Baseball Way Back: Negro Leaguers in Chicago, Part 1
Part 1 of 2
When Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, it opened a path for Negro League players to play in the National and American Leagues.
It wouldn’t be long before the Cubs and White Sox had former Negro Leaguers in their ranks.
The obvious names come to mind, Minnie Minoso with the Sox and Ernie Banks with the Cubs. But it is also fascinating to comb the rosters of the North and South Siders to find the more obscure players.
Minoso, who played with the New York Cubans, was the first former Negro League player who became a star with the Sox, joining the team in 1951. But that year, catcher Sam Hairston, who played with the Indianapolis Clowns, had a brief 4-game career with the Sox.
Although Hairston went on to a long career as a Sox minor league coach, his major contribution to Chicago baseball would be his descendants, sons John Hairston and Jerry Hairston and grandsons Jerry Hairston Jr. and Scott Hairston.
1951 was a big year for Negro League players joining the White Sox. First baseman and outfielder Bob Boyd, who came from the Memphis Red Sox, played 12 games that year. He also played with the Sox in 1953 and 1954.
Larry Doby broke the color barrier in the American League with the then-Cleveland Indians in 1947. But Doby, who played with the Newark Eagles, was eventually acquired by the White Sox in 1956 and, later, would be named White Sox manager in 1978.
On June 13, 1957 at Comiskey Park, Doby threw a punch at Yankees pitcher Art Ditmar that began a famous donnybrook between the Sox and Yanks.
Another former New York Cubans player, Hector Rodriguez, played 124 games with the Sox in 1952, hitting 14 doubles, drawing 47 walks, driving in 40 runs, and batting .265. He was the team’s regular third baseman, although his natural position was shortstop. However, that spot was already taken by Chico Carrasquel, and, unlike fellow-Cuban Minoso, his career was brief, lasting only that season.
The year the Cubs integrated, 1953, with former Kansas City Monarchs Ernie Banks and Gene Baker, former Monarchs pitcher Connie Johnson, who had been part of a rotation that included Satchel Paige, began a solid major league career on the South Side.
Johnson, who had a career mark of 60-50 with a 3.76 ERA, spent three seasons with the Sox before finishing his career with the Baltimore Orioles, where one of his teammates was Bob Boyd.
When Johnson, who came north with the big club in April, was recalled in August 1953, the Sox were five games behind the American League leading Yankees.
On Aug. 1, he pitched a complete game shutout against the Washington Senators, with the Sox winning 4-0 at Griffith Stadium. Johnson struck out 10 Nats in the victory.
White Sox manager Paul Richards then said he would start Johnson against the Yankees’ Ed Lopat, saying, “The Yankees haven’t seen Johnson because we just brought him up from Charleston of the American Association and he’s liable to surprise them. I hear they’re laying for his fast ball but he’s got a good curve ball, too.”
The Sox at that point were up 7-6 in the season series against the Bronx Bombers.
Yankees manager Casey Stengel said of Johnson, “I hear he’s real fast. They tell me he’s a real good pitcher and he must be or that fellow (Richards) wouldn’t be starting him. That gives them five good pitchers and they’re tough enough to beat as it is.”
Alas, the Yankees proved too tough for Johnson and the White Sox on Aug. 7 at Yankee Stadium, besting the Pale Hose 6-1. Johnson held the Yanks scoreless for two innings, but in the third, with the Sox holding a 1-0 lead, he gave up a three-run inside-the-park homer to Mickey Mantle.
Mantle had hit a line drive over Carrasquel’s head that bounced off the glove of Minoso, who was charging in from left field.
The next batter, Yogi Berra, then homered, before Gene Bearden relieved Johnson.
The 31-year-old Johnson would recover, finishing the season 4-4 with a 3.56 ERA.
Johnson’s last start of the season on Sept. 26, a 6-3 victory over St. Louis, was more notable for being the Browns’ next-to-last home game before moving to Baltimore.
A picture in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch showed fans in the right field grandstand suspending a dummy with “Bill Wreck” (a reference to owner Bill Veeck) on one side and “Traitor’s End” on the other side.
Part 2: Baker, Banks, Toothpick and Sweet Lou