The Journal of Biddy Owens, the Negro Leagues, Birmingham, Alabama, 1948 Page 6

  We went over to Bob’s Savoy, and the team had dinner together. Mr. Hayes, the team owner, came by and told us that he was proud of us and that no matter what happened, we were representing the Negro Leagues well.

  Bobby Robinson is back and he asked Piper who was going to be playing in center field. He said he needed to get some game time now that his broken leg was healed. Willie Mays was right there when he asked, and Piper looked Bobby right in the face and said that Willie had earned the job and that Bobby was going to have to earn it back. This didn’t set well with Bobby, and he told Piper that he was just letting Willie play because he knew Cat, Willie’s father. Piper said that he had made this decision and he didn’t care who liked it.

  Later, when we were getting the equipment on the team bus, I asked Piper if he was mad at Bobby or something. Piper said he wasn’t mad at Bobby but that as fast as Bobby was, Willie was even faster and had a better throwing arm. He said he wasn’t even mad at Bobby for what he said about him playing Willie because he knew his father.

  We got out to Rickwood, and there was a big crowd of white people there. Usually there were some white people at the baseball games, but now that Negroes were going up and playing white folks ball, more of them were showing up. It soon got around that Satchel Paige was in the crowd, and he was.

  Now that was a funny thing to me. Because Satchel was always a star in our league, but nobody went as crazy over him as they did now he was in the major leagues. He was Satchel and he was a good ballplayer and a good entertainer. People came to see him a lot, but they didn’t go crazy over him. But now that he was playing white folks ball with Cleveland, people were wanting to take a good look at him.

  Before the game Satchel came down to the dugouts. He was wearing this big brimmed hat and wore a pinkie ring on his pitching hand. Artie Wilson asked Satch how come he wasn’t with the Indians, and Satch said he had to go and have a meeting with the commissioner.

  He took out a clipping, and we read it. It was the same story that I had read in the Birmingham World. The baseball commissioner had said that Satch’s hesitation pitch was illegal.

  Okay, the thing was that Satch could deliver the ball. It was on you like a heartbeat. But Satch is tall, and his windup is slow, so you watch him and watch him and then zip, the ball is past you. That’s what he does normally. But with the hesitation pitch he starts his windup, you get your body all ready to swing, and then he stops. When he hesitates like that, you relax a second and then he whips the ball in. By the time you tense up enough to get some muscle on your swing, the ball is on you and you’re lucky if you get a foul tip.

  We went out and played five good innings against Memphis with Powell pitching. Powell even tried Satch’s hesitation pitch and hit Willie Wells on the elbow. Willie used some language I didn’t know he even knew. Piper was mad, too. He went out and stood on the foul line and just stared at Powell. When the inning was over he took Powell out and put in Heard. Heard gave up four quick runs, and the game was just about over.

  After the game Satch came into the locker room and asked if anybody could give him a lift to the train station. He had to go meet the Indians at their next stop.

  On the trains there were cars for white people, and cars for black people once the trains got to the south, the same as there were “white” waiting rooms and “Colored” waiting rooms. When there were laws that separated the races like that, we called them “Jim Crow” laws, and when Joe Scott asked Satch if he had to ride in the Jim Crow car, we all knew what he was talking about.

  Satch was straightforward about it. He said he and Doby didn’t have to move out of the white cars because the team took up the whole car, but they couldn’t eat in the dining room. They had to eat in the kitchen with the Negro porters. But everybody knew that was where the good food was served.

  Willie Mays said he wouldn’t ride in the Jim Crow car, even if he was going through the south. Bobby asked him if he could turn invisible and said if he couldn’t he would have his butt in the Jim Crow car like everybody else.

