Of course, we'll never know just how great of a pitcher Donaldson was since he stood amateurs on their heads and didn't play much against the black stars of his time. Negro League executives, when discussing star pitchers of the World War I era, never mention Donaldson because the All-Nations team was looked upon as of far inferior quality. Cum Posey, the legendary Negro League executive, lauded the merits of Smokey Joe Williams and Cannonball Dick Redding (who I feel should be in the Hall of Fame), two picthers who pitched against talent.

This was a fun piece to read, but the merits of Donaldson are exaggerated. However, hero worship is fine and dandy. Cannonball Redding is credited with 30 no-hitters against all levels of competition and I firmly believe, since he played against teams of higher quality, that he should get a Hall of Fame nod before Donaldson. That committee which elected close to 20 former Negro Leaguers surely left Donaldson off their list because of the stigma the All-Nations squad had for playing sawmill and mining league teams. How would Christy Mathewson have performed had he pitched against nothing but amateurs?

The racism on display in some of the comments to the article is just astounding too.

Amazing that if the White SOx had listened to him in 1950, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron AND Ernie Banks might have all been White Sox through the 50's and 60's. Think about that for a second. . . .

It is not inconceivable that there were others like them (great black players who spent most of their careers outside the Negro Leages) but I don't know of any others...