Do Not Overlook Harry "Suitcase" Simpson

Below is a re-post, of my 2016 birthday tribute to Harry “Suitcase” Simpson (“Why Harry “Suitcase” Simpson Has a Place in My Heart”).  I did acknowledge his birth date (December 3, 1925) two weeks ago on Twitter, but initially decided to not do a blog post.  However, after reading Douglass M. Branson’s book “Greatness in the Shadows:  Larry Doby and the Integration of the American League” (University of Nebraska Press - 2016) last month, I decided to give a birthday   acknowledgement to Simpson on my blog again this year.  As my 2016 post indicates, he helped capture my passion for baseball 60 years (Yipes!) ago.  Yes, he does have a place in my heart.  But I also believe his role in the early racial integration of Major League baseball in the American League is overlooked, as it was in Branson’s book.

Harry "Suitcase" Simpson

The premise of Branson’s writing is that the talent and accomplishments of Larry Doby, the first African American to play baseball in the American League, is under-appreciated.  The author believes Doby’s career has been overshadowed by Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the Major Leagues, who made his debut nearly three months (April 14, 1947) before Doby’s (July 5, 1947).   The National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1947 and Most Valuable Player in 1949, Robinson played on six pennant winners and one World Series champion in his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Doby had a career a little less spectacular.  The 1954 American League leader in home runs and RBI, Doby hit 253 career home runs, drove in a career 969 runs, and played on two pennant winners and one World Series champion with the Cleveland Indians.  He also overcame the same types of racial prejudice and discrimination chronicled in the many books, written articles, and even movies about Robinson; but without given the same admiration.  Branson also stated the American League domination by the New York Yankees from 1947 - 1958 with first Joe DiMaggio and then Mickey Mantle playing center field also overshadowed the career of Larry Doby. 

While I overall agree with his book’s premise, Brannon failed in one regard.  In mentioning the few other African American ballplayers who were Doby’s teammates or opponents during the early period of racial integration in the American League, the author omitted Harry Simpson. 

With Simpson and Larry Doby in the outfield, and Luke Easter at first base, the Cleveland Indians were the only American League team to have African Americans as part of its everyday lineup in 1951 – 1953.  In 1950, the season before Simpson’s rookie year, only three African American or dark-skinned Hispanics played in the American League; Doby, Easter, and the Chicago White Sox’s Minnie Minoso.   After leaving the Indians, Simpson went on to play with the Kansas City A’s and the New York Yankees.  How could Brannon discuss Doby and the racial integration of the American League, but not mention Harry Simpson?  His name is not indexed anywhere in Brannon’s book.  Although not as prominent as Larry Doby, Minnie Minoso, or Elton Howard, Simpson’s role in adding color to the face of the American League in my opinion is overlooked.  And surely, as my following re-post explains, he helped to hook a five year-old kid to what would become an everlasting love for baseball.  Enjoy the re-post!

Harry Simpson was one of the first baseball players that captured my attention as I became a young fan of the nation’s “favorite past time” in the 1950’s.  I learned about great players like Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Mickey Mantle when I was a six year old becoming aware of the game.   But “Suitcase” Simpson, as my brother called him, was one player that really drew my interest.

Born on December 3, 1925 in Atlanta, Georgia; the left handed batting Harry Leon Simpson was an outfielder/ first baseman who after serving in the military during World War II initially played professionally in Negro League baseball with the Philadelphia Stars.  Signing his first Major League contract with the Cleveland Indians in 1948, Simpson became one of eight former Negro League players who made their Major League debuts in 1951.  The others were Bob Boyd and Sam Hairston (Chicago White Sox), Sam Jones (Cleveland Indians), Luis Angel Marquez (Boston Braves), Willie Mays,  Ray Noble, and Arte Wilson (New York Giants).  A good fielder with a strong throwing arm, Simpson hit with power in the minor leagues (31 home runs in 1949, 33 in 1950).  The Indians had high expectations for him.   With Simpson and Larry Doby in the outfield, and Luke Easter at first base, it was the only American League team to have multiple African Americans in its everyday lineup in 1951 – 1953.

Following two injury plagued disappointing seasons with the Indians,
Simpson’s contract was purchased in May of 1955 by the Kansas City A’s; my hometown team.  He had his best seasons in the Major Leagues with the A’s (1955 – 1957) and that is when I became familiar with him.  I had never seen anyone with such thick eye brows and pointed ears.   He hit .293 in 1956 with 21 home runs and 103 runs batted in and was one of two African Americans on the American League’s All-Star Game squad; Vic Power his teammate from the A’s was the other. 

Contrary to the assumption that could be made in reviewing Simpson’s baseball career, he got tagged with the nickname “Suitcase” while in Negro League baseball.  It did not come from him being traded or changing teams six times in his eight year Major League career.  Simpson already had the nickname when he came to the A’s in 1956; only his second Major League team.  Because of his size 13 feet, he was nicknamed while with the Philadelphia Stars after the Toonerville Trolley comic strip character “Suitcase Simpson” who had feet the other characters said; “were large as suitcases”.  I remember Simpson’s eye brows and ears, but I do not recall his large feet.  

