By Ted Knorr | Harrisburg, PA | August 11, 2026
This column exists for one reason: to answer your questions about Negro League baseball history. To fulfill that mission, we need your help.
If you read and enjoy this column, want it to continue, and haven’t already mastered every corner of Negro League history, we invite you to send us your questions. Your questions are the lifeblood of Shadow Ball—they determine where we go next—from players and teams to memorable games, historic events, and everything in between.
By submitting a question, you help shape the future direction of this column. Your participation is both important and greatly appreciated. In many ways, the continued existence of Shadow Ball depends on readers like you.
Send your questions to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com.
This week’s query is submitted by reader George Schuyler, Topeka, KS, which “Major” Negro League lasted the longest?
Let me begin with, thank you George … I very much appreciate this question, I don’t think – even I – can get this one wrong. Here are the seven leagues (and spans) designated as “major” by Major League Baseball on December 16, 2020:
LEAGUE SPAN YEARS
Negro National League 1 1920-1931 12
Eastern Colored League 1923-1928 6
American Negro League 1929 1
Negro Southern League 1932 1
East-West League 1932 1
Negro National League 2 1933-1948 16
Negro American League 1937-1948 12
The list answers the question – the 2nd Negro National League, founded by Gus Greenlee, January 1933, lasted longer than any other Major Negro League and stands behind only the National and American League (now in its 151st season) and the American League (in its 126th season) among all thirteen leagues designated as Major.
Shadow Ball Significa Questions for the past two issues
July 21 Significa “What former Memphis Red Sox player worked at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis after his retirement from baseball?” was incorrectly reported last issue as not having been answered by anyone … turns out that Kevin Johnson, Broken Arrow, OK, submitted the correct answer, Nat Rogers, just minutes after the issue dropped. Sorry about that KJOK.
July 28 Significa “What pitcher won the last Negro League World Series game?” also provided some controversy. A reader offered Wilmer Fields, as the winner, which is confirmed as such at Retrosheet Negro League game files. However, there is no box score but there as a line score showing that R.T. Walker pitched 9 innings before being relieved in the bottom of the 10thwith his team – after a four spot in the top of the 10th– up by four. Further, in Irv Goldfarb’s SABR biography of R.T. Walker he states that Walker “was awarded the victory.” My current reading of MLB rule 10.19 a, b indicates to me that Walker is the winner having pitched 9 innings and being relieved with the lead. In addition, I asked a local Minor League official scorer and he told me that he would credit the win to Walker. Finally, it turns out that the 10.19 rule that is currently in effect was not in effect in 1948 Major League Baseball let alone the Negro National or American Leagues. Prior to 1950 victories were awarded by the official scorer and usually in accordance with today’s current rules.
This Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
Who was Jackie Robinson’s Manager on April 15, 1947?Send your answer, along with your comments/questions about the Negro Leagues, to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com
or mail them to:
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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.
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