three or four evenings a week” to prepare for the summer. However, the support
of local fans was poor, and even though the players were referred to as “amateurs,” it would
be more accurate to call them “semipros.” Following a victory over a team from Bakersfield
on April 17, the Visalia Delta described the situation. Fans were charged 25¢ admission, and
the gate receipts were used to pay expenses of the visiting team, rent for the ballpark, and
the cost of the equipment. Any remaining funds were divided among the Visalia players.
The game against Bakersfield netted each Visalia player only 92¢. At an earlier game, they
had received “a little over” 50¢ apiece. After a game against the team from Sultana on May
15, nothing more was mentioned of the city’s first nine or Hinds until the end of December,
when there was “baseball gossip concerning the past, present and future of interest to the
Visalia fans.”
139
It was February 1905 before Hinds and the other players gathered “without practice”
to play a team in Fresno being organized for the state league. In addition, the San Francisco
Seals of the Pacific Coast League would hold their spring training in Visalia during March,
39
an arrangement made by the Visalia Baseball Association. This meant Visalia players
would have another chance to play a minor league club. Unfortunately, the game
scheduled for March 12 was cancelled due to heavy rain. The Seals returned to San
Francisco without playing any games in Visalia. However, Visalia’s first nine played other
town teams that summer, though box scores were not published. Hinds (usually referred
to as Hines) initially played third base, where he was a “wonder,” but he later returned to
center field. Multiple baseball teams were organized in Visalia that summer, and players
sometimes jumped from one team to another for intercity contests. Hinds played through
July but headed north to Portland, Oregon on July 31. He returned to the diamond in
Visalia in mid-September, just as the season was ending.
140
With the summer season ending on October 1, a winter league of four clubs—Bakersfield,
Fresno, Porterville, and Visalia—was organized on November 5. The season opened on
November 19, with Hinds in center field for Visalia. The league was poorly covered in
newspapers, but apparently ran through the beginning of February. During the subsequent
pause between the winter and summer baseball seasons, Eugene Hinds married Irene Botts
of Fresno on 12 March 1906.
141
In April, Visalia reorganized its first nine just as the earthquake struck San Francisco.
Hinds was again in center field. The team scheduled games with Bakersfield, Fresno, and
Porterville. The proceeds from the first game on April 22 ($54.65) were donated to the
Relief Committee for San Francisco. However, most of the planned intercity games were
not played, and competition began among Visalia nines. The Regulars played a team from
the sugar beet factory, and in June, they were joined by the Grants, named after Roy P.
Grant, a local sporting goods and bicycle dealer.
142
In mid-August, the Regulars and Grants decided to merge under the name Grants for
intercity competition. In their first game, they defeated Farmersville at home, 4–0. The
umpire was Gene Hinds, who called the game “to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.”
He was back in center field the following week in a 7–6 loss to a team from Fresno. In this
game, Hinds contributed with the bat. He drove in a run with a double and two more with
a triple, after which he scored on a single, accounting for four of the team’s runs. However,
the Grants played only occasionally through December.
143
The 1907 season got underway in February. The city’s players split into two teams named
after their starting pitchers for exhibition games to prepare for outside competition. Players
tried different positions, such as Hinds at shortstop. However, when intercity contests
began in March, Hinds was back in center field in top form, as described with a racist
stereotype in the Visalia Delta. “Gene Hinds … always received the ball with a watermelon
smile and came trotting in to receive the applause of the grand stand for his fine work.” The
praise continued in a 12–0 loss to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. “Gene
Hinds … played a star game. Gene was there after the flies and with the stick done [sic] great
work.” Visalia was competitive against teams at its level from Bakersfield and Fresno, but
reports of intercity baseball ended after May. In July, “Gene Hinds, the well known baseball
player of this city” opened a “shoe shining parlor.” Intercity matches returned to Visalia in
late August but lasted only two games, followed by occasional games over the winter.
144
40
Baseball in Visalia again started early in 1908. In February, Visalia, with Hinds in center
field, easily defeated a team from Fresno. The number of games increased in April, and on
April 22, Coalinga, Hanford, Lemoore, Lindsay, Tulare, and Visalia agreed to form the
Central California Baseball League, with games beginning on May 3. However, the league
experienced challenges because some clubs imported players and none of the clubs could
compete with Visalia. Then, some of the Visalia players jumped to another club in July. This
ended the summer season for Visalia’s first nine, but the team returned in November, with
Hinds in center field. In December, Coalinga, Fresno, Madera, and Visalia organized the San
Joaquin Valley Winter Baseball League, but it folded less than two weeks later.
145
The Regulars remained active over the winter into 1909. As the first nine prepared for
the summer season, Hinds was expected to play center field in home games, “but he is
usually unable to get away when the boys play out of town.” He also missed home games.
In May, an effort was initiated to raise money to support a team composed of imported
and local players, including Hinds. However, his time with Visalia’s first nine had ended,
perhaps because of obligations to his family and other concerns. For example, he was a
founding member of the San Joaquin Lodge of Colored Gentlemen established in
November. That same month, two teams dubbed the Hooligans (that summer’s regulars)
and the Yanigans (players from earlier seasons) scheduled a game. Hinds played center
field for the Yanigans, who won, 5–0, behind the pitching of Orval Overall. Born in nearby
Farmersville and a graduate of Visalia High School, Overall had played previously with
Hinds and other Yanigans. He was also one of the better pitchers in the National League
in 1905–1910, helping the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 1907 and 1908. Little
wonder he needed only 92 pitches through nine innings to earn the victory over the
Hooligans in one hour and fifteen minutes.
146
After his playing days in Visalia had ended, Hinds still supported local baseball. He was
one of the people who signed a subscription paper for that purpose in 1912. Each supporter
promised $1–10 per month for six months. Eugene and Irene Hinds lived in Visalia through
at least December 1913, when Gene was reported to be “very ill with pneumonia and his life
has been despaired of several times during the past few days.” They had two children.
Dorothy was born in October 1906 in Visalia. Gene Rex Hinds was born in August 1915 either
in Oakland (Social Security records) or nearby Richmond (1940 draft registration card). This
suggests the family moved to Oakland in 1914 or 1915. They then moved to Fresno, Irene’s
hometown, by 1917. In Fresno, Hinds was employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad
through at least 1942. His last turn on the baseball diamond was probably a few games
during the summer of 1917 as the first baseman of the Colored Giants of Fresno.
147
Little information was found about Hinds after he left Visalia. In the 1950 census, “Gene
Hines” was listed as retired from his employment with the railroad. During the early 1930s,
the Gene Hinds frequently mentioned in newspaper stories in Fresno was his son, who was
a stellar athlete. He earned 12 athletic letters on the predominantly white teams in football,
basketball, baseball, and track and field during his three years at Fresno High School. This
was about the time Irene Hinds died in 1933. Eugene S. Hinds survived her by about 29 years,
passing away in 1962. They were both buried in Fresno’s Mountain View Cemetery.
148
41
Black Umpires, White Teams
It was rare for a Black ballplayer to serve as captain of a predominantly white team
during the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, as Horace Wilds and Eddie Smith
had done. Being teammates on an integrated team signified that all of the players were
peers, which was unintentionally confirmed by racist players who strongly opposed Black
players on their roster. Serving as the captain of an integrated baseball team took the
relationship further, placing the Black player in a position of authority over white
teammates. Equally rare were the instances in which a Black baseballist served in another
position of authority as the umpire in a game involving one or two white teams.
149
One such Black baseballist umpired games between white teams in San Jose in 1891, 1905,
and 1907. Benjamin Franklin Gray, a contemporary of Charles Overton, was born in Santa
Clara County in 1869. Raised in San Jose, his family owned farmland nearby, and his
occupation during the 1890s was listed as orchardist. Gray later became a clerk for a lawyer
and a different sort of clerk in a store. In May 1891, he umpired a game between two white
teams—the T.W. Hobsons of San Jose and a team from Santa Clara. ”Ben Gray, a colored
gentleman of some pugilistic fame, was umpire. He is a model umpire. His judgment is
excellent, and he is of no expense to a club. He discards the mask and chest protectors worn
by umpires of tender feelings.” Later that year, in July, he played for the Hobsons against a
team from San Francisco. “Ben Gray, the erstwhile well-known colored umpire of the
defunct amateur league, played short-stop for the Hobsons. Ben can hit a ball, but cannot
stop one. Yesterday he slid into bases with the éclat of a tornado sweeping over a city.”
150
More than a decade later, in 1905, Gray was appointed as one of three umpires in the
Santa Clara County Amateur Baseball League. He also umpired games between fraternal
lodges of Foresters in 1905 and 1907. This is not to say his participation in integrated sports
was always welcome. In January 1894, the football team from Campbell objected to Gray
entering a game as a substitute for the YMCA team from San Jose. Nevertheless, Gray
played in the second half and contributed to the YMCA’s victory. During the game,
spectators crowded onto the field from the sidelines. “Gray could see no other way around
the end, [so] he lowered his head and made a break through the crowd, upsetting a half
dozen as he went through.” Later in the drive, he scored a touchdown. Sadly, Ben Gray
died in 1910 at only 41 years of age.
151
There are additional instances of Black umpires in games between white teams in
California during baseball’s era of segregation. As noted in an earlier essay, Eugene Hinds
did so twice in 1904 and 1906 in his hometown of Visalia. A teammate and opponent of
Hinds was John G. Sanford, a plasterer in Hanford, south of Fresno. He pitched for the
Hanford Stars, the local Black team, and umpired some of their games. In September 1901,
Sanford also umpired a game between the white teams from Hanford and nearby Lemoore,
won by the latter, 13–3.
152
During the 1920s and 1930s, after the organization of the Negro Leagues in the
eastern half of the country, players in the leagues came west to southern California to
play in the California Winter League, which usually included one Black club and two or
three white clubs. Usually two (occasionally one or three) umpires officiated league
42
contests, and these crews sometimes included a Black umpire. During the winter of
1921–1922, local umpire William Wilson “Billy” Donaldson officiated games when the
Colored All Stars played one of the white clubs, although he missed games in December
and January due to a serious respiratory infection. The roster of the Colored All Stars
that winter included future National Baseball
Hall of Fame inductees Oscar Charleston,
James “Biz” Mackey, and José Méndez.
Donaldson continued to umpire games
throughout 1922 for Black and white clubs, a
sign of the widespread respect he earned in an
often thankless job. As a result, he was offered
a position as the first Black umpire in the Negro
National League in 1923, as noted by the
California Eagle on 21 April 1923 (the
accompanying photo was signed “W. W. Billy
Donaldson”). He was injured in an accident and
could not work from May to early July but
resumed his duties as an umpire after his
recovery. Returning home to Los Angeles at the
end of the season, he again umpired in the
California Winter League in 1923–1924,
including games between white clubs. He
continued his career as a Negro Leagues umpire
through 1937.
153
In September 1934, Harry Levette, the Sports and Theatrical Editor for the California
Eagle, an African American newspaper in Los Angeles, called again for the use of Black
umpires during California Winter League games. That winter, the league consisted of
three white clubs and one Black club—the Royal Giants, whose roster featured future
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees James “Cool Papa” Bell, Leroy “Satchel” Paige,
George “Mule” Suttles, Norman “Turkey” Stearnes, and Willie Wells. Levette noted that
local Black umpire Arthur Harris and Negro Leagues umpire James Ralph “Josh” DeVoe
were both available. During the winter of 1934–1935, it was DeVoe who had the chance to
officiate alongside one or two white umpires in league contests between the Giants and
one of the white clubs, as Billy Donaldson had done a decade earlier.
154
DeVoe was also a
professional golfer and, at age 74, became the second Black member of the Professional
Golfers’ Association (PGA of America), the first to join after the PGA rescinded its
“Caucasian clause” in 1962. (Dewey Brown was a member from 1928 until he was removed
in 1934, a victim of the Caucasian clause.)
155
Additional Black baseballists umpiring games involving one or two white teams in
California (and other states) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries will
likely be discovered, and more research is needed on the topic. Full biographies of umpires
(and former players) Billy Donaldson and Josh DeVoe are also needed.
43
William Carroll and the Trilbys of Los Angeles
An additional historical account will complement the preceding essays and more fully
illustrate the early history of integrated and segregated baseball in California. As noted in
the introduction, the first Black baseball club documented in California thus far was
organized in Alameda in 1868, and the first known intercity competition was between
Black teams from Oakland and San Francisco in 1876.
Competition between Black teams in the two cities resumed a decade later. In 1888,
the Jamiesons and Jacksons split a pair of games at Center Street Park in Oakland. In
March, a “committee of twelve from the Acme Club” had selected the players for a team
managed by C.A. Jamieson, “which bids fair to outrival the famous Cuban Giants of the
East.” Information about the Jacksons is almost nonexistent. After losing the first game,
the Jacksons won the rematch, apparently aided by an imported white pitcher, who was
“secured at a high price, and the dusky color of his face and hands was purely artificial.” A
third game was scheduled but no results were found. The following year, the “Enterprise,
composed of the employees of the Palace Hotel” in San Francisco lost to the Unions of
Oakland at Center Street Park. As noted in the essay for Horace Wilds, he played for Black
teams in Oakland that defeated a Black team from San Francisco twice in 1892 and the OK
club, a Black team from Sacramento, in 1895.
156
The essays for the Churchill brothers,
Robert Booker, and Eugene Hinds mentioned other Black teams that took the field in
several cities throughout California around the turn of the century. Perhaps the most
successful of these early Black teams was the Trilbys of Los Angeles, first organized in 1895
and led by William Carroll.
The first known Black team in Los Angeles took the field in 1879, and notice of only
one game was found in contemporary newspapers. On May 25, the “Star Club, colored,”
was scheduled to play the Green Meadows Club “for a bat, ball and name,” but there was
no report of the game’s outcome.
157
Despite this early start, Black teams were not organized
more frequently for another decade, as in San Francisco and Oakland. The late start in Los
Angeles likely reflected, at least in part, the small population of African Americans in the
city prior to 1890 (Table 11).
Table 11.—Populations of the City of Los Angeles, California. As
recorded in federal censuses, “other” included American Indian,
Chinese, Japanese, and “all others.”
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
White
5,349
10,379
47,205
98,082
305,307
Black
93
102
1,258
2,131
7,599
Other
286
702
1,932
2,266
6,292
Total
5,728
11,183
50,395
102,479
319,198
44
In early 1888, a Black team named the Quicksteps played white teams around Los
Angeles. Among the team’s players was Wesley Budy Nettles (1867–1913), a teamster and
laborer who played various positions around the infield and outfield. His baseball career
runs as a thread through this story. In June, the Quicksteps were supplanted by the Young
Strikers, whose roster included Nettles and several of his teammates from the Quicksteps.
