Jerry Summers
With last year being the 100th Anniversary of the origin of African-American national professional baseball leagues in 1920, it has resulted in additional historical interest in black baseball teams.
Although informal semi-pro and professional Negro ball teams had been in existence since the 1880s it was not until 1920 that the Negro National League was formed.
Several other leagues were created over the years but most were short lived because of financial problems.
The Atlanta Braves at Truist Park Baseball Stadium televised segments on black baseball history on their cable broadcasts of each game and included many black players in their history areas at the stadium.
Kansas City, Missouri is the home of the Negro League Baseball Museum which was established in 1990 and is dedicated to preserving the rich history of African-American baseball.
Chattanooga reportedly fielded its first team in 1886 in the earliest Negro League in the country known as the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists.
Over the years numerous black teams existed in the Scenic City such as Chattanooga Chatts (1889-1892); Chattanooga Warriors (1893); Chattanooga Unions (1901); Chattanooga (1909-1910); Chattanooga Black Lookouts I (1920); Chattanooga Tigers (1921-1923); Chattanooga White Sox (1926); Chattanooga Choo-Choos (1940-1948); Chattanooga All Stars (1949); Chattanooga Black Choo Choos (1950) and Chattanooga Stars (1951).
In addition to playing in leagues the teams also engaged in “barnstorming” tours playing road games in selective cities throughout the country as special events that often drew large crowds.
Segregation restrictions in informal agreements between white baseball owners prevented African Americans from playing in the better-known and better financial white leagues. The “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in the 1920s would lead to the banning of black players from major league baseball until 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color restriction with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Black and white teams did compete in barnstorming games together traveling from city to city playing in unofficial games.
The story of barnstorming was told in the movie, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976) featuring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.
Chattanooga was the start of the careers of two of the greatest players in the history of the Negro Leagues who later played Major League Baseball.
The legendary Leroy “Satchel” Paige, who is often considered the greatest pitcher of all time - black or white - first played for the Chattanooga Black Lookouts in 1926. Paige was hired at a salary of $250 a month, which he allegedly kept $50 and sent the rest home to his mother. He was the first pitcher from the old Negro League to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
His nickname of “Satchel” may have been created when he arrived in Chattanooga with a few clothes in a brown grocery sack.
In 1948 he would become the first black ballplayer in the American League when he pitched for the Cleveland Indians while at an unconfirmed age in his 50s.
Future Hall of Famer outfielder Willie Mays first played for the Chattanooga Choo Choos as an infielder in 1946. His mother and father divorced over their disagreement as to whether he should sign to play baseball at the age of 16 or stay in high school.
One writer reports that Jackie Robinson also played for the Chattanooga Choo Choos but a search of the Baseball Almanac records lists him as playing only one season in the Negro League for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945.
The publication also reports that he played shortstop in that year's Negro League All Star Game and did great in the field but went zero-for-five at bat.
He was the first black player to win election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Many other great black players such as Josh Gibson and “Cool” Papa Bell never had the opportunity to play major league baseball but they and many others have been acclaimed as being equally great players by white players who competed against them.
Joe DiMaggio and Floyd "Babe" Herman said that Satchel Paige was the toughest pitcher they had ever faced.
Baseball in Chattanooga’s history has been color blind with great players performing at all of the historical baseball fields at Andrews Field, Lincoln Park, Engel Stadium, Bell South Park and AT&T Field.
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Jerry Summers
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Satchel Paige