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Executive
Executive
Primary Team Or Role
Birth year
Buck O’Neil played, managed, coached, scouted and served as an executive for nearly eight decades – but his incredible legacy expands far beyond just baseball.
"I patterned my life after Buck O'Neil," Hall of Famer Ernie Banks told the Associated Press at O’Neil’s funeral in 2006. "He was a marvelous man. Buck had so much love for everybody, in my life I became the same way. Hey, let's play two. Buck was a role model for my life. He was the greatest ambassador for the game.”
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Pitcher
Pitcher
Games
Birth year
A baseball player who spent the entirety of his playing career in the shadows of the American and National leagues due to the color of his skin, Andy Cooper made a name for himself in the Negro Leagues due to his mound mastery.
Negro Leagues historian Dick Clark once said of Cooper: “In my estimation, the greatest black pitcher ever to pitch for Detroit – that’s for the Stars or the Tigers.”
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Center Fielder
Center Fielder
Games
Birth year
His American League statistics – 21 games, a .179 batting average – tell the most incomplete story possible of the player who was Willard Brown.
His Hall of Fame plaque, however, speaks volumes about the pioneer who was one of the Negro Leagues’ greatest power hitters.
“He was the most natural ballplayer I ever saw,” said Negro Leagues legend Buck O’Neil. “He’d steal second base standing up. He was a great talent.”
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Pitcher
Pitcher
Games
Birth year
Although he spent his entire career playing either in Cuba or the Negro Leagues of North America, José Méndez often faced AL/NL competition in exhibition games. And he regularly bested some of the game's biggest stars like Christy Mathewson and Eddie Plank.
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Executive
Executive
Primary Team Or Role
Birth year
J.L. Wilkinson was the principal owner of the Kansas City Monarchs from 1920-48, one of the most dominant Negro Leagues teams ever assembled.
The Monarchs ruled two separate leagues in two separate time periods. A charter member of the Negro National League in 1920, the team won the NLL pennant four times in the 1920s. Then, as a charter member of the Negro American League, the Monarchs finished first seven times in the 1930s and 40s.
Pitcher
Pitcher
Games
Birth year
Hilton Smith is sometimes referred to as the forgotten star of the Negro Leagues, a pitcher whose exceptional career is often overshadowed by longtime teammate Satchel Paige.
In fact, when the two were with the Kansas City Monarchs, Smith was often called upon to relieve the lanky fireballer after Paige had tossed his obligatory few innings for the adoring fans. But according to many who faced them, Smith was the equal of Paige.
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Pitcher
Pitcher
Games
Birth year
Charles Wilber Rogan was not only one of the best pitchers to have played in the Negro Leagues, but he was also one of the best hitters.
But it was his powerful right arm that earned him the nickname "Bullet".
By not beginning his Negro League career until his mid 20s, Rogan – who also went by the first name "Joe" – got a late start. Nevertheless, he excelled during his 19 seasons with the Kansas City Monarchs after beginning his baseball career while serving in the Army, playing for a team in the all-black 25th Infantry.
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
Pitcher
Pitcher
The numbers do not do justice to his legend.
The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a man who became bigger than the game. Leroy “Satchel” Paige was bigger than mere numbers.
Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. The lanky 6-foot-3 right-hander quickly became the biggest drawing card in Negro baseball, able to overpower batters with a buggy-whipped fastball.
Explore the archives and go deep into the lives, careers, and stories of the Hall of Fame's honorees.
