1942 Negro World Series
From BR Bullpen
 |  | |
| Kansas City Monarchs | Four games to None | Washington-Homestead Grays |
| (28-10, NAL) | (21-11, NNL) |
[edit] Introduction
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The 1942 Negro World Series marked the resumption of the Negro World Series after more than a decade, and was the first of seven consecutive official postseason series to crown a champion of the two Negro Leagues. This series featured future Hall of Fame performers Ray Brown, Willard Brown, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith, and Jud Wilson. Games were played in five different cities (including one game that was thrown out]] and the series was notable for the appearance of Paige in every single venue.
[edit] The Teams
The two teams that met in this series were two of the most storied teams in Negro Leagues history. The Kansas City Monarchs had won consecutive pennants from 1937 to 1940, their skein having been interrupted in 1941 by the Birmingham Black Barons. The Homestead Grays had likewise won their fifth pennant in six seasons, 1942 being their third consecutive. The teams had met twice in exhibitions during the regular season, the Grays beating Satchel Paige in extra innings in both games. Most media discussion of the series concentrated on whether Paige would be seeking revenge on the Grays or whether the Grays now held a jinx over Paige, and most prominent black sportswriters installed Homestead as a slight favorite.
[edit] Kansas City Monarchs
The most famous and accomplished team in Negro League history, the Monarchs had dominated the Negro American League. Brown (.310) led the league with 9 homers, more than the next two players combined, second baseman Bonnie Serrell hit .406 to lead the loop, while third baseman Newt Allen (.318), catcher Joe Greene (.366), outfielder Ted Strong (.322), and shortstop Jesse Williams (.315) all topped .300. First baseman Buck O'Neil hit only .269/~.289/.352, being more prized for his running and defensive games. Paige (7-5, 1.95) and Hilton Smith (4-3) were surprisingly the weak members of the staff, Smith having spent most of the season's second half with a sore arm. Booker McDaniels (6-0, 1.76) and Jack Matchett (6-1, 1.56) were the top two hurlers in the league in RA and first and third in winning percentage. Connie Johnson went 4-0 as well. Following the death of their manager Andy Cooper during the previous season, Dizzy Dismukes managed the club early in the season, but turned over the reins to Frank Duncan while assuming the duties of business manager (a title that would be the equivalent of General Manager today).
[edit] Homestead Grays
Guided by player-manager Vic Harris, Homestead had edged the Baltimore Elite Giants and Newark Eagles for the Negro National League title. The stars were catcher Josh Gibson (.347, a NNL-leading 14 homers), and pitchers Ray Brown (13-4, 2.61, second in the league in wins) and Roy Partlow (7-1, 1.29, the lowest RA). While the team had many big names, many were over the hill. Leonard hit .172, Harris .216 and Wilson .243. Sammy Bankhead (.283) was one of the few players other than Gibson to hit, meaning the team was relying heavily on one bat and two arms.
[edit] The Games
[edit] Game One
September 8 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, DC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Monarchs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 0 | |
| Homestead Grays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| W: Jack Matchett (1-0) L: Roy Welmaker (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| HR: none | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: John Craig, -- Kemp, and Hosley "Scrip" Lee | |||||||||||||
| Attendance: 22,129 | |||||||||||||
Satchel Paige and Roy Welmaker matched each other with shutout pitching for the first five five innings, before Jack Matchett was called in to relieve Paige. Paige had allowed consecutive singles to Sam Bankhead and Howard Easterling in the fourth inning, but the Grays batters were hitless otherwise. The Monarchs scored in the sixth on errors by Bankhead and Josh Gibson, and then scored in each inning afterward, routing the Grays by an 8-0 score. Matchett was credited with the victory. The Grays performed poorly in the field, making three times as many errors as hits in the opening game.
Scrip Lee, who umpired at third base this game, was the losing pitcher in the final game of the first Colored World Series in 1924.
[edit] Game Two
September 10 at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Monarchs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 1 | |
| Homestead Grays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 2 | |
| W: Hilton Smith (1-0) L: Roy Partlow (0-1) S: Satchel Paige | |||||||||||||
| HR: none | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: John Craig, Raymond "Mo" Harris, and Win Harris | |||||||||||||
| Attendance: 5,219 | |||||||||||||
Rain had fallen in Pittsburgh most of the day, and bad weather threatened throughout the game, and attendance was held down as a result.
Paige was slated to start the game, but sore-armed Hilton Smith started instead and delivered five scoreless innings before tiring. Paige came in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth protecting Smith's 2-0 lead. Paige found himself in a two-out bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning, but preserved the lead by striking out Josh Gibson on three pitches, running the Grays' streak of scoring futility in this series to 16 innings.
The Monarchs scored three runs in the top of the eighth on a bases-loaded triple by William "Bonnie" Serrell, who was thrown out at the plate attempting to make it an inside-the-park grand slam. The Grays finally broke into the scoring column with four runs in their half of the inning. Paige again pitched out of a jam and ended the inning with a 5-4 lead. Three runs in the ninth gave the Monarchs a final 8-4 cushion, and Paige earned a save for his relief work. Three Grays relief pitchers tried to stop the Monarchs' scoring in the eighth and ninth.