  July 27

  Got home and Daddy was sleeping in his overalls on the couch and Mama and Aunt Jack were having coffee in the kitchen. I thought I heard Mama crying, but I’m not sure. It was past midnight, and so I think something is up. Rachel came to my room and asked me if it was true that Satchel Paige was at the ballpark. I said no. If I’d said yes, I would have had to tell her what he was wearing, what he said, and who said what to him. I didn’t want to get into all that, so I just said no. She said she didn’t believe me, and I told her to shut up and go to bed. She slammed the door shut, and I started to jump up and make her come back and shut it right, but I don’t like to mess with Rachel because she always gets you back.

  July 28

  We were sitting around having breakfast, and I saw everybody was upset. Daddy making believe he’s reading the paper, and Mama making believe she’s reading the Bible. In our family Aunt Jack is the Bible reader, but Mama was sitting there looking in the carrying Bible, the one we carry to church, and humming to herself.

  Aunt Jack had made grits, eggs, and bacon. It was real bacon, not just strick-o-lean, too. We all ate in silence, and the food was hard going down.

  Mama wanted to buy a sewing machine and some other things but she didn’t want to take money out of the bank to do it, so she wanted to get a job. There had been a lot of jobs for black men and women during the war, but once the war ended and all the white soldiers came home, jobs were not that easy to find, especially for black women.

  Mama was saying that work was work and it did not make that much difference what she did as long as it was not against the law or against the church. Daddy did not see things that way. Most of the jobs around Birmingham for black women were domestic jobs, and Daddy did not want Mama working for Miss Ann, which is what he called white women.

  Daddy said that before the war half the black women who worked in Birmingham worked in the home of a white person, cooking and cleaning, or taking care of their children. It was not so hard a job as it was a “place” kind of thing. It seemed like it was the black woman’s “place” to be working for the white woman.

  In some ways things looked pretty good for black people. Some of our ballplayers were going into the major leagues, and with the armed forces integrating, a lot of people thought our lives were going to change in a big way. But if you were black and did not have your own business or a professional job like teaching, preaching, or undertaking, you were always just one argument or one slowdown from having to beg somebody to let you make a decent living.

  Rachel told me later that she thought Daddy was wrong. I kind of thought he was wrong, too, but I knew how he felt.

  August 2

  Monday, and we are home for two days. We lost a double­header yesterday against the Monarchs. We were up against Mickey Stubblefield in the first game, and Piper said we should have hit him but we didn’t. We were behind 5 to 2 in the ninth, and he got Ed Steele, Jimmy Zapp, and Willie Mays on four pitches. Pepper said they were freezing the balls, which meant that they were packing them in ice the night before. When they pack the balls in ice, it takes the life out of them. You can hit a ball smack on the button and it won’t go anywhere.

  The second game was pitched by Greason for us and Jim LaMarque for the Monarchs. The game was scoreless in the sixth inning, when LaMarque got tired and loaded up the bases on three straight walks with no outs. Then Hilton Smith came in and struck out three men in a row, including Piper.

  In the bottom of the seventh, Buck O’Neil hit a high drive to right field, which everybody thought was going to be a home run. He was jogging around the bases, but the ball hit the wall and stayed in. Willie got it and almost threw Buck out at second base. Piper was pretty happy about that. Then Elston Howard got up and hit a low line drive into center, and Willie came in, got the ball on a short hop, and held Buck on third. Piper wa
s happy about that, too. Then Hank Thompson hit a line drive into the left-field bleachers. That ball got into the bleachers so fast, I couldn’t believe it. Guess who was mad?

  On the way back to Birmingham the bus was quiet. There weren’t even any card games.

  August 3

  Mama and Daddy have still been at it. Aunt Jack said she would cash in her burial insurance to buy Mama the sewing machine she wanted. Mama said that Aunt Jack could not do that because it would be a shame if something happened to her when she didn’t have burial insurance. Daddy was mad, too.

  Aunt Jack said it didn’t make any difference what happened to her when she was dead because her soul was right with God. Then she said she did not want to see a family in turmoil because of a sewing machine, and Mama got mad about that and said that she only had one good nerve left and Aunt Jack was working it down to a nub.

