Negro League Shortstop Dobie Moore

A great shortstop, Dobie Moore was a superb fielder with outstanding range and a terrific arm. He could go in the hole, make a diving, backhand stab, stand up, and, flatfooted, throw the man out at first. An outstanding hitter, he hit for average and could also hit the long ball, with his best season coming in 1924, when he hit .453, led the league in doubles, and had 10 home runs and a .694 slugging percentage. The outspoken shortstop was not hesitant to offer criticism of teammates, and sometimes this practice caused resentment.

Moore was one of the players from the 25th Infantry team stationed at Fort Huachuca who were recommended to Kansas City Monarchs' owner J.L. Wilkinson by Casey Stengel. After joining the Monarchs for the first Negro National League season, he stepped into the cleanup spot and posted respectable marks of .274 and .264 in their first two seasons. In 1922 he really came into his own, slapping the ball for a .385 batting average. During the next three years he led the Kansas City Monarchs to three consecutive pennants, with batting averages of .365, .453, and .325. In the 1924 World Series victory over Hilldale, he hit an even .300, second-best on the team, and in the following Series he led the team at the plate with a .364 average while leading the team in hits, runs batted in, and slugging percentage.

In 1926 he continued his hot hitting, getting off to a .381 start, but his brilliant career was cut short early in the season due to a shooting incident that disabled him while still in his prime. The incident was cloaked in an "air of mystery" as the parties involved told conflicting stories. The night began when Moore and three other ballplayers started out for a cabaret party in their honor, but he changed his mind and went to see Elsie Brown, who allegedly mistook him for a prowler in the alley and shot him. Later she claimed that Moore had hit her in the face three times before she shot him, but Moore responded that if he had hit her three times, she would not have been able to go get a gun. Other accounts indicated that Ms. Brown was his girlfriend and that she shot him in the brothel she owned following a lovers' quarrel. In an effort to escape, Moore jumped off a terrace and shattered the bones in his already wounded leg. Whatever the details regarding the cause of the shooting, Moore was shot in the leg, with the bullet breaking two bones into six pieces, which ended his baseball days.

King Kelly: Baseball's first Superstar

Kelly, who played every position, was one of the greatest players of his era. Beginning his career with the Reds in 1878, he soon was given the title King of Baseball, and became the number one idol of the nation. Joining Chicago in 1880, Kelly sparked Cap Anson's team to five NL titles. He performed on eight pennant winners in 16 seasons and hit .300 or better eight times. His .354 in 1884 and .388 in 1886 led the NL. He led the league three times each in doubles and runs scored, and he is one of ten NL players to have scored a league-record six runs in one game. Kelly won renown for his daring baserunning, stealing at least 50 bases for four successive years, with a high of 84 for the Braves in 1887. He once stole six bases in one game. His sensational baserunning and sliding led fans to cheer him on, yelling, "Slide, Kelly, slide!"

After Kelly was traded to the Braves for a record $10,000 in one of the biggest deals in baseball's early history, Chicago fans were so upset they boycotted their team, except when Boston played there. Joining the Players' League in 1890 as Boston's player-manager, Kelly's team captured the league championship by posting an 81-48 record. After serving as player-manager for Cincinnati-Milwaukee of the American Association for part of 1891, Kelly returned to Boston and helped the Braves win titles in 1891 and 1892. He played a few games for the Giants in 1893, then drifted to the minors, managing Allentown in the Pennsylvania State League and Yonkers in the Eastern'L-(((League.

Imaginative and quick-thinking, Kelly was credited by Cap Anson with devising the hit-and-run play, although this is disputed. He studied the rules and found ways to get around them, causing the league to make changes. Colorful both on and off the field, Kelly acted with flair and was admired and adored by fans. He wore the finest tailored clothes and the most current styles. American billboards featured the handsome, happy-go-lucky Irishman as the nation's best-dressed man. Kelly supplemented his income with off-season stage appearances and wrote Play Ball. Following his retirement from baseball, he opened a saloon in New York.

