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Gary Ashwill

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Ashby Columbus Dunbar

I’ve been wanting to post details from my ongoing research more regularly—to make the blog a little bloggier, you might say. So here’s a little research find from last year. Ashby Columbus Dunbar, who clearly belongs in a Dave Frishberg... Continue reading

Posted Jun 15, 2017 at Agate Type

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The First Professional Baseball Player from Africa

Back on April 26, the utility infielder Gift Ngoepe, from South Africa, became the first African-born player in the major leagues—or so one might have thought. If you consider the Canary Islands a part of Africa, then Ngoepe missed out... Continue reading

Posted Jun 13, 2017 at Agate Type

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Willie Mays, 1946 San Francisco Sea Lions

A few years ago a writer for SFGate noticed that, according to the baseball-reference.com Negro league pages, Willie Mays played for the San Francisco Sea Lions of the West Coast Baseball Association in 1946. No, not that Willie Mays. It... Continue reading

Posted May 20, 2017 at Agate Type

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Carroll/Alexander Park in 1921

Several weeks back Bill Mullins sent me a wonderful 1921 map of Carroll Park (or, as it was better known in 1921, Alexander Park), home of the Alexander Giants, from the Baist Real Estate Atlas of Los Angeles. Here’s a... Continue reading

Posted Apr 15, 2017 at Agate Type

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The Location of Carroll Park, Los Angeles

Bill Mullins has dug up fire insurance maps from 1920 for the portion of Long Beach Avenue where Carroll/Alexander Park, home of the Alexander Giants of Los Angeles, was built that year. The maps don’t show the park, so must... Continue reading

Posted Mar 15, 2017 at Agate Type

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Chesterton Ball Team, 1913

Priscilla Johnson sent in this amazingly sharp and clear photograph of a town team in Chesterton, Indiana, in 1913. It has come down to her from her grandparents, who lived there until the 1950s. She was wondering in particular about... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2017 at Agate Type

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The Alexander Giants of Los Angeles

A couple of years ago Pete Gorton sent me the following half of a panoramic photograph, dating from the 1910s or early 1920s, showing an unidentified black team in an unknown ballpark. Pete had gotten a request from Hake’s to... Continue reading

Posted Feb 25, 2017 at Agate Type

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Santop's Scrap Books

The image above shows what I’ve called the “Santop montage,” a collection of black baseball photographs from the 1910s that was auctioned off by Hake’s a few years ago. Its exact origin was apparently unknown, but since it features several... Continue reading

Posted Feb 6, 2017 at Agate Type

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Negro Leaguers in Puerto Rico

Edwin Torres-Romero, an expert on Puerto Rican baseball, has kindly provided some amazing photographs of Negro leaguers in Puerto Rico. First is a fantastic picture of George Scales and Chino Smith, probably in the winter of 1925/26: Here (courtesy of... Continue reading

Posted Jan 24, 2017 at Agate Type

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This Cuban Stars Broadside Does Not Date from 1920

The above broadside advertising a June 11 game between the Cuban Stars and Marshall University dates, according to Getty Images, to 1920. Okay, to be clear they say “ca. 1920.” But it should be immediately obvious to anyone reading the... Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2017 at Agate Type

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Philadelphia Giants, 1902

When identifying people in old photographs, few resources are more helpful than finding the photograph printed in a newspaper with all the people in it identified. This photo, from Sol White’s Official Base Ball Guide (1907), is the earliest known... Continue reading

Posted Jan 6, 2017 at Agate Type

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You can download that issue of The National Pastime here: http://research.sabr.org/journals/pdfs-np/583-the-national-pastime--16

Commented Nov 21, 2016 on bill thompson, the twin state league, and “organized baseball” at Agate Type

The Cubs in Sprudel Park, 1908

In the comments Kim Agan points out that the last time the Cubs won the World Series, back in 1908, they took spring training at the luxurious West Baden Springs Hotel in Indiana—at Sprudel Park, a ballpark surrounded by an... Continue reading

Posted Nov 3, 2016 at Agate Type

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The Missouri History Museum has uncovered an astonishing find: a photograph of Stars Park, home of the Negro National League’s St. Louis Stars in the 1920s. See here for some (limited) views of the park’s interior, and here for a... Continue reading

Posted Oct 27, 2016 at Agate Type

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A few months ago Jimmy Allen, original owner of this photograph of the 1923 Washington Potomacs, sent me another photo to identify. The uniform style puts the photograph in the 1930s or 1940s. The logo, with the letters S and... Continue reading

Posted Oct 21, 2016 at Agate Type

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The Colored Baseball Championship Game, 1914

William D. Foster, from Wikipedia. A few years ago I wrote about a silent film called As the World Rolls On (1921), a Jack Johnson vehicle that featured footage of actual Negro league baseball games as an integral part of... Continue reading

Posted Oct 16, 2016 at Agate Type

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William G. Nunn, Sr.

William G. Nunn III, who played Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, has passed away of leukemia at the sadly early age of 63. Nunn’s name is, or should be, very familiar to historians of black baseball,... Continue reading

Posted Sep 25, 2016 at Agate Type

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Baseball & Haiti

Some months ago Mark Aubrey sent me this fascinating 1928 photo of the General Directorate of Public Works baseball team in Gonaïves, Haiti (from the University of Florida archives). Its fascination stems in part from the fact that we don’t... Continue reading

Posted Aug 31, 2016 at Agate Type

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Cool Papa’s Rookie Season

Looking at two interviews with Cool Papa Bell (one in John Holway’s Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues, the other part of the University of Missouri-St. Louis’s oral history project), one is struck by how much he talked about... Continue reading

Posted Jul 15, 2016 at Agate Type

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Dobie Moore in the Wild West

I’ve written quite a bit about tracking down the death of Kansas City Monarchs shortstop Dobie Moore; here’s something about his life, an anecdote from 1925 I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use yet. It puts at least a little... Continue reading

Posted Jun 29, 2016 at Agate Type

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Ben Taylor & the 1923 Washington Potomacs

A few months ago I was hired by Jimmy Allen to research the above photograph, which he’d had in his collection for decades. With his permission, I’m presenting my findings here, because it’s both a beautiful photograph and historically significant.... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2016 at Agate Type

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P. D. Arnett & the Chicago Unions

Jay Sokol of Black College Nines recently wrote me about this 1899 Chicago Unions promotional calendar, and asked about the player named “Arnett” on the bottom left: Coincidentally, I had been looking at this same calendar (displayed at The National... Continue reading

Posted May 22, 2016 at Agate Type

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The Scar on Ollie Marcell’s Nose

This may be old news to some, but I recently ran across this World War II draft registration card filled out in 1942 by Oliver Marcell, then living in Denver, Colorado, where he would pass away a few years later... Continue reading

Posted May 19, 2016 at Agate Type

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Rube Foster in Kankakee

Jimmy Yancey & Rube Foster If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out ESPN’s “The Diary of Myles Thomas,” an account of the 1927 Yankees from the (fictionalized) perspective of a minor figure on the team, the... Continue reading

Posted May 11, 2016 at Agate Type

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Cuban Giants, 1910

A few weeks ago James Tate alerted me to this stunning postcard of a Cuban Giants team, with the players identified on the reverse, for sale on eBay: And here is the reverse side, which identifies the players: Standing, L... Continue reading

Posted May 3, 2016 at Agate Type

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