However, the Veterans Committee may have been somewhat remiss by excluding another outstanding pitcher from that era named Bob Caruthers, who was also a part-time outfielder. Although he spent only nine seasons in the majors, from 1884 to 1892, Caruthers compiled some outstanding numbers. Splitting his time between Brooklyn and St. Louis, he won 40 games twice, 30 once, 29 twice, and 23 another time. Here are his numbers from 1885 to 1890:
1885:
40 wins, 13 losses; 2.07 ERA; 482 innings pitched; 53 complete games
1886:
30 wins, 14 losses; 2.32 ERA; 387 innings pitched; 42 complete games
1887:
29 wins, 9 losses; 3.30 ERA; 341 innings pitched; 39 complete games
1888:
29 wins, 15 losses; 2.39 ERA; 391 innings pitched; 42 complete games
1889:
40 wins, 11 losses; 3.13 ERA; 445 innings pitched; 46 complete games
1890:
23 wins, 11 losses; 3.09 ERA; 300 innings pitched; 30 complete games
Caruthers led the league in wins twice and ERA once. In spite of the fact that he was a regular starter in his team’s pitching rotation only seven seasons, he managed to compile a career won-lost record of 218-99, for a brilliant .688 winning percentage, finish with an ERA of 2.83, and complete 298 of his 310 starts. While he wasn’t able to accumulate the career totals of his six contemporaries, he was as effective as any of them, and probably better than Keefe, Welch, and Galvin.
Joe Williams/Leon Day/Bullet Rogan/
Bill Foster/Hilton Smith
Though not nearly as famous as Satchel Paige, these five men were all outstanding Negro League pitchers who were elected by the Veterans Committee near the turn of the century.
Even though Satchel Paige is generally considered to have been the greatest pitcher in Negro League history, there are those who feel differently. In fact, a 1952
Pittsburgh Courier
poll of black sportswriters and baseball players voted “Smokey” Joe Williams the greatest pitcher in Negro League history, ahead of Paige.
Williams pitched in the Negro Leagues from 1910 to 1932 and had his greatest years with the New York Lincoln Giants from 1912 to 1923. There he teamed with Cannonball Dick Redding to give the New York team a devastating one-two punch in their rotation. His signature season was 1914, when, pitching against all levels of competition, he won 41 games while losing only 3 (in league play, he was 12-2 with 100 strikeouts in 17 games). In exhibition games against major league competition, Williams went 20-7, defeating Hall of Famers Grover Cleveland Alexander, Walter Johnson, Waite Hoyt, Chief Bender, and Rube Marquard in the process. In fact, in a 1917 game against the National League champion New York Giants, Williams struck out 20 batters and pitched a no-hitter, although he lost the game, 1-0, on an error.
After being released in a Lincoln Giants’ youth movement in 1924, Williams joined the Brooklyn Royal Giants for one season, then moved on to the Homestead Grays. There, he joined Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, and others to form what some consider to have been the greatest team in Negro League history.
Ty Cobb, noted for his racial intolerance and general surliness, once said that Williams would have been a sure 30-game winner had he been a major leaguer. He was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1999.
Leon Day was one of the most versatile of all Negro League players, playing second base and the outfield on the days he wasn’t pitching. Although he was a fine hitter as well, Day was best known for being one of the best Negro League pitchers of all-time. His 95-mph fastball and nasty curveball made him the top strikeout artist of the late 1930s and ’40s. Day’s best overall season came in 1937, when he went 13-0 in league play, in addition to batting .320. He set many strikeout records over the course of his career, setting the Puerto Rican mark with 19 in an 18-inning marathon in 1940. He also set a Negro League record with 18 strikeouts against the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1942, fanning Roy Campanella three times. That same season, with Day’s team out of the playoffs, he was recruited by the Homestead Grays to pitch in the World Series against Satchel Paige. Day bested Paige with a five-hitter in the classic match-up. He also played in a record seven East-West All-Star games between 1935 and 1946, fanning five of the seven batters he faced in the 1942 contest.
