Summer Book Tour!

 

Dalton Moats

 Nobody told me it would be like this!

No one clued me in to the fact that once a book is published that author would not have any time to write. Keeping up with events and appearances has cut drastically into my research, not to mention my blogging! But it has given me a chance to meet folks excited about the history of baseball in Alabama, and that is a wonderful thing.

A good friend recently gave me advice, "Keep throwin fastballs if they work, dawg" and I have to admit could not agree more. 

 

SUMMER BOOK TOUR

This week begins my summer book tour, and I am so excited! 

BIRMINGHAM 

I will be appearing on Friday June 19th in Birmingham at historic Rickwood Field for the annual Juneteenth East-West Classic Game and All Star Home Run Derby. With stars such as Gary Sheffield and CC Sabathia on hand for the festivities, I am really looking forward to being a part of the fun. There is a five-inning All Star Game chock full of former MLB stars, which takes place right after Prince Fielder works to defend his crown in the annual Juneteenth Home Run Derby.

 

HUNTSVILLE 

The very next day, Saturday June 20th, I am headed to Huntsville, where I will be talkin baseball and meetin/greetin folks at Harrison Brothers Hardware, the oldest hardware store in the state. 

Harrison Brothers have a lot of cool Alabama-centric gifts and products as well as a fabulous selection of books and food. I am really looking forward to shopping there along with meeting everyone!

MONTGOMERY 

On a more local note, I will be among the writers in Montgomery at New South Bookstore, on Saturday, August 15th for their Local Authors fair. Located downtown, just blocks from old "Whisky Avenue", a location that makes a couple important appearances in the book. I think it is exciting to be bringing awareness of the history back to where it actually happened.

In the fall I have been asked to speak at Alabama State University, where I hope to highlight the many famous stars who played baseball at the old ballpark on their campus, such as Rube Foster, Satchel Paige and Willie Mays. Their original baseball stadium has many features still extant and they are worth preserving and appreciating as links to the players who appeared there.

Also this fall, I have an appearance at the Goat Hill Gift Shop at the Alabama State Capitol building scheduled, where I will speak about baseball history for the Montgomery Historical Society. I am very excited about this and have a great respect for all the folks at the MHS.

I am really looking forward to all these events! Getting to talk baseball in places mentioned in the book is a fabulous opportunity that I am so thankful for, even if it does cut into my research time a little. Ya'll come on out, they will be great fun.  

Mention that you saw this blog and I will have a special gift for you!

 

RESEARCH NOTES

1920 Palmist ad in Montgomery

Not that I have been completely idle, mind you! I am always searching to tie up loose ends, finding names or placing players with teams where I can, to fill out details. To that end, I dove headfirst into reading the 1920 Montgomery County Census rolls, looking for info on local ballplayers. It was a fascinating, yet very challenging, read!

The census rolls were written by the enumerators, aka census-takers, by hand and in cursive. All those hand-written lists were later digitized at varying levels of blurriness. The enumerators did not ask how to spell names, simply wrote them as they heard them spoken, leading to some strange typos. Also, some census-takers were much better with penmanship than others, making it more interesting to try to pick the letters in a very fancy alphabet soup. 

SURPrISE!!!! 

Reading the Census Roll for 1920 was very illuminating, offering clues to ballplayers names and addresses as well as their professed occupations and relatives. Several players were found listed as railroad workers and store clerks, a few important individuals homes were located. However, what struck me the most was a racial quirk I found happening in town that noone ever talks about. 

1920 was the last census that included race in its query without asking the person themselves. The census enumerators were given free judgement on determining race for the individuals they interviewed, they didn't ask just "eyeballed" it. The choices were few, basically it was White, Black, Mulatto, Hebrew, or Asian. 

The surprise, for me, came in the locations of many "Mulatto" families, the outdated and distasteful catchall phrase for mixed racial heritage was a very frequently recurring notation in Montgomery census info. I expected there to be streets and neighborhoods in town that were "white" and "black", and there were. 

