OTD 9/22/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Split Twin Bill With Glendale at Farmer's Oval, Queens

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

The Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), 

Monday, September 23, 1935

On Sunday, September 22, 1935, the Negro National League  Brooklyn Eagles and Glendale Farmers split games of a doubleheader at Farmer's Oval, Queens.

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE

BROOKLYN EAGLES

Playing before 5,700 fans at Farmer's Oval, the home team takes the opening game from the Eagles.  Brooklyn starter Terris McDuffie is knocked out of the box as the Farmers seize a 6-2 lead through five.  Right-hander Elbert Williams enters the game in relief of McDuffie, and Billy Nicholas tosses a scoreless ninth.  Farmer's first baseman Gene Rogers connects for a three-run home run, and third baseman Roy Tarr also homers for Queens.  Glendale starter Jack LaRocca holds Brooklyn to three runs on nine hits for the win.  Left fielder Fats Jenkins leads the Eagles with three hits, right fielder Ed Stone goes 2 for 4 with a triple, and third baseman Javier Perez accounts for two of Brooklyn's three runs scored.

The Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), Monday, September 23, 1935

Right-hander Leon Day holds Glendale to four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in game two as the Eagles draw even with the Farmers for a twin bill split.  Brooklyn punishes Dominick Torpe's offerings to all corners of the yard for 17 hits resulting in six runs.  First baseman George Giles goes 4 for 5 with a triple and stolen base.  Catcher Clarence Palm also triples, and Ed Stone homers for Brooklyn.  The Eagles turn a key double-play in the eighth to help preserve the victory.

OTD 9/11/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Defeat Grover Cleveland Alexander's Western House of David in First-Ever Arc-Light Game at Ebbets Field

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 

Thursday, September 12, 1935

They tried this once before, on Monday, June 5, 1935, but the first-ever arclight game to be staged at Ebbets Field pitting the Brooklyn Eagles hosting the House of David Club was rained out with both parties unsure whether the game would ever be rescheduled.  

Well, herein, we have our answer.

On Wednesday, September 11, 1935, the Brooklyn Eagles host Grover Cleveland Alexander's western House of David in the first-ever arclight game staged at Ebbets Field.

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE

BROOKLYN EAGLES

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 

Thursday, September 12, 1935

The now 48-year old Pete Alexander pitches the first inning, yielding one hit against leadoff batter Fats Jenkins, then retires to the dugout to coach the team.  Walter Laufer takes over pitching duties in the second and surrenders six runs on ten hits and one walk with two strikeouts in a losing effort.

The Eagles open the scoring in the home fourth.  But in the visitor's sixth, House of David ties the game at one.  That is until Eagle shortstop Bill Sadler triples him the go-ahead run as part of a three-run rally in the home sixth.  Brooklyn adds two more in the eighth en route to a 6-1 final score.

Fats Jenkins goes 3 for 4 with a triple and a stolen base.  First baseman George Giles, right fielder Ed Stone, and catcher Tex Burnett who goes 2 for 3, also wield triples for the Eagles.

Brooklyn right-hander Terris McDuffie is the true star of the game, limiting the House of Davis to a lone run on six hits and two walks with ten strikeouts and a hit batsman for good measure.

Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), 

 Thursday, September 12, 1935

 

OTD Negro National League vs. Brooklyn Semipros 8/29/1937: Leon Day Wins Two as Newark Eagles Sweep Both Ends of Twin Bill Against Bay Parkways at Erasmus Field

From the desk: NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE vs. BROOKLYN SEMIPRO

The Brooklyn Citizen, Monday, August 30, 1937

On Sunday, August 29, 1937, not more than two miles from where I presently live, the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League win games of a tightly contested doubleheader against the Bay Parkway Dukes at Erasmus Field, McDonald Avenue at the Avenue M station along the Culver Line, Brooklyn.

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE

NEWARK EAGLES

GAME ONE - Starting for the Dukes, Phil Mooney is opposed by the familiar right-hander Terris McDuffie who was hurling for Brooklyn two years ago before the Manleys relocated the Eagles to Newark.  The two duel to a one-all tie through nine innings.  Newark scores their run in the second and the Bay Parkways in the fourth.  Afterwhich, the score remains unchanged for the next five innings, and into extra innings, they go at Erasmus Field.

Mooney allows the lone run on just five hits through nine.  After the second, he hurls seven scoreless innings but exits to a no-decision.  He is relieved in the tenth inning by Eddie Bell.  Meanwhile, Terris McDuffie lasts through the twelfth inning, and like Mooney, walks off to a no-decision.  McDuffie, after the fourth twirls eight scoreless innings.  