  I was not even thinking when I said that I would buy Mama the sewing machine. She gave me a big hug and a kiss. That settled things for a while, but then when I was packing my bag to go to the ballpark Daddy came in and asked if I thought I had done the right thing. I said, yes, I did. He said he thought it was the right thing, too, but that I should have done it a lot sooner and that maybe I had forgotten that we were family. Him saying that got my jaw tight, but I just left it in the corner.

  August 4

  Chicago and Quincy Trouppe and the Chicago American Giants. We went to a restaurant in the Colored section, and it was the fanciest I have ever been in. It’s the size of Bob’s Savoy in Birmingham but a lot fancier. All of their waitresses were light-skinned, and Bill Greason said that the owners were color-struck. At the restaurant were Piper, Bill Greason, me, Quincy Trouppe, Mel Carter from the Giants, and a white man named Mr. Leonard Chance. That’s what he called himself — Mr. Leonard Chance. He was an agent for the major leagues.

  Piper asked him what team he was scouting for, and he said he was not scouting for a particular team, just looking around for likely players so that he could make his services available to the major leagues. Bill asked him what he meant by “likely.”

  Mr. Chance started talking about speed, size, and strength. He also said that they were looking for Negroes with good character, not men living the fast life. He was not interested in drinkers or men who liked the ladies too much, or gamblers.

  That sounded okay to me, but Bill Greason got mad. Later, when we got back to the hotel we were staying in, I asked him why he was mad. He said that the way Mr. Chance was talking, it was like he was looking for slaves.

  Bill said about a third of our players could play in the major leagues the next day. By letting in just a few at a time they could pick and choose who they took and then make the ones they took jump through hoops to stay. I thought about what that old man in Charleston had said about the Colored troops proving themselves at Fort Wagner.

  August 5

  We played against Chicago again, but this time we played in Rockford, Illinois. Rockford is a quiet little town, and I liked it. White folks brought us fried chicken and potato salad, and we were invited to their church services this Sunday, but we’ll be back in Birmingham by then. Sam Hill, the Giants center fielder, spiked Artie Wilson at second base, and Artie and him got into a pushing match. The umpire broke up the fight and threw Artie out of the game. Piper said that if they threw Artie out, the Barons were going to leave. Quincy Trouppe spoke to the umpire, and Artie stayed in the game.

  It’s always the outfielders spiking people. That’s because they don’t play on the bases and don’t know what it’s like to have some spikes headed toward your face. The pitcher is the only one who can get back at an outfielder.

  When Hill got up the next inning, Alonzo Perry hit him with the first pitch. Perry is tall and got nine kinds of angles on him so if he throws the ball up you don’t know where it’s going. Then when he hits you he gives you a mean look, and you know that he would not mind hitting you again.

  I asked Piper if he was ever afraid to get hit by the ball. He said it did not bother him at all, that he liked to have a few knots upside his head because it made combing his hair interesting. I didn’t think he had to say all that.

  August 6

  Birmingham. We’re playing the Harlem Globetrotters later tonight in a nonleague game. Guess who’s pitching for them now? Joe Bankhead. Piper says if he pitches against us we’re going to knock him from here to Seattle, Washington, and make him wish he was playing for the House of David.

  The House of David was a white team. They all wore beards but they could play ball. Piper didn’t like playing ball against any team that did anything different, because it was not “pure” ball. They were one of the few white teams we played, and we couldn’t play against them in the south.

  August 7

  We played Cleveland and beat Sad Sam Jones. The whole team came together, and it was a good feeling. Being at Rickwood, being back in Birmingham, and playing in front of our fans made everything all right. A whole bunch of guys from H. Y. Carson Plating came to the game. Johnny Britton’s cousin works there and he came over and took some pictures with the team.