(There was also a white team named the Young Strikers in Pasadena.)
158
No clubs were found in 1889, but the following year, the Los Angeles Lightweight BBC
was organized, with Nettles on the roster. The team’s captain was pitcher E.D. Johnson,
and the Lightweights had a shortstop named James M. Alexander, who would have a long
association with Black baseball teams in Los Angeles. As with the Quicksteps and Young
Strikers, the opponents of the Lightweights were white teams in the area. Unlike their
predecessors, the Lightweights were active multiple years, from 1890 to 1892.
159
Following another quiet year in 1893, the heritage of the Trilbys began in April 1894
with a team named the Los Angeles Browns. The team was managed by James Alexander,
who issued challenges in the newspaper to white teams. As with the earlier Black teams,
box scores were not published, but in two instances when rosters were reported,
Alexander was also listed as the catcher and second baseman, and Nettles served as the
catcher and left fielder. One of the team’s new members was William Carroll, who played
shortstop and pitched in at least one game. The Browns competed through May 1895, but
a transition occurred in June.
160
The Browns last played on May 27. On June 16, the Trilbys played their first game and
earned an easy victory over the Seventh Street Grays.
*
About half the Trilbys’ roster,
including Nettles, matched that of the Browns, but they were led by Carroll. As Alexander
had done with the Browns, “Captain Will Carroll announced that the Trilbys were
prepared to meet any team in Southern California that would dare to pick up the gauntlet.”
As with the earlier teams, the Trilbys’ opponents would initially be white teams. In
September and October, the Trilbys added a talented shortstop to their lineup named
William McLaughlin, who had to overcome two forms of prejudice to play baseball for an
organized team. He was deaf.
161
Unfortunately, little else was learned about him.
*
The specific reason the name Trilby was chosen for the baseball team is unknown. Trilby was a
character in an 1822 story by Charles Nodier. However, a popular, unrelated novel of that name by
author George Du Maurier was published in serial form by Harper’s Monthly from January to August
1894 and as a book in 1895. A popular theatrical version also debuted in 1895. Taking advantage of its
popularity, the name Trilby was quickly applied to numerous objects, including a style of shoe and a
hat similar to a fedora but with a narrower brim. (The novel also introduced the character Svengali,
who cast a spell on Trilby, and the phrase “in the all together” as a euphemism for nude.) The Los
Angeles Times (27 October 1895, p 19) commented on the Trilby phenomenon. “One of the best
arguments that could be cited in favor of the influence of extensive advertising is found in the
tremendous crowds that attended every performance of ‘Trilby.’ Every person may not have read that
greatly-exploited novel, but few there are who have not heard of Trilby hats, Trilby shoes, Trilby
cigars, Trilby garters and Trilby whatnots ad infinitum. To make anything popular it is only necessary
to perpetually din it in the ears and keep it eternally before the eyes of that great flock of sheep known
as ‘the public.’” As noted in the essay for Eugene Hinds, Visalia also had a Black baseball team named
the Trilbies in 1902 and 1903, perhaps adopting the name from the well-known Los Angeles ball club.
45
Given the six-day workweek, games were typically played on Sundays, and the Trilbys
were active most Sundays from June through November 1895. The first five games against
lower-level teams resulted in four victories and one tie called after 10 innings on account
of darkness. Then, the Trilbys entered into four months of games with the Brunswicks and
the Francis Wilsons. Along with the Admirals, the three white clubs comprised the Angel
City League that year. Results were found for 14 games played by the Trilbys, 12 of which
had box scores published in the Los Angeles Herald and Los Angeles Times, a sign that the
Trilbys were regularly playing the best white semipro teams in the city. In the first contest
between the Trilbys and Brunswicks, the latter team won easily, 16–6. Little was expected
of the Black ball club, and the Herald commented on their performance with
condescension. “The Trilbys plainly are not in the same class with the clubs of the Angel
City league.” The following week, the Trilbys turned the tables and defeated the
Brunswicks, 10–7, “a score that surprised the talent,” according to the Herald. The Trilbys’
record in these 14 games was four wins, nine losses, and one tie called after 12 innings.
They also lost a game in November against a picked team of professional players. Some of
the losses were close, some were not, but the Trilbys had entered the top tier of semipro
baseball in Los Angeles and honed their skills. The Los Angeles Evening Express predicted,
“the colored lads put up a get-there kind of ball, and in a short time will make it warm for
any team that can be picked up in this section.” The experience that the Trilbys gained
would, indeed, be on exhibit the following year.
162
The 1896 season was the most noteworthy of the Trilbys’ years on the diamond in a
historical context. From February 23 to December 6, the Trilbys played 31 games for which
results were found, and 20 were documented with box scores. The Trilbys were 2–1
against lower-level teams and 0–3 against picked nines of professional players. The
remainder of their games from mid-June through early November were against the
Admirals and Francis Wilsons of the Angel City League. Unlike the 1895 season, however,
the Trilbys were the third member of the league in 1896, not outsiders. The three clubs
played a doubleheader on Sundays, with each club playing both games of the doubleheader
every third week. The three clubs also played each other in a few games before and after
the official league season. Robert Shaw, the “crack pitcher” who had played for the Trilbys
in 1895, did not return “from the east” until mid-July, when league play began, but he made
up for missed time by sometimes pitching both games of doubleheaders. Nettles settled in
as the first baseman, and Carroll was the regular catcher. The Trilbys, a Black club
competing against two white clubs in 1896, won the league championship and the overall
competition against their two opponents with a record of 17–8 (a .680 winning
percentage). By winning the Angel City League, the Trilbys could lay claim to being the
top semipro club in Los Angeles, which was boastfully extended in Los Angeles
newspapers to a claim as the champions of southern California. It was a notable
accomplishment for a Black ball club at the time, especially a club that was supposedly
“not in the same class with the clubs of the Angel City league” the previous year.
163
From 20 December 1896 to 28 February 1897, the Trilbys played at least six games.
Their record was one win, four losses, and one tie, called after six innings so the Trilbys
46
could catch a train home from Santa Monica. They split a pair of games with the team from
Azusa, “one of the most gentlemanly teams that they have ever met.” Two of the four losses
were to the picked nine of professional players.
164
It was reported in Sporting Life in January 1897 that “Billy Carroll, the catcher (colored),
is negotiating with the Chicago Unions,” but he remained in Los Angeles to catch for the
Trilbys when they began playing again in May. However, Shaw played for the Cuban X
Giants in June 1897 and did not rejoin the Trilbys until December. Nettles played for the
Trilbys until July 4, after which there was a two-month gap in which no games were found
for the Trilbys. In October, plans were made to organize the Merchants’ Tournament with
three teams from Los Angeles and seven from other cities. However, when play began on
October 17, there were only four Los Angeles teams—Echoes, Los Angeles, Seventh
Regiment, and Trilbys. Because the tournament did not begin until October, professional
players from the East traveled west for the winter and were added to the rosters during
the course of the competition. Of eight tournament games found for the Trilbys, their
record was 4–4. Los Angeles dropped out at the end of November, and the tournament
soon folded. Overall, from May through December, the Trilbys played 21 games for which
results were found, including 18 games documented with box scores. Their record was 9–
12 against a variety of teams, including more teams from cities other than Los Angeles.
165
Table 12 summarizes data from box scores available for the 50 games Carroll played for
the Trilbys during the summers and autumns of 1895, 1896, and 1897. He hit for a decent
average during the team’s first year but suffered a decline the following year. Year number
three was his best year offensively in terms of both average and extra-base hits. He hit no
homeruns, but few batters did at that time. Carroll was the catcher in 42 games (including
both games in five doubleheaders) and parts of two others, in which he also played
shortstop and pitched. In the other six games, he played second base twice, shortstop
twice, third base once, and second base and third base once.
Table 12.—Data from box scores available for 50 games African American William
Carroll played with the Trilbys of Los Angeles in the summers and autumns of 1895, 1896,
and 1897 and all eight games he caught in 1899 for the Los Angeles Merchants of the
Southern California League, an intercity league. BA = batting average; AB = at bats; R =
runs scored; 1B = singles; 2B = doubles; 3B = triples; PO = putouts; A = assists; E = errors.
Year
Games
BA
AB
R
1B
2B
3B
PO
A
E
1895
12
.293
58
11
17
0
0
70
17
11
1896
20
.247
85
16
19
1
1
107
37
11
1897
18
.325
80
25
15
7
4
81
26
13
Total
50
.287
223
52
51
8
5
258
80
35
1899
8
.207
29
4
6
0
0
42
7
6
47
The Trilbys continued to compete against white teams and opened 1898 with seven
games in January, five of which were played in San Diego. Their record in San Diego against
three teams and a picked nine was 2–2–1. After the final game, the summary in the San Diego
Union ended with a comment from the manager of a San Diego team. “Manager Dodge speaks
in high praise of the visitors, whose gentlemanly conduct as well as ball-playing ability, is
above the average.” Nevertheless, the Trilbys received less press coverage than during their
first three years. After canceling a game on February 20 because too many of their players
were sick, the Trilbys did not return to the diamond until May. They also had to “reorganize”
in October. In part, the weather hampered their effort to play games. The roster varied
through the year, but it included familiar members such as Carroll, Nettles, Shaw, and others.
A new pitcher named White joined the Trilbys in late October and would play for the team
occasionally through 1901. He was an unusual pitcher in that he threw both righthanded and
lefthanded, depending on the perceived weakness of each batter.
166
The Trilbys again opened on the road in 1899, this time in Phoenix with a series of
weekend games from January 1 to 29. Because of the extended stay, the Trilbys had to pick
up players in Phoenix to fill spots left open by their regular players who could not be absent
from Los Angeles that long. Phoenix won five of the six games. The Trilbys planned to play
other games between Phoenix and Los Angeles, but game reports were not found. The team
reorganized at the end of March, and results of four games were found in April and May—
two in Arizona and two in San Diego. There was another gap in any mention of the Trilbys
until mid-July, when the team returned to the diamond through August, plus a game against
Azusa on Christmas day. Carroll had talked of taking the Trilbys on a tour through northern
California in the autumn, but the difficulty of keeping the team together for the January trip
to Arizona suggests a tour would be difficult to arrange, and no game reports were found.
167
The absence of the Trilbys in June and early July was due to the absence of Carroll. As
noted in the introduction, a Black player named Carroll caught part of the 1899 season for
the otherwise white Los Angeles Merchants of the Southern California League. Although he
was not identified as William Carroll, the available information indicates he was the “colored
catcher.” There were erroneous reports that the Trilbys were to be members of the league.
They were reportedly rejected because “their playing is not up to the mark.” They were even
turned down for a preseason game in May with the league’s white Los Angeles club, who
instead arranged a game with a team “composed of ‘Merchants.’” Coincidentally, this was
when the Merchants began playing with a Black catcher named Carroll and reports of the
Trilbys stopped. Data from box scores for all eight games Carroll caught for the Merchants
from May 28 to July 4 are summarized in Table 12. A week after Carroll was released by the
Merchants, the Los Angeles Herald recounted a tale of an error-filled game the Merchants lost
to San Diego. “‘Bad Bill’ Carroll sat behind the home plate and hoodooed every player that
came within range of his hypnotic eye, at least that is the only explanation that the two teams
offer for their bad playing.” It was also in late July when the “reorganized Trilbys, under the
management of ‘Bad Bill’ Carroll,” began playing again. The timing of these events leaves little
doubt that the Black catcher for the Los Angeles Merchants of the Southern California
League was William Carroll.
168
48
In 1900, the Trilbys continued to play more games against teams outside Los Angeles,
although they remained closer to home than the previous two years. Of the eight game
results found, their record was 4–4, mostly against white town teams. In the winter of
1900–1901, the Trilbys changed their name to the Alpha Giants. The name was taken from
the Alpha Athletic Club, an African American enterprise that hosted boxing exhibitions.
William Carroll was a member of the athletic club. Despite the name change, Carroll
offered the same “challenge to meet any amateur club in Southern California.” When the
Alpha Athletic Club closed in August 1901, the baseball team changed its name back to the
Trilbys. While still playing as the Alpha Giants, a new Black team was organized in Los
Angeles—the Tigers. It was not the first Black team to challenge the Trilbys recently, but
Black teams were now becoming more numerous. The Alpha Giants easily won the first
contest against the Tigers in April, with Carroll catching and the ambidextrous White
pitching. The Alpha Giants played white teams from Los Angeles and nearby communities
through August.
169
The 1902 season was similar to 1901 for the Trilbys, and it included
another victory over the Tigers on July 6. The Los Angeles Herald’s report
of the game between the two Black teams at Fiesta Park was filled
with demeaning racial stereotypes, but it also mentioned the absence
of segregated seating. “The grand stand was a heterogeneous mixture
of whites and blacks of both sexes.” Two weeks later, the Trilbys
again defeated the Tigers.
170
In 1903, few reports were found of the Trilbys, although they were
active from April through September against white teams around Los
Angeles. The most important historical event for the team that year
was the publication of photos in the Los Angeles Times of some of the
Trilby players in action poses wearing their baseball uniforms. One of
the photos was of “Carroll catcher.”
171
(Four photos of Trilby players
from 1902 and 1903 are shown at the end of the essay.)
Carroll reorganized the Trilbys in March 1904, but there was little mention of games that
year. The next few years would be a period of transition for the top Black team in Los
Angeles. In June, a Black “amateur nine” named the Hoegee Giants was organized, and the
roster included some of the Trilbys from 1903. They quickly established themselves as a
competitive team, earning a record of 10–1 in game results found from July to December 1904.
In September 1904, the Los Angeles Times published a team photo of the Giants, but none of
the players was identified. They seem to be wearing the gaudy, striped Hoegee Clowns
uniforms, hand-me-downs worn by a white traveling team in 1903. In June 1905, the Hoegee
Giants were apparently no longer associated with their merchant sponsor and would
thereafter be known simply as the Los Angeles Colored Giants. Through 1907, the Giants
and Trilbys would arrange games with other teams and each other, while players, including
Carroll, moved back and forth between the rosters. In January 1905, Carroll leased Prager
Park and sought Sunday games as manager of the Hoegee Giants. Again, there was virtually
no mention of games, and the team was reorganized under new management that summer,
49
with Hoegee being dropped from the team’s name. In June 1907, the Los Angeles Herald
acknowledged that the two teams had become one. “The Giants or Trilbys[,] as they are
called[,] stand as a strong colored aggregation of ball tossers.” The Giants again became the
Trilbys during the winter of 1909–1910, after Carroll was no longer with the team.
