Browns Send 2 Players to Japan As an 'Independence Day' Gesture April 28, 1952

On This Day in Baseball History April 28, 1952: In an interesting (and possibly) first time event between Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball League, the St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck sends John Britton Jr., a third baseman and James Newberry a right-handed pitcher to the Hankyu Braves of the Pacific League of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. 

The article Browns Send 2 Players to Japan As an 'Independence Day' Gesture from the New York Times dated April 29, 1952 quotes Browns owner Bill Veeck:

"As Japan gains its independence, as the world's newest Democracy, we of the St. Louis Browns are happy to aid the mutual relations between the United States and Japan by sending two of our American ball players to the Japanese pro leagues. In Japan, as well as in America, baseball is the national game, and we feel this gesture of the part of American baseball will go a long way towards cementing good relations with the Japanese."    

Veeck was always one prone to hyperbole as part of the entertainment side of the game, Perhaps he was sincere in his statement.

What I found curious is why was Abe Saperstein involved in the negotiations. Now I already knew that Saperstein was the owner and coach of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters but the article stated that he was also a stockholder in the St. Louis Browns. After a little research online, I found out something else. Saperstein was the owner of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. The article Birmingham Black Barons from the Black Past website states:

Photo Courtesy of Agate Type

The Black Barons played in three different Negro Leagues throughout their 40-year baseball career, including the Negro Southern League (1920-1923, 1931-1940), the Negro National League (1924-1930, 1941-1955), and the Negro American League (1956-1960).  In the 1930s, the team was bought by Tom Hayes in Memphis, Tennessee which forced the Black Barons to move back to the Negro Southern League.  However, in 1940, the ownership switched again to Abraham Saperstein, who moved the Black Barons back up to the Negro National League.  Under Saperstein's ownership, the team flourished in the Negro National League, winning three Negro National League pennants.  Much of the credit of the Black Barons' success can be given to all-star pitcher Satchel Paige and rookie outfielder Willie Mays.

Both Britton and Newberry were Negro League veterans who played for the Black Barons. The Baseball Reference Bullpen listings for Jimmy Newberry states:

Jimmy Newberry pitched in the Negro Leagues for 9 seasons, the Manitoba-Dakota League for 3 and the minor leagues for three. He made history, though, as the first black pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball after World War II. He was briefly the staff ace of the Birmingham Black Barons and was one of the favorite players of owner Abe Saperstein, who often gave him advances on his salary.

In terms of John Britton, his listing on the Baseball Reference Bullpen states:

John Britton was a Negro League infielder for 11 years and played two years in Japan, where he made several notable firsts. He was a third baseman.

There was a mention of both players in September 11, 1952 issue of Jet Magazine under the headline Negros in Japanese League To Return Home stated:

Infielder John Britton and pitcher Jim Newberry, first American Negro players in Japanese professional ball, are slated to return home. Britton, playing third for the Hankyu Braves of the Pacific League, was hitting .320 while Newberry had won 10 and lost 7 games for the same club. Both are St. Louis Browns property.

So how did they do in the Land of the Rising Sun? According to the aforementioned Baseball Reference Bullpen listing for Britton:

Britton went to Nippon Pro Baseball in 1952 along with Jimmy Newberry. He was sent by the St. Louis Browns to the Hankyu Braves, making it the first deal of a MLB team sending players to a team outside of the US or Canada. Britton was the first gaijin in Hankyu club history. He hit .316/.338/.416 in 1952, not almost entirely as a contact hitter. He was the first foreign player ever picked for an All-Star team when he was on the Pacific League squad that year. He finished 5th in the PL in batting average.

Britton slipped in 1953, batting .276/.286/.331 with only 3 walks in 448 plate appearances; he only struck out 13 times, though. That was Britton's final season in professional baseball.

Baseball Reference Bullpen listing for Newberry states:

In 1952, Jimmy was signed by the St. Louis Browns and sold with John Britton to the Hankyu Braves. The first black pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball since World War II (Jimmy Bonner had played briefly in 1936), he went 11-10 with a 3.22 ERA. He was 9th in the Pacific League in ERA and made the PL All-Star team.