Yet, I was not prepared for the fact that between these streets and neighborhoods of strict racial makeup, there was often a mixed racial area filled with "Mulatto" families. I didn't count them, but the frequency was surprising, particularly considering many enumerators often simply put "Black" instead of even trying to discern a non-white persons race. Finding these areas between white and Black streets, especially noting the frequency of them, was not quite what I expected, but maybe I should have. In spite of its reputation, folks all across Alabama have spent a long time interacting to build communities together, no matter what backgrounds were involved.

 

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES

Ya'll want an index? I have had a couple requests for making an index for "Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie" and if there is much more call for it, I would be willing to put one together. I know it would make it easier to find places and people. It was omitted due to the vast size it would have required to include in the print edition. Sound off in the comments below and let me know!

Also in the works is a folio collection of the rare images that were acquired for the book. Many are colorized, though the book didn't include the colorization on the interior pages, just on the cover. There are also quite a few that didn't make it into the book, due to space requirements. I expect this to be ready in the fourth quarter of the year, its an impressive set of photos!  

A new set of Dr. Miraculous baseball cards will be available by the end of the summer, including huge stars and rare images of local greats. The last set was gone in just hours, make sure to watch for this one, its a keeper! 

For fans who crave more info, I have been putting short vids up on my Instagram page, a few have also been posted on X/Twitter or on my youtube channel, which is also a good spot if you like butt-kickin Alabama-local hard rock music! Let me know in the comments if you are finding the vids in the wild or if I should post them here!

This fall I am determined to get the podcast machine cranked up for deeper dives into baseball topics. Stay tuned for more info on this!

I am also planning a series of Ask-Me-Anythings on X/Twitter and possibly Reddit, I will keep ya'll posted on that as well as it develops.

 

HISTORY TIME!

Coming up in Montgomery baseball history we celebrate the no-hitter tossed by Mel Parnell of the Maxwell Field Bombers at Cramton Bowl on June 25th of 1941. Two thousand fans were on hand for the game, a welcome distraction from wartime stress.

Parnell was a young hurler who would go on to fame with the Boston Red Sox after starring on this wartime flyers club while in the service. 

Mel Parnell, a lean lefty with a strong fastball, later led the American League in Wins in 1949 as a member of the Red Sox and was twice a MLB All Star for Boston. Mel is a legendary Red Sox hurler, who still holds the franchise records for wins by a lefty starter. 

1940's Cramton Bowl baseball game

How great was he? He is mentioned in the "Talkin Baseball" song by Terry Cashman! 

In 1956, Mel Parnell would throw a no-hitter for the Red Sox, it would be the last Boston no-no by a lefty until Jon Lester's gem in 2008. In June of 1950 Johnny Pesky's home run in Fenway hit the fair pole, causing Boston's starting pitcher Mel Parnell to call it "The Pesky Pole" to reporters after the game, a name that has stuck for decades. 

However, Parnell wasn't the only stud on the Maxwell Bombers staff, future major leaguer (and Birmingham native) Royce Lint was also on the Bombers club and would show up Parnell by throwing TWO no-hitters later in the season for Maxwell!

 

Mel Parnell with Boston

 

Doc Talks Satchel Paige and Birmingham Black Barons

 

 

Things have been really busy this spring, but I knew I was due to post here! So its time for another Doc Talks vid, this time I am reading from my book "Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie" about one of the biggest names in the sport. 

DOC TALKS SATCH

It's a subject I was interested in from the very start, Satchel Paige and how he got his start with the Black Barons. Learning the true history of one of the most legendary pitchers was one of the most fascinating aspects of research for my book. Everyone has heard of Satchel, there are so many great stories and legends, separating his myth from fact was a big task but a lot of fun. 

I had access to some of the best info, from biographies to local reporting of the era. A deep look at the Black Barons business ledger was incredibly rewarding, covering financial details on a day-to-day basis it offered the keys to several mysteries. Satchel wrote his autobiography "Pitchin Man" fairly early on,  during his playing career. I found that gave him much control over his own narrative, some important details of his life were errant and others were omitted entirely, likely by design. Yet many of his in-game exploits were not just true, but tended to be downsized for believe-ability.  

