Willie Mays of the 1948

Birmingham Black Barons

This page has been updated after new information came up on Retrosheets

    I was asked to research whether Willie Mays
ever played here in Cleveland against the Cleveland
Buckeyes.  I found out that he did.
    Willie played for the 1948 Birmingham Black
Barons. The Black Barons and the Buckeyes were both
in the Negro American League. Willie had previously
played for a Negro minor league team, the Chattanooga
Choo-Choos.
     On July 18, 1948, the Black Barons played a
double-header at League Park here in Cleveland.
As you can see from the box score, Willie pinch hit
in the first game for Jim Zapp who had
gone 0 for 3. Willie bounced into a double play,
second baseman Bill Reynolds to first baseman,
Archie Ware.


   (Previous script) In Jim Zapp's 
biography on the
Negro League Museum's eMuseum, it 
states that there was a second game
of a double-header when he was given a
rest.  It could have been on this date
as Zapp was taken out at the end of
the first game and could have been
replaced by Mays in left field in the
second game.  Mays had just been signed
a week before.
   In the book, "Willie's Boys" by John
Klima, it is stated that Chet Brewer,
Buckeyes pitcher, hit Willie with a
pitch when he faced him here.
    It doesn't appear that it occured
during this double-header.  The teams
did play some games against each other
barnstorming around the area and it
might have occurred then.

   Updated Script - According to
Retrosheets, Mays didn't play in that
second game. The only other game on
that homestead in which Mays played was
against the Buckeyes who hosted the
Black Barons in Newark, Ohio which was
a regular season game. Mays went 0-5
in that game.
   Mays also started a game for the
Black Barons prior to the Cleveland
trip.  It was probably in Birmingham
against either the Memphis Red Sox or
the Indianapolis Clowns.
   As far as the Chet Brewer story is
concerned, Retrosheets shows a game
played in Tuscaloosa on August 11, 1948
which was a regular season game and a
home game for the Black Barons.
   Chet Brewer pitched in that game and
Mays played too.  There is not much
information about the game but it 
appears that was the time Brewer would
have hit Mays.  It does show Mays did
hit a home run that game.



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