To my sorrow, the A’s traded Simpson to the New York Yankees in June of 1957, but the Yankees traded him back the following summer.  In 1959, he split playing time with three teams; Kansas City A’s, Chicago White Sox, and Pittsburgh Pirates.  After being released by the White Sox before the 1960 season, Simpson played in the minor leagues and in the Mexican League before retiring in 1964.

              

Harry “Suitcase” Simpson, a part of that early group of African Americans to integrate professional baseball in the American League during the 1950s, will always have a place in my heart.  Although not a Hall of Fame player, Simpson helped to capture the passion of a six year old kid for the game; a passion that has lasted 59 years.   

Negro League World Series - Part 4

The 2017 Baseball Winter Meetings are scheduled for December 10 – 14 in Orlando, Florida.  Baseball fans will be looking on with anticipation for any trades or free agent signings coming from the meetings that will affect teams in 2018.   Also, Major League Baseball announced the first official exhibition games for Spring Training 2018 will be played February 23.  But this post in not about the upcoming 2018 Major League season.  It is the fourth and final segment about baseball history’s forgotten fall classic; the Negro League World Series.

1944 Homestead Grays

With its fan base having more disposable income and also widening due to the growing northern migration of the black population during World War 2, Negro League game attendance reached new levels.  It experienced a fifth consecutive year of solid growth in 1945.  Negro League baseball grew to become nearly a three million dollar industry and in most cases the largest business operating in   the African American communities of the cities with Negro National League (NNL) or Negro American League (NAL) franchises.  Another indication of Negro League baseball’s relative stability during this period was the Negro League World Series.

Although the Homestead Grays won the NNL pennant again in 1945, the average age of the team’s nucleus (Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, “Cool Papa” Bell, Jud Wilson, etc.) was well above 30 and their skills had begun to erode.  This became more evident when the Grays were swept four games to none by the younger Cleveland Buckeyes in the 1945 Negro League World Series.   Gibson, playing in his last Series before dying in 1947, hit only .123 (2 for 15) and Leonard .200 (3 for 15).  The Grays, scoring only 3 runs the entire Series, were shutout the last two games.   

1945 Cleveland Buckeyes

With Monte Irvin, Leon Day, and Larry Doby returning from military service, the Newark Eagles ended the nine year reign of the Homestead Grays and won the NNL pennant in 1946.  They faced the NAL’s Kansas City Monarchs in the 1946 Series.  Both teams had players who would cross over into Major League baseball:  Newark’s Irvin (1949) and Doby (1947), Kansas City’s “Satchel” Paige (1948), Hank Thompson (1947), Willard Brown (1947), and Connie Johnson (1953).  Led by Irvin’s torrid hitting (3 HRs, 8 RBI, and a .462 BA.), the Eagles won Game Six and Seven to win the Series 4 games to 3.

Monte Irvin (left) and Larry Doby (right)

For almost 30 years Alejandro Pompez had been the “Latin Connection” in Negro League baseball.  He created a pipeline that brought dark-skinned Hispanic players from Cuba and other Caribbean countries to star for his Negro League teams; the Cuban Stars (1916 – 1927) and the New York Cubans (1935 – 1950).  The Cubans won the NNL pennant and faced the Cleveland Buckeyes the NAL   pennant winner in the 1947 Negro League World Series.  The accomplishments of both teams were overshadowed that year by Jackie Robinson becoming the first African American to play Major League baseball in the 20^th Century.  Both teams in the Series had players who would later go through the door Robinson opened that year.  New York Cuban players Orestes “Minnie” Minoso (1949), Ray Noble (1951), and Pat Scantlebury (1956) would have careers in the Major Leagues; Minoso being the first dark-skinned Hispanic to play.  The Cleveland Buckeyes’ Sam Jethroe (1950), Sam Jones (1951), Quincy Trouppe (1952), and Al Smith (1953) also would spend time in the Major Leagues; Jethroe being the 1950 National League Rookie of the Year.  The Cubans, with Minoso hitting .426, defeated the Buckeyes four games to one in the Series. 

Orestes "Minnie" Minoso

 

In 1948, the Homestead Grays were no longer the team it had been since the late 1930s.  The team’s owner Cum Posey died of lung cancer in 1946 and Josh Gibson, considered the greatest home run slugger in Negro League history, died in 1947.  Also gone were team stalwarts Raymond Brown, Roy Partlow, Jerry Benjamin, “Cool Papa’ Bell, and Jud Wilson.  However, Buck Leonard and pitcher Wilmer Fields along with future Major Leaguers Luke Easter (1949) and Bob Thurman (1955) led the Grays to capture the NNL pennant.  The team defeated the Birmingham Black Barons four games to one in the 1948 Negro League World Series.  In Game Three, the only one won by Birmingham, the Grays’ Leonard was thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double by the Black Barons’ 17-year old center fielder; future Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays.  It would be the third time the Grays would win a World Series championship against the Black Barons, also in 1943 and 1944.

