The Negro League baseball history fact for today - Walter Gibbons and Sammy Williams

In the early 1950s, many former Negro League players integrated minor league baseball.  Several, such as Walter Lee “Dirk” Gibbons and Samuel “Sammy” Clarence Williams spent more time in baseball’s minor league system than in the Negro Leagues. 

Gibbons, born on October 13, 1928 in Tampa, Florida had his Negro League career cut short by military service.  After pitching for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1948 and 1949, he spent three years in the Army during the Korean War.  When he returned to civilian life and baseball, Gibbons pitched in the Canadian League and the Dakota League until retiring in 1956.

Williams, born on October 13, 1922 in Birmingham, Alabama was a left handed pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons from 1947 – 1952.  He pitched for the 1948 Black Barons team that was in the last Negro League World Series against the Homestead Grays.  A young, 17 years old, Willie Mays was also on that team with Williams.  After his years with the Black Barons, the 5’11 and 175 pounds Williams played in the minor leagues until 1958 reaching the Class AA level in 1954 with the Texas League’s Oklahoma City franchise. 




To learn more about the Negro League baseball era, read “Last Train to Cooperstown:  The 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees from the Negro League Baseball Era”.  To order go to (http://booklaunch.io/kevinlmitchell/last-train-to-cooperstown) www.klmitchell.com