Kansas City Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro Leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, they were members of the Negro National League from its founding in 1920 until its demise in 1930, and were members of the Negro American League throughout its existence from 1937 until 1962. Founded and owned by and owned by J.L. Wilkinson, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system to play games at night in 1930, five years before any major league team did.

The Monarchs won eleven league championships before integration (1923-25, 1929, 1931 in the NNL; 1937-40, 1942, 1946 in the NAL), and triumphed over the Hilldale club in the first Negro League World Series in 1924 by a 5-4-1 count. The Monarchs lost to Hilldale in the next year's Series, 5-1. While members of the NAL, the Monarchs swept the Homestead Grays in the 1942 Colored World Series, but lost the 1946 Series to the Newark Eagles by a 4-3 count.

Following the breaking of the color bar and the raiding of many Negro Leagues teams by the white majors, J.L. Wilkinson sold his interest in the club to partner Tom Baird after the 1948 season and retired. When the Kansas City A's began play in 1955, the Monarchs found themselves paying increasingly exorbitant rent and fees for use of Municipal Stadium, and Baird sold a number of players to major league organizations and released manager Buck O'Neil, who then signed as a scout for the Chicago Cubs. He then sold the franchise to entrepreneur Ted Rasberry, who kept the team's name but based it out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. After having sent more players to the major leagues than any other Negro League franchise, the Monarchs finally disbanded at the close of the 1965 season.

Hall of Famers primarily associated with the Monarchs are Bullet Rogan, J.L. Wilkinson, Jose Mendez, Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith, and Willard Brown. Other Hall of Famers who spent a season or more with the Monarchs are Cristobal Torriente, Andy Cooper, Turkey Stearnes, Cool Papa Bell, Bill Foster, Willie Wells, Ernie Banks, and Jackie Robinson.

[edit] Further Reading

• Janet Bruce: The Kansas City Monarchs, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1985.
• Dick Clark & Larry Lester, eds.: The Negro Leagues Book, The Society for American Baseball Research, Cleveland, OH, 1994.
• Phil S. Dixon: The Monarchs 1920-1938, Featuring Wilber "Bullet" Rogan, Mariah Press, Sioux Falls, SD, 2002.
• Leslie Heaphy, ed.: Satchel Paige and Company: Essays on the Kansas City Monarchs, their Greatest Star and the Negro Leagues, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2007.
• John B. Holway: The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues, Hastings House, 2001.
• Larry Lester: Baseball's First Colored World Series: The 1924 Meeting of the Hilldale Giants and the Kansas City Monarchs, McFarland Publishing, Jefferson, NC, 2006.
• Robert Peterson: Only the Ball was White, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1970.