The idea was Josh Shelton’s, the Rangers’ director
of team travel. He was inspired by the ‘Tip Your Cap‘ campaign for the Negro
Leagues’ 100th Anniversary and stumbled across the Black Giants during an internet search. He was drawn to “the cool story about Ernie Banks
playing for them when he was in high school.”
But reporter Levi Weaver had his doubts about
that claim. He wrote:
“That’s
the legend, anyway: that a high-school-aged Ernie Banks played for a later
iteration of the Dallas Black Giants while attending Booker T. Washington High
School. There’s a
book that makes the claim; it’s even on
Banks’ Wikipedia page:
“While still in high school, Banks joined the Dallas Black Giants,
a semi-pro baseball team, in 1949.” But the reference link is broken, and —
given that Banks was playing for a barnstorming team out of Detroit in 1948-49
— it’s more likely that it
was his dad Eddie Banks who played for
the Dallas Black Giants. As late as 1947, the elder Banks was still playing for
the Dallas Green Monarchs. In the end, neither outcome ruins the story. Either
a Hall of Famer or a Hall of Famer’s dad played for the team.”
***
I assisted Weaver with the research for his
article, so I must confess that some of his speculation reflects my own. But curious
minds want to know, so I took a deeper research dive to answer the question,
“Where exactly Did Ernie Play before he joined the Chicago Cubs in 1953?” I hit
the online newspaper archives and Ancestry.com, and here’s what I discovered:
Ernie Banks’ Teams Prior to the Chicago Cubs
(1947-1953)
|
Years |
Team |
Source/Proof of Team Association |
|
1947 & 1948 |
Moorland YMCA - Softball |
“Returns to YMCA:
Shortstop Ernie Banks Briefs Youth on Game,” Dallas Morning News, February 22, 1959, S1 p.15. | LINK |
|
1948 |
Detroit Senators |
“Black Hubbers Meet
Detroit Today,” Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal, June 27, 1948, p.13. | LINK |
|
1948 |
Booker T. Washington High - Bulldogs |
“Washington Eleven
Bids for Final Berth Tonight,” Dallas
Morning News, December 4, 1948, S2, p.4. | LINK |
|
1949 |
Dallas Black Giants |
“Negro Club Opens
with Amarillo 9.” Dallas Morning News,
May 1, 1949, p.5. | LINK |
|
1949 |
Amarillo Colts |
Ernest Banks, Professional Baseball Weiss Questionnaire, 1953 | LINK Note: Despite the fact that the Amarillo
Colts is the team most frequently referenced as Ernie’s team prior to joining
the Monarchs, I was unable to locate a Colts article from 1949 listing Banks.
|
|
1949 |
Booker T. Washington High - Bulldogs |
“Booker T. Defeats
Waco Team, 12-2,” Dallas Morning News,
October 27, 1949, p.9. | LINK |
|
1950 |
Booker T. Washington High - Bulldogs Spring, Basketball June graduation - Listed as Edgar E. Banks
(pg 3 of PDF) |
“Lincoln Tigers Claw Booker T. Five, 43-29,” Dallas Morning News, February 8, 1950, p.8. | LINK “1,201 Students
Given Diplomas,” Dallas Morning News,
June 2, 1950, pg.3. | LINK |
|
1950 |
Kansas City Monarchs |
“Giants to Oppose
Monarchs in NAL Game Here Tonight,” The
Journal Herald, July 14, 1950, p.11. | LINK |
|
1950 |
Indianapolis Clowns Banks
joined the Clowns during the 1950 Jackie Robinson Barnstorming All-Stars
series |
“Hot Stove League Notes,” The Plaindealer, October 27, 1950, p.4. | LINK “Clowns Edge Jackie's Stars in Series, 7-5,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 25, 1950, p11. | LINK “Big Leaguers Pep
Clowns' Dixie Tour,” The Cleveland Call
and Post, November 25, 1950, pg.1-D. | LINK |
|
1951 & 1952 |
Military Service |
“Bruins Buy Star
Negro Shortstop,” Mt. Vernon
Register-News (Mt Vernon, IL), September 8, 1953, pg.6. | LINK |
|
1953 |
Kansas City Monarchs |
“Monarchs Trip
Clowns,” The Kansas City Times,
April 24, 1953, pg. 26. | LINK |
|
1953 |
Chicago Cubs Sold to Cubs - Sept 8 |
“Two Monarchs to
Cubs,” The Kansas City Star, Sep 8,
1953, p.14. | LINK |
NOTABLE PEOPLE & EVENTS
Eddie Banks (1894-1978)
Ernie’s father, Eddie Banks, was a semipro pitcher and catcher with several teams, including:
●
Black Orphans, Marshall,
TX
●
Oklahoma City, OK
●
Tulsa, OK
●
Black Buffaloes,
Houston, TX
●
Black Giants, Dallas,
TX
Eddie was born in Marshall, Texas, on Dec 15,
1894, which tells us that his prime playing years were between 1910 to 1934
(ages 16 to 40).
