Out of the Shadows: The Eclipse League

[luckymann]

Formed by Gus Greenlee from a youth team in 1931, the new owner loaded the team with outstanding talent, including Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, and the Crawfords became a powerhouse for the following five years (1932-1936). The Crawfords played as an independent in 1932, finishing with a 99-36 record for the season. In 1933 they joined the new Negro National League and were a co-claimant to the league's first pennant. The Crawfords finished the first half with a 20-8 league record, only half a game behind the Chicago American Giants. The second half of the season was not completed, and the Chicago American Giants claimed the title, but Greenlee, as president of the league, declared the Crawfords to be the champions, and the matter was never resolved. In 1934 the Crawfords fielded another outstanding team, finishing with a combined 29-17 record for a .630 winning percentage in league play. However, they failed to win either half of the split season, and missed the playoffs.

But in each of the next two seasons, 1935-1936, the Crawfords won Negro National League pennants, and the 1935 club is generally regarded as the greatest black baseball team of all time. The 1935 squad won the first half with a 26-6 mark, for a .785 winning percentage, then defeated the second-half titlists, the New York Cubans, in a closely contested 7-game championship series. In 1936, after a third-place first-half finish, the Crawfords copped the second-half title with a 20-9 mark and finished with the best overall record, 36-24, for a .600 winning percentage, while the first half titlists, the Washington Elites, finished under .500 for the entire season. A play-off was not completed, and again Greenlee declared the Crawfords champions. Unfortunately, the team was falsely accused of throwing a game to the Bushwicks, and despite the denial and retraction, the team's reputation was tarnished.

The following spring Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and several other Crawfords players departed for Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, to play for the country's dictator, Trujillo, and the franchise never again reclaimed the glory from the five preceding seasons. After two second division finishes and a business reversal, Greenlee sold the team, and the franchise moved to Toledo in 1939 and then to Indianapolis in 1940, playing in the Negro American League each of these seasons, and eventually disbanded. In the mid 1940s another team using the same Pittsburgh Crawfords' name was formed, but it was not related to the original franchise.

Source: James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994. / NLB eMuseum

[luckymann]

The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League Baseball team that originally played independently, but later joined the National Negro League (NNL). The team’s original name was the St. Louis Giants, and it was formed in 1906 by African American bank messenger and baseball fan, Charles A. Mills. Mills was successful in his attempt to approach ballpark owner Conrad Keubler to invest in a local team called the Leland Giants. Former Leland Giants third baseman Dick Wallace became the new team’s manager, and during his tenure, Wallace assembled a core group of veteran players. He signed first basemen Ben Taylor and Tullie McAdoo, shortstop Joe Hewitt, catcher/ outfielder Sam Bennett, pitchers Bill Drake and Bill Gatewood, and outfielders Charles Blackwell and Jimmie Lyons.

The St. Louis Giants won the 1912 and 1913 St. Louis City League Championships but were unable to beat the top ranked Indianapolis ABC’s and the Chicago American Giants in the western championship in the following years. By 1920, the Giants finished sixth in an eight-team league, with a 25-32 record. The team, now in the newly formed National Negro League, acquired star center fielder Oscar Charleston in 1921 and he helped the Giants surge to second place with a 40-28 record. After the 1921 season, team owner Mills sold the team to Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard who renamed it the St. Louis Stars. The Stars played in Stars Park, one of the few facilities built especially for a Negro League team.

The Stars inherited most of the Giants roster with the exception of Charleston. It dropped to fourth place in 1922, with a 35-26 record, and in 1923 the team fell to sixth place, with a 28-44 record. Later in the year the team acquired several players from the Toledo Tigers, as well as new manager and third baseman Candy Jim Taylor. Taylor later brought in left-handed pitcher Cool Papa Bell, first baseman Mule Suttles, shortstop Willie Wells, and pitcher Ted Trent. By 1924, the team rose to fourth place in the league, at 42-34, and by the following year they rose to second place, with a 38-12 record. Taylor left in 1926, and the team fell to 49-30, in third place. Taylor returned to the team in 1927, bringing the Giants back to firth place in 1928, with a 66-26 record. The team won two more pennants before folding with the NNL in 1931.

Source: Blackpast.

[luckymann]

The Inaugural Draft will actually be held as a Free Agent Draft rather than a Rookie Draft. The initial pool is comprised of 700 players, 35 for each of the 20 clubs. It, as will be the case all through, is broken down to roughly 55% MLB players and 45% NeL players.

I want the league to somewhat replicate the historical at the club level, with the stronger teams as they were in real life. I have set the financials to lend themselves to this and the order for the Inaugural Draft will be in line with the number of games each club played historically, to get things underway in this regard.

So it will look like this:

1. Atlantic City Bacharach Giants
2. Baltimore Elite Giants
3. Birmingham Black Barons
4. Brooklyn Royal Giants
5. Chicago American Giants
6. Cleveland Buckeyes
7. Cuban Stars East
8. Cuban Stars West
9. Detroit Motown Stars
10. Hilldale Athletics
11. Homestead Grays
12. Indianapolis ABCs
13. Kansas City Monarchs
14. Memphis Red Sox
15. New York Black Yankees
16. New York Lincoln Giants
17. Newark Eagles
18. Philadelphia Liberty Stars
19. Pittsburgh Crawfords
20. St. Louis Giants


Not wanting these discrepancies in strength to take hold too early, this first Draft will take place in serpentine, rather than straight, order. Then the financials should slowly work their magic to create the desired hierarchy within a matter of years as players become FAs and salaries and budgets start to dictate proceedings more.

Nearly done with the profiles, so we're not far away from a start here. Nervous and excited at the same time.