172
During the winter of 1908–1909, Carroll caught for the Pioneer Stars, an amateur Black
team a tier below the Giants. He also filled in as the catcher and once as the right fielder for
the Giants. On the morning of 13 December 1908, Carroll caught for the Giants in a losing
effort at Joy Park and then caught for the Pioneer Stars in their victory at the same ballpark
that afternoon. Two weeks later, when the Giants defeated the Pioneer Stars in a benefit
game for the Colored Working Girls’ Home sponsored by the Sojourner Truth Industrial
Club, Carroll caught for the Pioneer Stars rather than the Giants.
173
After his playing days ended, Carroll was still involved in baseball. Best known among
his activities was having a role in organizing and managing the Alexander Giants in 1920–
1921, named after one of his partners and former teammates, James Alexander. The team
played in its own ballpark at 32
nd
Street and Long Beach Avenue, initially referred to as
Carroll’s Ball Park and later as Alexander Base Ball Park. It was initially operated by the
Carroll Amusement Company, whose officers were President J.S. Outlaw, General Manager
James M. Alexander, and five directors, one of whom was William Carroll. The grandstand
opened on 2 May 1920, and the wooden structure was destroyed by an arsonist on the night
of 25 September 1921. It received a substantial amount of use during that brief time. The
California Eagle reported the record of the Alexander Giants in those years was 55–15–2 in
1920 and 60–10 in 1921. Boxing exhibitions were also held at the facility. The structure was
Los Angeles Times, 12 September 1904, p 12.
50
uninsured, and the loss was estimated at $12,000. Perhaps more importantly, as noted by the
Eagle, the facility “was the means of honest support to more than 12 Race men and their
families[,] and for many months[,] more than 20 men and women were employed.”
174
There was more than one William Carroll in Los Angeles at the time, which has led to
confusion in the story of the baseballist and his activities. The William Carroll associated
with the Trilbys was born in Texas in April 1876. In the 1880 census, he was living with
his family in Manor, Texas, just east of Austin. In June 1906, he married Katie L. Pettis, a
33-year-old Tennessee native. They apparently had no children. The other African
American named William H. Carroll who lived in Los Angeles at the time was born in
Virginia about 1865, and his wife’s name was Annie.
In addition to baseball on weekends, censuses recorded Carroll’s occupations as shoe
shiner and porter (1900), janitor in an apartment building (1920), gardener for a private
family (1930), and WPA laborer (1940). When the Alexander Base Ball Park grandstand
was destroyed in September 1921, William and Katie were traveling “with their employer,
[Rubye De Remer], the motion picture star,” to New York and Europe. While in Chicago
and New York, he found time to watch games played by Negro Leagues clubs, as well as
World Series games between the New York Yankees and New York Giants. The Carrolls
returned to Los Angeles in March 1923 to prepare for a voyage to Hawaii and Japan after
cruising the Caribbean to South America with their employer. When they finally returned
to their home at 1801 South Berendo Street in Los Angeles (identified as their address in
newspapers and census records), he helped organize a short-lived baseball team in 1924
known as the Carroll Giants, composed largely of imported players from the South. The
team folded in mid-July and was replaced by Jay Jasper’s Allstars, featuring many of the
same players.
175
Katie passed away in October 1935 and was buried in the Angelus
Rosedale Cemetery near their home. The last record found for William was the 1940
census. He was a lodger at 4323 Honduras Street in Los Angeles.
Photos of Jackson (1902), Taylor, William Carroll, and Laughlin (1903)
published in the Los Angeles Times (7 July 1902, p 9; 13 July 1903, p 12).
51
Perspectives
The number of California newspapers available online that can be searched for reports of
integrated baseball teams is not yet as large as for Kansas, but there seem to be similarities.
For example, integrated teams in Kansas were much more likely to represent small towns
than large cities. Only 3 of 106 communities had an integrated team when their populations
were above 10,000. Even when the population threshold is dropped to 5,000, just nine cities
had an integrated team, and only one did so after 1905. The median population of towns in
Kansas with an integrated team was 1,346.
176
The California sample is too small to provide a
meaningful median population value, but Figure 1 suggests integrated baseball essentially
ended by 1900 in Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, all with populations greater than
18,000. On the other hand, integrated baseball persisted into the early twentieth century in
Marysville, Red Bluff, and Visalia, where populations were less than 5,000 (Table 13).
In cities where integrated teams persisted beyond 1900, the small total population meant
white and Black residents were more likely to know each other by name than in large cities.
This is evident in the fact that white-owned newspapers in small cities were more likely to
publish information about the lives of both white and Black residents, reporting items such
as Robert Booker departing or returning from worksites out of town, the death of Philip
Churchill’s son, and so on. In addition, the extent of the segregation in a community was
dictated by custom, not by law, so local choices resulted in some small cities being more open
to a wider range of interactions between Black and white residents. For example, in addition
to integrated teams, Black and white residents of Marysville gathered at Philip Churchill’s
shoeshine stand to chat about baseball and probably other topics. This sort of interaction
was less likely to occur in San Francisco, Oakland, or Los Angeles.
Yet Kansas data indicated that even in small cities, the likelihood of an integrated team
being organized declined substantially in the early twentieth century. Two events likely
contributed to the decline. One was greater acceptance of de facto segregation after the US
Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that separate but
supposedly equal public facilities were legal. The other event was the shift of the African
American population from rural to urban communities—from small towns, where
integrated teams were more likely to occur, to large cities, where they were rare.
177
Increasing acceptance of segregation also coincided with an increase in the number of
Black teams after 1900. Large cities had African American populations of 700 to a few
thousand (and growing), which were large enough to support local Black teams through a
sufficient pool of players and fans. This support was more challenging in small cities with
less than 250 Black residents in the entire county (Table 14). Black teams in small cities
sometimes expanded their pool of players by adding athletes from multiple cities, as Chico
did in 1905–1906, when the Churchill brothers of Marysville and Red Bluff played for the
Rose City team.
*
This was necessary because Black teams had to be reasonably competitive
with the white teams willing to play them. Fans would not pay to watch one-sided games.
*
The numbers of white residents in Butte County (Chico) in 1900 and 1910 were 15,733 and 25,684,
respectively. The numbers of Black residents in the county were 106 and 122 (only 53 of 122 in Chico).
52
Figure 1.—Durations of the baseball careers of six African Americans playing on
integrated teams in California. Wilds, Smith, and Overton played mainly for teams in
Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and other cities around San Francisco Bay. Booker,
Churchill, and Hinds played in the Central Valley, usually on teams representing their
hometowns of Redding, Marysville, and Visalia, respectively.
1909
1908
1907
1906
1905
1904
1903
1902
1901
1900
1899
1898
1897
1896
1895
1894
1893
1892
1891
1890
1889
1888
1887
1886
Horace
Wilds
Eddie
Smith
Charles
Overton
Robert
Booker
Philip
Churchill
Eugene
Hinds
53
As with integrated teams in general, the opportunities Horace Wilds and Eddie Smith
had to play for minor league clubs during the 1890s also faded. Jimmie Claxton’s week with
Oakland in the 1916 Pacific Coast League was a rare and very brief exception. After 1903,
minor leagues were more likely to organize under the National Agreement with the National
and American Leagues, which forced them to conform to the overt but uncodified color line.
In 1914, the president of the Pacific Coast League took the exclusion of African
Americans further by banning its clubs from playing Black teams or letting Black teams
use their ballparks. The latter was a stricter policy than implemented elsewhere in the
major and minor leagues, where club owners generated additional income by renting their
ball parks to Black teams while the white league teams played out of town. Some Pacific
Coast League clubs were slow to comply, but they all eventually conformed to the strict
color line, which even applied to the winter league season and exhibition games.
Nevertheless, Black teams continued to compete in the California Winter League by
playing at non-league ballparks, driven in part by the fact that attendance and the
corresponding gate receipts were higher when Black clubs played white clubs.
178
Table 13.—Total populations of California cities with racially integrated baseball
teams participating in intercity competition. Horace Wilds, Eddie Smith, and Charles
Overton played for integrated teams in the first seven cities. Philip Churchill, Albert
“Happy” Churchill, Robert Booker, and Eugene Hinds played for integrated teams in
the last nine cities. Cells highlighted in gray are cities known to have had integrated
teams three or more years during these decades.
Player
City
1880
1890
1900
1910
Wilds
Oakland
34,555
48,682
66,960
150,174
Petaluma
3,326
3,692
3,871
5,880
Wilds, Smith
San Francisco
233,959
298,997
342,782
416,912
Overton
San Jose
12,567
18,060
21,500
28,946
Santa Cruz
2,561
3,898
5,596
5,659
Stockton
10,282
14,424
17,506
23,253
Vallejo
5,987
6,343
7,965
11,340
Grass Valley
4,719
4,520
Gridley
987
Churchills
Marysville
4,321
3,991
3,497
5,430
Oroville
3,859
Churchills
Red Bluff
2,106
2,608
2,750
3,530
Booker
Redding
600
1,821
2,946
3,572
Hinds
Visalia
1,412
2,885
3,085
4,550
Wheatland
635
630
492
481
Yuba City
1,160
54
Support for Black players on predominantly white teams by the white majority
populations varied not only from city to city through local choice but also within cities.
For example, praise for Black players in their hometown newspapers was sometimes
couched in demeaning racial stereotypes, as in the account of a September 1892 game
between Black teams from San Francisco and Oakland (captained by Horace Wilds). In
contrast, Eugene Hinds was not only accepted by the baseball enthusiasts in Visalia as a
member of the integrated town team, he was also chosen to umpire at least two games in
1904 and 1906 between the white Visalia team and a visiting white team.
The ability of African Americans to play baseball for predominantly white teams in
intercity competition during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only
depended on the support of the local community and the willingness of teammates to play
with them, it also depended on their reception by fans and players of the opposing teams,
who could sometimes be openly hostile. Once again, it was all about local choices. The
experiences of three Black ballplayers in western states other than California—
Washington, Montana, and Utah—will help to illustrate these aspects of integrated
baseball around the turn of the century. All three players came west with regiments
composed entirely of Black enlisted soldiers—the 24th and 25th US Infantries. All three
were posted in communities with small populations of African Americans. All three
Table 14.—Numbers of Black (top) and white (bottom) residents in California counties,
with selected cities mentioned in the text in parentheses. Data were not available for all
cities, so county data are shown for all locations. Total populations of the cities are given
in Table 13. Each city had racially integrated baseball teams participating in intercity
competition three or more years during highlighted decades.
County (City)
1880
1890
1900
1910
Alameda (Oakland)
686
57,785
785
89,559
1,334
125,432
3,634
234,520
San Francisco (San Francisco)
1,628
210,496
1,847
270,696
1,654
325,378
1,642
400,014
Santa Clara (San Jose)
161
32,110
989
44,247
251
57,934
262
79,849
Shasta (Redding)
54
7,066
221
10,875
203
16,131
159
17,873
Tehama (Red Bluff)
142
8,218
252
8,671
147
9,878
91
10,809
Tulare (Visalia)
73
10,757
207
23,233
80
17,709
190
34,159
Yuba (Marysville)
247
8,824
218
8,416
170
7,651
203
8,909
55
sought to play for predominantly white teams in these areas after their discharge. In sharp
contrast to Horace Wilds, Charles Overton, and the Churchill brothers, who were the sons
of early immigrants and were raised in the communities where they played for integrated
teams, the three Black soldiers were outsiders who had to be accepted by overwhelmingly
white communities if they were to integrate local teams. They earned their reputations as
talented ballplayers when the regimental teams competed against local white teams.
A clear example that contrasts local support with opposition from a competitor
occurred in northeastern Washington. Colville is the seat of Stevens County, and in 1910,
it was the county’s largest city with a population of 1,533. The nearby town of Kettle Falls
on the Columbia River, a few miles northwest, had a population of 377. The population of
the rural county of 2,541 square miles was 25,297 (9.96 people per square mile). The
number of African Americans living in the county was 12.
From 1910 to 1912, the Colville town team occasionally played the team from the 25th
US Infantry stationed at Fort George Wright in Spokane, about 60 miles to the south. One
of the infantry’s pitchers was a sergeant in Company L named Isaac Ward (1883–1949).
He was born in Mississippi but was raised and lived most of his life in Houston, Texas. He
was discharged in December 1912 and wrote in February 1913 to the management of the
Colville baseball team to say he would like to play for them if he could find work in town.
In April, the weekly Colville Examiner reported, “Ike Ward has been busy this week on the
ball park rebuilding the fence, repairing the grandstand and putting the diamond in
condition” in preparation for the season’s first intercity game. Colville had already played
the team at Kettle Falls to a 6–6 tie called after 14 innings. Colville used three pitchers, but
Ward was not among them. The teams agreed to meet on the Colville diamond the
following Sunday to “decide the question.”
179
However, the game was canceled, as
described by the Examiner (comma use corrected).
It appears that the controversy arose between the Colville team and the Kettle
Falls management over the matter of who should be the pitcher for the
Colville team in the Sunday game. As this was an important game, it was
agreed by the Colville management, the Colville team, and the Colville fans
that Ike Ward, the colored pitcher that made the Fort Wright team famous,
now living in Colville, would pitch the game. But when the manager of the
Kettle Falls club heard that Ward would be in the box, he protested on the
grounds that it was all right for Colville to play with or against a [“n_____”]
but that it was far beneath the dignity of him and his team to stoop to this
level. This piece of sarcasm by the Georgian from the suburban town so
ashamed the Colville boys that they informed Slagle [the Kettle Falls
manager] that Ward would pitch or the game would be called off, whereupon
Slagle agreed that there would be no game.
180
The reason given for the decision by Kettle Falls not to play against Colville if Ward
pitched was published the following week in the Kettle Falls column of the Colville Examiner.
It was apparently coauthored by the editors of the column and the team’s manager.
56
Relative to the ball game that was called off between Colville and Kettle Falls
on April 27th, the manager of the Kettle Falls team still insists that he was
right to draw the “color line,” and his contentions are backed up unanimously
by the ball players and fans of Kettle Falls and are also justified by an
established precedent in the higher circles of the sport. Even all the reputable
secret societies in the United States deny fellowship to the colored race. Will
Coville contend that the standard of our national game should be conducted
on a lower plane in the smaller towns than that established by higher
authorities? We acted fair with Coville and gave them two weeks notice that
we would not play their colored brother. The element in the Colville line-up
that would try to force a colored player upon their neighbors is advertising to
the public that it takes a negro [sic] to raise the standard of their team.
However, we do not believe that the majority of the Colville players and fans
entertain this view even if the Colville promoter does say so; but only a few
ambitious parties who would violate all precedent and defy public sentiment
rather than yield to a first demand from a neighbor team. However, we hold
no malice against Coville and are willing to play them any time that they will
come through with a white line-up.— J.H. Slagle
, manager.