Satchel was playing loosely organized ball with his older brother's local Mobile team when he was signed, possibly dealt for cash, and began pitching pro ball for Chattanooga. After a successful rookie season the Chattanooga White Sox sold him to Birmingham in the middle of the his second year. He was young and threw hard but had little control, which led to...

 

 

In this video I used a few of my colorization efforts, something I have been working on for a number of years now. After getting into photo editing for the many images here, it seemed a natural progression. I find the visual aspect of older images is greatly improved with the colorization process, making identification so much easier and giving a more realistic look for modern viewers.

Also we get a look at the custom baseball cards I have been designing for events. I use the local teams they played for and always include deep facts on the back. Catch me in person and I might have one for you!

Feel free to comment or ask questions below, I always look forward to them! 

 

Doc Talks Vintage Gear

 

Here I share some of the equipment used in the early days of baseball. 19th century gear was mostly handmade from available materials, from bats made out of wagon wheel parts to balls cobbled from leather scraps. 

 

ITS A DATE!

On Saturday, February 28th at 11 am. I will be seeing the Birmingham Children's Theatre production of Catching The Moon, a blues opera about Toni Stone - a woman who challenged gender norms by playing pro baseball in the Negro Leagues. Following the show I will join the actors onstage for a talk-back session to answer audience questions about the play and its subjects. I encourage everyone to come out and support this wonderful production.

 

 

 

 

The Dr.'s BookShelf, Dodgers & A's Visit This Month in Montgomery Baseball History

 

Reader comments on the blog are always wonderful, and super helpful to guide me towards what you want to see. A recent comment (thank you Stephen!) suggests that some might be interested in the books I used for research and I am happy to oblige. Is there a topic I should cover? Let me know in the comments! Can't read? Thats okay too, there are lots of pictures to look at this week, let me know your fave!

These are a mix of national and local history, baseball and otherwise, the things I tend to be looking for is often secondary to the subject matter. One of the reasons I wrote about baseball in our state is that I found there to be a nearly criminal lack of info compiled on the subject.

Reading is one of the most rewarding and important aspects of life, I enjoy it as often as I can. I generally prefer non-fiction, and have leaned into local history and baseball. My bookshelves are drooping in the center from carrying too much weight, and my "to read" stack is usually pretty hefty too.  

So when I was told I would need a bibliography in my book, I wondered if they expected a supplemental volume, as there are scads of books I used for info. Some offered a single page, paragraph or even a lone sentence that was pertinent. Some info was from websites no longer available, some items were notations made more than a decade ago with no reference of origin. 

Fortunately, the workaround was to use "Selected Bibliography" to trim the sizeable herd, here I will try to cover a few that may not have made that list as well as some reasons for the ones I did include.

For Alabama and baseball history these are some of my prime go-to sources:

Baseball in Montgomery by Clarence Watkins, an excellent overview of the most notable teams and players that includes many photos in an easy to read format. 

Baseball in Birmingham by Clarence Watkins, see above, Watkins also has a book on Memphis that is of the same fine caliber.  

Steamboat Johnson

Standing the Gaff by Steamboat Johnson, an unheralded gem, this account of turn-of-the-century baseball in the old Southern Association was written by umpire Steamboat Johnson and provides a rare firsthand account of the games, players and events that few other writers cover or even heard of. Also, it is hilarious!

A Complete History of the Negro Leagues by Mark Ribowski, pretty nearly as advertised, despite the impossible claim of being complete, Ribowski does a great job touching all the bases.

Anything about Montgomery written by author Wayne Greenhaw. I have a pair of his books on Montgomery city history and they are full of images and info, giving a view into the past and the most important events in the capital city. 