In the introduction of
“Dandy, Day and the Devil,”
a book by James A. Reilly about Ray Dandridge, Day and Willie Wells, Hall of Famer Monte Irvin wrote, “In a must-win situation, the manager always gave the ball to Leon, and he failed very few times. In those important games, he would ask his teammates for one run and if they couldn’t do it, he would step up to the plate and do it himself. I compare him to Bob Gibson.”
The Veterans Committee elected Day to the Hall of Fame in 1995.
Another versatile Negro League player was the Kansas City Monarchs Joe “Bullet” Rogan, who played every position except catcher at some point during his professional career. In his 19 seasons, Rogan compiled a .339 batting average, tenth among all Negro Leaguers, and led the league in homers and stolen bases three times each. However, it was as a pitcher that Rogan gained his greatest fame. Possessing a great fastball and curve, and superb control as well, he led the league in wins twice and compiled a record of 111-43, for a .721 winning percentage. Monarchs pitcher Chet Brewer held him in particularly high regard, believing that Rogan should have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame before Satchel Paige.
Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel referred to Rogan as “one of the best—if not the best—pitcher that ever pitched.” Rogan was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1998.
Half-brother of Negro League pitcher and pioneer Rube Foster, Bill Foster was the greatest lefthanded pitcher in Negro League history. Over his 16 seasons, he compiled a winning percentage close to .700. Foster won pennants with the Chicago American Giants in 1926, 1927, 1932, and 1933, excelling in the postseason. After compiling a regular season record of 11-4 in 1926, Foster faced the Kansas City Monarchs, down two games to one, for the Negro National League title. Needing wins in both games of a doubleheader for the pennant, Foster won both games, beating Bullet Joe Rogan twice.
During that season’s Negro World Series against the Bacharach Giants, Foster pitched three complete games, relieved in a fourth, won two games including a shutout, and compiled a 1.27 ERA. The following year, he finished 21-3, and once again won two World Series games. After the 1929 season, Foster participated in a two-game series against an American League All-Star team. He pitched poorly in the first contest, but shut out the major leaguers in the rematch, striking out nine and yielding no hits over eight innings. After the series, Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer told Foster, “If I could paint you white, I could get $150,000 for you right now.”
Foster was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1996.
Righthander Hilton Smith was best known for being Satchel Paige’s “relief” with the Kansas City Monarchs. After Paige pitched three innings, Smith typically threw the final six frames and was just as effective. However, due to his quiet manner, he was overshadowed by the more flamboyant Paige.
Still, many Negro League players felt that the man who possessed the best curve in black baseball was the game’s best all-around pitcher. With the Monarchs, from 1937 to 1948, Smith was certainly among the very best, frequently winning more than 20 games. His best years were from 1939 to 1942, when he finished with records of 25-2, 21-3, 25-1, and 22-5. He retired from the Negro Leagues with a career record of 161-32. The Veterans Committee elected Smith to the Hall of Fame in 2001.
In spite of the limited availability of statistical data surrounding the careers of Williams, Day, Rogan, Foster, and Smith, it is quite clear that all five men were exceptional pitchers who were most deserving of their places in Cooperstown.
Ray Brown/Andy Cooper/Jose Mendez
Each member of this second tier of outstanding Negro League pitchers was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2006.
Ray Brown spent 19 years in the Negro Leagues, beginning his career with the Dayton Marcos in 1930. It was with the Homestead Grays, though, that Brown gained general recognition as one of black baseball’s finest hurlers. Pitching for the Grays from 1932 to 1945, Brown appeared in four World Series, posting a record of 3-2 in his seven Series starts. Among his victories was a one-hit shutout of the Birmingham Black Barons in the 1944 World Series. Over the course of his career, Brown played in four All-Star games and was a member of eight pennant-winning teams.
Brown had a wide assortment of pitches but depended heavily on his curveball to baffle opposing hitters. Brown had such fine control of his curve that he wasn’t afraid to throw it at any point in the count. His wide array of pitches enabled him to throw a seven-inning perfect game against the Chicago American Giants in 1945. Ranking high in career winning percentage among Negro League pitchers, Brown posted marks of 12-3, 18-3, 15-8, and 13-6 in different seasons, and, at one point, won 28 straight games between 1936 and 1937. In 1938, Brown was one of five players designated as certain major-league stars in a wire sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates by
The Pittsburgh Courier.
