The Other Baseball

02/18/2022

On February 17, 1899, Leo "Najo" Alanís was born in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Mission, Texas, where he grew up and made a name for himself as a member of the local semi-pro team; the 30-30s. Known for his extra-base speed and elite outfield defense, Alanís was among the first class of inductees in the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1925, 25-year-old Alanís batted .356 with 34 homeruns and 215 hits (including 46 doubles and 11 triples) with the Okmulgee Drillers of the Western Association. That same year, he became the first Mexican-born player to be drafted by a Major League team when acquired by the Chicago White Sox. He nearly made the big league roster in 1926, but was cut on the final day of Spring Training. Any chance of a mid-season call-up was lost when Alanís suffered a badly broken leg during a season-ending collision with another - much larger - outfielder. Although he recovered from the injury and continued to play well for several more years, he never received another chance at the majors.

In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Alanís left professional baseball to look after his family's business interests in Mission. He remained active in the game as a player, manager, coach, and umpire with the 30-30s and local youth teams. In 1971 (eight years before he passed away), the street on which his family lived was renamed Leo Najo Street and the high school baseball field was re-dedicated in his honor. Every October, the community gathers to celebrate "Leo Najo Day".

In 4,623 minor league At Bats, Alanís finished his career with a .323 average, 328 doubles and 69 triples. The true origins of his nickname may be lost to time, but many believe it to be a contraction of the Spanish word for rabbit - conejo. (sources: City of Mission website; Wikipedia; BR Bullpen player profile; stats from Baseball.Reference.com).

02/05/2022

On the 119th anniversary of her birth, The Other Baseball remembers sports enthusiast and pioneer Joan Whitney Payson. After the Giants and Dodgers moved to the west coast in 1957, the influential Payson got to work bringing a new team to New York.

As the initial majority share holder of the Mets, the former Giants fan became one of the first women to purchase and operate a major league professional sports team (rather than inherit it). She was preceded by Effa Manley, who co-owned and presided over the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League through the 1940s.

The Mets first season came in 1962, two years after Payson co-founded the team. She served as president from 1968 until her death in 1975. During that time, the Mets won two National League pennants (1969 and 1973) and a World Series (1969). She was active in player relations and acquisitions, and beloved by her personnel. In 1981, Payson was post-humouisly inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. (sources: Wikipedia; SABR profile by Joan M. Thomas; SABR article "...A Pioneer for the New York Mets by Leslie Heaphy)

01/25/2022

On January 24, 1905, Junichi "John" Nakagawa was born to Japanese parents in Hilo, Hawaii. A two-way sensation who drew comparisons to Babe Ruth, Nakagawa tested his mettle against Nisei, African-American, and Pacific Coast League competition.

He is probably most well-known as the player to the far left in the famous photo with Kenichi Zenimura sandwiched between Lou Gehrig and the Babe (see comment section). However, Nakagawa's pitching performance versus the Oakland Pierce Giants in 1923, and his style of play in many other contests, helped to foster a mutual respect between Japanese-American and west coast Negro leagues contemporaries.

On his blog "International Pastime", baseball historian Bill Staples, Jr. refers to the Hawaiian native as "one of the best Japanese-American players of the 1920s". (sources: International Pastime blog post "Baseball's Other 'Colored' Leagues" by Bill Staples, Jr; Nisei Baseball Research Project)

01/20/2022

"Lacy would prove as resilient as No. 42 and soon distinguish himself, as well. After the season, Robinson was named Rookie of the Year and Lacy became the first Black sportswriter to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. A half-century later, he earned his way into the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown."

Lacy, who covered Jackie Robinson’s rookie year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, would prove as resilient as No. 42 himself.

01/19/2022

On January 19, 1999, Dominican slugger Sammy Sosa sat next to Hillary Clinton, in the U.S. Capitol, as a special guest for the State of the Union address. President Bill Clinton had this to say...