Willie Mays

 

Although Jackie Robinson erased the “invisible color line” in 1947, racial integration in the Major Leagues went at a slow pace.  However, African American baseball fans looked at the racial competition in Major League games as social progress and quickly began to lose interest in Negro League baseball.  Game attendance in the Negro Leagues dropped to financially dangerous levels for many teams and the economic stability of Negro League baseball began crumbling; never to recover.   After the 1948 season, the NNL disbanded with the few remaining teams absorbed by the NAL which limped on until the end of Negro League baseball in the early 1960s.

The end of Negro League baseball’s economic stability put a permanent end to   the Negro League World Series.  The Homestead Grays, one of the most renowned Negro League franchises, played in four of these fall classics during Negro League baseball’s most profitable years, 1942 – 1945; winning two.  It is only fitting that in 1948 the team won the last Negro League World Series championship.

Negro League World Series - Part 3

The Houston Astros have been crowned World Series champions bringing to an end the 2017 Major League baseball season.  Now begins the “hot stove league”, the name often referred to the baseball off season, even though winter does not officially start until December 21.  Baseball fans will be waiting to see what changes will be made by their favorite team for improvement in 2018 season.  Especially those fans of the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers; teams that made a good run in 2017 but fell short.  With the Astros being young and loaded, it will be an uphill climb for the other teams.  But this post is not my prediction about the 2018 Major League season.  It is the third segment about baseball history’s forgotten fall classic; the Negro League World Series.

1943 Homestead Grays

After the United States in 1941 became involved in World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the continuing operation of both Major League and Negro League baseball for the purpose of maintaining high morale in the country.  The military took such Major League stars as Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Hank Greenberg while Negro League players Monte Irvin, Willard Brown, Leon Day, Larry Doby, and others served also during the War.  There were; however, Negro League stalwarts considered to old (over 30 years old) or with physical exemptions from military service.  This included players such as “Satchel” Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, “Cool Papa” Bell, and others.

The war years became a period of economic prosperity for Negro League baseball.  With an estimated 1.5 million African Americans by 1944 having jobs in industries producing military weapons, equipment, and supplies; Negro League fans had more disposable income to support their favorite team.  In addition, the fan base widened due to the growing northern migration from southern states of African Americans seeking the increasing job opportunities.  Negro League game attendance reached new levels far above the previous two decades, experiencing a fifth consecutive year of solid growth in 1945.  With this new economic stability came the rebirth of the Negro League World Series.

In 1942, the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League (NAL) played the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League (NNL) in the first Negro League World Series held since 1927.  The format of attempting to maximum revenue (ticket sales) by playing most of the games in cities with a large African America population remained as before; only one game of the Series would be in Kansas City while the rest in New York, Pittsburgh, Washington D. C., and Philadelphia.  However, the Series changed to be as the Major League’s; first to win four games would be champion.  In the midst of their nine year reign (1937 – 1945) of winning the NAL pennant, the Grays were favored to defeat the Monarchs.  The Grays’ batting order included Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Jerry Benjamin, Howard Easterling, and Jud Wilson.  But the Monarchs pitchers led by “Satchel” Paige, Hilton Smith, and Jack Matchett shut down the powerful Grays’ batters and won the Series four games to none.  Josh Gibson only hit .154 (2 for 14) and Buck Leonard .188 (3 for 16).

"Satchel" Paige (left) and Josh Gibson (right)

In Game Two of this Series, the pitcher-batter confrontation between the Monarchs’ “Satchel” Paige and the Grays’ Josh Gibson that is a part of Negro League folklore took place.  Wanting to demonstrate proof of being the best pitcher in the Negro Leagues at that time, Paige decided to face Gibson; considered the best hitter.  Leading 2 – 0 with two outs and a man on third base, Paige walks Vic Harris and Howard Easterling intentionally so he could face Josh Gibson.  Paige verbally taunted Gibson, telling before each pitch what he would throw.  Gibson struck out on three Paige fastballs, not quick enough to take a swing at any of them.  The confrontation is so baseball legendary, Monarchs’ first baseman Buck O’Neil gives a narration of it in Ken Burn’s 1994 television documentary miniseries “Baseball”.

John "Buck" O'Neil

Both the 1943 and 1944 Negro League World Series pitted the Grays against the Birmingham Black Barons.  Paced by pitchers Johnny Wright (two shutouts) and Raymond Brown (two wins and a 2.10 ERA) the Grays won the 1943 Series four games to three.   Behind the hitting of Josh Gibson (.500, 8 for 16) and Buck Leonard (.388, 7 for 18), the Grays won the 1944 Series four games to one.

Buck Leonard

Despite the war years being an economic boom time for Negro League baseball overall, the Negro League World Series struggled.  The 1944 Negro League East West All Star Game in Chicago drew 51,723 in attendance, the largest to see a Negro League game.  Only 29, 589 fans attended Major League Baseball’s All Star Game that summer held in Pittsburgh.  However in his book, “I Was Right on Time” (Simon & Schuster 1997), Buck O’Neil believed there were less than 5,000 people in stadium that saw the Paige vs Gibson event.  But the overall economic stability of both leagues allowed the Negro League World Series to continue.  Stay tuned for the fourth and final segment