ManDak League was a home away from home

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This article was published 01/06/2020 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This summer the professional Negro Baseball Leagues are celebrating their 100th anniversary.

The Negro National League (NNL) was established in 1920 with eight teams primarily in the Midwest USA. The first game between the Indianapolis ABCs and the Chicago American Giants was played in the Windy City on May 2.

The Negro Southern League, the Eastern Colored League and the Negro American League (NAL) were formed later in the 1920s. These leagues were where the best
African-American baseball players displayed their talents before organized professional baseball was integrated in 1946 when Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson.

Robinson had played a season with the NAL Kansas City Monarchs before joining the Montreal Royals of the International League. The next season, Robinson moved up to the National League with the Dodgers and former Newark Eagle Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League with the Cleveland Indians.

Future Baseball Hall-of-Famers Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, Mule Suttles and Turkey Stearnes, and teams such as the Homestead Greys, Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Monarchs showed their worth when they played against major leaguers in exhibition games.

Once organized baseball attracted their best players and young prospects, the Negro Leagues were in trouble. Willie Mays, then just 17, joined the NAL Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 and played until partway through the 1950 season when he moved to organized ball with the New York Giants.

After starting the 1952 season with the NAL Indianapolis Clowns, Hank Aaron signed with the Milwaukee Braves in June. They sent the 18-year-old to Eau Claire, Wisc., which had a team in the old Northern League.

Players seen as too old or not talented enough for a team to sign looked for other places to play. The ManDak League, which had been formed in 1950 with teams in Winnipeg, Elmwood, Carman, Brandon and Minot, N.D., became a home for many. The first players came north the previous season to play in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League. The ManDak League lasted until 1957.

Willie Wells, who was rated by many experts as the greatest shortstop in Negro Leagues history, managed the Winnipeg Buffaloes and Brandon Greys and played a little as his career wound down. Winnipeg’s best pitcher was Leon Day, who, like Wells, was later inducted into the Baseball HOF. They led the Buffaloes to the first ManDak League championship with Day pitching a 17-inning 1-0 victory over the Greys in the final playoff game. Day rates right up there with Paige on the list of the best pitchers in Negro ball. Paige, who seemed to play everywhere during a 30-year career, pitched a few games for Minot in 1950.

Frazier Robinson, whom Paige had nicknamed Slow while they were with Kansas City, caught for Baltimore Elite Giants before joining the Buffaloes in 1950.

Describing his time in Winnipeg in a book titled Catching Dreams, co-written with Paul Bauer, Robinson said, “Never did I imagine such a place existed. There was no place you couldn’t go.”

He called Canada “a paradise” and as different as night and day from playing in the southern States.

“People in Canada didn’t even look crossways at you,” he said.

The Buffaloes were an all-black team and the players were well-paid in comparison to what they could make in the U.S. Robinson and Day lived at the YMCA, along with Johnny Britton and Jim Newberry, who were Mays’ teammates in Birmingham.

Butch Davis, who came to Winnipeg from Baltimore, was the league batting champion in its first two seasons. Gentry Jessup, a five-time NAL all-star who led that league in wins in 1944 and 1945, pitched three seasons for Carman.

Cowan Hyde, whose Negro Leagues career began in 1927, was with Elmwood in 1950 and 1951 and Brandon the next two seasons. Ted (Double Duty) Radcliffe, who played for 30 different teams in a career which lasted until he was 50, served as the player-manager of the Elmwood Giants during parts of two seasons. He earned his nickname by pitching one game in a doubleheader and catching Paige in the other.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com