While Britton retired after the 1953 season, Newberry would play for a number of of teams in the Texas minor league system. He would stop playing professional baseball after 1956.

On a side note, the listing for Newberry makes a mention of a ballplayer of the name of Jimmy Bonner who briefly played in Japan in 1936. Bonner played for Dai Tokyo of the JPBL. According to the informative post Jimmy Bonner from the Agate Type blogpage dated October 12, 2014:

Thanks to Rod Nelson, the other day I read this piece by Dexter Thomas, Jr., part of his “Negroes in Tokyo” series.  As it turns out, Jimmy Bonna was really James E. Bonner, a 5’10”, right-handed submarine pitcher who was signed by the Dai Tokyo club of the new Japanese professional league with a great deal of fanfare. He was said in the Japanese press to have gone pro immediately after graduating from middle school, and to have played for the Oakland Oaks of the PCL (though this couldn’t be correct—the Oaks certainly weren’t hiring black players in the 1930s). He had supposedly once struck out 46 batters in three games played over two days, whiffing 22 in one game. 

Unfortunately, Bonner didn’t live up to the hype. He was wild, walking 13 batters in four games, while striking out only two. His final record was 0-1, with a 10.24 ERA—although he did bat .458, 11 for 24 (as a left-handed hitter). Dai Tokyo finished in the cellar, 5-21. He last time up in Japan he tripled but got thrown out at home. He was released on November 18, and left for the United States on the same day. Bonner would never appear in Japan again. The next black American players to join the Japanese league were Johnny Britton and Jimmie Newberry in 1952.

It is amazing to read that a black ballplayer played in the Japanese Leagues a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in MLB.

I'm going to post this on the Pro Yakyu community page on Google+ to see if the gals and gents of that community can add anything else to this post.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:
- EARLY BLACK BALLPLAYERS IN JAPAN from the Agate Type blogpage dated February 20, 2013
- Japan’s First Black Baseball Player by Dex Digital from the Negros in Tokyo dated October 7, 2014
- John Britton career statistics from Baseball Reference
- James Newberry career statistics from Baseball Reference
- Jimmy Bonner Bullpen page from Baseball Reference

A Memorable Night Game on August 2, 1930

I recently saw a post from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's Google+ page that piqued my interest. On August 2, 1930 Hall of Famer Smoky Joe Williams of the Homestead Grays strikes out 27 Kansas City Monarchs in a memorable 12-inning night game. Now that is one amazing achievement. But something stood out to me. Williams struck out 27 batters in 12-innings. Who was pitching for the Monarchs that day and how did he do. I decided to pull off a couple of Negro League books off my shelf to find out. Here's what I found out.

After playing a series of games at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, the Homestead Grays matched up against the Kansas City Monarchs under the lights at the ballpark located at 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue called Muehlebach Field later known as Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. The lights were provided by J.L. Wilkinson, owner of the Monarchs. The article Know Your KC History: The Monarchs Shine a Light on Baseball by John Horner from the Kansas City Public Library's website:

Early in 1929 he decided to pursue a radical idea. He mortgaged most everything he owned, took Thomas Baird as a partner, and hired Omaha’s Giant Manufacturing Company to construct a portable lighting system, which cost between $50,000 and $100,000. (A 1929 dollar had the same buying power as $12.82 in 2011, so that would be between $641,000 and $1,282,000 today.)

The system had telescoping poles which extended 50 feet above the field. Pictures show a set of six floodlights atop each pair of poles. Derricks pivoted the poles into position above the truck beds to which they were secured. In her book, The Kansas City Monarchs: Champions of Black Baseball, Janet Bruce says that the Monarch’s lighting system took about two hours to assemble. The set-up included a huge generator that was placed in center field, made an enormous amount of noise, and “used fifteen gallons of gasoline every hour.”

