This column exists for only one purpose and that is to answer your questions on Negro League baseball history. To that end, I need your help … if you are reading this column and enjoy it and want it to continue and you don’t already know everything about Negro League history … then please submit a question on any aspect of Negro League history. Your questions are the lifeblood of Shadow Ball—they shape where we go next.
– players, teams, events, and more – and, in so doing, you will direct where this column goes moving forward. Your participation is important and appreciated. The very existence of this column depends on you. Submit your questions to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com.
Last week’s Shadow Ball Significa question: Last week’s Shadowball Significa Question of the Week: What manager has been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame for Negro League performance?
Since no one submitted the correct answer, everyone gets credit for being correct since there, in the 55 years since the Baseball Hall of Fame began inducting Negro Leaguers no Negro Leaguer has been inducted as a manager. Hence, this week’s topic. Last week I opined that there should be between 58 (i.e., 30 additional) and 80 (or 52 more than at present) Negro League players in the Hall. This week, as a follow up I thought I should suggest who a few of those players – and others – should be. Below I list two candidates (and their overall rank in the 42 for ’21 poll) for each category:
First Team Second Team
Executive Gus Greenlee (5) C.I. Taylor (11)
Pioneer John Donaldson (3) Fleet Walker (20)
Manager Vic Harris (6) Candy Jim Taylor (13)
Umpire Bob Motley (42) Bert Gholsten (115)
LH Pitcher George Stovey (20) Nip Winters (30)
RH Pitcher Dick Redding (2) Chet Brewer (11)
Catcher Quincy Trouppe (16) Double Duty Radcliffe (23)
1st Baseman Bill Pettus (44) Edgar Wesley (59)
2nd Baseman Newt Allen (9) George Scales (14)
3rd Baseman John Beckwith (4) Oliver Marcelle (18)
Shortstop Dick Lundy (7) Home Run Johnson (8)
Outfielder Rap Dixon (1) Wild Bill Wright (23)
The Shadowball Significa Question of the Week: What Negro League player was Barry Bonds Godfather? Send your answer and any comments on Negro League topics to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadow Ball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033
Ted Knorr is a Negro League baseball historian, longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Negro League Committee, and founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference and several local Negro League Commemorative Nights in central Pennsylvania. You can send questions for Knorr on Negro League topics as well as your answers to the week’s Significa question to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadow Ball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033
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