The other four players identified were Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, and Cool Papa Bell.
Andy Cooper pitched for four teams during a 22-year Negro League career that lasted until he was age 45. Cooper spent most of his time with the Detroit Stars and Kansas City Monarchs, although he also pitched briefly for the Chicago American Giants and St. Louis Stars. The 6'2" 220-pound lefthander was a master at mixing pitches and changing speeds, and kept opposing batters off-balance with his wide array of breaking pitches.
After struggling somewhat in his first two years with Detroit, Cooper came into his own in 1922. Over his next six seasons with the Stars he posted a combined record of 72-30 in league play. Cooper joined the Monarchs in 1928 and, after several successful seasons with them, had his best year for the team in 1936. With the Monarchs playing as an independent team against all levels of competition, Cooper compiled a record of 27-8. Over the course of his career, Cooper posted an overall record of 116-57 in league play, and established the Negro League career record for saves, with 29. He played for five pennant-winning clubs in his 22 seasons.
Jose Mendez was one of the first Latino baseball legends. In his homeland of Cuba, he was called
El Diamante Negro—
The Black Diamond. Mendez threw a hard, rising fastball and a sharp-breaking curve with a deceptively easy motion that made him extremely difficult for opposing hitters to properly time.
Mendez compiled a record of 9-0 in his first Cuban League season, which lasted from January through March of 1908. In the fall of that year, he pitched the games that made him a legend. Pitching against the Cincinnati Reds in a series of exhibition games played in Havana, Mendez threw 25 consecutive scoreless innings in his three appearances, two of which were starts. He finished the series with a record of 2-0, an ERA of 0.00, and allowed just 8 hits while striking out 24 batters. Over the next six Cuban League seasons, Mendez continued to dominate, topping the circuit’s pitchers in wins three times, and leading his team to three pennants. Mendez was also extremely effective when he performed in the Negro Leagues during the summer. Some sources indicate that Mendez posted a 44-2 record with the Cuban Stars in 1909, although another source lists him with a more modest mark of 14-2 that year.
During his peak seasons of 1908-1913, Mendez frequently pitched against America’s best teams and best pitchers of all colors. In his native country he outpitched Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson and Eddie Plank in exhibition games, although his combined record against major league teams was a mediocre 9-11.
After facing John McGraw’s New York Giants, Mendez was proclaimed by the legendary manager as being “sort of Walter Johnson and Grover Alexander rolled into one.”
Ira Thomas, a catcher for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, discussed Mendez in a 1913 article in
Baseball Magazine
: “Mendez is a remarkable man...It is not alone my opinion, but the opinion of many others who have seen Mendez pitch, that he ranks with the best in the game. I do not think he is Walter Johnson’s equal, but he is not far behind. He has terrific speed, great control and uses excellent judgment. He is a natural ballplayer if there ever was one and, with his pitching, it is no wonder that the Cubans win games.”
And, John Henry Lloyd, who faced most of baseball’s finest pitchers, both black and white, during the first quarter of the 20th century, said that he had never seen a pitcher superior to Mendez.
Unfortunately, Mendez developed arm trouble at the end of the 1913 season and was never again a dominant pitcher. He was removed from his team’s regular pitching rotation and spent the remainder of his career primarily at shortstop, although he also played the outfield and took an occasional turn on the mound.
Evaluating the Hall of Fame credentials of Brown, Cooper, and Mendez, all three men were obviously outstanding pitchers. They received a great deal of acclaim during their careers, and those who saw them pitch respected them highly. But, while the statistics surrounding the careers of the three pitchers are quite incomplete, all available evidence suggests that they were a notch below the five other former Negro League hurlers inducted into Cooperstown at the turn of the century. Williams, Day, Rogan, Foster, and Smith all had more impressive resumes and were generally more highly-regarded by most Negro League experts.