There were still problems for the players. Wilkinson’s lights, though many steps ahead of what had preceded, wouldn’t compare well with what we experience at Kauffman Stadium. They didn’t have near the height or the illuminating power that we are used to. With the lights only reaching 50 feet above the field, even a moderately high fly ball would disappear completely into the night. (This caused a limit to be placed on the number of bases allowed for a fly ball during night games.) Setting the generator with its wiring in the outfield, along with the poles, increased the number of obstacles the fielders had to navigate.

As you can see, the system for playing night games wasn't easy, but Wilkinson knew that he could draw more fans to the night games, thereby making more money than a day game. People could work their day shift and go to the ballgame at night. This is why you have so many more night games today.

Taking the mound of the Homestead Grays was Smokey Joe Williams aka Cyclone Williams. Williams was a giant of a man, not only for that time but for any time. Williams stood at a formidable 6'5" and weighed 200 pounds. According to page 123 of the book Few and Chosen Negro Leagues: Defining Negro Leagues Greatness by Monte Irvin with Phil Pepe "Williams is unanimously regarded as the greatest Negro Leagues pitcher ever." 

Williams dueled fellow Hall of Famers Grover Cleveland Alexander and Walter Johnson to 1-0 barnstorming games (winning the game against Alexander), besting pitchers other Hall of Fame pitchers Chief Bender, Waite Hoyt, Walter and Rube Marquard. Williams compiled a 20-7 record in exhibition matches against major league ballplayers.

His nickname was given to him by New York Giants outfielder Ross Youngs after an exhibition game where Williams struck out 20 of the New York Giants. The story goes that Youngs patted Williams on the rear after the game and said "Nice job, Smokey".

The Kansas City Monarchs countered with Chet Brewer. Brewer is best described on page 309 in the book Shades of Glory by Lawrence Hogan:

A dominating pitcher. "with good control and a retentive memory," Chet Brewer "spotted the ball, mixing a wide repertory of pitches that included a live running fastball, a sweeping curve, an overhand drop, a deep sinker, an emery ball, and a good screwball." He was frequently picked for the East-West Classic. Across a 24-year professional career he "toiled on the mounds of black baseball with an assortment of teams throughout the world, including Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and in forty-four of the forty-eight continental United States."

With the backdrop of the limited lights and legendary pitchers Brewer and Williams facing each other, the crowd was set to see an epic pitching duel. Strikeouts were being served on the menu to both teams. In the 12-innings played, Williams struck out a total of 27 out of 39 batters with only one hit and one base on ball allowed. Not to be left behind, Brewer struck out 19 with a 10-batter in a row streak starting in the seventh inning with four hits and four bases on ball allowed. That's a total of 46 batters fanned by both pitchers in a 12-inning affair. Simply amazing.

Now, both pitchers took advantage of the limited lights that the portable lights provided along with utilizing their emery pitches. Why is an emery pitch? As per page 125 of the book Only The Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams by Robert Peterson:

As if the dim illumination weren't handicap enough for the batters, Williams, and Brewer resorted to the emery cloth to make the ball do tricks. Said the Pittsburgh Courier: "The opposing pitchers were cheating without a question of a doubt. An emery ball in daylight is very deceptive, but at night it is about as easy to see as an insect in the sky."

A few other notes from this game. Josh Gibson was a rookie with the Grays in this series. Other notable Negro League stars who played in this game were Oscar Charleston, George Scales and Judy Johnson. Oh, and Smokey Joe Williams was 45-years old when he pitched this gem. How did the game end?

John M. Coates in his post for Smoky Joe Williams on the SABR Research Journals Archive website has the box score and a description on how the lone run was scored by the Grays:

The Grays won the game in their half of the twelfth, when Charleston walked, Johnson popped out, Scales was an infield out, and White doubled to the left field foul line, scoring Charleston

Well, there you have it. 46 K's in 12-innings pitches. Truly amazing.

You gals and guys have any more information on this game? Feel free to hit me up at my email baseballsiscokidstyle@gmail.com, on Twitter @BaseballSisco, on my Google+ BaseballSisco and at my Facebook page Baseball Sisco Kid Style

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle