Kansas City Monarchs: Bringing Strength
To Major League Baseball
Kansas City Monarchs: Bringing Strength To Major League Baseball
The Kansas City Monarchs was one of the strongest teams in Negro League Baseball, and played a big role in making America’s Major League Baseball a success. The Monarchs produced some of the first and best athletes that brought about racial integration of Major League Baseball in America. The Monarchs never had a losing season, won ten national league pennants, and appeared in three World Series competitions, winning two of them. In addition to being widely considered the most successful and popular team in Negro League Baseball, the Monarchs were financially sound and had good business practices that helped them survive when many teams collapsed.
The Kansas City Monarchs team was formed in 1920 and continued until 1950. For the first 11 years they were part of the Negro National League, winning four league pennants and one World Series championship. When the Great Depression hit, the league was falling apart and the Monarchs’ team owner, J. L. Wilkinson, got creative and changed the team into an exhibition club, from 1932-1936. That not only helped the team survive, but it actually increased their revenue and was very successful. Then, the Monarchs joined the Negro American League and stayed in that league until 1950 (when it shifted from major league to minor league after integration was done in Major League Baseball).
The team took another hit, when many of its better players left to serve in the military during World War II, but again was able to come back strong and win the 1942 World Series and play in the 1943 World Series. What finally brought about the end of the Kansas Ci...
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Riley, J.A. (1994). Kansas City Monarchs. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://coe.k-state.edu/annex/nlbemuseum/history/teams/kcmonarchs.html
Riley, J.A. (1994). Satchel Paige. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://coe.k-state.edu/annex/nlbemuseum/history/players/paige.html
Rutberg, D.P. (2003, Jan/Feb). Satchel Paige…Did What?!. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=76908219-70db-4ebf-a4f4-1c9a69d456bc%40sessionmgr115&vid=3&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=ndh&AN=10439516
The Library of Congress – American Memory (2007). Breaking the Color Line: 1940-1946. Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/jr1940.html
By the 1950’s the New York Yankees had already experienced previous decades of glory and high levels of success over the rest of Major League Baseball. However, the 50’s had began a new decade of a higher level of dominance. The Yankees were supported by big name players like Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and a younger, less-experienced pitching staff. In this storied decade the Bronx Bombers were able to win eight American League Pennants and six World Series. (Yankees Baseball)
The New York Yankees lost to St. Louis in the 1926 World Series and came out in 1927 for revenge. (Geisler, 1) The Yankees opened the season on April 12th with an 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics and they never looked back. (Frommer, 5) The Yankees never fell out of first place after that first day and finished 19 games ahead of Philadelphia who won 91 games respectively. (New York Yankees, 3) An astonishing feat for today's strategic baseball moves, the '27 Yankees went all year without a single roster move. (Geisler, 1) With a tremendous team built by owner, Jacob Ruppert and General Manager, Ed Barrow, the scene was set for a big year. Certainly meeting the New York standards with a record of 110 wins and 44 losses the Yankees had many indiv...
Satchel Paige started his Negro League career at the Chattanooga White Sox. He played with them for about three to four years. He moved from several other ball clubs in the Negro Leagues and also played with some of the greatest players in the Negro Leagues that never had the chance in the Majors. Such players as Jud Wilson, Josh Gi...
“In 1946, there were sixteen Major League Baseball teams, with a total of 400 players on their rosters, every one of the players was white. But when opening day came in 1947, that number dropped to 399, and one man stood apart. (42 2:30)” Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Making Jackie Robinson the first African-American to play Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackie’s transition from the Negro Leagues to MLB was not an easy one. As a player, he transitioned very well, but it was Robinson’s teammates, Dodgers fans, the opposing teams and their fans that tested Jackie every chance they got, some hotels even prohibited the Dodgers to stay in their establishments
World Series Overview | MLB.com: History. (n.d.). Major League Baseball. Retrieved January 21, 2014, from http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=club_champs
He started playing baseball, creating his own team named “Tweed Blacksox” from kids around Garfield and Compton Street when he was ten. He managed that team until 1921, when his father took over and renamed them “St. Louis Blacksox. The baseball team finally received a sponsor in 1924 from tailor Mr. Bloomer, making the team “Bloomer's Tailors”. Eventually, the team played for the Pullman Shock Company. By this time, Webb was considered one of the best defensive shortstops in the Tandy League.
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a really big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man do start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
Jackie Robinson changed baseball in America in the 1940s by breaking the segregation barrier that was bestowed on baseball. Robinson played in the Negro League for the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1945 Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers negotiated a contract with Robinson that would bring Robinson into the major leagues in 1947. Baseball was segregated because of racial intolerance, economic factors, and other complex reasons. The major leagues would rent out their stadiums to the Negro League teams when their own team would be on the road. For example, if the Brooklyn Dodgers were on the road they would rent out their stadium to the Kansas City Monarchs. Major League team owners also knew if they integrated the Majors the Negro League would lose their best players and the Negro League would be lost. Also, the Majors would lose significant revenue.
After his departure from the Army he joined the Kansas City Monarchs, an all African-American baseball team, of the Negro League. Due to low pay and constant traveling, he decided he did not want to make baseball a career although he was one of the top players. Until 1947 only white players were allowed in Major League Baseball but in 1945 Clyde Sukeforth, a scout for Branch Rickey who was the Brooklyn Dodgers club president, had been looking for an African-American player and was watching Jackie for a while.
In a more focused sense, the Negro Leagues were an alternative league all in its own. It was primarily established for African Americans so they could play baseball, since they were prohibited from experiencing any type or activity with whites. The reason this league was separate was because of the Jim Crow laws that had been enacted during the early 1900's, but in an opinionated note, I feel that whites simply didn't want to be outdone by their counterparts - African Americans. They basically stated that African Americans could not participate in any activity with whites, whether it is of public or unsocial nature. These laws displayed the mentality of the time, which inevitably filtered into the realm of baseball; at this point, segregation had gone so far as to prohibit any blacks from merely playing baseball with whites. It was not until 1933, when "a former pitcher, Andrew 'Rube' Foster, formed the first black league, called the Negro National League, which contained such teams as the St. Louis Stars, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Philadelphia Stars, New York Lincoln Giants, and the Newark Eagles." Then, "in 1937, the Negro American League was formed to rival the opposing Negro National League that consisted of the Memphis Red Sox, Kansas City Monarchs, Cleveland Buckeyes, Detroit Stars, and the Hilldale Daisies." (What Are…Leagues: Internet) The two leagues "continued to go strong until the color line was broken in 1947, when the great Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers." Because of this, "…the Negro National League folded following the 1948 season and the Negro American League [folded]…in 1960." (What Are…Leagues: Internet) Moreover, just...
The world is a very different place than what it was in the 1920’s; however, despite our differences, many things have stayed the same. No matter what, there’s always something to refer back to. Nearly one-hundred years ago, the 1920’s holds a great deal of historical events that changed the world. One of these historical events is when Babe Ruth changed the outlook on negro leagues and african american baseball players. Ruth could do many things that other people couldn’t in baseball. He in general was an amazing baseball player, but he also did something much more, something that would change the world’s views of not just him, but everybody.
Jiobu, Robert M., “Racial Inequality in a Public Arena: The Case of Professional Baseball”. Social Forces , Vol. 67, No. 2 (Dec., 1988), pp. 524-534 Oxford University Press
One of the major stands that were made during a black athlete’s tenure during his or her sport were their statements on racism. Racism in America was an ongoing situation in the 1900’s that seemed to have no resolve before black athletes took a stand. One prime example can be Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in the modern era. Jackie grew up in one of the most racist towns in Pasadena, California and came from a poor family as his parents were sharecroppers and...
The Desegregation of baseball in America was a slow process. Near the end of the 1800's, African American ballplayers were accepted in the Major Leagues, but as their success grew, they were quickly banned from the league. For the fifty-year period that there were no blacks in the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues were where black ballplayers competed. The Negro Leagues grew and many stars emerged from the leagues that now have a legendary status. When Jackie Robinson joined the Major Leagues in 1954, baseball was once again desegregated (Sailer). The complete integration of the league was not as rapid as many would have expected. Economic reasons seemed to be the main reason why African Americans were brought back into the Major Leagues but there were other factors that contributed.
Lanctot, Neil. 2004. Negro league baseball :The rise and ruin of a black institution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.