Bullet Rogan

Rogan at the 1924 Negro League World Series.

Charles Wilber Rogan

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 160 lb.

• Born July 28, 1893 in Oklahoma City, OK USA
• Died March 4, 1967 in Kansas City, MO USA

Inducted into Hall of Fame in 1998

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Bullet Rogan played for the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs from 1920 to 1938. He was one of the winningest pitchers in Negro Leagues history, as well as a top hitter, frequently playing an outfield position when not pitching.

Rogan started as a catcher with an amateur team in Kansas City, Kansas, and then enlisted in the United States Army about 1914, and was recruited about 1915 to play for the all-black Twenty-Fifth Infantry Wreckers club at Schofield Barracks until 1918, pitching and playing all positions. While on leave in March and April 1917, Rogan pitched a game for the Los Angeles White Sox, an all-black team in the California Winter League, and then pitched some games for the All-Nations Team in his hometown. The Twenty-Fifth Infantry transferred to Ft. Stephen Little near Nogales, Arizona in 1919, and Rogan got his discharge in June 1920, at which time he joined the Monarchs. In his professional career he played every position except catcher, mainly concentrating on his pitching. Following the death of José Méndez, Rogan became the Monarchs' manager in the late 1920s, retiring from that position in the late thirties. Well into the late 1940s, he umpired in the Negro American League, primarily at Monarchs home games.

Rogan is thought to have been one of the first pitchers to work from a no-windup position.

Rogan also was a long-time California Winter League star. His 52 complete games is the CWL record and he ranks second in innings pitched and strikeouts (516 and 351 respectively, trailing only Satchel Paige in both categories). He is 5th with 5 shutouts and third with 42 wins (behind Paige and Chet Brewer).

Satchel Paige said this about Rogan in the book Blackball Stars: "Joe Rogan was one of the world's greatest pitchers. ...He was a chunky little guy, but he could throw hard. He could throw hard as Smokey Joe Williams-yeah."

Negro Leagues Career Statistics

Batting

Year	Team	League	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	BA	OBP	SLG
.
1920	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	48	186	20	55	6	8	1	19	9	10	.296	.332	.430
1921	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	83	259	48	79	12	8	6	47	19	30	.305	.377	.483
1922	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	79	241	58	89	11	7	15	55	16	35	.369	.449	.660
1923	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	68	207	38	77	12	3	7	45	5	20	.372	.427	.560
1924	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	59	191	35	76	10	5	5	49	7	15	.398	.442	.581
1925	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	57	145	26	54	7	8	2	44	7	16	.372	.435	.572
1926	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	57	147	26	45	8	3	1	8	2	24	.306	.404	.422
1927	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	56	116	18	38	3	3	2	9	1	21	.328	.431	.457
1928	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	64	201	40	70	14	5	3	22	5	18	.348	.396	.512
1929	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	73	264	68	94	16	9	7	33	26	21	.356	.404	.564
1930	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	29	107	26	32	6	0	0	5	5	17	.299	.395	.355
1931 1932	(did not play)
1933	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	7	19	5	6	0	0	1	5	2	3	.316	.409	.474
1934	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	7	28	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	.107	.138	.143
1935	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	2	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167	.167	.167
1936	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	2	5	3	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	.400	.400	.800
1937	Kansas City Monarchs	NAL	17	34	3	10	2	1	0	6	2	4	.294	.368	.519
1938	Kansas City Monarchs	NAL	12	24	5	5	1	0	0	2	1	2	.208	.269	.250
.
Totals	17 seasons		720	2180	421	736	111	60	50	369	107	237	.338	.403	.512
	per 162 g	4.44	162	491	95	166	25	14	11	83	24	53

• source: Seamhead.com, except for:
  • (1923; 1926-1928; 1930): Shades of Glory, Hogan et al., ppg. 396-397

Pitching

Year	Team	League	W	L	SV	Pct	G	GS	CG	ShO	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
.
1920	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	5	3	0	.625	9	9	8	0	79.7	67	32	20	27	68	2.26
1921	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	12	8	1	.600	22	20	20	3	181.0	150	68	45	57	102	2.24
1922	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	8	6	1	.571	19	14	13	1	131.33	117	61	29	27	80	1.99
1923	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	16	10	3	.615	33	23	19	4	239.7	209	110	78	74	146	2.93
1924	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	18	6	0	.750	27	25	21	1	204.0	181	94	61	66	115	2.69
1925	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	17	2	3	.895	24	18	17	5	171.3	137	44	44	25	102	2.31
1926	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	16	5	1	.762	24	14	13	0	158.0	145	64	56	41	77	3.19
1927	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	13	7	3	.650	27	14	13	3	144.7	134	49	37	29	102	2.30
1928	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	10	2	2	.833	17	10	8	0	114.3	122	47	38	14	54	2.99
1929	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	0	1	0	.000	2	1	0	0	9.3	10	3	3	0	3	2.89
1930	Kansas City Monarchs	NNL	0	0	0	---	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	---
1931 1932	(did not play)
1933	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	0	0	0	---	1	1	0	0	1.3	4	3	2	0	0	13.53
1934	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	0	0	0	---	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	---
1935	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	1	0	0	1.000	1	0	0	0	3.00	5	3	0	0	1	0.00
1936	Kansas City Monarchs	independent	0	0	0	---	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	---
1937	Kansas City Monarchs	NAL	0	0	0	---	2	1	0	0	5.7	5	9	1	9	5	7.94
1938	Kansas City Monarchs	NAL	0	0	0	---	1	0	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
.
Totals	17 seasons		116	50	14	.699	209	150	132	17	1444.3	1286	587	418	361	855	2.60
	seasonal notation		25	11	3		45	32	28	4	311.7	277	127	90	78	184

• source: Shades of Glory, Hogan et al., ppg. 409-409

External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• BaseballLibrary - biography

References

• The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, by James Riley (Carroll & Graf, 2002), ISBN 0-7867-0959-6
• The California Winter League, by William McNeil (McFarland, 2002), ISBN 0-7864-1301-8
• The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues, by John Holway (Hastings House, 2001), ISBN 0-8038-2007-0
• The Monarchs 1920-1938, by Phil Dixon (Mariah Press, 2002), ISBN 1-893250-08-3
• U.S. Census and U.S. Army enlistment information (date of birth)

Further Reading

• David Adler: "Bullet Rogan: The Negro Leagues' Two-Way Star", "The Negro Leagues", mlb.com, [1]