Cuban Star: How One Negro League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball by Adrian Burgos Jr was a great insight to the workings of Negro League teams and their owners, as well as the numbers racket, to which so many teams were tied. For students of baseball history, this is simply a must read for its insight on how this owner did indeed do what the title says.

Few and Chosen: Defining Negro League Greatness by Monte Irvin and Phil Pope. Getting firsthand accounts is one of my preferred ways of learning about history, having Monte Irvin share his own opinions and observations is a rare and fascinating insight. This book offers unique value with Irvin's own  comparisons as a professional playing alongside some of the greats, as well as Monte's recollections on what other players told him about the veterans they had seen. I love this book.

Humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a series of baseball fiction books based on a fiesty cat who owned a major league team (a movie was made in the 1940's from the first book, both titled "Rhubarb") but a pair of releases he penned with the help of sports researcher Ira L. Smith (no relation) are much more interesting for history buffs. "Three Men on Third" and "Low and Inside" are both collections of true baseball anecdotes. None are more than a couple paragraphs long, mostly ranging from kind of cute to riotously funny. These books offers tidbits on many players rarely discussed today, but of significance to local history buffs. Plus they are all a great read, as anything by H. Allen Smith is. 

Outsider Baseball: Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe by Scott Simkus is a fabulous book that delves into the unofficial games between white MLB clubs and teams they shouldn't have been facing, i.e. comprised of Black and/or Latino/Hispanic players. It is a great work that unlocks a rarely studied aspect of baseball with statistical comparisons and discusses many important games and events. It's excellent!

The Glory of Their Times: The Story of Early Days of Baseball by Lawrence Ritter, from 1966 this doesn't get enough praise! My preference is the audio that features the actual interviews with these historic players telling their own story in their own words. Few other works provide the connection that this book and its related recordings convey. No Negro League content, very few Alabama associations, but nearly essential reading/listening for baseball history buffs.  

REFERENCE SECTION 

James Brunson compiled an absolutely massive tome of teams, players, executives and other important details with a 19th century focus. Black Baseball 1858-1900: A Comprehensive Record of the Teams... is an amazing collection of early baseball history. It is a reference book not a sit down read, but the info contained is rarely found elsewhere and quite voluminous!

Along the same lines, James Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues is a reference-style book that lists players, owners, executives, teams and cities in alphabetical order. Published in the 1990's, this book omits some details learned later and focuses mostly on the top level of teams, but offers a detailed biography of each player that is beyond any other source. My own copy is bulging with post-its noting where players and teams of interest are found. A valuable reference on my shelf that I use often. 

The Negro Southern League by William J. Plott, the most complete history of the league that all top Alabama cities aspired to join, this book offers a great view into the struggles the circuit faced. The teams and players are well documented, a Herculean feat by author Plott and one of the most important books on my shelf. 

Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons by William J. Plott, a solid and detailed overview of the Black Barons franchise from start to finish, including rosters, standings, notable events and rare photos. Were I to teach a class about the BBB's, this would be the textbook. There are several excellent histories of the Black Barons published, but this one is my preferred.

Early photo of Montgomery Advertiser offices ca 1870's

The Montgomery Advertiser/Alabama Journal, and also the Montgomery Times. Local newspapers provide an insight that is as close to the source as possible. For my research I read each and every Advertiser sports page from 1865 through 1950, and quite a few from the decades afterwards. Then I took a look at the Birmingham News and any other newspaper in the country that would cover baseball - online sources have digitized many of the nations newspapers and provide a rich vault of info. Finding a local team mentioned in a Cincinnati or Pittsburgh newspaper were often breakthrough moments.

BBB's Ledger

I wrote about it last year, but the Birmingham Black Barons business ledger can be viewed online, and I found it to be the single most important artifact that I have studied as pertains to Alabama baseball. From it can be discerned the players who were rowdy, who were fastidious, who were in need of cash or had wives demanding a players pay envelope! Broken down by year and player, it covers every (legitimate) expense the club incurred or cash it paid out from about 1926 through 1930. Is it boring to read? Heck yeah, but it's also chock full of obscure info and features the correct spellings of player names!