181
Even if the racist sentiments of the argument are set aside, the authors incorrectly
assumed that Ward’s association with baseball in Coville was not supported by a substantial
number of people. “Ike Ward, in addition to his duties as supervisor of the ball park is now
coaching the regulars [first nine], the high school team, the A.K.’s [junior team] and the
Cracker Jacks [junior team].” The high school players were impressed with what they were
taught. “The high school boys coached by Ike Ward state that they are learning some stunts
that they never heard of or saw pulled off in a game.” In March, the Colville Athletic
Association had chosen Merlin Stoltz as the town team’s manager and Charles Rogers as
captain. Asking Ward to coach the team was a unique offer. Town teams typically let the
captain supervise during practice, and as noted in the essays for Horace Wilds and Eddie
Smith, Black players occasionally served as captains of predominantly white teams.
However, this put them in a position of authority over the white players. Having a coach, let
alone a Black coach for an otherwise white team, was rare during this period, but it did not
put Ward in the same position of authority over the white players. With regard to his role
as a player, the Colville first nine had several pitchers, and Ward only occasionally pitched
for the team in intercity competition, as well as for other local teams. He continued to live in
Colville and play baseball through 1915, before returning to Spokane.
182
Sometime after
completing his draft registration card in September 1918, Ward returned to Houston, where
he lived until his death in 1949 from pneumonia, though he also suffered from prostate
cancer, according to his death certificate.
While teams opposed to playing against a Black player could simply decline to play,
individual players who objected might seek to harm a Black opponent during a game,
perhaps by hitting a batter with a pitch or spiking an infielder while sliding into a base.
Samuel Freeman suffered multiple hits to his body by pitches in 1898, yet he played for
otherwise white town teams in at least eight Montana cities from 1895 to 1910 (Table 15).
57
Freeman was born in Alexander County at the southern tip of Illinois in 1869. In
August 1890, he enlisted in the 25th US Infantry at St. Louis, Missouri. The regiment was
sent to Fort Missoula in 1888, and it was here in 1894 that the unit’s storied history of
baseball began.
183
Freeman was part of that team in 1894 and 1895 until his discharge in
August, at the completion of his five years of service.
184
In November 1895, Freeman returned to Cairo, Illinois, where he married Sarah
Dunwood on 16 May 1896. The white town team in Hamilton, Montana (population 1,257
in 1900), about 40 miles south of Missoula, had hoped Freeman would play for them in
September 1895 and beyond. In June 1896, they “sent him a [train] ticket for his passage
out from Cairo,” and he arrived in Hamilton on June 8. Unfortunately, in a game against
Missoula on June 21, Freeman “dislocated one of his fingers and had to retire.”
185
Table 15.—Cities in Montana represented in intercity competition by baseball
teams on which Samuel Freeman (1869–1939) is known to have played after his
discharge from the US Army. Cities in italics indicate he played in only one
game. Freeman also played for integrated amateur teams in Butte (1905) and
Missoula (1905–1912), as well as Black teams in Missoula (1907–1909).
Year
Team
Integrated
1894
25th US Infantry (Fort Missoula)
—
1895
25th US Infantry (Fort Missoula)
—
Missoula
•
1896
Hamilton
•
1897
Missoula
•
1898
Anaconda
•
Butte
•
Helena
•
1899
Helena
•
—
1901
Butte
•
Boulder
•
Anaconda
•
Missoula
•
1902
Missoula
•
Billings
•
1903
Missoula
•
1904
Missoula
•
—
1907
Hamilton
•
Bonner
•
—
1910
Bonner
•
58
Nevertheless, Freeman remained in Montana for several years, playing baseball for
town teams and local amateur teams from Missoula to Billings, about 270 miles to the east.
Much of his time was spent at Helena, Anaconda, and Butte (Table 15). Freeman also
played for Black teams in Missoula from 1907 to 1909. Black teams other than those
comprised of soldiers were understandably rare in the region given the small populations
of African Americans (Table 16).
*
In 1908, Freeman was captain of a new Black team in
Missoula named the McIntosh Reds, whose uniforms were “decorated with Red Apples
and … attractive in the extreme.” However, the peak of his baseball activity was 1898–1899.
After beginning the 1898 season with the first nine in Anaconda from May through July
and a one-game stop in Butte, he played for the town team in Helena through the end of
the 1899 season. The Helena Independent published numerous box scores both years.
186
It was during his time in Anaconda in 1898 that Freeman apparently suffered the most
from being plunked by pitchers. Unspecified employment was arranged for him in Anaconda
while he caught for the town team in intercity matches and for an otherwise white amateur
nine that played other local teams, including a Black team.
†
In a game at Butte on July 24,
Freeman was hit in the ribs in three of his five at bats. In all three instances, he stole second
base, and the third time, he also stole third base “by ‘jollying’ Jones [the pitcher], who did
not seem to know what to do with the ball.” Freeman scored the first two times, but he was
*
The first mention found of a possible game between “colored nines” was in Helena in 1887 (Helena
Independent, 6 April 1887, p 5). Early Black teams from 1890 to 1895 included the Pastimes of Helena,
the Montana Hotel waiters of Anaconda, and the Hickory Tips of Butte (Anaconda Standard, 13 March
1892, p 3; 14 March 1892, p 3; 15 July 1895, p 3; 29 July 1895, p 4. Butte Miner, 26 June 1896, p 9. Helena
Independent, 26 June 1890, p 4; 7 July 1890, p 5; 20 July 1890, p 1; 17 April 1891, p 4; 13 May 1891, p 4.).
†
In May, the Anaconda first nine traveled to Spokane, Washington to play the minor league club in the
Pacific Northwest League, which also included clubs from Portland, Seattle, and Tacoma. Freeman
had 11 hits in 15 at bats (.733) in Anaconda’s one win and two losses. The Spokane Spokesman=Review
incorrectly stated that Freeman had previously played for the Cuban Giants.
Table 16.—African American populations of counties in Montana with cities
(in parentheses) that had integrated baseball teams on which Samuel
Freeman played during intercity competition from 1895 to 1910.
County (City)
1890
1900
1910
Deer Lodge County (Anaconda)
75
171
130
Jefferson County (Boulder)
9
15
12
Lewis and Clark County (Helena)
299
313
430
Missoula County (Bonner, Missoula)
314
54
133
Ravalli County (Hamilton)
—
17
13
Silver Bow County (Butte)
186
262
260
Yellowstone County (Billings)
14
97
167
59
stranded at third his last time on base. Although detailed accounts are not available for all of
the games Freeman played, the frequency he was hit by pitches was high enough to elicit a
comment from the Anaconda Standard after a game on July 31 against Butte (with a different
pitcher). “Yesterday was the first time in a good while that Sam Freeman didn’t get a pitched
ball in the ribs.” The newspaper did not associate the plunkings with his skin color, but a
similar statement was not made for any of his white teammates. Interestingly, Freeman
subsequently played in one game for Butte in August before joining the town team in Helena.
He also went from being frequently plunked while playing for Anaconda to being offered a
rare opportunity for a Black player while he was in Helena in 1899. “Sam Freeman umpired
the [exhibition] game [between Helena and Billings]. As a ball player Freeman is all right,
but as an umpire he needs fixing. However, it was a job he didn’t seek.” In 1903, he umpired
a game between white teams from Victor and Corvallis (near Hamilton) “and gave perfect
satisfaction.”
187
Despite being frequently plunked in 1898, Freeman played for at least eight
of the region’s predominantly white town teams in subsequent years. All of this suggests his
bruised ribs might have been the result of the views held by a few individuals.
Freeman moved back to Missoula in the autumn of 1901 and lived there most of the time
through 1913. He was initially employed in a Turkish bath,
188
and he would hold related
positions in later years. Other than playing for Billings during the early summer of 1902, he
mostly played in Missoula, and as he grew older, he increasingly played for amateur teams in
the city that competed among themselves. At a Fourth of July game in 1907 between
Hamilton and Corvallis, the latter team “refused to play if Sam Freeman of Missoula, who
was secured to substitute for Catcher Adams, who broke a thumb in Sunday’s game, went
in to catch” for Hamilton. The objection was not raised because Freeman was Black, but
because he was not a resident of Hamilton. Corvallis also had two imported players, so, after
some wrangling, the game was played with Freeman as Hamilton’s catcher.
189
As his baseball career was ending, Freeman was arrested at least twice for threats
against his wife in 1909 and 1913. After the last incident, the local court gave him a choice.
“Sam Freeman, who has been having trouble with his wife and causing the police a lot of
annoyance, was given a 10-day sentence, but it was suspended upon the promise of
Freeman to get out of the city.”
190
Freeman appeared twice in the 1910 census, once at his home in Missoula with his wife
and four children and once at his place of employment as a masseur at Hunters Hot Springs
Sanitarium (Hotel). He was not found in the 1920 census, but in 1930, he was recorded as
the manager of a hotel at Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Samuel
Freeman died at the veterans’ hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming on 26 July 1939 and was
buried at Custer National Cemetery in Montana.
The way in which Black ballplayers were viewed by a predominantly white community
was both reflected and encouraged by newspapers. In addition to words that pandered to
racist stereotypes, illustrations were similarly employed, as shown by events in Salt Lake
City, Utah. In October 1896, the 24th US Infantry was posted in the city at Fort Douglas.
The Black population of Salt Lake County was only 240 in 1890 and 336 in 1900. Arrival of
the 24th Infantry added about 600 Black soldiers and dependents.
191
60
Among these soldiers were several named Jackson, and one, whose first name was not
given, was the catcher in 1897 for the Fort Douglas Browns, the regiment’s baseball team.
In April 1899, the Salt Lake Herald referred to him as “Steam-drill Jackson,” but it was the
only time a nickname was published. The Browns competed well against white teams from
Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Park City, as well as Leadville, Colorado and Evanston,
Wyoming. In addition, Black soldiers from Fort Douglas served as field umpires at games
between the Browns and white teams and even between two nonmilitary teams.
192
Jackson completed his enlistment in early 1898, before the regiment was deployed to
Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He remained in Salt Lake City, playing for
predominantly white teams, principally the Elks in 1898 and the YMCA in 1899. He was not
the only former Browns player to do so. Armstrong and Willis also played for the Elks in
1898. Another teammate with the Browns, Augustus Reid, played with Jackson on a picked
nine from Salt Lake City against Leadville in 1897.
193
It is also worth noting that this was not
the first time an integrated team took the field in this part of Utah. George William Castone
did so with a barnstorming team organized in Salt Lake City in 1888, and George Taylor of
Colorado played in a game for Ogden in 1892. Neither was serving in the military.
194
With a good reputation as a catcher, Jackson attracted the attention of newspapers.
Included in the press coverage were at least three sketches of Jackson by unnamed
illustrators in the Salt Lake Herald, the first two in June 1897 and the third in July 1899.
195
The
1897 sketches attempted to portray Jackson’s features with reasonable accuracy, as with the
1893 sketch of Horace Wilds in the San Francisco Chronicle. The 1899 sketch, on the other hand,
was a typical, nonspecific caricature of the period that looks nothing like Jackson. Probably
intended to be humorous, it instead served only to demean. Each style of sketch sends its
distinct message to the reader as clearly as the text of the day, being either respectful or
loaded with inappropriate racial stereotypes. The reason why the inappropriate 1899 sketch
was used only two years after the others had been published is unknown. Coincidentally, no
record of Jackson playing in Salt Lake City was found after the 1899 sketch was published.
Perhaps his identity will be discovered and more of his story will be told in the future.
61
The physical, verbal, and artistic insults directed at Isaac Ward, Samuel Freeman, and
“Steam-drill” Jackson as they integrated baseball teams were almost certainly experienced
to some degree by Horace Wilds, Eddie Smith, Charles Overton, Philip and “Happy”
Churchill, Robert Booker, and Eugene Hinds—more often than they were reported. Yet
all of these athletes persevered and played for integrated teams over multiple years. Wilds
and Smith even played for minor league clubs during the 1890s, while William Carroll
played for an otherwise white club in an intercity league in 1899. Carroll’s Trilbys were
also the Black champions of a semipro league otherwise composed of white clubs in Los
Angeles in 1896. In addition, a few of the baseballists whose stories are recounted here
served as captains of their predominantly white teams or umpires in games between white
teams. And following a game in 1886, Horace Wilds’ “enviable reputation” as a ballplayer
was recognized with the presentation of a gold watch. These are all noteworthy but
underappreciated accomplishments that ran against the tide of segregation.
Other than William Carroll, the players included in these essays played multiple years
for integrated teams in California. White teams, particularly those in small towns,
sometimes sought talented Black players, whether these teams were in California, Kansas,
Montana, Washington, Utah, or several other states outside the South. Even minor league
clubs chose Horace Wilds and Eddie Smith for their regular rosters and as substitutes for
injured players. What all of these teams had in common was that they chose to field the
strongest team they could with talented athletes, regardless of skin color, even though
segregation dominated baseball, the military, and other aspects of American society.
As mentioned earlier, local choice was an important factor in the presence of integrated
baseball teams during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in California and
elsewhere. There was no universal agreement among the residents of a predominantly
white community that chose to be represented by a racially integrated baseball team. Yet
enough residents who supported local baseball teams accepted this choice that integrated
teams persisted in their towns for multiple years. The fact that there were people at the
time who supported the inclusion of Black players on their predominantly white baseball
teams is clear evidence that the oft used excuse that segregation is just the way it was, as
argued by the manager in Kettle Falls in 1913 and many others before and since, has always
been a hollow argument. The Black pioneers of integrated baseball in California and
elsewhere, along with the communities that supported them, deserve to have their stories
discovered, told, and celebrated.
Acknowledgements
Newspapers were accessed online through Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank.com, the
California Digital Newspaper Collection (https://cdnc.ucr.edu/), the Illinois University
Digital Library (https://digital.library.illinois.edu/; New York Clipper), and the LA84
Foundation Digital Library Collections (https://digital.la84.org/; Sporting Life). Some books
were accessed through HathiTrust (https://www.hathitrust.org/) and Internet Archive
(https://archive.org/). Censuses and other digital records were viewed in Ancestry.com.
62
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Endnotes
1
Diaries of Azariah Smith: 1846–1912. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Digital Library. https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll15/id/17919, digital page 16,
journal page number 20 written in the upper outside corner (accessed 24 November 2022).
2
Daily Alta California, 4 February 1851, p 2. Marysville Herald, 17 January 1851, p 2. Oroville Daily Butte
Record, 19 December 1857, p 2. Sacramento Daily Union, 27 October 1857, p 2; 21 November 1859, p 3.
3
New York Clipper, 20 March 1858, p 379. Block (2005, pages 152–162).