It is one of the great legends of Negro League play that Satchel Paige deliberately walked the bases loaded in the late innings of this game in order to face and strike out Josh Gibson, taunting him as he did.
As frequently told in one form, Paige came into the game in the seventh inning with a 2-0 lead. With two out in the inning, the Grays’ leadoff man Jerry Benjamin tripled. With two out and a man on third, Paige, after some discussion with his manager, intentionally walked the next two batters so he could face Gibson, the most feared hitter in all of black baseball, with the bases loaded. Paige then taunted Gibson while throwing fastballs ("this one's gonna be a pea at your knee"), getting two called strikes on Gibson and then striking him out swinging. The story has also occasionally been told as having happened in the ninth inning with the winning runs on base, and sometimes Gibson was said to have watched all three strikes sail by without ever taking his bat off his shoulder.
According to local and contemporary newspaper reports of the game, Paige retired Chet Williams, the inning’s first batter, gave up a single to pitcher Roy Partlow, retired Benjamin on a force play, then surrendered two-out singles to Vic Harris and Howard Easterling, loading the bases in front of Gibson. Paige did strike out Gibson on three pitches to end the inning and preserve the lead, but there is no record of him taunting Gibson. News accounts also report that Gibson fouled off the first two pitches before missing the third strike. The box score of the game show that Paige did not walk a man.
The first account of this mythical version first appeared in the 1948 book, Pitchin' Man, nearly two years after Gibson's death, and was told in its more familiar form in his 1962 autobiography, Maybe I'll Pitch Forever, 20 years after the fact, and would be repeated and embellished by many others in the years since.
[edit] Game Three
September 13 at Yankee Stadium, New York
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Monarchs | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 16 | 3 | |
| Homestead Grays | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 4 | |
| W: Jack Matchett (2-0) L: Ray Brown (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| HR: KC: Ted Strong (1); Willard Brown (1); WAS-HOM: Howard Easterling (1) | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: Fred McCreary, Bert Gholston, and John Craig | |||||||||||||
| Attendance: 25,290 | |||||||||||||
A first inning two-out home run by Howard Easterling put the Grays up with a 2-0 lead over Paige, and Paige, after facing only nine batters in the first two innings, retired from the game, leaving it to Jack Matchett, who had relieved in Game One. Matchett allowed the Grays only one run over the remainder of the game, while consecutive home runs by Ted Strong and Willard Brown into the right field stands in the third netted four runs, and the Monarchs piled on five more runs in the fourth and fifth innings. An unearned run by the Grays in the sixth completed the scoring. Matchett cruised to his second victory of the Series, and the Monarchs moved to a commanding 3-0 series lead. Ray Brown pitched the entire game for the Grays, giving the rest of its pitching staff a break.
[edit] Games not counted
September 13 at Yankee Stadium, New York (Game 2)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Monarchs | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 2 | |||
| Homestead Grays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |||
| W: Gread McKinnis L: Roy Welmaker | |||||||||||||
| HR: KC: Joe Greene | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: Fred McCreary, Bert Gholston, and John Craig | |||||||||||||
The teams agreed to play a second game that night as an exhibition. Gread McKinnis, who had pitched all season for the Birmingham Black Barons, was recruited by the Monarchs to pitch this game, and threw a three-hit shutout. Joe Greene hit a double and an inside-the-park home run to pace the Monarchs. As was the practice in most Negro League contests of the day, the game was scheduled for only seven innings, and ended in a 5-0 Monarch victory.
September 20 at Ruppert Stadium, Kansas City
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homestead Grays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | |
| Kansas City Monarchs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | |
| W: Leon Day L: Satchel Paige | |||||||||||||
| HR: none | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: Billy Donaldson and Wilber "Bullet" Rogan; a third umpire remains unidentified | |||||||||||||
| Attendance: 8,542 | |||||||||||||
There was a one-week hiatus between the games in New York and the game in Kansas City. The Monarchs were the second tenant in their ballpark (after the Kansas City Blues), and had to wait for an open date. The Grays scheduled an exhibition game on September 16 against the Baltimore Elite Giants during the gap, losing 2-1. Wartime travel restrictions played a role in the time lag as well, as the teams were unable to charter their own transportation to travel from the east to the midwest.
In their only game in their home park, Kansas City took their lone loss. Faced with several injuries (including Sam Bankhead's broken arm), Grays owner Cum Posey signed Bus Clarkson, Leon Day, Ed Stone and Lenny Pearson from the Newark Eagles and the New York Black Yankees for the remainder of the series. Day struck out 12 in shutting down Kansas City while Paige again was reached by the Gray's augmented lineup; this time he got neither support nor relief in the defeat. Paige held the Grays scoreless for four innings, but a two-out walk, double and triple in the fifth scored two. They scored an unearned run in the seventh and talled again in the ninth, while heads-up running by Monarch first baseman John "Buck" O'Neil averted a shutout in the eighth. According to the Kansas City Call, "the game was interrupted several times and no less than a dozen balls thrown out because someone was using emery on the ball." Most of the protests were coming from Monarch batters accusing the Grays of scuffing the ball.
