Baseball's Last Games at Ebbets Field: Roy Campanella's Brooklyn Stars

From the desk: DEM BARNSTORMERS

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first Negro National League founded in 1920 by Hall of Fame member Rube Foster, I've been attempting to gather together into one inclusive series the major episodes wherein Negro Leagues baseball is prominently played at Brooklyn's fabled Ebbets Field.

ICYMI

I - The Bacharach Giants, Ebbets Field, and the Great Clash of 1920

Brooklyn's new ballpark is just six years old when Charles Ebbets opens its doors for an old acquaintance named John W. Connor, who had recently become part-owner of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants.  Under his direction, the Bacharachs in 1919 commence their invasion of New York City, the stronghold of his former business partner Nat Strong, who years earlier wrestled away control of the Brooklyn Royal Giants from Connor.  With new alliances in place, tensions come to a head in 1920 when the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants famously battle the rival New York Lincoln Giants (whose owner colluded with Strong to keep other negro teams out of NYC) at Ebbets Field.  

II - Brooklyn to Newark, Part I: Negro National League Eagles Take Flight

III - Pulling "Double Duty" at Ebbets Field: Negro Leagues Great Ted Radcliffe

Fifteen years later a gentleman named Abe Manley is granted a franchise in the Negro National League.  He along with his wife, Hall of Fame member Effa Manley, in 1935 found the Brooklyn Eagles club; they are the only negro team to ever complete a full regular season at Ebbets Field.  The team features among others Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and Hall of Fame member Leon Day.  However, this turns out being their one and only season in Brooklyn as the Manleys relocate the Eagles at year's end to Newark where they would gain national acclaim.  

IV - Negro League Baseball at Ebbets Field: The Brooklyn Brown Dodgers

Another ten years pass until negro league baseball returns to Ebbets Field when (Pittsburgh Crawfords owner) Gus Greenlee early in 1945 founds the United States Negro Baseball League to compete against the Negro National League-II and Negro American League.  By May Branch Rickey catches wind and wants in on the action.  In a press conference, he pledges support by making available the Dodgers organization's various minor league ballparks and Ebbets Field itself.  All of which is a ruse.  Branch Rickey intends to desegregate baseball and plans to expedite the process by hiring famed negro leaguer Oscar Charleston as manager of his new Brooklyn Brown Dodgers.  However, Charleston's true primary directive is to secretly scout the league for Rickey.  Within a few months, Branch Rickey decides upon infielder Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs.  Although not unexpectedly, Rickey's interest in the Brown Dodgers immediately drops.  The team is resuscitated under new ownership and with help from Gus Greenlee, but the league folds midway through the 1946 campaign. 

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ROY CAMPANELLA's BROOKLYN STARS

Satchel Paige and the Negro American League 

Stage Baseball's Final Curtain Call at Ebbets Field

Jackie Robinson was not the only player approached by Branch Rickey to integrate baseball.  Negro Leagues great Oscar Charleston played a key role in scouting, backgrounding, and advising Branch Rickey of, among others, Roy Campanella.  In fact, Campanella would later say he was "astonished" to learn of the volumes of baseball scouting, biographical, as well as intrapersonal information compiled about him (by Oscar Charleston, whose employment under Branch Rickey arguably qualifies him as Major League baseball's first-ever African-American professional scout).

In October 1945, Roy Campanella says he was in New York City as a member of a negro all-star team organized by Effa Manley, who arranged a five-game exhibition against Charlie Dressen's Major League all-stars to be split between Newark and Ebbets Field.  When the two men crossed paths on the field, Dressen quietly asked Campy if he could have a minute of his time after the game.  It was then Dressen asked Campanella if he would be willing to visit the Dodgers office in Brooklyn, who agreed.  The veteran Baltimore Elite Giants catcher declined Branch Rickey's initial pitch.  Campy says Ricky never communicated a clear distinction between signing with the Dodgers organization or his start-up negro circuit and left the meeting under the impression he was being lured into playing for Rickey's fledgling Brooklyn Brown Dodgers of the United States League.  