4
Daily Alta California, 7 February 1860, p 1. Daily San Joaquin Republican, 27 January 1860, p 3; 1 February
1860, p 3; 18 May 1860, p 3; 19 May 1860, p 3. Los Angeles Star, 7 April 1860, p 2. Oakland Daily
Transcript, 20 June 1876, p 3; 18 July 1876, p 3. Oakland Tribune, 22 May 1876, p 2, 3; 30 May 1876, p 3; 3
June 1876, p 3; 20 June 1876, p 3. Sacramento Daily Union, 15 November 1859, p 3; 25 November 1859, p
3; 2 December 1859, p 3; 5 December 1859, p 3; 10 December 1859, p 3; 3 January 1860, p 3; 14 January
1860, p 2; 23 February 1860, p 2; 12 April 1860, p 2; 30 August 1850, p 2; 26 September 1860, p 2. San
Francisco Elevator, 24 April 1868, p 3; 1 May 1868, p 2. San Francisco Examiner, 23 April 1888, p 8. San
Francisco Herald, 2 July 1860, p 3; 26 September 1860, p 3. Visalia Weekly Delta, 17 March 1860, p 2.
Brunson (2019, pages 41–44). Protoball.org, Pre-Pro Clubs and Games in California,
https://protoball.org/CA (accessed 30 October 2022).
5
Eberle (2022b).
6
Los Angeles Times, 29 May 1916, p 7. Oakland Tribune, 12 March 1916, p 43; 2 April 1916, p 41; 22 April
1916, p 8; 23 April 1916, p 33; 24 April 1916, p 7; 28 April 1916, p 15; 3 May 1916, p 10; 8 May 1916, p 7; 12
May 1916, p 14; 15 May 1916, p 12; 16 May 1916, p 10; 25 May 1916, p 10; 29 May 1916, p 10; 18 June 1916,
p 42. San Francisco Examiner, 29 May 1916, p 10. Essington (2018, pages 22–25). Hawthorn
(2022). Baseball-Reference.com, Jimmy Claxton, https://www.baseball-
reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=claxto000jim (accessed 14 October 2022).
7
Essington (2018). McNeil (2002).
8
Eberle (2022b, page 17).
9
Los Angeles Herald, 7 May 1887, p 8; 8 May 1887, p 1; 9 May 1887, p 3. Los Angeles Times, 9 May 1887, p 8.
San Bernardino Daily Courier, 26 April 1887, p 4; 17 May 1887, p 4; 7 June 1887, p 4; 17 June 1887, p 4.
Brunson (2019, p 984).
10
Los Angeles Times, 29 May 1899, p 8; 11 June 1899, part IV, p 7; 5 July 1899, p 14. Los Angeles Herald, 29
May 1899, p 6; 12 June 1899, p 6; 19 June 1899, p 8; 26 June 1899, p 6; 3 July 1899, p 6; 5 July 1899, p 5;
9 July 1899, p 7. San Bernardino Evening Transcript, 3 July 1899, p 2.
11
Morris (2010, pages 467–468).
12
Sporting Life, 15 January 1890, p 3; 22 April 1899, p 5. Baseball-Reference.com, California League,
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/league.cgi?code=CALL&class=A (accessed 23
November 2022). Baseball-Reference.com, Pacific Coast League, https://www.baseball-
reference.com/register/league.cgi?code=PCL&class=AAA (accessed 23 November 2022).
13
Beasley (1919, page 261).
14
Oakland Tribune, 3 June 1876, p 3; 21 July 1876, p 3; 23 October 1880, p 3; 9 June 1885, p 5; 13 November
1889, p 3; 18 January 1890, p 3; 27 May 1895, p 8; 18 January 1896, 5; 5 January 1899, p 1; 6 August
1900, p 8; 13 October 1900, p 5; 7 March 1901, p 2; 12 February 1907, p 5; 29 March 1911, p 2; 31
December 1912, p 13; 30 May 1921, p 15. San Francisco Elevator, 11 October 1890, p 3. San Francisco
Examiner, 13 July 1897, p 8; 10 February 1898, p 10; 8 March 1901, p 5. Beasley (1919, page 261).
15
Oakland Tribune, 18 May 1880, p 3; 12 July 1881, p 3; 11 April 1892, p 1; 19 March 1895, p 7; 1 April 1895, p
8; 30 July 1897, p 11; 9 April 1912, p 14; 16 April 1912, p 4; 20 June 1912, p 5; 16 July 1912, p 7.
16
Oakland Tribune, 30 May 1879, p 3; 24 September 1880, p 1; 3 June 1882, p 3; 1 June 1883, p 3; 17
December 1883, p 3. San Francisco Examiner, 18 December 1883, p 4.
65
17
Oakland Tribune, 17 March 1883, p 8; 4 May 1883, p 3; 6 May 1887, p 3. San Francisco Elevator, 11
October 1886, p 2. San Francisco Examiner, 1 November 1882, p 3; 5 May 1883, p 3.
18
Oakland Tribune, 3 September 1888, p 3; 19 September 1888, p 8; 26 November 1889, p 2; 18 December
1889, p 8; 12 March 1890, p 4; 19 April 1890, p 6; 9 July 1890, p 5; 25 February 1891, p 5; 16 May 1891, p
6. San Francisco Elevator, 11 October 1890, p 3.
19
San Francisco Call, 25 June 1893, p 8.
20
Oakland Tribune, 28 November 1894, p 2. San Francisco Call, 25 November 1894, p 8; 28 November
1894. p 9; 29 December 1894, p 8; 12 July 1895, p 2; 19 July 1895, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 25
November 1894, p 20.
21
Oakland Tribune, 7 February 1902, p 12.
22
Baseball-Reference.com, Horace Wilds, https://www.baseball-
reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=wilds-001hor (accessed 17 January 2023). Brunson (2019,
pages 1273–1274). Rice (2020).
23
Oakland Tribune, 13 July 1885, p 2; 10 August 1885, p 2; 28 September 1885, p 1; 12 October 1885, p 1; 26
October 1885, p 3; 27 October 1885, p 3; 18 January 1886, p 3.
24
Oakland Tribune, 20 February 1886, p 2; 8 March 1886, p 3; 20 March 1886, p 1; 17 May 1886, p 1; 28
June 1886, p 2; 6 July 1886, p 2; 19 July 1886, p 2; 26 July 1886, p 3; 10 August 1886, p 1; 16 August 1886,
p 2; 21 August 1886, p 1; 23 August 1886, p 3; 30 August 1886, p 3; 1 September 1886, p 2; 6 September
1886, p 3; 13 September 1886, p 3; 27 September 1886, p 1; 11 October 1886, p 3. Sacramento Daily
Record-Union, 11 September 1886, p 5, 8. San Francisco Examiner, 15 March 1886, p 2; 5 July 1886, p 2.
Stover and Coffman (1993, pages 348–351).
25
Oakland Tribune, 13 September 1886, p 3. Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 11 September 1886, p 5, 8.
26
Oakland Tribune, 11 October 1886, p 3; 8 November 1886, p 3; 29 November 1886, p 2.
27
Oakland Tribune, 8 February 1887, p 1; 21 February 1887, p 2; 23 February 1887, p 2; 21 March 1887, p 2;
28 March 1887, p 2; 11 April 1887, p 1; 16 April 1887, p 1; 23 April 1887, p 1; 25 April 1887, p 3.
28
Oakland Tribune, 7 September 1887, p 4; 29 September 1887, p 4; 8 February 1888, p 4; 13 June 1888, p
3; 30 July 1888, p 6; 5 September 1888, p 3; 17 October 1888, p 6. San Francisco Examiner, 24
September 1888, p 6.
29
Rice (2020).
30
Daily Alta California, 24 October 1887, p 8; 19 December 1887, p 8. Merced Star, 1 August 1889, p 3; 22
August 1889, p 3. Oakland Tribune, 29 August 1887, p 8; 5 September 1887, p 4; 12 September 1887, p
1; 19 September 1887, p 4; 26 September 1887, p 4; 3 October 1887, p 1; 10 October 1887, p 1; 17
October 1887, p 2; 12 December 1887, p 4; 20 February 1888, p 7; 27 February 1888, p 6; 19 March
1888, p 6; 7 May 1888, p 3; 25 June 1888, p 3; 9 July 1888, p 6; 16 July 1888, p 7; 30 July 1888, p 6; 6
August 1888, p 6; 8 October 1888, p 3; 15 October 1888, p 6; 22 October 1888, p 3; 29 October 1888, p
6; 7 January 1889, p 2; 14 January 1889, p 3; 21 January 1889, p 6; 18 February 1889, p 3. Sacramento
Daily Bee, 11 June 1888, p 5. Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 14 May 1888, p 3; 2 July 1888, p 3; 23 July
1888, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 30 April 1888, p 8; 28 May 1888, p 5; 20 May 1889, p 3. San
Francisco Examiner, 22 August 1887, p 4; 30 April 1888, p 8; 13 August 1888, p 8. San Jose Daily Mercury,
27 August 1888, p 5; 1 October 1888, p 3; 3 December 1888, p 3; 31 December 1888, p 3. Santa Cruz
Daily Surf, 21 May 1888, p 8; 10 September 1888, p 1; 10 June 1889, p 1; 1 July 1889, p 1; 6 July 1889, p 4.
Morris (2010, pages 290–293).
31
Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 11 June 1888, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 16 April 1888, p 8. San
Francisco Examiner, 31 March 1888, p 2; 16 April 1888, p 8; 26 April 1888, p 8.
32
Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 12 May 1888, p 5; 30 June 1888, p 5. San Francisco Examiner, 29 April
1889, p 4. Santa Cruz Daily Surf, 21 May 1888, p 8.
33
Oakland Tribune, 9 February 1889, p 1; 11 February 1889, p 3.
66
34
Daily Alta California, 31 March 1890, p 2. Napa Register, 16 May 1890, p 1. Oakland Tribune, 4 June
1890, p 6. San Francisco Chronicle, 5 May 1890, p 8. San Francisco Examiner, 10 March 1890, p 5; 17
March 1890, p 3; 7 April 1890, p 3; 14 April 1890, p 3; 28 April 1890, p 4.
35
Napa Daily Journal, 28 July 1891, p 3. San Francisco Call, 4 August 1890, p 8; 13 October 1890, p 8; 23
March 1891, p 8; 20 April 1891, p 8; 27 April 1891, p 8; 11 May 1891, p 8; 18 May 1891, p 9; 8 June 1891, p
8; 15 June 1891, p 8; 13 July 1891, p 8; 20 July 1891, p 8; 17 August 1891, p 8; 24 August 1891, p 8; 14
September 1891, p 8; 21 September 1891, p 8; 28 September 1891, p 8; 26 October 1891, p 8. San
Francisco Chronicle, 13 October 1890, p 3; 17 November 1890, p 3; 30 March 1891, p 3; 6 April 1891, p 3;
4 May 1891, p 3; 6 July 1891, p 3; 24 August 1891, p 3; 16 November 1891, p 3; 17 November 1891, p 5.
San Francisco Examiner, 8 September 1890, p 5; 29 September 1890, p 5; 6 October 1890, p 5; 20
October 1890, p 5; 27 October 1890, p 5; 3 November 1890, p 5; 3 August 1891, p 4; 7 September 1891,
p 4. Brunson (2019, pages 1273–1274). Rice (2022).
36
Daily Alta California, 20 October 1890, p 8. Oakland Tribune, 20 October 1890, p 2. San Francisco Call,
20 October 1890, p 8. San Francisco Chronicle, 20 October 1890, p 3. San Francisco Examiner, 20
October 1890, p 5.
37
San Francisco Examiner, 20 October 1890, p 5.
38
San Francisco Examiner, 20 October 1890, p 5.
39
Daily Alta California, 20 October 1890, p 8.
40
Daily Alta California, 20 October 1890, p 8.
41
Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 20 October 1890, p 3. San Francisco Examiner, 20 October 1890, p 5.
42
Oakland Tribune, 9 April 1892, p 8; 22 June 1892, p 8; 6 July 1892, p 8; 3 August 1892, p 8. San Francisco
Call, 18 April 1892, p 7. San Francisco Chronicle, 18 April 1892, p 3; 25 April 1892, p 3; 30 May 1892, p 3;
6 June 1892, p 5; 13 June 1892, p 3; 11 July 1892, p 8; 18 July 1892, p 3; 1 August 1892, p 3. San Francisco
Examiner, 18 April 1892, p 8; 25 April 1892, p 4; 9 May 1892, p 4; 30 May 1892, p 4; 20 June 1892, p 4.
43
San Francisco Chronicle, 6 September 1892, p 14; 22 October 1892, p 7.
44
Petaluma Daily Courier, 19 March 1893, p 1; 26 March 1893, p 1. Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 7
August 1893, p 3. San Francisco Call, 13 April 1893, p 8; 30 May 1893, p 2; 16 September 1893, p 3; 19
September 1893, p 7; 27 September 1893, p 4; 13 October 1893, p 7. San Francisco Chronicle, 10 March
1893, p 5; 19 August 1893, p 10; 8 September 1893, p 5; 10 September 1893, p 8; 13 September 1893, p 7;
16 September 1893, p 11. San Francisco Examiner, 10 September 1893, p 5; 15 September 1893, p 8; 14
October 1893, p 10.
45
Petaluma Daily Courier, 8 October 1893, p 1. San Francisco Call, 5 July 1893, p 9; 21 August 1893, p 3; 25
September 1893, p 3; 2 October 1893, p 3; 9 October 1893, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 19 June 1893, p
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1893, p 3; 2 October 1893, p 5; 16 October 1893, p 5. San Francisco Examiner, 19 June 1893, p 7; 5 July
1893, p 5; 18 September 1893, p 8; 25 September 1893, p 2; 2 October 1893, p 8; 9 October 1893, p 2.
Sonoma Democrat, 22 July 1893, p 1; 2 September 1893, p 1; 21 October 1893, p 1.
46
Oakland Tribune, 9 May 1888, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 3 October 1893, p 10. San Francisco
Examiner, 3 October 1893, p 5.
47
Petaluma Courier, 19 September 1894, p 8. San Francisco Call, 24 September 1894, p 8; 30 August 1894,
p 4. San Francisco Chronicle, 19 May 1894, p 5; 2 June 1894, p 10; 29 July 1894, p 18; 30 July 1894, p 9; 4
August 1894, p 9; 19 August 1894, p 17; 10 September 1894, p 8; 11 September 1894, p 9. Stockton
Evening Mail, 1 September 1894, p 1; 8 October 1894, p 1.
48
San Francisco Chronicle, 12 August 1895, p 2.