After enduring another four scoreless frames, the Eagles finally get to Eddie Bell for three runs in the top of the fourteenth inning.  Second baseman Dick Seay doubles, and after a walk issued to shortstop Willie Wells, first baseman Mule Suttles doubles to right field, plating Seay with the game's decisive run.  

Right-hander Leon Day, who entered the game in the thirteenth, tosses two scoreless innings for the win.  Right fielder Ed Stone leads the Eagles with three hits, and third baseman Ray Dandridge

wields two.

The Brooklyn Citizen, Monday, August 30, 1937

GAME TWO - A seven-inning contest is agreed upon.  Newark promptly scores three runs on four hits against Bay Parkway starter Johnny Ubinski in the first inning.  Afterwhich, Ubinski settles in with help from Teddy Wronewic's stellar play in left field, allowing no runs on just three scattered hits over the final six innings.  

However, Leon Day makes Newark's lead stand.  The Dukes manage two runs in the fourth and not much else.  After his relief stint in game one, Leon Day holds Bay Parkway to six hits with three strikeouts over seven innings for the win.  Ed Stone leads the Eagles with two hits, while Mule Suttles, Dick Seay, and center fielder Jimmie Crutchfield crossed home for Newark.  Despite seven strikeouts, Johnny Ubinski takes the hard-luck loss.

OTD Negro National League 7/29/1935: Newark Dodgers Ride William Bell's Right Arm to Victory Over Visiting Brooklyn Eagles

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

The Central New Jersey Home News, Tuesday, July 30, 1935

"WILLIAMS' EIGHTH INNING TRIPLE GIVES 

NEWARK DODGERS VICTORY OVER BROOKLYN, 3-2"

On Monday, July 29, 1935, in a scheduled Negro National League match, the host Newark Dodgers defeated the invading Brooklyn Eagles at the local high school stadium.

Facing Newark starter William Bell, the Eagles jump out to an early first-inning lead on center fielder Clarence Griffin's two-run home run, which clears the scoreboard in the right field, with base runner  Tex Burnett for the ride.  

But William Bell yields no more.  The Dodger twirler goes on to toss eight shutout innings, allowing a total of just six hits and two walks with four strikeouts for the win.  

Tex Burnett accounts for two of Brooklyn's six hits, while Griffin, Crush Hollaway, Ed Stone, and Javier Perez account for the rest.  

Losing pitcher, Will Jackman surrenders three runs on eight hits and no walks with a pair of strikeouts.

Left fielder Jim Williams leads Newark, going 2 for 4 with a double, triple, and a run scored. 

The Dodgers push one run across in the second.  Afterwhich, the score remains unchanged through the seventh inning.  With one out in the eighth, Newark's center fielder Paul Arnold singles.  With two outs, third baseman Ray Dandridge beats out a bunt, putting runners on the corners.  Williams then follows with a bases-clearing triple off the outfield wall, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 advantage and the final margin of victory. 

Brooklyn Eagles vs. Newark Dodgers

The Central New Jersey Home News, Tuesday, July 30, 1935

OTD Negro National League 6/29/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Defeat Chicago American Giants at Cole's Park

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois), 

Sunday, June 30, 1935

On Saturday, June 29, 1935, in a Negro National League contest, the Brooklyn Eagles defeated the Chicago American Giants at Cole's Park, Chicago, Illinois.

After three scoreless frames, the Eagles and Giants trade single runs in the fourth and sixth innings.  Chicago then pushes across the go-ahead run in the eighth.  Nursing a 3-2 lead in the top half of the ninth, Chicago's first baseman Steel Arm Davis fails to secure a throw from second baseman Jack Marshall thus clearing the way for Brooklyn to muster four unanswered runs and secure a come-from-behind 6-3 victory.  

All but center fielder Willie Ward hits safely for the Eagles.  First baseman George Giles leads Brooklyn with two hits, including a double, two stolen bases, two runs scored, and right fielder Ed Stone delivers two runs batted in.  Fats Jenkins, catcher Clarence Palm, third sacker Javier Perez, and Bill Yancey drive home a run apiece.  Starter Will Jackman allows three runs on seven hits and four walks through nine innings for the win.

Giants' starter Ossie Brown walks one and strikes out three and is relieved in the ninth but not before yielding six runs on nine hits in a losing effort.  Right-hander Melvin Powell finishes the game in relief of Brown.  Shortstop Willie Wells is held hitless; Turkey Stearns, a hit and a run scored.  Steel Arm Davis leads Chicago with three hits, including two doubles and two runs batted in.  Left fielder Mule Suttles accounts for the Giants' third run batted in.

The Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana), 

Sunday, June 30, 1935

OTD 5/26/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Turn The Tables on Chicago American Giants With Twin Bill Sweep at Ebbets Field

From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 27, 1935

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE II

Chicago American Giants

vs.