Other boring stuff that comes into play fairly often - old fire insurance maps, phone directories, institutional publications such as school yearbooks, municipal promotional material such as pamphlets or postcards. And court records, a ton of them, as well as Ancestry dotcom and Library of Congress website. 

 
DONT LIKE EM's! 

Should I mention the books I don't like? There are several "popular" books on baseball and particularly Black baseball that I have less fondness for, with a variety of reasons. One thing that irks me about them is that they have been highly recommended by so many, but have so little about Alabama or are simply wrong. Others are just swings and misses.

A couple of them are Bruce Adelson's Brushing Back Jim Crow spreads a very misleading myth about Montgomery's pro baseball integration, a myth that has helped prevent an investigation into a string of deaths. Also, Henry Aaron's I Had A Hammer shares Hank's very negative opinions about Montgomery, yet also offers details on the city's amenities for Black players, such as the hotels, barbershops, restaurants and taxi services that catered to non-whites. Love Hank, but it's tough to hear him dog my city due to its reputation instead of his personal experience. The book did offer insight as to why Hank rarely visited Montgomery after his playing days.

Useless were the websites such as MLB or Cooperstown, I suggest instead seeking the CNLBR website that holds a trove of Dr. Layton Revel's excellent writings on Negro League players, teams and history.

So thats mine, whats new on your shelf?

 

THIS WEEK MONTH IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY 

FEBRUARY 1 1943 Rebels owner Ben Goltsman buys Meridian roster to fill Montgomery's lineup. The Rebels ended up not fielding a team and in mid-1943 the Chattanooga Lookouts relocated to Montgomery during the season. Wartime caused manpower shortages and idled entire leagues, forcing drastic changes for the clubs and leagues that were left.

 FEBRUARY 3 1923 Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics arrive for spring training in Montgomery. It was not their first trip (see below) but it was the first time they visited Cramton Bowl, which they described as one of the finest sporting facilities in the nation.

FEBRUARY 7 1950 Charlie Metro announced as Montgomery manager, he would helm the club through 1953, posting winning records in three straight seasons. 

Metro would be the Rebels manager with the most victories in the twentieth century, and also would go on the invent the batting tee and be a member of the Chicago Cubs "college of coaches" managing in the major leagues.

 

FEBRUARY 11 1905 The Montgomery Baseball Club reorganizes, with E.E.Winters as president and treasurer. Winters was head of the Montgomery Traction Railway Company, which caused issues for fans trying to travel to the ballparks not also owned by the Traction Company. Eventually the league ruled streetcar executives could not hold ownership in teams.

FEBRUARY 22 1954 The Brooklyn Dodgers hold a baseball camp in Montgomery for Air Force teams. This Dodgers team featured greats such as Jackie, Campy, Newcomb, Pee Wee, The Duke, Gil Hodges, Carl Erskine and Johnny Podres. 

FEBRUARY 26 1905 The Southern League board meets in Montgomery, adopts a 140 game season, and makes other constitutional changes. This basically ushers the league into the modern era, with longer seasons and larger rosters.

FEBRUARY 27 1906 The AL Champion Philly Athletics begin Spring Training in Montgomery. Connie Mack's A's include Chief Bender, Rube Waddell, Eddie Collins, Eddie Plank and Jack Coombs. While in Montgomery, Rube Waddell has some career-defining experiences, including extinguishing a burning house single-handedly, being kidnapped, unsnarling traffic by lifting a streetcar back onto its tracks, and learning to roller skate on downtown sidewalks. 

1906 Philadelphia Athletics team

The 1906 A's had several local connections, veteran starting outfielder Topsy Hartsel had played with Montgomery way back in 1898. Young outfielder/third baseman Rube Oldring had just appeared with Montgomery the summer before, earning a major league job with the Yankees before joining the Athletics. Also on that A's club was third baseman Art Brouthers, a 23-year old Montgomery native who had also been with the Montgomery Senators club in 1905. 