[luckymann]

This has now been held and here are a few interesting facts:

First player taken overall: 1B Jose Abreu by the Chicago American Giants

First NeL player taken: OF Spot Poles by the Philadelphia Liberty Stars (8th overall)

Last player taken: P Luis Marte taken by the St. Louis Giants


A few notable lower-round picks:

• 6th Round: Willie Stargell (Hilldale)
• 7th Round: Lourdes Gurriel jr (Kansas City); David Ortiz (Cuban Stars West); Buck Leonard (Newark)
• 8th Round: Aaron Judge (St. Louis); Bobby Abreu (Cleveland); Alejandro Oms (Pittsburgh)
• 10th Round: Lou Whitaker (Pittsburgh); Michael Brantley (Indianapolis); Cleon Jones (Kansas City)
• 11th Round: Tony Armas (Birmingham)

I'll do a full run-through of each club on Opening Day.

[luckymann]

So as to familiarise y'all with who's playing what and where, I've included the full 35-man squad in each of the franchise summaries below.

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After a Spring Training that saw strong performances by the Bacharach Giants, Athletics, Black Barons and ABCs, all is in readiness for the league to get underway. The only injury of note was an ankle sprain to Pittsburgh's Alejandro Oms, but he should only miss the first week or so of the regular season.

The EL Top 100 Prospects list has been updated, and the best 10 stars of the future have been adjudged thus:

1. Chino Smith (Athletics)
2. Bob Watson (Liberty Stars)
3. Juan Marichal (Monarchs)
4. Rod Carew (ABCs)
5. Bernie Williams (Lincoln Giants)
6. Wilson Contreras (Black Barons)
7. CC Sabathia (Black Yankees)
8. Bill Lindsay (Monarchs)
9. Carlos Zambrano (Cuban Stars East)
10. Billy Sample (Red Sox)

The Top 20 EL stars of today in both the position player and pitching ranks have also been announced:




The experts believe Brooklyn is the team to beat, predicting 100+ wins from the Royal Giants. It's a Giants clean sweep according to them, with St. Louis, Baltimore and Chicago all tipped to win their respective Associations.

Here are the pitchers who have the honor of taking the mound for the league's inaugural Opening Day. The Sabathia / Dihigo match-up will be of particular interest.



I'll just be reporting on things of note as they happen with a short update at the end of each month and some color thrown in along the way with player focuses and the like. See how we go from there.

Let's kick this thing in the guts then. (An old Aussie saying...)

[luckymann]

The Sabathia - Dihigo game is a blowout as Walt Williams and the Black Yankees get to Marty early and shell him throughout for a comfortable 11-3 win.

This game is the exception, however, with all but one of the others decided by 2 runs or less; 6 by just the single run.

This was undoubtedly the pick of them, as Masahiro Tanaka goes 13 scoreless but has to settle for a no-decision as his opposing pitcher Gary Eave fans a dozen and the Liberty Stars walk it off in 17 against the Grays.

[luckymann]

The league gets its first 5-hit game and first shutout.

[luckymann]

... especially with just six relievers on hand.




Edsall "The Catskill Wild Man" Walker opts for the far less circuitous route, overcoming both his surname and nickname to get another shutout for the Black Yankees, whose pitching staff has begun strongly.

[luckymann]

For those of you interested in taking a deeper dive with some of these NeL players, I'll be posting links and short features of my own creation from time to time under the theme "Out of the Shadows". As seen in the previous post, Edsall Walker made a most auspicious EL debut. Here's his story.


Edsall Elliott Walker learned to love baseball as a child growing up in Catskill, New York. That love and a sinking fastball led him to the Negro Leagues, where he starred for nearly a decade. When his arm wore out he returned to the city where his career began: Albany, New York. After a brief semipro stint Walker then turned his attention to Little League baseball and teaching children the game he loved. A former player, Andrell Young, recalled “he was always giving, always had time for a youngster.” Walker finally called it quits in 1989—over 60 years after he first suited up for the Albany Colored Giants (later the Black Sox) and played in Albany’s Bleecker Stadium.

To read the full article by Chris Rainey on SABR Bio, click HERE.

[luckymann]

... losses like this will not help matters. But with quality players such as Cleon Jones and Lourdes Gurriel jr, and a rotation led by the Dominican Dandy himself, one would think they'll turn things around somewhat before too long.

[luckymann]

... by ABCs skipper Jake Plumbtree, who hooks starter Mike Forneles just two outs shy of the league's first no-no. At 141 pitches his decision is understandable and it pays off, as Marcos Mateo gets the other two outs for a combined hitless game and 1-0 win over Memphis, with Bill North's leadoff homer in the 1st holding up all the way to the end.

[luckymann]

... for one of the Nel A-Listers and all-time greats of the game, Martin "El Inmortal" Dihigo of the Crawfords.

He is being used as a two-way player and it will be really interesting to see what happens in this regard over the course of his career.

Things have - understatement alert! - not begun well in the EL for Martin, who sits at 0-5 with an ERA of 5.53 and is a woeful 5-for-51 at the plate for an 098 BA with just 2 doubles and 4 RBI.

His last performance on the mound was his best so far, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits over 7+ in a no-decision against the Eagles and I've no doubt he'll find his footing before too long and be better for the experience. Then, watch out Eclipse League!

[luckymann]

... starting to justify their early selection in the Inaugural Draft. Abreu was 1st overall; Soto 7th.

[luckymann]

Another of the NeL big guns has a good day at the plate but still ends up on the losing side.

[luckymann]

... although Hanley Ramirez's 0-for-10 effort leaves a lot to be desired.