It just so happened that Jackie Robinson stayed at the same Woodside Hotel (Harlem) as Roy Campanella.  The two were preparing their negro all-star team to travel to Venezuela to play winter ball (Jackie was selected to play shortstop and Campy behind the plate).  The ink from Jackie Robinson's recently signed contract with the Dodgers was not yet dry when he clarified for Campy Branch Rickey's true intentions.  Campanella dispatched a telegram to the Dodgers office just as the team departed for South America.  Rickey contacted Campanella while in Venezuela, who promptly signed with the Dodgers upon his return to Brooklyn.  After first playing in the minors for Nashua, Montreal, and St. Paul, Campanella makes his Brooklyn Dodgers debut on Tuesday, April 20, 1948, against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.

• Source: Black Diamonds: An Oral History of the Negro Leagues, IV - Roy Campanella Interviewed by Stephen Banker

Roy would spend his entire ten years Major League career playing only for Brooklyn.  On Tuesday, Sept. 24, 1957, the trolley Dodgers played their last ever game at Ebbets Field.  The next week, on  Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1957, Roy Campanella unknowingly plays his last game as a Major Leaguer and member of the Dodgers.  Walter O'Malley unceremoniously relocates Brooklyn's beloved Bums 3,000 miles away to Los Angeles after the regular season.  Meanwhile, Campy locally still operates his own business - Roy Campanella's Choice Wines and Liquors - in Harlem.  Shortly before he was due to report to spring training, tragedy strikes.  During the cold and dark early morning hours of January 28, 1958, just five minutes away from his home in Glen Cove, Long Island, Campanella lost control of his car and crashed into a telephone pole.  The accident would severely paralyze him for life from the chest down.  Over four hours of surgery was needed just to save his life.  In his 1959 autobiography, It's Good To Be Alive, Campy wrote that he left his Manhattan liquor store at about 1:30 in the morning.  He blamed icy road conditions for the accident that occurred a few minutes after 3:30 a.m.  However, according to author David Krell, there may be more about the accident than some would care to know.  

Campanella spends most of the ensuing year in the hospital.  The Dodgers graciously continue paying Campy's full salary throughout his year-long series of surgeries and rehabilitation.  In October, Campy feels sufficiently improved and able to attend three games of the 1958 World Series at Yankee Stadium.  By November, he is out of the hospital for good.  Although wheelchair-bound, Campy remains forever positive and within time would eventually regain some functional use of his arms.  By 1959, he reimmerses himself in his business affairs and even travels to Dodgers spring training at Vero Beach.  Although he would never play a game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles, Roy Campanella is present when on May 7, 1959, a crowd upwards of 93,000 (the largest in baseball history) pack the Los Angeles Coliseum for a benefit exhibition game between the Yankees and Dodgers in tribute to the former Brooklyn great. 

Meanwhile, the Dodgers still hold the lease on Ebbets Field.  Local college baseball teams move in for portions of the 1958-1959 seasons.  Brooklyn's LIU Blackbirds and St. John's University respectively plant their flag.  Some of the visiting colleges include Manhattan, UConn, Adelphi, Rutgers, Bridgeport, Queens College, Fairfield, Hofstra, and NYU.  At least thirteen games over a two-year span are known to have been played at the Dodgers now sublet former home.

In the summer of 1959, major league level baseball returns to Ebbets Field for one last curtain call.  Just eighteen months after his near-fatal accident, Roy Campanella sponsors a negro team named the Brooklyn Stars, who would call the Bedford and Sullivan baseball grounds home.  Two of their locally known competitors were the Gloversville Merchants (southern Adirondacks) and the Newark Eagles (unrelated to the Manley's club).  However, the Stars' top tier competition arrives in the form of the Negro American League, invited to Brooklyn for a series of double-headers promoted by Roy Campanella.  Five of the circuit's six teams make the trip to Brooklyn.  In place of the Newark Indians, the Havana Stars join ranks with the Birmingham Black Barons, Memphis Red Sox, Detroit Stars, Raleigh Tigers, and Kansas City Monarchs.

