The Way The Game Was

"I didn't play as many games as the full-time players cause of school. When school was out, I played just as much as the rest of the team and loved to play ball. Almost every day or every night there was a game. It was common for the teams of the Negro Leagues to play as many as 200 games a year. Some of the games were just exhibition games, which were not on the schedule. You might get into a town and the team you were supposed to play could not make it for one reason or another, and so with the extra time you would play a game. The teams had someone to keep track of how many games you played, but there was nobody to keep the stats. That is why it is so hard to go back and know exactly what your stats were. You might keep track of stats for a while on your own, but there is no way to keep them like the Major Leagues did.

We played so many games in so many parks all across the eastern half of the country there is no way to really know just what the stats were, or even the names of all the ballparks where we played. We played in the small town parks, the Minor and Major League parks. We played in every ballpark in every town. We played the Friday night game in New Orleans and rode the bus to New York for a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds on Sunday.

After the leagues were formed came the promoters, keeping track of the teams and where they were going to be playing. This is how you would come to play a team who was not on the regular schedule. The promoters would know which teams were playing, and if a team didn't show they would find another team who could play. Or maybe they would set up a doubleheader and you would play their team after your regular game. The promoters would get 10% of the gate for setting up these games and they were located all around the country, so there was hardly ever an area which was not covered.

One time we went to Memphis to play the Memphis Blues. We played what we called a league game and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Memphis Blues would take us all through Missisippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and we would play them the same as before, only we would not use our regular pitchers cause these games didn't count. But we still played hard against them. It was a matter of prestige. We didn't want to lose to them. This was organized ball. We also knew who we were going to play and unless you had an off day and somebody wanted to play you, this would be the only time you had an unscheduled game.

I had a great career and am thankful for the time I was in baseball. Actually, I have never really left baseball even though it has been many years since I was with a team. Baseball is a part of my everyday life and I hope the information you see here will get you out onto the field yourself so you can experience the greatest sport of all time. If you are past the time of playing baseball, then you are a lot like me but that don't mean you can't be involved in some way or another. Be involved and get the kids involved."