The Monarchs vocally objected to the use of "ringers" before the start of the game, but played the game under official protest for the fans who showed up. After the game, Grays owner Posey claimed that he had received verbal permission from Monarchs co-owner Tom Baird to sign the players, but the Monarchs other owner, J.L. Wilkinson, denied knowledge of any such agreement. A committee composed of officers from both leagues upheld the protest, and the game was thrown out, leaving the Monarchs still ahead in the series, 3-0.
Home plate umpire Billy Donaldson was one of the longest-tenured Negro League umpires, having begun his Negro Leagues career in 1923. First base ump Bullet Rogan spent his playing and managing careers with the Monarchs, and was now a regular NAL ump. Rogan won two games in the first Colored World Series.
Another game was scheduled for September 24 in Wrigley Field in Chicago, but was canceled because of rain, and the series moved back east.
[edit] Game Four
September 29 at Shibe Park, Philadelphia
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Monarchs | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 13 | 2 | |
| Homestead Grays | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 1 | |
| W: Satchel Paige (1-0) L: Johnny Wright (0-1) | |||||||||||||
| HR: KC: Joe Green (1) | |||||||||||||
| Umpires: Fred McCreary, Franklin Forbes, and Phil Cockrell | |||||||||||||
| Attendance: 14,029 | |||||||||||||
Paige was the scheduled starter in the last game but was not present at starting time, so Matchett got the call, but struggled this time, allowing five runs in 3 2/3 innings. Paige arrived in the 4th inning (claiming to have been delayed by a traffic ticket in Lancaster, PA), and immediately relieved Matchett, not allowing a hit or run in the 5 1/3 innings he pitched. The Monarchs' bats came alive then, taking the lead in the seventh inning, and padding it further in the eighth. Roy Partlow, who was listed as injured during the "ringer" controversy, started for the Grays, but left in the second inning. Josh Gibson also made an early exit from the game, leaving after only two innings. Johnny Wright took the loss in relief.
Phil Cockrell, umpiring at third base in this final game, was the losing pitcher in the first Colored World Series in 1924.
[edit] Summary
Kansas City hit .345/.397/.503 vs. Homestead's .206/.280/.250, outscoring them 34-12. The Monarchs' hitting stars were many, including Bonnie Serrell (.556/.579/.722), Jesse Williams (.471/.526/.588), Joe Greene (.444/.500/.667) and Willard Brown (.412/.500/.765) in the rout. Buck O'Neil's .353 series batting average was barely better than the team standard. Hilton Smith (1-0, 0.00), Satchel Paige (1-0, 2.20) and Jack Matchett (2-0, 0.00) shut down the vaunted Homestead hitters, with a team ERA of 1.00.
For Homestead, all the pitchers - Partlow (0-1, 6.00), Brown (0-1, 9.00), Welmaker (0-1, 6.10) and Wright (0-1, 10.29) - were ineffective, giving the team an aggregate 7.50 ERA. Among the hitters, Howard Easterling (.313/.421/.500) was the only effective starer, while Buck Leonard (.250/.250/.250), Vic Harris (.125/.222/.125), and Josh Gibson (.077/.200/.077) were almost completely shut down.
With the game in Kansas City thrown out, the Grays were the home team in each of the four official games. Even counting the two non-official games, the visiting team was the winner in each of the six games.
In the four games that counted, Monarch second baseman Bonnie Serrell made ten hits and shortstop Jesse Williams stole five bases. If records of the Colored World Series were considered part of Major League canon, Serrell's mark would have tied the record for a four-game World Series set by Babe Ruth in 1928, while Williams' would have established a new and as of yet unbroken four-game World Series mark.
[edit] Sources
- Books
- Pitchin' Man by LeRoy (Satchel) Paige and Hal Lebowitz, 1948
- Maybe I'll Pitch Forever: A Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story Behind the Legend by Leroy Paige and David Lipman, 1962
- The Negro Leagues Book edited by Larry Lester and Dick Clark, 1994
- The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues by John Holway, 2001
- "The Historical Satchel Paige: Trues Stories and Tales Truly Told", Satchel Paige and Company: Essays on the Kansas City Monarchs, Their Greatest Star and the Negro Leagues edited by Leslie A. Heaphy, 2007
- Newspapers
- Baltimore Afro-American, September/October 1942
- Chicago Defender, September/October 1942
- Kansas City Call, September/October 1942
- Kansas City Times, September 21, 1942
- Philadelphia Inquirer, Septbember 30, 1942
- Pittsburgh Courier, September/October 1942
- Pittsburgh Press-Gazette, September 11, 1942
- Pittsburgh Post, September 11, 1942
- Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 11, 1942
- The Sporting News, September/October 1942
- Washington Post, September 9, 1942