July 12, 1959 - The Brooklyn Stars open against the Memphis Red Sox.  Right-hander Frank Chevere and southpaw Mike Sanabria pitch for the Stars.  Brooklyn also features Julio Rodriguez at second base, Larry Solomon at third, and Pedro Alomar in left field.  The Detroit Stars take on Memphis in game two - New York Times

July 26, 1959 - "Roy Campanella's Brooklyn Stars will meet the Memphis Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m., at Ebbets Field today.  The Stars are sponsored by the former Dodgers catcher to help promote Negro baseball in the metropolitan area." The second game features the Birmingham Black Barons versus Memphis - New York Times

Aug. 2, 1959 - "A Negro baseball doubleheader will be played at Ebbets Field today.  In the first game, which will start at 2 p.m., Roy Campanella's Brooklyn Stars will meet the Detroit Stars." Detroit plays the Raleigh Tigers in game two - New York Times

Aug. 23, 1959 - "Satchel Paige will pitch for the Havana Cuban Stars when they meet the Kansas City Monarchs in the second game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field today.  The appearance of the ageless right-hander will be a feature of the twin bill, which will include a game between Roy Campanella's Brooklyn Stars.  Campanella is staging the Negro double-header." - New York Times

Aug. 24, 1959 - The Monarchs defeated the Brooklyn Stars in the first game, 3 to 1.  Ted Moore and Don Bonner hit home runs for Kansas City.  Satche Paige, who had been barnstorming with the Havana Cuban Stars, pitched the second game against the Monarchs.  He yields one earned run on three hits, including a home run by Monarchs player/manager Herm Green, with four strikeouts in a three-inning starting effort.  Havana defeats Kansas City, 6 to 4.  Upwards of 4,000 fans attend the games - New York Times

The following is a shortlist of other active Negro American League players in 1959 who potentially may have participated in these games at Ebbets Field: 

• Memphis Red Sox: Clifford DuBose-3b; Lonnie Harris-of.
• Detroit Stars: Arthur Hamilton-c; Joe Henry-inf; John Mitchell-of.
• Birmingham Black Barons: Willie Smith-of; Otha Bailey-c; Henry Elmore-2b; James Ivory-1b; Anthony Loyd-2b; Jesse Mitchell-of.
• Kansas City Monarchs: Ben Adams-p; Bob Wiggins-of; Samuel Allen-of; Larry LeGrande-c; Ira McKnight-c; Ted Rasberry-2b.

Led by the ageless great Satchel Paige, the aforementioned teams and players are essentially the last professionals to grace Brooklyn's fabled grounds in any meaningful type series of baseball games.  

Clifford DuBose was given a try-out with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Originally researched by SABR's Rory Costello, these games represent perhaps the most obscure episode regarding noteworthy Negro League baseball being staged at Ebbets Field.  I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Howard Kellman, a native Brooklynite born in 1952, who since 1974 is the broadcaster of the (AAA) Indianapolis Indians.  He was not aware of these games.  I've also had the privilege over the last two years of speaking with Campy's former teammate, pitcher Carl Erskine.  I could not partake in a most recent podcast with my partner Sam, but he posed the question to Mr. Erskine for me, and Carl likewise was both unaware of these games taking place at Ebbets Field and of Campanella's involvement with the team.

During the years 1958-1959, International Soccer joins in taking its last bow at Ebbets Field.  The last matches take place on Oct. 25, 1959; the Brooklyn Italians defeat Colombo in the second and final contest, two to nil.  Over the next four months, it appears as if all 2.6 million denizens of Brooklyn took turns throwing rocks through every window, knowing their beloved ballpark at 55 Sullivan Place would soon cease to be - another victim of New York City's merciless and continually swinging wrecking ball.  On Feb. 23, 1960, demolition commences on Ebbets Field.  Roy Campanella is on hand to bid his former major league home good-bye, but not before providing Brooklyn's baseball fans one last hurrah at one of the most iconic ballparks ever constructed.