Brooklyn Eagles

FROM

EBBETS FIELD

 

Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), May 27, 1935

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 27, 1935

Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), May 27, 1935

On Sunday, May 26, 1935, in a Negro National League match-up, the Brooklyn Eagles exact a measure of revenge after Saturday's doubleheader loss to the Chicago American Giants, with a sweep of today's twin bill before a crowd of 5,000 on hand at Ebbets Field. 

GAME ONE - Twice, the American Giants mount a lead, and each time the Eagles answered.  After scoring once in the second and twice in the top half of the third, Brooklyn strikes back with three runs in the bottom of the frame.  When Chicago established a 5-3 lead after eight, the Eagles again respond with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings.  With no outs in the home tenth and Harry Williams on base, center fielder Rap Dixon doubles home Williams with the game-winning run.  Dixon leads the Eagles with three hits in five trips with a stolen base, while shortstop Dennis Gilchrist is 2 for 3 with a double and run scored.  Chicago shortstop Willie Wells goes 2 for 5 with a double, and left fielder Turkey Stearns is similarly 2 for 4 with a triple.  Brooklyn right-hander Will Jackman earns the victory in relief of starter Elbert Williams, who escapes with a no-decision.  Chicago right-hander Ted Trent takes the loss.

GAME TWO - Brooklyn Eagles starter Sleeky Reese faces just two batters, surrendering a base hit and a walk.  Manager George Giles promptly replaces him with right-hander Will Jackman who allows four runs on four hits and two walks with two strikeouts over the ensuing nine innings for the win.  In fact, Jackman helps his own cause with a double and triple in three trips to the plate.  Chicago starter  Ossie Brown is knocked out of the box and relieved by Melvin Powell; together, they surrender nine runs on eight hits in the first inning alone.  Brooklyn totals 14 runs on 17 hits, including extra bases from Tex Burnett, Fats Jenkins, Dennis Gilchrist, Jackman, and a home run off the bat of captain Giles.  Jenkins, Gilchrist, and right fielder Ed Stone finish with three hits apiece.  The game ends after seven innings by agreement.  

• ICYMI  OTD: 5/25/1935: Brooklyn Eagles Drop Doubleheader to Chicago American Giants at Ebbets Field

OTD 5/19/1935: Brooklyn Eagles and Homestead Grays Split Double-Header at Ebbets Field

 From the desk: WHERE THE EAGLES LEARNED TO FLY

Times Union (Brooklyn, New York)

May 20, 1935

NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE II

DOUBLE-HEADER

Sunday, May 19, 1935

EBBETS FIELD

GAME ONE

Homestead Grays         9

BROOKLYN EAGLES  18

FINAL

Coming off Saturday's Opening Day defeat at the hands of the Homestead Grays, the Brooklyn Eagles again trail the visitors 9-7, entering the bottom half of the eighth.  With 5,000 watching at Ebbets Field, the home team erupts for eleven runs, sending 16 batters to the plate against Grays' relievers Harry Salmon and Willie Gisentaner.  

Brooklyn totals 19 hits, with seven going for extra bases.  Third baseman Harry Williams goes 4 for 6 with a double and two runs scored.  Shortstop Bill Yancy is 2 for 4 with a double and led the team with three runs scored.  First baseman George Giles, right fielder Ed Stone, and second baseman Dennis Gilchrist all wield three hits apiece.

Homestead third baseman George Scales hit the only home run of the game.  Second baseman Matt Carlisle goes 5 for 5, all singles.  Meanwhile, first baseman Buck Leonard is held hitless in three official trips to the plate.

Eagles right-hander Leon Day makes a start, yielding seven runs on eleven hits and six walks with three strikeouts through seven innings pitched but escapes with a no-decision.  Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe earns the victory for Brooklyn, with two runs allowed and a strikeout over the final two frames. 

The Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, N.J.)

May 21, 1935

ICYMI:

• SERIES GAME ONE 5/18/1935: Homestead Grays @ BROOKLYN EAGLES

GAME TWO

Homestead Grays         4

BROOKLYN EAGLES    2

FINAL

Twirling game two for Homestead, right-hander Louis Dula limits the Eagles to a pair of runs on just five hits and three walks with three strikeouts through nine innings pitched.  Right fielder Ed Stone and catcher Clarence Palm account for two hits and score both Brooklyn runs in the fifth.  Double Duty Radcliffe, Harry Williams, and Bill Yancy are the only other Eagles to hit safely.  Homestead center fielder Jerry Benjamin leads the Grays, going 3 for 4 with a double and two runs.  Buck Leonard breaks out of a series slump with two hits, one for a double.  Ted Radcliffe takes the loss in this one, surrendering four runs on eleven hits and two walks.  The Eagles committed three errors behind him, two by Yancy.  

The Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, N.J.)

May 22, 1935

Brooklyn to Newark, Part One: Negro National League Eagles Take Flight

From the desk of: 100th ANNIVERSARY of NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL

1935

BROOKLYN EAGLES

Before Defining Themselves at Newark, the Negro National League Eagles Learn to Fly in Brooklyn

Effa Manley, born in 1897 and raised in Philadelphia, moves after graduating high school to New York City, where she lives in Harlem.  Some years later, during the 1932 World Series, she meets Abe Manley at Yankee Stadium.  By June of 1933, the two rabid baseball fans are married, and in 1934 Abe is awarded a franchise by the Negro National League owners.  Abe and Effa Manley together establish the Brooklyn Eagles with home games to be played at Ebbets Field.  However, it is Effa, as history will prove, who serves as team matriarch, primary operating owner, negro league titan, and baseball avant-garde.  To date, she remains the only woman inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

EFFA MANLEY

The 1935 Brooklyn Eagles finish fifth, one game above par with a 32-31 record.  Out in Pittsburgh, the Crawfords cruise to the pennant finishing ten games ahead of the Columbus Elite Giants, New York Cubans, and Philadelphia Stars.  Finishing behind Brooklyn are the Chicago American Giants and Homestead Grays, while the Newark Dodgers finish in last place, 25-games out of first.

Brooklyn is managed briefly by Ben Taylor (5-5); otherwise, the bulk of games are guided by 26-year old player/manager George Giles (27-26).  In 1909 at age twenty, Ben Taylor embarked on a 21-year independent/negro league career.  A first baseman by trade and a slugger by nature, he retires with a lifetime .332 batting average, 328 extra-base hits, and 727 RBI through 1,021 career games.  From 1922 through 1929, he serves as player/manager with the Indianapolis ABC's, Washington Potomacs, Baltimore Black Sox, and Atlantic City Bacharach Giants.  Six years after retiring, he comes to Brooklyn as manager but oversees only ten games.  His last gig as manager comes in 1938 when at 49-years of age, he guides the Washington Black Senators sadly to a 2-20 record.  In 2006 Ben Taylor was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.  At this point in his career, George Giles is an eight-year negro leagues veteran most associated with the Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Stars.  After one season as player/manager with Brooklyn, he shifts over to the New York Black Yankees for two years, then retires after splitting the 1938 season between the Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords.  George Giles owns a lifetime .315 batting average through 1,847 career at-bats.

TOP POSITION PLAYERS
c Clarence Palm; 1b George Giles; 2b Henry Williams; 3b Javier Perez; 

ss Bill Yancy; lf Fats Jenkins; cf Clarence Griffin; rf Ed Stone 

George Giles, in 1935 is also Brooklyn's leading hitter with a .341 batting average and tallies a team-high twelve stolen bases.  Right behind him is second baseman Harry Williams batting .340 with eleven stolen bases along with a team-leading three home runs and 45 runs batted in.  Right fielder Ed Stone bats .324 and is second on the team with 37 runs batted in.  Fats Jenkins bats .320 with 24 runs batted in.

TOP PITCHERS

Will Jackman ~ Leon Day ~ Elbert Williams

Ted Radcliffe ~ Otis Starks

On the mound, an 18-year old rookie right-hander named Leon Day makes 18 appearances and 13 starts for Brooklyn, posting a 7-4 record with eight complete games and 4.43 earned run average.  He strikes out 65 batters in 107.2 innings pitched.  On July 31, 1942, Day sets a negro league record by striking out 18 Baltimore Elite Giants in a one-hitter.  Sixty years after his rookie season in 1995, Leon becomes the twelfth negro league representative inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee.

1935 EAST ALL-STARS

Leon Day ~ George Giles ~ Fats Jenkins ~ Ed Stone

After the 1935 season, Abe and Effa Manley purchase the Newark Dodgers, merge them together with the Eagles and relocate the team to New Jersey, giving rise to the fabled Newark Eagles Baseball Club with whom Monte Irvin; Don Newcombe; Larry Doby; Ray Dandridge; Biz Mackey; Mule Suttles; Jimmy Hills; Willie Wells; Max Manning; and other notables would play.  The Eagles play their home games at New York Yankees owned Ruppert Stadium through the 1948 season.  After which the Manleys sell the Eagles.  The team is relocated to Houston and incorporated into the Negro American League.

PART TWO: Where Eagles Dare


Sources:
Newark Dodgers Baseball-Reference ~ Brooklyn Eagles Baseball-Reference ~ Effa Manley MLB.com 
Effa Manley NLBPA.com ~ Negro Leagues in Brooklyn, BrooklynBallParks.com ~ SABR Leon Day
Negro League DataBase Seamheads.com 
photo on display at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, circa 1997