Todays the Day! Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie

 

Its opening day for Alabama baseball history! Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie is available now wherever books are sold.

The title says it all, covering the baseball teams, players, games and events as the sport spread across the state and country in Black communities from the Civil War through 1950. Grab a copy and wave it at me, I would be thrilled to sign it for you, and hopefully we can chat - perhaps about C.I. Taylor, Steel Arm Dickey or how Gadsden joined the NSL. Or who was bankrolling the Birmingham Black Barons and how to spell Montgomery Grey Sox. I hope the publishing of this book brings the conversation forward, sparking fresh ideas and renewed interest in the exciting history of baseball in the South.

 First and foremost, I am a baseball fan and I hope to be a well-informed fan. Learning more about baseball is a passion, sharing it with you on this blog has been an incredible journey. I thank you all for reading! 

If you know about a team I missed, you bet I want to hear about it. If I left your favorite player out, I might have missed them in my research and would love to know about them (leave a comment below!). Hopefully some folks will find their past relatives, always one of the most rewarding aspects of covering history that I have experienced. There was a lot going on, not everything fit into the space allowed, maybe I have a note that could help someones research, I am always thrilled to talk baseball and look forward to sharing with those who know or want to know more, like I do.

IT WAS SUS

I didn't wander into baseball history with an eye towards Negro Leagues, but it wasn't hard to see something didn't sit right. Lemme get this straight... Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige, and like fifty other greats - all came from Alabama but we have ZERO record compiled about their combined development? We know nothing about the situation that fostered such greatness? Birmingham is the only non-white team in the whole state that anyone kept track of? And they were legendary but few know exactly what they were legendary for?

Satchel Paige

When one looked up Alabama baseball history among Black communities, it literally began with Satchel Paige's 1906 birth. The internet had seemingly never heard of Black people playing baseball in Alabama before 1920, when the Negro Southern League was formed. Even info on that was sparse, until Bill Plot's book on the league came out. Plott is a consummate researcher, his focus had not been on early development. His book on the Black Barons also began in the 1920's. When I asked him and others what came before, I found that even experts weren't sure what was going on before 1910.

Local sportswriters? One longtime Montgomery sport reporter literally told me "That was before my time, nobody cares about that stuff." Now THAT lit me up. As a sportswriter, I feel it is your JOB to know about "that stuff" and I am certainly not "nobody". Hmph.

So what happened? What makes historians and sportswriters turn away from a hundred years of events? How bad can it be?

 

Oh. My. God.

2019 Dr. M

My beard didn't used to be white, but then I studied Black baseball in Alabama. 

Lots of killing, stabbing, shooting, electrocutions, poison too. Bootlegging, political assassinations, bulldozing entire massive communities, systemic racism, car crashes, train accidents, cross burnings, prostitution, swindlers, crooked cops, racketeers, and so much more.

Good grief, these people were just trying to play baseball! 

 

From the Civil War throughout its existence, Alabama Black baseball was handled as a current event almost exclusively. No one felt it important to put it into a historical context, compare past and present. Even the Negro Southern League rarely took time to fully tabulate its own final standings. The games were deemed more of an entertainment than a sport, one rarely subjected to historic recognition. Beyond occasional box scores or short game wraps, most Alabama newspapers rarely used more than a few lines to describe even the most notable events.

No wonder Black baseball was swept under the rug. Black folks were likely painfully aware of how they had been treated, and white folks probably didn't want to be reminded. So in that sense, I suppose we can now understand the "nobody cares about that stuff" sentiment from a company veteran. Hopefully we have moved into an era that allows us to view the game and its growth in a more objective light.

Throughout the writing process, new information was becoming available literally every single day. As each new item is digitized, it revolutionizes our understanding of Negro Leagues teams and players as well as Black baseball's 19th century origins. It was a privilege to have access to some of the nations best institutions archives and to have the advice of many leading experts in order to put together what I feel is the most complete story of Black Baseball in Alabama. 

I hope you will enjoy it.