Early this month the Society for American Baseball Research held its 18th annual Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. This year’s theme was built around the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays.
It was almost a miracle that the conference happened at all. George Skornickel, the chair of the Pittsburgh, or force field chapter as he calls it, of SABR, took over after the former chair passed away.
“It was a rush job and we were putting things together in April. We are the only committee [of SABR] that has a conference. We already have it set up for next year, which shows you how early we get things together.”
People flocked from near and far to attend the conference of the Hometown heroes of yesteryear to be regaled with stories of a league long defunct, but that still has an incarnate story to tell.
Nallelie Vega is a grad student at the University of San Francisco working on her Masters project on the decrease of African American players in baseball.
“I figured this would be an excellent conference to attend just because it gives great historical background on Negro Leagues and Black baseball in America,”
James Brunson, former vice president of Northern Illinois University gave a presentation on Black baseball in the Pittsburgh/Allegheny area from 1870 to 1899 and has a book coming out this year called Black baseball 1858- 1900.
“I’m more so interested in the cultural aspects of Black baseball: who these people were, what were the communities like,” he said. “The significant thing about the period that I am looking at is trying to resurrect the history of Black baseball and Black players during an era in history that is difficult to research. So one of the stops on the journey is obviously Pittsburgh because it was a vital area where great Black baseball players came from.”
Over the span of two days conference attendees were treated to a special tour of PNC Park and saw a Pirates-Dodgers game; took part in a lively Negro Leagues trivia contest and listened to a panel on how to do Negro Leagues research. One of the highlights’ for all of the attendees was a one-hour session with Robert “Bob” Paige, son of Hall of Famer Satchel Paige in which he talked about his father’s rivalry with Negro-League legend Josh Gibson and stories his father had from the road.
Leslie Heaphy, program coordinator and history professor at Kent State was especially fond of this presentation because “The Paige family doesn’t give a lot of interviews.”
Just as the conference put a spotlight on the names known by most in the room, there were other presentations about the unsung heroes. Skornickel touted the former manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays Vick Harris. “He is the most winning manager of all time. I have a comparison with him and hall of fame managers and he comes to the top in wins, championships and everything else, but he has been overlooked.”
“We could easily come up with 15 or so people who should be in the Hall of Fame,” said Heaphy. “Rap Dixon should be in the Hall of fame. Bud Fowler was the first professional Black ball player and for that alone, along with the fact that he was a very good player he should be in. Once reconstruction ended and Jim Crow was enforced, Black players got pushed out of the leagues and didn’t get the same attention,” she said.
After 1947, integration allowed most Negro league stars like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and others to opt for Major League Baseball. As a result, Negro League baseball fell into decline, obsolescence, and folded in 1960.
Other presentations included:
Richard Puerzer, “The Pittsburgh Crawfords vs. the New York Giants”
James Brunson III, “Black Ball in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, 1870-99”
Todd Peterson, “Kings of the Hill: The Pittsburgh Keystones, 1887-97”
David Krell, “Wendell Smith, the Pittsburgh Courier, and Black Sportswriters in the Age of Jim Crow”
Sherman Jenkins, “Ted Strong Jr.: A Negro Baseball League Enigma No More”
Tim Rives, “Segregated Baseball at Leavenworth Penitentiary”
Bernard McKenna, “Genesis of the Baltimore Black Sox”
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