April 15 is Jackie Robinson Day in the major leagues.
The annual league-wide celebration began in 2004 and honors Robinson, a Georgia native who broke baseball’s color barrier when he made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Until then, the best African American players — including many Georgians — played in the Negro Leagues. Georgia had a large presence in black baseball before Robinson, though those players are largely unknown today except to those who have taken an interest in the Negro Leagues.
Here’s a look at some of the Georgians who were dominant figures in that era:
Jackie Robinson
• Robinson was born in the south Georgia city of Cairo. Although Robinson moved with his family to California before age 2, the city remains proud of his most famous native. A brick chimney from the house in which Robinson was born still stands and is a tourist attraction.
Robinson was playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1945 when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played on Brooklyn’s farm team in Montreal in 1946 and made his historic rise to the majors in 1947.
Dick Redding
• The first great black baseball star from Georgia was Dick “Cannonball” Redding, one of the two best and fastest African American pitchers of the 1910s, along with “Smokey” Joe Williams who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Atlanta native’s first known baseball team was a semi-pro outfit called the Atlanta Defins.
In 1937, Cumberland Posey — the owner of the Homestead Grays and a 2006 Cooperstown inductee — selected his all-time Negro Leagues team. Redding was one of Posey’s 19 choices along with Williams, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige.
Though Redding’s 20-year baseball career as a pitcher and manager is well-documented, the rest of his life is not. Redding died mysteriously in a Long Island, N.Y., mental hospital in 1948. He was 55.
Walter ‘Dobie’ Moore
• Walter “Dobie” Moore, of Atlanta, played shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1920 to 1926. In his prime, Moore was considered the best shortstop in black baseball. His documented batting average was .346. From 1923 to 1925, Moore led the Monarchs to three Negro National League pennants and two Colored World Series appearances.
Former Monarchs teammate Georgie Sweatt once said that that Moore “liked to brag about his home state” and that his favorite song was “Georgia on my Mind.”
Moore’s career ended when he was shot six times in the leg by a girlfriend. In 1953, the Pittsburgh Courier, which historically provided the best coverage of black baseball, polled its fans to help select the best players in Negro Leagues history. Moore was the fourth shortstop on the list behind Pop Lloyd, Willie Wells and Dick Lundy – all members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Moore died in 1947 at age 51.
Josh Gibson
• Josh Gibson, a catcher, grew up in Buena Vista, Ga., in Marion County. He moved with his family to the Pittsburgh area when he was about 13-years-old. Gibson played mostly for the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawford.
He died in January 1947 at age 36 of a stroke related to a brain tumor, months before Robinson played his first game with the Dodgers.
Gibson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
Gibson is the only Georgian who played his entire career in the Negro Leagues inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
A water tower in his hometown displays Gibson’s name, saying “Birthplace of Josh Gibson.”
Phil Cockrell
• The first organized world series between Negro League champions took place in 1924. It matched the Kansas City Monarchs and the Hilldale Club of Pennsylvania. Hilldale’s starting pitcher for the opener was Phil Cockrell of Augusta. The Monarchs won the first series, but Hilldale won the rematch in 1925.
Cockrell — nicknamed “Fish” — was the winning pitcher for the deciding sixth game in 1925.
Cockrell’s documented win-loss record is 82-54, a deceiving number because Negro Leagues seasons were much shorter than major league seasons. In 1925, when Hilldale won the Colored World Series, Cockrell’s league record was 11-2 for a team that finished 53-18-1.
Cockrell, who later became an umpire in the Negro Leagues, was killed in 1951 in a case of mistaken identity. He was 55.
In 2006, Cockrell was among the 94 Negro Leagues players recommended for final consideration for the baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Quincy Trouppe
• Quincy Trouppe lived in his native Dublin, Ga., until his family moved to St. Louis when he was 9 years old.
Trouppe played in eight Negro League All-Star Games, starting in six of them, from 1938 through 1948. He was a player-manager with the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, who won the Negro League World Series.
Trouppe got a chance to play in the major leagues when he was 39. He caught six games for the Cleveland Indians — one of them was historic. On May 3, 1952, he and relief pitcher Sam “Toothpick” Jones became the first black battery in American League history.
Trouppe wrote a book titled “20 Years Too Soon: Prelude to Major-League Integrated Baseball,” about his baseball experience.
He died in 1993 at the age of 80.
William Byrd
• William “Bill” Byrd reportedly honed his baseball skills hitting rocks with tree limbs on a farm in his native Canton.
He became the ace pitcher for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League. He participated in eight East-West All-Star Games, starting two of them. His catcher from 1939 to 1942 with the Giants was a young Roy Campanella, who called Byrd “Daddy” because he regarded Byrd as a mentor.
In 2006, Byrd was among the 94 Negro Leagues players recommended for final consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Byrd died in Philadelphia in 1991. He was 83.
James ‘Red’ Moore
• James “Red” Moore was an exceptional fielding first baseman who most notably played for the Atlanta Black Crackers’ 1938 team that won the second-half pennant of the Negro American League.
The Atlanta native and Booker T. Washington graduate hit .434 in games for which box scores have been found. Moore also played for the Newark Eagles, the Indianapolis ABC’s and the Baltimore Elite Giants. He was a teammate of Baseball Hall of Fame members Campanella, Mule Suttles, Willie Wells, Ray Dandridge and Leon Day.
Moore gained long overdue notoriety later in his life as the oldest-surviving outstanding Georgia player from the Negro Leagues. He was honored by the Atlanta Braves in 1998 on the 60th anniversary of the Atlanta Black Crackers’ second-half pennant.
Moore was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. He remains the only former Negro Leagues player bestowed that honor. Moore died in 2016, at the age of 99.
Pee Wee Butts
• Pee Wee Butts was an outstanding quarterback on the football team at Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High in the 1930s, but left school to play with the Atlanta Black Crackers.
In 1938, the only season in which they were members of a black major league, the Black Crackers won the second-half pennant of the Negro American League. Butts, 18 at the time, was the team’s starting shortstop.
Butts went on to play in eight Negro League All-Star games, starting in seven of them, mostly with the Baltimore Elite Giants.
Butts died in Atlanta in 1973. He was 52.
Joe Greene
• Joe Greene, of Stone Mountain, was another hometown member of the Atlanta Black Crackers’ 1938 second-half pennant winner in the Negro American League.
In the 1940s, he was an an All-Star catcher for Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs. Greene moved on to the Kansas City Monarchs and was a starting catcher in the Negro Leagues All-Star Games of 1940 and 1942.
He was a member of the Monarchs team that won the Negro Leagues World Series over the Homestead Grays in 1942. Greene hit two home runs in the series.
Othello ‘Chico’ Renfroe
• One of Jackie Robinson’s teammates with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945 was Othello “Chico” Renfroe. Renfroe succeeded Robinson as the team’s shortstop and was an All-Star Game in 1946.
Renfroe grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., and moved to Atlanta as a high schooler. He enrolled at Clark College and later became a sportscaster at Atlanta radio station WIGO. He also was the sports editor at the Atlanta Daily World. He served as the official scorer for the Atlanta Braves.
Renfroe died in 1991. He was 68.
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