Louis Santop has been called “the first of the great Negro League sluggers,” and “the first Negro League superstar.”
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Santop was physically large for his day, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing in at 240 pounds. Primarily a catcher, he also played the corner infield and outfield positions. He was known as “Big Bertha,” after a large piece of German heavy artillery.
While he was a gifted slugger who hit mammoth drives in the Dead Ball Era, he also hit for extremely high averages in the upper .300s and lower .400s.