"The American people have opened their hearts and their arms to our Central American and Caribbean neighbors who have been so devastated by the recent hurricanes. Working with Congress, I am committed to help them rebuild. When the First Lady and Tipper Gore visited the region, they saw thousands of our troops and thousands of American volunteers. In the Dominican Republic, Hillary helped to rededicate a hospital that had been rebuilt by Dominicans and Americans working side-by-side. With her was someone else who has been very important to the relief efforts.

You know, sports records are made and, sooner or later, they're broken. But making other people's lives better, and showing our children the true meaning of brotherhood -- that lasts forever. So, for far more than baseball, Sammy Sosa, you're a hero in two countries tonight. Thank you. (Applause.)"

To see the President deliver this excerpt of his speech, watch the video clip below...

1999 Presiden Clinton's State of the Union Address

01/19/2022

Happy 32nd birthday to Gift Ngoepe, who carved out a piece of baseball history in 2017...

On April 26, 2017, 27-year old Mpho Gift Ngoepe made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates. When he stepped onto the field that evening, he became the first person from the African continent to play in the MLB. The moment arrived after nine years in the team's farm system, breaking barriers at every step along the way.

Ngoepe was literally raised on a baseball field. His mother was the clubhouse attendent for the Randberg Mets, an all white baseball team in Johannesburg. Together, they lived in the team's clubhouse. As he got older, the players taught him to swing, throw, and catch. They even periodically chipped in and/or held homerun derbies to raise money for him to play on youth teams and travel to attend baseball academies. It was at one of these acadamies, in Italy in 2008, that he caught the attention of the Pirates' scouts. The following year, he was playing Rookie League ball in Florida.

Ngoepe was never great with the bat, but he was fast and slick with the glove. In 2012, he stole twenty-two bases for the Bradenton Mauraders. In 2014, he hit nine triples for the Altoona Curve. Baseball America rated him the best defensive player in the Pirates' system five years in a row. Ngoepe played parts of two seasons, 2017 and '18, in the majors, but couldn't hit enough to make it stick. After a couple of more years in the minors, he found a new home in the Australian Baseball League. On March 30, 2021, he signed with the Québec Capitales of the independent Frontier League.

It's never easy to be the first, and Ngoepe played far from home with the weight of an entire continent on his shoulders. Despite the lack of glitzy statistics, nobody can say his career has been anything less than extraordinary (sources: Sports Illustrated article "A Gift from Africa" by Gary Smith; BR Bullpen player profile; statistics from Baseball-Reference.com)

01/17/2022

Wishing a very happy birthday to the incomparable Ms Faut...

Happy 96th birthday to living legend, former AAGPBL pitcher Jean Faut - born on this day, 1925, in East Greenview, Pennsylvania. Faut grew up a multi-sport athlete, but had a special fondness for baseball. She spent so much time hanging around the local mens' semipro team, they eventually let her s**g fly balls and pitch batting practice. Impressed by her natural ability, some of the guys worked with her on adding different types of pitches to her repitoire.

Sticking with baseball, Faut played in the AAGPBL (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) from 1946 to 1953. While most of the players came from a softball background, Faut had the advantage of knowing how to throw a baseball. As the league rules incrementally changed - from something that looked a lot like softball in the early years to a game that more closely resembled traditional baseball - Faut had an easier time transitioning to the smaller ball, longer distance to home plate, and overhand throwing angles.

However, the familiarity with baseball wasn't the only factor in her success. She was also an extremely intelligent player. She could remember the pitching sequences she had previously thrown to her opponents and keep them off guard by always throwing them something different. During her eight seasons in the league, she threw a remarkable four no-hitters, two of which were perfect games (plus one in which she allowed only one baserunner via a walk). She accumlated 140 wins against 64 losses with a 1.23 career ERA and

01/17/2022

01/11/2022

Happy post-humous birthday to Clarence "Fats" Jenkins!