Negro League Hall of Famer Pete Hill

Hall of Famer Pete Hill excelled as an outfielder in the Negro Leagues for an incredible span of 27 years: from 1899 to 1926.

A left-handed batter, Hill was a great hitter, both for average and power. An amazingly consistent line-drive hitter who used the entire field and excelled at bunting for base hits, he was a superior contact hitter with a near perfect eye for the strike zone and seldom struck out. In 1911 he was credited with hitting safely in 115 of 116 games. As the first great outfielder in black baseball history, he was compared to Ty Cobb, and rightfully so. If an all-star team had been picked from the deadball era, Cobb and Hill would have flanked Tris Speaker to form the outfield constellation.

Hill was a complete ballplayer and, although slightly bowlegged, could field and run the bases as well as hit. The star center fielder was one of the fastest outfielders in the game, fielded flawlessly, and had a deadly arm. On the bases he was a very fast, graceful runner and a good base stealer. But more than that, he was a nervy base runner who upset pitchers and infielders like Jackie Robinson was to do a quarter decade later. He was described as a "restless type, always in motion, jumping back and forth, trying to draw a throw from the pitcher."

In 1915, in a hotly contested game against the Indianapolis ABCs, with heavy betting on the outcome, he became engaged in an argument with the umpire, who pulled a gun and hit Hill in the nose. A riot ensued and the game was forfeited to the ABCs. The two teams were very evenly matched, but by the end of the season the American Giants won the playoff for the championship.

Incomplete records indicate a lifetime .326 batting average in black baseball, and he proved his hitting ability in Cuba as well, compiling a .307 average for six winter seasons.

A hitting master, Hill could hit both left-handers and right-handers equally well and was the backbone of the great Chicago American Giants' teams for almost twenty years.

Harry Stovey: The Guy Who Stole 156 Bags in one Season!

"Harry Stovey was the Willie Mays of the 1880's. He combined awesome power with blazing speed. He was the first major leaguer to amass 100 home runs. He led the league in home runs six times and stolen bases three times. He stole 156 bases in 1888 and hit 19 HR in 1889.

"Stovey stole 744 bases in 931 games for a frequency of .80 SB per game. Rickey Henderson had a frequency of .56."

(The King of Swat by William McNeil)

"Stovey always wore a pad on the left hip to protect the bones, and when some twenty feet away from a base, he would make a great feet-first plunge. His hip would strike the ground about the time his feet reached the base bag, and, rebounding, he would come to a standing position, fully prepared to continue his chase around the bases."

(The National Game)

Mike Griffin

On April 16, 1887, Michael J. Griffin stepped to the plate in the first inning of a game between the Baltimore and Philadelphia clubs of the American Association. In his first major league at-bat, Griffin would enter the record books by homering off Philadelphia's Ed Seward. Griffin became either the first or second player to homer in his first major league at-bat. (George Tebeau of Cincinnati also accomplished the feat on the same day. Research has yet to determine which was "officially" first.) While it wasn't a portent of Griffin becoming a great home run hitter, that first time rounding the bases was the beginning of one of the finest careers in 19th century major league baseball.

Sever has picked a guy who knows how to cross home plate. His career average of .94 runs per game is #6 on the all-time list. In 1889, he scored 1.11 runs per game! In his 12 major league seasons, Griffin scored 100 runs ten times, a mark reached by only 17 players in history. Of these, only two of those eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame have not been inducted-Mike Griffin and George Van Haltren. He also accomplished the equally rare feat of averaging more than a run a game in six different seasons.

Griffin was often called the finest center fielder of his era. Five times he led the National League in fielding percentage for outfielders. He also led in putouts three times. His 3.0 range factor in 1891 and 1894 ranks second on the Dodger all-time list behind Jigger Statz's 3.16 in 1917. Bill James rates him as the 45th best CF.

When Charles Ebbets released him rather than pay him the $3500 he was owed, Griffin refused to report to Cleveland. Instead, he challenged Ebbets in court and won. He never played again.

In April of 1908, Griffin became ill with pneumonia, and his condition rapidly deteriorated. On April 10, the 43-year-old Griffin passed away.