49
San Francisco Call, 26 August 1895, p 4; 30 September 1895, p 7; 10 October 1895, p 5; 21 November
1895, p 14; 25 November 1895, p 4; 9 December 1895, p 4; 16 December 1895, p 10; 30 December 1895,
p 4. San Francisco Chronicle, 14 October 1895, p 10; 9 December 1895, p 4; 16 December 1895, p 4; 23
67
December 1895, p 4; 13 January 1896, p 4. San Francisco Examiner, 25 November 1895, p 5; 9
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50
San Francisco Call¸ 22 June 1896, p 5; 20 July 1896, p 10. San Francisco Examiner¸ 16 May 1896, p 10; 8
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51
San Francisco Call, 26 July 1896, p 10. San Francisco Examiner, 25 July 1896, p 11; 26 July 1896, p 12.
52
San Francisco Call, 26 July 1896, p 10.
53
San Francisco Call, 26 July 1896, p 10; 27 July 1896, p 5; 31 August 1896, p 4; 14 September 1896, p 12; 5
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54
Oakland Tribune, 25 August 1897, p 8. Sacramento Record-Union, 9 August 1897, p 3; 12 August 1897, p
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55
Oakland Tribune, 16 November 1898, p 6. San Francisco Chronicle, 20 August 1898, p 8; 1 September
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56
San Francisco Call, 20 February 1899, p 6; 26 February 1899, p 10; 27 February 1899, p 10. San
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57
Los Angeles Record, 30 June 1900, p 4. Los Angeles Times, 1 April 1900, part III, p 5; 4 May 1900, p 16; 28
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59
San Francisco Call, 9 February 1902, p 35. San Francisco Chronicle, 9 February 1902, p 15. San Francisco
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60
Oakland Tribune, 7 February 1902, p 12. San Francisco Call, 8 February 1902, p 8.
61
San Francisco Call, 8 February 1902, p 8.
62
Oakland Tribune, 10 February 1902, p 8.
63
Baseball-Reference.com, Eddie Smith, https://www.baseball-
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Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 12 September 1897, p 3. San Francisco Examiner, 28 June 1897, p 4; 21
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65
Alameda Daily Argus, 6 June 1892, p 3. Oakland Tribune, 9 April 1892, p 8; 29 June 1892, p 8. San
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66
San Francisco Call, 22 June 1896, p 5; 29 June 1896, p 14; 5 July 1896, p 8; 12 July 1896, p 8; 13 July 1896,
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67
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68
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71
San Jose Daily Mercury, 4 October 1897, p 6; 11 October 1897, p 5; 25 October 1897, p 5; 1 November
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72
Sacramento Record-Union, 25 March 1898, p 4; 26 June 1898, p 4. San Francisco Call, 25 January 1898, p
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74
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75
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76
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81
San Jose Evening News, 2 November 1920, p 4.
82
San Francisco Elevator, 22 April 1870, p 2. San Francisco Call, 25 July 1896, p 4. San Jose Daily Herald, 16
November 1889, p 5; 26 January 1893, p 3; 26 July 1895, p 5. San Jose Daily Mercury, 15 September
1875, p 2; 26 April 1887, p 3; 24 May 1888, p 5; 23 October 1892, p 6; 5 June 1899, p 3; 2 July 1899, p 8;
10 April 1906, p 7; 28 November 1906, p 3; 11 July 1910, p 12; 25 September 1911, p 8. San Jose Evening
News, 16 October 1917, p 4. San Jose Sunday Mercury and Herald, 23 October 1910, p 7. Ruffin (2014,
pages 41–43, 45–46).
83
San Jose Daily Mercury, 30 August 1914, p 5. Ruffin (2014, pages 45–46).
69
84
San Francisco Call, 25 July 1896, p 4. San Jose Daily Mercury, 7 June 1883, p 2; 31 August 1883, p 3; 22
December 1883, p 4; 1 March 1884, p 1; 30 May 1884, p 3; 25 October 1884, p 3; 20 December 1884, p
3; 18 September 1885, p 3; 19 December 1885, p 3; 5 June 1886, p 3; 18 December 1886, p 1; 28 May
1887, p 4; 13 November 1887, p 8; 11 June 1888, p 8; 30 June 1889, p 4; 28 June 1890, p 4.
85
San Jose Daily Mercury, 24 November 1890, p 3; 14 December 1890, p 8; 15 December 1890, p 1; 28
December 1890, p 6; 6 January 1891, p 3; 2 February 1891, p 3; 13 April 1891, p 6; 18 October 1891, p 3;
28 February 1892, p 5.
86
San Jose Daily Herald, 5 April 1891, p 3; 4 May 1891, p 3. San Jose Daily Mercury, 27 April 1891, p 4; 25
May 1891, p 4; 7 September 1891, p 6; 28 September 1891, p 5; 7 December 1891, p 5; 16 May 1892, p 8;
8 August 1892, p 8; 22 October 1892, p 2; 31 October 1892, p 5; 7 November 1892, p 1; 14 November
1892, p 1. San Jose Evening News, 28 April 1893, p 3.
87
Monterey Cypress, 9 June 1894, p 2. San Jose Daily Herald, 7 May 1894, p 3; 6 August 1894, p 5. San Jose
Daily Mercury, 9 April 1894, p 6; 16 April 1894, p 3; 7 May 1894, p 5; 4 June 1894, p 7; 18 June 1894, p 5;
6 August 1894, p 5; 3 September 1894, p 7.
88
San Jose Daily Mercury, 18 September 1895, p 5; 27 September 1895, p 3.
89
San Jose Daily Herald, 6 July 1896, p 5; 7 December 1896, p 5; 13 December 1897, p 8. San Jose Daily
Mercury, 20 July 1896, p 5; 27 July 1896, p 5.
90
San Jose Daly Herald, 29 June 1893, p 3; 8 September 1899, p 7. San Jose Daily Mercury, 2 January 1894, p
3; 12 June 1894, p 5; 10 April 1896, p 5; 12 June 1900, p 3; 2 January 1910, p 12. San Jose Evening News, 4
June 1895, p 1.
91
San Francisco Call, 25 July 1896, p 4. San Jose Daily Mercury, 9 July 1896, p 5; 12 April 1905, p 5; 6
August 1907, p 3; 12 June 1909, p 4; 8 June 1912, p 3. San Jose Evening News, 6 August 1896, p 1; 21
March 1896, p 1. San Jose Mercury Herald, 16 November 1919, p 7; 22 November 1921, p 5.
92
San Jose Daily Mercury, 26 October 1898, p 2. San Jose Evening News, 31 January 1895, p 4; 1 February
1895, p 1.
93
San Jose Daily Mercury, 2 June 1912, p 15; 9 June 1912, p 37. Beach (1975).
94
San Jose Daily Mercury, 11 July 1910, p 12; 6 January 1911, p 10. San Jose Evening News, 1 August 1898, p 5;
6 January 1916, p 5. San Jose Mercury Herald, 28 December 1913, p 16; 6 January 1916, p 10.
95
New York Age, 12 October 1940, p 3. Oakland Tribune, 2 October 1940, p 29.
96
San Francisco Call, 25 July 1896, p 4. San Jose Daily Mercury, 22 August 1896, p 5.
97
Marysville Daily Appeal, 4 November 1902, p 1; 11 February 1908, p 2. Marysville Daily Democrat, 10
February 1908, p 4.
98
Marysville Daily Appeal, 4 June 1869, p 3. Marysville Appeal-Democrat, 7 February 2016 (accessed 21
November 2022).
99
Marysville Daily Appeal, 30 April 1871, p 3; 24 February 1872, p 3; 4 October 1872, p 3; 5 December 1902,
p 1; 10 December 1926, p 5.
100
Marysville Daily Appeal, 16 April 1882, p 3.
101
Marysville Daily Appeal, 24 December 1884, p 3; 13 May 1885, p 2; 28 June 1885, p 2; 5 April 1891, p 3; 10
June 1891, p 1; 27 June 1891, p 1; 30 June 1894, p 4. Marysville Daily Democrat, 1 July 1893, p 1.
102
Marysville Daily Appeal, 8 March 1892, p 2; 3 April 1892, p 3; 17 April 1892, p 2; 22 May 1892, p 3; 10
June 1892, p 2; 14 June 1892, p 1; 21 June 1892, p 3; 28 June 1892, p 3; 11 July 1892, p 2; 26 July 1892, p
3. Marysville Daily Democrat, 14 March 1892, p 1; 11 April 1892, p 1; 13 June 1892, p 1; 21 June 1892, p 1;
27 June 1892, p 1; 11 July 1892, p 1.
103
Marysville Daily Appeal, 17 April 1892, p 2; 4 May 1893, p 4; 28 May 1893, p 8; 14 June 1893, p 1; 16 June
1893, p 1; 20 June 1893, p 1; 19 September 1893, p 1; 10 October 1893, p 4. Marysville Daily Democrat,
22 May 1893, p 1; 12 June 1893, p 1; 24 June 1893, p 1; 28 August 1893, p 1; 18 September 1893, p 1; 23
September 1893, p 1; 9 October 1893, p 1.
104
Marysville Daily Appeal, 30 May 1894, p 1; 16 June 1894, p 1. Marysville Daily Democrat, 23 April 1894, p
1; 5 May 1894, p 1; 23 June 1894, p 1.
70
105
Marysville Daily Appeal, 25 May 1895, p 1.
106
Marysville Daily Appeal, 6 June 1896, p 4; 23 June 1896, p 1; 21 July 1896, p 1; 23 July 1896, p 1; 5 August
1896, p 1; 10 October 1896, p 1. Marysville Daily Democrat, 20 June 1896, p 1; 20 July 1896, p 1; 23 July
1896, p 1; 28 October 1896, p 4; 7 November 1896, p 1; 30 November 1896, p 4. Oroville Register, 11
June 1896, p 1.
107
Marysville Daily Appeal, 11 April 1897, p 3; 18 April 1897, p 3; 30 May 1897, p 3; 27 June 1897, p 4; 18 July
1897, p 1; 1 August 1897, p 1; 3 August 1897, p 1; 7 October 1897, p 1; 19 October 1897, p 1; 7 December
1897, p 1; 20 February 1898, p 4; 23 February 1898, p 1; 11 March 1898, p 1; 15 March 1898, p 1; 29
March 1898, p 1; 12 April 1898, p 1; 15 April 1898, p 1; 16 April 1898, p 1; 26 April 1898, p 1; 17 May
1898, p 1; 31 May 1898, p 1; 7 June 1898, p 1; 21 June 1898, p 1, 4; 28 June 1898, p 4; 6 July 1898, p 4; 26
July 1898, p 1; 2 August 1898, p 4; 23 August 1898, p 1; 3 September 1898, p 1; 6 September 1898, p 1;
20 September 1898, p 1; 25 October 1898, p 1; 1 November 1898, p 1; 8 November 1898, p 1; 22
November 1898, p 4. Marysville Daily Democrat, 26 May 1897, p 1; 17 June 1897, p 1; 17 July 1897, p 1; 2
August 1897, p 1; 4 September 1897, p 4; 17 September 1897, p 1; 16 October 1897, p 1; 18 October
1897, p 1; 6 December 1897, p 1; 4 April 1898, p 4; 20 June 1898, p 4; 18 July 1898, p 4. Woodland Daily
Democrat, 21 November 1898, p 4. Gregorich (1993, pages 6–11).
108
Marysville Daily Appeal, 19 September 1897, p 4; 22 May 1898, p 1; 27 May 1898, p 1; 31 May 1898, p 1.
Marysville Daily Democrat, 25 May 1898, p 3; 22 September 1897, p 1.
109
Marysville Daily Appeal, 23 May 1899, p 1; 30 May 1899, p 1; 11 July 1899, p 4; 19 September 1899, p 4; 10
October 1899, p 1; 10 December 1899, p 1. Marysville Evening Democrat, 12 June 1899, p 8; 16 September
1899, p 5; 7 October 1899, p 8. Sutter County Farmer, 14 July 1899, p 1; 13 October 1899, p 1.
110
Marysville Daily Appeal, 18 May 1900, p 1; 24 May 1901, p 1. Marysville Evening Democrat, 25 May 1900,
p 5; 28 May 1900, p 5; 23 May 1901, p 5; 23 May 1901, p 5; 7 November 1901, p 5. Sutter County
Farmer, 18 May 1900, p 7.
111
Daily Red Bluff News, 20 February 1902, p 4. Marysville Daily Appeal, 21 February 1902, p 4; 29 May
1902, p 4. Marysville Evening Democrat, 20 February 1902, p 5; 28 May 1902, p 4; 7 June 1902, p 4; 9
June 1902, p 5; 21 July 1902, p 4.
112
Marysville Evening Democrat, 8 March 1902, p 5.
113
Daily Red Bluff News, 27 March 1903, p 1; 10 April 1904, p 1; 17 April 1904, p 4; 15 May 1904, p 1; 17 May
1904, p 1. Weekly Red Bluff News, 30 October 1903, p 1.
114
Marysville Daily Appeal, 15 March 1904, p 1, 4; 17 March 1904, p 7; 13 July 1904, p 8; 19 July 1904, p 5.
Marysville Evening Democrat, 25 May 1904, p 8; 2 July 1904, p 8; 5 July 1904, p 8; 13 July 1904, p 3; 18
July 1904, p 8; 9 September 1904, p 4.
115
Chico Daily Enterprise, 24 April 1905, p 8; 10 June 1905, p 7; 21 July 1905, p 2; 31 July 1905, p 2; 27
February 1906, p 4; 14 April 1906, p 1; 16 July 1906, p 4. Grass Valley Morning Union, 6 July 1930, p 5;
26 March 1931, p 6; 28 March 1931, p 5. Marysville Daily Appeal, 30 May 1905, p 8; 23 June 1906, p 8;
12 September 1906, p 5. Marysville Daily Democrat, 29 April 1905, p 6; 23 October 1905, p 1, 8; 3 July
1906, p 1; 17 August 1906, p 3. Red Bluff Daily People’s Cause, 6 March 1917, p 1.
116
Marysville Daily Appeal, 6 March 1901, p 4; 10 June 1904, p 8; 5 August 1904, p 8; 29 December 1904, p
10; 1 January 1905, p 8; 10 February 1905, p 8; 10 August 1905, p 1; 25 November 1905, p 1; 3
November 1906, p 1; 23 December 1908, p 1; 19 October 1909, p 8; 3 June 1910, p 5; 10 July 1910, p 1.
Marysville Evening Democrat, 8 December 1903, p 5; 23 May 1904, p 5; 25 May 1905, p 8; 2 June 1905, p
8; 12 June 1905, p 4; 10 August 1905, p 8; 17 March 1906, p 9; 11 June 1907, p 7; 4 September 1909, p 1.
117
Marysville Evening Democrat, 29 March 1920, p 8; 1 April 1920, p 1.