On January 10, 1898, Clarence "Fats" Jenkins was born in Harlem, New York, as the youngest of eight children. In 1952, a panel of baseball historians named him one of the nine greatest outfielders in Negro League history. In 1962, Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Sapperstein picked Jenkins as one of the ten men on his all-time all-star basketball team... one year before he was inducted into the professional basketball Hall of Fame. As a young man, his boxing skills nearly qualified him for the 1920 Olympics. Clarence Jenkins is undoubtedly one of the greatest athletes you've never heard of. He may have been one of the smartest too.

When he wasn't playing basketball, Jenkin's elite talent was in high demand throughout the black baseball circuit. During his 20-year negro leagues career, he slashed .339/.411/.433 over 633 official league games. Jenkins was a contact hitter, a strong defender, and an exceptional base stealer. He played some of his best baseball, in the mid-1920s, as the lead-off hitter for the Harrisburg Giants. From '24 to '27, he formed one-third of the "Million Dollar Outfield" along side Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston and Hall of Fame-worthy Rap Dixon, He enjoyed arguably his best year in 1927 scoring 66 runs in 66 games while batting .377 with 22 stolen bases.

On July 5, 1930, Jenkins played left field for the Lincoln Giants against the Baltimore Black Sox in the first Negro League games ever played at Yankee Stadium. In '33, he was selected to the inaugural East-West All-Star Game as a member of the New York Black Yankees. Off the field, he played piano and sang in a quartet. Upon his retirement in 1940, he became a successful business manager and coached basketball at the local YMCA. (sources SABR player profile by Stephan V. Rice; Negro League Baseball eMuseum player profile; statistics from Seemheads Negro League Database; photo from SABR)

01/01/2022

Remembering the Clemente family on New Year's Eve...

Inspired by a dream, Eliezer Rodriguez, with his wife Fiordaliza by his side, set out to complete Mr. Clemente's last humanitarian effort--33 years after his...

12/06/2021

Congratulations to the legacies of Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva, Bud Fowler, Buck O’Neil, Gil Hodges, and Jim Kaat on their historic election into the National Hall of Fame!

The lasting impact of six former players was finally, formally recognized on Sunday with their small-committee selections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022. Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva were elected by the Golden Days Era Committee, and Bud Fowler and Buc...

12/03/2021

Sadly, Mr. Allen passed away four days after I posted about him one year ago today.

On December 3, 1974, the White Sox traded seven-time all-star Dick Allen to the Atlanta Braves. Allen, the 1972 AL MVP who slashed .307/.398/.589 during his three years in Chicago, refused to report to his new team. He remembered the threats and harassment he endured in 1963 as the first black man to play minor league baseball in Little Rock, Arkansas, and had no intention of going back to the south.

Allen instead expressed interest in returning to Philadelphia, where he started his MLB career in 1964. The news came as somewhat a surprise. Never afraid to speak his mind, Allen had a contentious relationship with the Phillies' management and fans. As the first African-American headliner to play for the late-to-integrate Phillies, he was often made scapegoat of the team's struggles, despite being its best offensive player. At one point, Allen had to wear a batting helmet while on defense, to protect himself from the projectiles hurled at him by fans. He also grew tired of the team administration referring to him as "Richie", which Allen perceived as a nickname typically reserved for a small child, in both its written material and verbal statements to the press.

By the end of his sixth season in Philadelphia, Allen had accumulated 591 runs, 544 RBIs, and 177 home runs (yearly averages of 99, 90, and 30 respectively), but was unhappy in his relationship with the team and demanded a trade. In 1970, he went to the Cardinals, then the Dodgers, then the White Sox, where he had his MVP season, and back to Philly. Ironically, the return package from the Cardinals included star veteran Curt Flood, who also refused to report to his new team in a move that became the first serious challenge to MLB's reserve clause. (sources: SABR article on Dick Allen, Rich D’Ambrosio; Baseball-Reference.com; Wikipedia)