  Willie Mays had a good game, but Bobby Robinson is mad because he wants to play and Piper is still going with Willie. Piper told Bobby he would let him play against Baltimore. Bobby’s brother, “Slow” Robinson, caught for the Baltimore Elite Giants.

  Word came down that Piper Davis, Bill Powell, and Artie Wilson had made the All-Star team. Pepper said they must have paid somebody off. Wiley Griggs said that Pepper couldn’t buy his way onto an All-Monkey team. He thought that was pretty funny until Pepper threw his catcher’s mask and hit him in the face.

  Piper fined both of them fifteen dollars, and Pepper said he wouldn’t pay it.

  August 8

  Doubleheader against Cleveland. Before the game I went out to the outfield and caught a few balls. It’s a good feeling. The grass in Rickwood looks greener, the dirt is dark and kind of reddish, and the sky today was bluer than it has been for a long time. The crowd wasn’t that big but it was loud, and all rooting for us. We took both games from the Buckeyes with Powell pitching the first game like he was proud to make the All-Star team.

  The second game was a runaway. Even Willie got two hits. When Piper let me bat in the bottom of the sixth against Brewer, I was real anxious to get a hit. Nothing. I didn’t even see his fastball. He called up to the plate and told me where he was going to pitch the ball, but I couldn’t catch up to it.

  I love this game, but it don’t love me.

  August 9

  We have a game in Mobile, Alabama, against the Cleveland Buckeyes. The site of the game was not decided until the last minute, so we had to hustle to get to Mobile and when two of the Cleveland cars broke down, half of them rode with us, which was fun because they clown around a lot. We stopped to get some lunch at a white diner, mostly hamburgers and frankfurters and bottles of pop. When we got to the ballpark we found that a couple of the players weren’t there. Just before the game started, Sam Williams showed up and said that Herman Bell had been arrested.

  Sam did not know why Bell had been arrested. He had been buying a newspaper and when he turned around he saw two policemen putting Bell into the back of a police car.

  Piper called me over and told me to get Charlie. I got Charlie, and we got into the bus and went into town. We found the sheriff’s office and went in. Soon as we walked in and they saw the uniforms, the sheriff asked what us “boys” wanted.

  We told him and found out that Bell had been arrested for disturbing the peace. We got to go to the back of the station where the cells are and found Bell sitting in one of them with a towel over his eye. Piper asked him what happened and Bell said he saw a big stray dog drinking out of one of the “white” water fountains and thought it was funny. He was taking a picture of it when the sheriff came over and arrested him. I asked him what happened to his ey
e.

  Bell looked at the deputy and then said he had slipped on his way to jail.

  It cost us twenty dollars to get Bell out of jail. On the bus headed toward the stadium, Bell started crying. Piper asked him if he was hurting and he said no, that he wasn’t. Then Piper didn’t say anything more, and neither did anyone else. I knew Bell was hurting inside.

  August 11

  Three games against the Asheville Blues. Piper says that he’s sure the Monarchs are going to win the second half. He doesn’t know if they’re playing to get into the Negro League World Series or if they’re playing to impress the white scouts.

  We beat Asheville easily. They only got one good hit when one of their players, a guy called Big Cat Brown, got a smash into deep left center. Willie couldn’t catch up with it, and when it got through for a hit the Asheville player started into his home-run trot. Willie ran the ball down, threw it in to Artie Wilson, and they cut the guy down at the plate.

  August 13

  Yesterday was my birthday. We hooked up with Baltimore in Monroe, Louisiana. Monroe is so hot that you can’t walk more than a few steps without the sweat pouring down. Piper let Bobby Robinson play so he could play against his brother, and that got Willie Mays mad. This is how the game went:

  First inning: They got one run off of Sam Williams, and we got nothing off Joe Black. Second inning: They got one run off Sam Williams, and we got nothing off Joe Black. Third inning: They got two runs off Sam Williams, and Sam Williams got taken out of the game. We got nothing off Joe Black. Piper told Sam Williams that he was fired from the Black Barons.