118
Red Bluff Daily News, 5 June 1907, p 4; 26 May 1911, p 5; 23 June 1911, p 5; 6 July 1911, p 5; 19 September
1919, p 5; 11 July 1927, p 1; 9 July 1928, p 1; 15 August 1932, p 2. Red Bluff Daily People’s Cause, 7
October 1902, p 3; 7 January 1905, p 3; 17 March 1905, p 3; 30 January 1909, p 6. Red Bluff Evening
Sentinel, 13 February 1912, p 2; 15 August 1912, p 2; 12 August 1913, p 2; 25 March 1918, p 2; 22
71
January 1920, p 3. Red Bluff Sentinel and Weekly News, 3 April 1925, p 3; 16 October 1925, p 3. Red Bluff
Weekly Sentinel, 16 June 1905, p 8.
119
Redding Weekly Free Press, 25 November 1893 p 7.
120
Weekly Shasta Courier, 15 March 1873, p 3; 29 March 1873, p 2, 3; 5 April 1873, p 2, 3; 12 April 1873, p 2.
Protoball.org, Pre-pro Clubs and Games in Redding, CA, https://protoball.org/Redding,_CA (accessed 4
January 2023).
121
Redding Republican Free Press, 29 August 1885, p 3; 5 September 1885, p 3. Redding Searchlight, 18 May
1937, p 3. Sacramento Daily Bee, 25 August 1885, p 3.
122
Redding Weekly Free Press, 14 February 1891 p 6; 11 April 1891 p 3; 30 May 1891 p 6.
123
Redding Weekly Free Press, 14 July 1894 p 7.
124
Redding Weekly Free Press, 20 April 1895 p 7; 27 April 1895 p 7. Redding Searchlight, 9 April 1895 p 3; 16
April 1895 p 3. Eberle (2022b).
125
Redding Daily Free Press, 15 June 1896 p 2; 6 July 1897 p 1; 18 October 1897 p 2; 22 November 1897 p 1;
29 November 1897 p 1; 14 February 1898 p 1; 14 March 1898 p 1; 21 March 1898 p 1; 4 April 1898 p 1;
11 April 1898 p 1; 2 May 1898 p 4; 25 May 1898 p 1. Redding Weekly Free Press, 23 October 1897 p 7.
Weekly Trinity Journal, 18 September 1897 p 3.
126
Redding Daily Free Press, 20 February 1896 p 3; 7 September 1896 p 3.
127
Redding Courier-Free Press, 3 February 1911 p 3; 10 July 1911 p 2; 4 August 1911 p 2; 11 June 1912 p 2; 19
February 1914 p 2; 13 March 1914 p 2. Redding Daily Free Press, 10 July 1899 p 3; 19 July 1899 p 3; 18
August 1899 p 3; 21 July 1900 p 3. Redding Searchlight, 7 July 1903 p 5; 15 June 1904 p 5; 13 October
1904 p 5; 28 February 1905 p 5; 5 February 1907 p 5; 24 July 1907 p 7; 23 September 1911 p 3.
Redding Weekly Free Press, 30 November 1895 p 5.
128
Redding Courier-Free Press, 5 November 1914 p 4. Redding Daily Searchlight, 5 November 1914 p 4.
129
Fresno Bee, 5 July 1933, p 4. Visalia Morning Delta, 5 October 1918, p 7.
130
Visalia Daily Morning Delta, 29 March 1896, p 4. The 1900 census listed Frank Hinds as a “dairy
laborer.”
131
Visalia Daily Morning Delta, 20 January 1894, p 1; 29 January 1895, p 1; 15 August 1899, p 4. Visalia
Daily Times, 27 November 1895, p 1; 2 May 1896, p 3.
132
Daily Visalia Delta, 2 May 1902, p 1. Hanford Daily Journal, 29 March 1901, p 3; 2 April 1901, p 2; 17
May 1901, p 2; ; 20 May 1901, p 1. Hanford Sentinel, 28 March 1901, p 1.
133
Bakersfield Morning Echo, 13 October 1903, p 6. Daily Visalia Delta, 14 April 1903, p 1; 22 April 1903, p 1;
26 April 1903, p 1; 5 May 1903, p 1; 12 May 1903, p 1; 26 May 1903, p 1; 2 June 1903, p 1; 9 June 1903, p
1; 30 June 1903, p 1; 21 July 1903, p 1; 6 August 1903, p 1; 18 August 1903, p 2; 19 August 1903, p 1; 20
August 1903, p 2; 25 August 1903, p 2; 11 October 1903, p 1; 13 October 1903, p 1. Hanford Semi-
Weekly Journal, 23 June 1903, p 1. Tulare County Weekly Times, 21 May 1903, p 3; 28 May 1903, p 1; 9
July 1903, p 4; 23 July 1903, p 3.
134
Daily Visalia Delta, 26 April 1903, p 1; 5 May 1903, p 1; 12 May 1903, p 1; 2 June 1903, p 1; 9 June 1903, p
1. Hanford Semi-Weekly Journal, 23 June 1903, p 1. Tulare County Weekly Times, 28 May 1903, p 1.
135
Daily Visalia Delta, 3 March 1904, p 1; 8 March 1904, p 1, 4; 15 March 1904, p 1; 16 March 1904, p 3; 20
March 1904, p 3.
136
Daily Visalia Delta, 16 March 1904, p 3.
137
Daily Visalia Delta, 22 March 1904, p 1.
138
Daily Visalia Delta, 29 March 1904, p 1.
139
Daily Visalia Delta, 12 April 1904, p 1; 19 April 1904, p 1, 4; 17 May 1904, p 1; 31 December 1904, p 1.
Tulare County Weekly Times, 14 April 1904, p 7.
140
Daily Visalia Delta, 23 February 1905, p 1; 3 March 1905, p 1; 10 March 1905, p 2; 14 March 1905, p 1; 16
March 1905, p 1; 28 March 1905, p 1; 23 May 1905, p 1; 6 June 1905, p 1; 13 June 1905, p 1; 18 July 1905,
p 1; 25 July 1905, p 1; 1 August 1905, p 1; 19 September 1905, p 1; 3 October 1905, p 1.
72
141
Bakersfield Morning Echo, 2 February 1906, p 1. Daily Visalia Delta, 7 November 1905, p 1; 19 November
1905, p 1; 12 December 1905, p 1; 9 January 1906, p 1. Fresno Morning Republican, 12 December 1905, p
4; 31 December 1905, p 5; 8 January 1906, p 5; 14 March 1906, p 5. Tulare County Weekly Times, 30
November 1905, p 1; 14 December 1905, p 1.
142
Bakersfield Morning Echo, 18 April 1906, p 2. Daily Visalia Delta, 24 April 1906, p 1; 5 May 1906, p 1; 19
May 1906, p 1; 13 June 1906, p 1; 26 June 1906, p 1; 14 August 1906, p 1. Tulare County Weekly Times, 10
May 1906, p 3; 17 May 1906, p 3; 7 June 1906, p 6; 14 June 1906, p 2; 28 June 1906, p 3; 5 July 1906, p
3. Visalia Morning Courier, 17 April 1906, p 1; 20 April 1906, p 5; 1 May 1906, p 4.
143
Daily Visalia Delta, 16 August 1906, p 1; 21 August 1906, p 1; 20 November 1906, p 1; 4 December 1906,
p 8. Tulare County Weekly Times, 30 August 1906, p 3; 22 November 1906, p 3.
144
Daily Visalia Delta, 19 February 1907, p 4; 19 March 1907, p 4; 2 April 1907, p 1; 30 April 1907, p 4; 7
May 1907, p 8; 20 August 1907, p 8; 27 August 1907, p 5; 3 September 1907, p 5. Tulare County
Weekly Times, 4 April 1907, p 3; 2 May 1907, p 6; 21 November 1907, p 2; 12 December 1907, p 2.
145
Daily Visalia Delta, 21 April 1908, p 1; 23 April 1908, p 1; 5 May 1908, p 5; 26 May 1908, p 1; 30 June
1908, p 8; 7 July 1908, p 5; 12 July 1908, p 5; 24 July 1908, p 1; 14 November 1908, p 1; 17 November
1908, p 5; 21 November 1908, p 3; 28 November 1908, p 1; 1 December 1908, p 5; 4 December 1908, p
8; 10 December 1908, p 1; 15 December 1908, p 1. Tulare County Weekly Times, 6 February 1908, p 4; 20
February 1908, p 2; 16 April 1908, p 8; 23 April 1908, p 7; 7 May 1908, p 3; 4 June 1908, p 7; 18 June
1908, p 3; 25 June 1908, p 5; 9 July 1908, p 8; 12 November 1908, p 3; 19 November 1908, p 7; 3
December 1908, p 1, 3; 10 December 1908, p 2.
146
Visalia Daily Times, 2 February 1909, p 5; 31 May 1909, p 1; 6 July 1909, p 3; 4 November 1909, p 1, 8; 8
November 1909, p 8. Visalia Morning Delta, 1 January 1909, p 5; 14 March 1909, p 5. Marshall (2022).
147
Fresno Morning Republican, 14 March 1906, p 5; 8 August 1917, p 11; 24 September 1917, p 8. Oakland
Tribune, 13 May 1917, p 44. Tulare County Weekly Times, 25 December 1913, p 8. Visalia Daily Times, 28
February 1912, p 8; 18 June 1917, p 4; 19 June 1917, p 8.
148
Fresno Bee, 5 July 1933, p 4; 14 June 1934, p 2-B; 7 February 1962, p 2-D.
149
Eberle (2022b, pages 172–181).
150
San Jose Daily Mercury, 18 May 1891, p 4; 6 July 1891, p 8.
151
San Jose Daily Mercury, 2 January 1894, p 2; 22 April 1905, p 4; 22 May 1905, p 7; 30 May 1905, p 10; 14
June 1905, p 3, 8; 18 July 1905, p 12; 19 July 1905, p 12; 25 November 1907, p 8; 27 November 1907, p
12; 25 September 1910, p 10.
152
Hanford Daily Journal, 29 March 1901, p 3; 2 April 1901, p 2; 17 May 1901, p 2; 20 May 1901, p 1; 2
September 1901, p 1. Hanford Weekly Sentinel, 4 April 1901, p 8; 5 September 1901, p 1.
153
California Eagle, 12 November 1921, p 6; 3 December 1921, p 6; 10 December 1921, p 6; 17 December
1921, p 6; 24 January 1922, p 6; 11 February 1922, p 6; 25 February 1922, p 6; 11 March 1922, p 6; 9
September 1922, p 7; 14 April 1923, p 5; 21 April 1923, p 3; 17 August 1923, p 5; 5 October 1923, p 5;
16 November 1923, p 5. Los Angeles Record, 8 December 1923, p 15. Heaphy (2017, pages 171–172).
McNeil (2002, pages 78–84). Lester and Stivers (2020, page 68).
154
California Eagle, 6 October 1933, p 10; 28 September 1934, p 7; 26 October 1934, p 1-B; 9 November
1934, p 7; 4 January 1935, p 7. Los Angeles Times, 15 October 1934, p 11. McNeil (2002, pages 167–
172). Lester and Stivers (2020, page 66).
155
PGA of America, Jimmie DeVoe, Class of 2013, https://www.pga.com/archive/pga-america/pga-
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156
San Francisco Call, 12 August 1895, p 4. San Francisco Chronicle, 24 June 1889, p 7; 6 September 1892, p
14; 22 October 1892, p 7. San Francisco Examiner, 5 March 1888, p 5; 23 April 1888, p 8; 7 May 1888, p
8; 14 May 1888, p 8; 21 May 1888, p 8; 27 May 1888, p 3; 23 June 1889, p 3.
157
Los Angeles Herald, 24 May 1879, p 3; 25 May 1879, p 4.
158
Los Angeles Herald, 15 June 1888, p 3; 3 September 1888, p 3; 10 September 1888, p 6. Los Angeles Times,
21 May 1888, p 8; 24 June 1888, p 8; 10 September 1888, p 2; 11 September 1888, p 1; 17 September
1888, p 12.
159
Los Angeles Evening Express, 16 August 1890, p 8; 18 August 1890, p 8. Los Angeles Herald, 6 June 1890, p 8;
17 August 1890, p 6; 11 April 1891, p 10; 26 September 1891, p 5. Los Angeles Times, 27 June 1892, p 5.
160
Los Angeles Express, 21 May 1894, p 3; 27 May 1895, p 7. Los Angeles Herald, 16 April 1894, p 3; 22 April
1894, p 3; 19 May 1894, p 5; 31 May 1894, p 6; 4 June 1894, p 6; 12 June 1894, p 8; 24 June 1894, p 7; 28
January 1895, p 10.
161
Los Angeles Evening Express, 27 May 1895, p 7; 17 June 1895, p 4. Los Angeles Herald, 17 June 1895, p 2; 21
June 1895, p 7; 30 September 1895, p 7; 14 October 1895, p 4; 21 October 1895, p 3. Los Angeles Times,
21 October 1895, p 3.
162
Los Angeles Evening Express, 17 June 1895, p 4; 16 September 1895, p 2. Los Angeles Herald, 17 June 1895, p
2; 24 June 1895, p 7; 1 July 1895, p 4; 6 July 1895, p 7; 22 July 1895, p 8; 12 August 1895, p 3; 26 August
1895, p 3; 2 September 1895, p 3; 9 September 1895, p 3; 16 September 1895, p 3; 30 September 1895, p 7;
14 October 1895, p 4; 21 October 1895, p 3; 28 October 1895, p 3. Los Angeles Times, 5 August 1895, p 3;
12 August 1895, p 3; 19 August 1895, p 3; 26 August 1895, p 3; 14 October 1895, p 3; 21 October 1895, p
3; 8 November 1895, p 12; 18 November 1895, p 3; 25 November 1895, p 3.
163
Los Angeles Evening Express, 24 February 1896, p 2; 23 March 1896, p 2; 15 June 1896, p 7; 22 June 1896,
p 7; 7 September 1896, p 1; 2 November 1896, p 2; 30 November 1896, p 4. Los Angeles Herald, 1 June
1896, p 7; 22 June 1896, p 3; 29 June 1896, p 3; 12 July 1896, p 3; 20 July 1896, p 7; 27 July 1896, p 3; 3
August 1896, p 2; 10 August 1896, p 5; 17 August 1896, p 7; 24 August 1896, p 3; 31 August 1896, p 7;
14 September 1896, p 7; 28 September 1896, p 7; 5 October 1896, p 3; 12 October 1896, p 3; 19
October 1896, p 3; 26 October 1896, p 3; 2 November 1896, p 3; 9 November 1896, p 3; 23 November
1896, p 3; 30 November 1896, p 3; 7 December 1896, p 3. Los Angeles Times, 24 February 1896, p 3; 1
June 1896, p 10; 21 September 1896, p 3; 2 November 1896, p 8; 30 November 1896, p 3; 7 December
1896, p 3.
