Gene Collins: Pitched Last "No-hitter" in Negro League Baseball

After viewing my previous post on Negro League baseball’s ambidextrous pitcher Larry Kimbrough, Wanda Weatherspoon wanted information shared about her relative who played with the Kansas City Monarchs; Eugene “Gene” Collins.  If you have consistently read my blog posts, you know how strongly I believe Negro League baseball is forever woven into the fabric of 20^th Century American History.  Wanda is proud her relative is a part of the Negro League story.  

Born January 7, 1925 in Kansas City, Gene Collins came to the Monarchs in 1947 when the face of Major League baseball began to change and the Negro Leagues’ swan song started its tune.  That year Jackie Robinson became the first African American in the 20^th Century to play in the Major Leagues.   A 5’8”, 168 pound left handed pitcher, Collins joined a pitching staff that included Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith, both now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  A good hitter, Collins also spent time playing in the outfield with Hall of Famer Willard Brown who along with Monarch teammate Hank Thompson would briefly play for the St. Louis Brown in 1947.  By mid-summer of the next year, Paige would be pitching for the Cleveland Indians.  Buck O’Neil, Ted Strong, Joe Greene, and Manager Frank Duncan were all Monarch veterans that help break in Gene Collins to the life of Negro League baseball.

For seven innings on May 22, 1949 Collins gave up no hits to the Houston (formerly Newark) Eagles.  With Kansas City leading 14 – 0, the game ended after the seventh inning and some credit Collins with pitching the last no-hitter in Negro League baseball.  Some research indicates without detail he had pitched a no-hitter earlier while with the Monarchs.

Five of Gene Collins’ young Monarch teammates during his 1947 – 1949 time with the club went on to play in the Major Leagues as racial integration continued in professional baseball; Gene Baker, Elston Howard, Hank Thompson, Curt Roberts, and Connie Johnson.  Collins himself began his minor league career with the Chicago White Sox in 1951.  Similar to other teams in the American League, the White Sox took a slow approach to racial integration.  Although the “invisible color line” had been erased, there were still racial barriers that African American and dark-skinned Latino ballplayers had to face (quota for number on a team, utility player roster spots for white players only) that hindered many of their careers.  The only African American pitchers in the American League until the late 1950s were two of Collins’ former Monarch teammates:  Satchel Paige who pitched for the Indians (1948 -1949) and the St. Louis Browns (1951 – 1953) and Connie Johnson (White Sox 1953 – 1955 and Baltimore 1955 – 1958).  After spending two years in the lower minor league levels of the White Sox, Collins played the remainder of his career in Mexican and Caribbean leagues.  He never played a game in Major League baseball.

The second book I am currently writing deals with the plight of former Negro League players like Gene Collins.  With the Civil Rights Movement’s initial beginnings as its backdrop, the book tells of the final demise of Negro League teams as the integration of Major League baseball gained unstoppable momentum in the 1950s.

I invite Wanda and anyone else who knew Gene Collins and would want to add more about his life to provide me your information and I will do another post about him.

To learn about the history of Negro League baseball, 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