164
Los Angeles Evening Express, 24 February 1897, p 7. Los Angeles Herald, 21 December 1896, p 3; 25
January 1897, p 3; 22 February 1897, p 3; 1 March 1897, p 3. Los Angeles Times, 5 January 1897, p 13; 1
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165
Chicago Inter Ocean, 14 June 1897, p 4. Chicago Tribune, 15 June 1897, p 4. Los Angeles Herald, 10 May
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1897, p 5; 5 July 1897, p 3; 6 September 1897, p 6; 13 September 1897, p 5; 20 September 1897, p 5; 4
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Los Angeles Evening Express, 5 August 1898, p 3. Los Angeles Herald, 17 January 1898, p 6; 14 February
1898, p 7; 21 February 1898, p 6; 4 July 1898, p 5; 7 August 1898, p 12; 15 August 1898, p 9; 17 October
1898, p 3; 22 October 1898, p 3; 24 October 1898, p 3; 31 October 1898, p 3; 7 November 1898, p 3; 24
July 1899, p 6. Los Angeles Times, 4 January 1898, p 11; 17 January 1898, p 8; 26 January 1898, p 13; 6
February 1898, p 17; 7 February 1898, p 2; 14 February 1898, p 5; 21 February 1898, p 5; 24 July 1898,
74
p 4; 8 August 1898, p 5; 20 August 1898, p 9; 27 August 1898, p 12. Los Angeles Record, 16 May 1898,
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167
Arizona Republican, 2 January 1899, p 4; 3 January 1899, p 4; 9 January 1899, p 4; 16 January 1899, p 4;
23 January 1899, p 4; 30 January 1899, p 4. Los Angeles Herald, 27 March 1899, p 8; 26 May 1899, p 5;
24 July 1899, p 6. Los Angeles Times, 4 May 1899, p 15; 7 August 1899, p 6; 14 August 1899, p 6; 26
December 1899, p 4. Los Angeles Record, 26 May 1899, p 6. San Diego Union, 3 April 1899, p 5; 22
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Baseball-Reference.com, 1899 Los Angeles Merchants, https://www.baseball-
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Los Angeles Evening Express, 13 March 1901, p 9; 20 April 1901, p 9; 31 August 1901, p 7. Los Angeles
Herald, 4 November 1901, p 4. Los Angeles Record, 11 June 1900, p 2; 6 July 1901, p 1. Los Angeles
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March 1900, p 8; 23 April 1900, p 8; 14 May 1900, p 9; 28 May 1900, p 10; 6 July 1900, p 7; 4
September 1900, p 13; 21 April 1901, p 25; 22 April 1901, p 10; 27 May 1901, p 4; 3 June 1901, p 4; 17
June 1901, p 8; 1 July 1901, p 9; 8 July 1901, p 9; 22 July 1901, p 9; 12 August 1901, p 9; 19 August 1901,
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170
Los Angeles Evening Express, 7 April 1902, p 7. Los Angeles Herald, 23 April 1902, p 5; 30 April 1902, p 5;
19 May 1902, p 4; 7 July 1902, p 5; 4 August 1902, p 4. Los Angeles Record, 3 July 1902, p 4. Los
Angeles Times, 25 January 1902, p 5; 14 February 1902, p 11; 22 April 1902, p 16; 23 April 1902, p 13; 7
July 1902, p 9; 21 July 1902, p 10; 3 August 1902, p 22.
171
Los Angeles Evening Express, 15 May 1903, p 7; 18 May 1903, p 3. Los Angeles Times, 20 April 1903, p 12; 8
June 1903, p 10; 15 June 1903, p 10; 13 July 1903, p 12; 18 September 1903, p 11; 21 September 1903, p
11.
172
Los Angeles Herald, 21 March 1904, p 5; 27 May 1907, p 12; 2 June 1907, p 16; 18 January 1910, p 10. Los
Angeles Record, 14 November 1904, p 2; 9 January 1905, p 2. Los Angeles Times, 4 May 1903, p 12; 21
March 1904, p 12; 17 June 1904, p 15; 4 July 1904, p 11; 8 August 1904, p 13; 12 September 1904, p 12;
26 September 1904, p 13; 3 October 1904, p 12; 10 October 1904, p 11; 7 November 1904, p 11; 21
November 1904, p 11; 28 November 1904, p 15; 12 December 1904, p 11; 2 January 1905, p 13; 12 June
1905, p 13; 19 November 1906, p 14; 4 March 1907, p 15.
173
Los Angeles Herald, 23 November 1908, p 6; 26 November 1908, p 7; 26 December 1908, p 7; 28
December 1908, p 7; 2 January 1909, p 6. Los Angeles Times, 13 April 1906, part II (Editorial Section),
p 11; 11 October 1908, part VI (Sporting Section), p 6; 14 December 1908, p 7.
174
California Eagle, 31 January 1920, p 1; 26 August 1921, p 5; 3 September 1921, p 8; 1 October 1921, p 1, 6.
Los Angeles Evening Express, 23 April 1920, p 31; 10 May 1920, p 12. Los Angeles Record, 4 May 1920, 14.
175
California Eagle, 22 October 1921, p 6; 10 March 1923, p 4, 5; 30 May 1924, p 1; 6 June 1924, p 9; 13 June
1924, p 9; 20 June 1924, p 9; 27 June 1924, p 9; 4 July 1924, p 9; 11 July 1924, p 9; 18 July 1924, p 9.
176
Eberle (2022b, pages 185–186).
177
Cummings (1918, page 92). Eberle (2022b, pages 186, 188–189, 195, 239).
178
McNeil (2002, page 46–47, 66–69).
179
Colville Examiner, 18 June 1910, p 3; 20 May 1911, p 5; 8 July 1911, p 3; 7 September 1912, p 2; 21
September 1912, p 6; 28 September 1912, p 2; 8 February 1913, p 4; 15 February 1913, p 7; 19 April
1913, p 2; 26 April 1913, p 2. Spokane Spokesman=Review, 28 December 1912, p 6.
180
Colville Examiner, 3 May 1913, p 10.
181
Colville Examiner, 10 May 1913, p 2.
182
Colville Examiner, 15 March 1913, p 3; 19 April 1913, p 2; 26 April 1913, p 2; 3 May 1913, p 10; 10 May
1913, p 5; 17 May 1913, p 4, 5; 26 July 1913, p 3, 4; 2 August 1913, p 4; 9 August 1913, p 4; 16 August
1913, p 4; 13 September 1913, p 5; 26 June 1915, p 3.
183
Eberle (2022a, pages 1–6). Malloy (1995).
75
184
Missoulian, 29 May 1894, p 1; 31 May 1894, p 1; 6 August 1894, p 4; 11 September 1894, p 1; 21 April
1895, p 1; 22 May 1895, p 1; 11 June 1895, p 4; 30 June 1895, p 1; 18 August 1895, p 4.
185
Missoulian, 10 November 1895, p 1, 4. Ravalli Republican, 4 September 1895, p 2; 10 June 1896, p 3; 24
June 1896, p 4.
186
Anaconda Standard, 22 June 1897, p 2; 6 July 1897, p 7; 25 April 1898, p 3; 9 May 1898, p 3; 12 May 1898,
p 4; 14 May 1898, p 2; 15 May 1898, p 2; 5 June 1898, p 4; 6 June 1898, p 3; 20 June 1898, p 3; 18 Jul
1898, p 7; 25 July 1898, p 3; 1 August 1898, p 3; 17 August 1898, p 4; 20 May 1901, p 8; 25 June 1901, p
11; 1 July 1901, p 10; 5 July 1901, p 4; 8 July 1901, p 2; 15 July 1901, p 8; 27 July 1901, p 4; 30 July 1901, p
5; 2 September 1901, p 6; 3 September 1901, p 8. Billings Daily Gazette, 7 June 1902, p 3; 9 June 1902,
p 3; 16 June 1902, p 3; 24 June 1902, p 3; 5 July 1902, p 3; 7 July 1902, p 3; 14 July 1902, p 3; 15 July
1902, p 3; 18 July 1902, p 3; 21 July 1902, p 3. Boise Idaho Daily Statesman, 24 July 1901, p 5; 25 July
1901, p 7; 26 July 1901, p 8. Butte Miner, 15 August 1898, p 2; 31 May 1900, p 2; 14 May 1901, p 3; 9
September 1901, p 7; 1 August 1904, p 2; 18 June 1905, p 12; 1 July 1905, p 12; 10 July 1905, p 10.
Helena Independent, 14 August 1898, p 8; 15 August 1898, p 5; 21 August 1898, p 5; 22 August 1898, p 5;
28 August 1898, p 8; 29 August 1898, p 8; 4 September 1898, p 5; 5 September 1898, p 8; 18
September 1898, p 8; 19 September 1898, p 8; 20 September 1898, p 5; 22 September 1898, p 5; 10
April 1899, p 8; 14 May 1899, p 8; 15 May 1899, p 8; 29 May 1899, p 5; 11 June 1899, p 8; 12 June 1899,
p 8; 19 June 1899, p 8; 25 June 1899, p 5; 26 June 1899, p 8; 3 July 1899, p 8; 4 July 1899, p 8; 10 July
1899, p 8; 17 July 1899, p 5; 24 July 1899, p 8; 30 July 1899, p 1; 31 July 1899, p 1; 6 August 1899, p 8; 7
August 1899, p 8; 8 August 1899, p 8; 13 August 1899, p 8; 14 August 1899, p 8; 21 August 1899, p 1;
27 August 1899, p 8; 28 August 1899, p 8; 29 August 1899, p 8; 3 September 1899, p 8; 4 September
1899, p 8; 5 September 1899, p 8; 17 September 1899, p 1; 18 September 1899, p 1; 24 September 1899,
p 8; 25 September 1899, p 8; 20 May 1900, p 5. Missoulian, 8 August 1895, p 1; 17 August 1895, p 4;
18 August 1895, p 4; 5 September 1895, p 4; 7 September 1895, p 4; 10 September 1895, p 1, 4; 28
September 1895, p 8; 29 September 1895, p 1; 9 June 1896, p 4; 23 June 1896, p 4; 12 May 1902, p 5; 16
May 1903, p 8; 15 May 1904, p 6; 24 May 1904, p 6; 31 May 1904, p 3; 28 June 1904, p 8; 29 June 1904,
p 8; 30 June 1904, p 3; 26 July 1904, p 3; 19 August 1905, p 2; 20 August 1905, p 2; 28 August 1905, p
2; 24 September 1905, p 6; 10 May 1907, p 6; 11 May 1907, p 2; 6 July 1907, p 7; 9 July 1907, p 2; 22
March 1908, p 12; 26 March 1908, p 10; 27 March 1908, p 8; 1 April 1908, p 2; 17 May 1908, p 8; 18
May 1908, p 8; 29 August 1909, p 12; 4 July 1910, p 10; 5 July 1910, p 6; 17 June 1912, p 6. Red Lodge
Picket, 20 June 1902, p 1. Spokane Spokesman=Review, 11 May 1898, p 5; 14 May 1898, p 5; 15 May 1898,
p 5; 16 May 1898, p 5.
187
Anaconda Standard, 11 April 1898, p 3 (mistakenly identified as “Dan Freeman”); 25 April 1898, p 3; 9
May 1898, p 3; 5 June 1898, p 4; 6 June 1898, p 3; 20 June 1898, p 3; 18 Jul 1898, p 7; 25 July 1898, p 3; 1
August 1898, p 3. Helena Independent, 27 September 1899, p 8. Ravalli Republican, 10 July 1903, p 1.
Spokane Spokesman=Review, 11 May 1898, p 5; 14 May 1898, p 5; 15 May 1898, p 5; 16 May 1898, p 5.
188
Missoulian, 28 January 1902, p 5, 8.
189
Ravalli Republican, 5 July 1907, p 1.
190
Missoulian, 26 June 1909, p 9; 2 June 1913, p 2; 3 June 1913, p 2.
191
Clark (1978).
192
Salt Lake Herald, 14 June 1897, p 2; 21 June 1897, p 2; 28 June 1897, p 6; 30 June 1897, p 7; 6 July 1897, p
3; 12 July 1897, p 8; 19 July 1897, p 8; 22 July 1897, p 8; 19 July 1897, p 8; 22 July 1897, p 8; 25 July 1897,
p 5; 27 September 1897, p 8; 6 October 1897, p 7. Salt Lake Tribune, 31 May 1897, p 8; 14 June 1897, p
5; 21 June 1897, p 5; 28 June 1897, p 5; 6 July 1897, p 8; 12 July 1897, p 8; 19 July 1897, p 8; 22 July 1897,
p 8; 25 July 1897, p 4; 9 August 1897. p 5; 16 August 1897, p 5; 18 September 1897, p 5; 30 October
1898, p 5; 31 October 1898, p 5.
193
Salt Lake Herald, 6 March 1898, p 5; 19 September 1898, p 5; 3 October 1898, p 5; 24 October 1898, p 3;
31 October 1898, p 8; 23 April 1899, p 7; 27 May 1899, p 3; 30 May 1899, p 5; 22 June 1899, p 3; 1 July
1899, p 3; 23 July 1899, p 3. Salt Lake Tribune, 13 September 1897, p 5; 6 March 1898, p 5; 24 July
76
1898, p 6; 3 October 1898, p 8; 25 October 1898, p 5; 30 October 1898, p 5; 31 October 1898, p 5; 22
June 1899, p 3.
194
Salt Lake Herald, 17 August 1892, p 3. Eberle (2019, pages 6–8).
195
Salt Lake Herald, 14 June 1897, p 2; 28 June 1897; 23 July 1899, p 3.
You can learn about the early history of
baseball played by teams throughout
Kansas in the book Kansas Baseball, 1858–
1941, published in 2017 by the University
Press of Kansas and available in paperback
or e-book through bookstores and online
retailers.
The book explores the early game played
by hundreds of town teams composed of
white males, as well as teams of women,
African Americans, American Indians, and
Mexican Americans. Also described are
the regional minor leagues and major
league tours, along with the histories of
towns still playing baseball in the state’s
oldest ballparks constructed between
1924 and 1940.
The history of integrated baseball in
Kansas prior to 1946–1947, when Jackie
Robinson broke the color line in
organized baseball, is explored in an open-
access pdf book or a print-on-demand
paperback, which are available through
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/33/.
The book includes biographies of more
than 80 Black baseballists who played for
predominantly white minor league clubs
and town teams or umpired games
involving at least one white team. The
questions of when and where integrated
teams played are examined and placed
within the broader context of segregation
and exclusion in the community.