So far, I have not been able to locate an
original box score documenting Eddie Banks as a pitcher or catcher with any of
the above teams/cities during his prime-playing years.
That said, from my previous research on early
Texas Negro Leagues baseball, I know that it was common for player nicknames to
be printed in the newspapers instead of their birth names. Thus, it is possible
that Eddie Banks played semipro ball under an assumed identity/nickname. At
this time, we don’t really know for sure.
Note: I do know that the reference of Eddie
Banks competing with the Dallas Green Monarchs in 1947 that I shared with Levi
Weaver was a case of mistaken identity. Upon closer inspection, this 1947
reference is not him, but a player named Banks in the Austin area in the 1940s.
Bill Blair (1921-2014)
Blair’s brief bio fromWikipedia:
William
"Bill" Blair (October 17, 1921 – April 20, 2014) was a Negro league
pitcher. Blair graduated Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas and briefly
attended Prairie View A&M University. He began his baseball career at the
age of 16, playing for a barnstorming team in Mineola, Texas, and went on to
join the United States Army, where he became the youngest African American to
serve as a first sergeant in the Army during World War II. He pitched from 1946
to 1951, for teams including the Indianapolis Clowns, Cincinnati Crescents, and
was a player-manager for the Dallas Black Giants. He played against players
such as Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, and Hilton Smith. After retiring from
baseball, he became a fixture in the community, running a local newspaper, the
Elite News, and organizing golf tournaments and parades. He died in Campbell,
Texas in 2014.
Here’s a more detailed (and most likely
incomplete) list of the Blair’s teams:
●
1939 Mineola Black
Spiders | LINK
●
1940
Booker T. Washington High | LINK
(race against Jesse Owens)
●
1940
Dallas Green Monarchs | LINK
●
1943
Dallas Green Monarchs | LINK
●
1946
Cincinnati Crescents (Apr) | LINK
●
1946
Amarillo Red Sox (Aug) | LINK (team
managed by Johnnie Carter)*
●
1947
Detroit Senators (May) | LINK (team
managed by Johnnie Carter -- Blair introduced Ernie Banks to Johnnie Carter
in 1948, which led to Carter inviting the then 17-year old softball player to
join the barnstorming Detroit Senators.)
●
1947
Dallas Green Monarchs (Sep) | LINK
●
1948
Indianapolis Clowns | LINK
●
1949
Dallas Black Giants | LINK
●
1948-1951 -- It’s
reported that Blair pitched a no-hitter in Denver’s Mile High Stadium. That
ballpark opened in 1948 as Bears Stadium, and Blair says his final year in
baseball was 1951. A record of his no-hitter has not been located yet, but I am
listing it here as a lead for other baseball historians to pursue.)
Photo:
Bill Blair, circa 1996
James “Cool Papa” Bell & William “Dizzy” Dismukes
In the baseball lore of how Banks came to join
the KC Monarchs is a game in which James “Cool Papa” Bell was impressed with
the young shortstop after watching him in action on the field. In May 1949, the Monarchs defeated the Colts, 6 to 5, in Lubbock, Texas.
This game would be the final time the two
clubs battled that season, making it the last opportunity for Bell to have
witnessed Banks play on a diamond. Despite this legendary tale involving “Cool
Papa”, Banks is not mentioned in any of the pre- or post-game series
reports.
The Monarchs defeated the Colts, 7 to 4 a week
earlier at Oiler Park, Odessa, TX. None of the former Dallas Black Giants -- Banks, Foot Parker,
Curtis Searcy -- were mentioned in this post-game recap either, suggesting that
the match-up in Lubbock is the first time for Banks and his teammates to join
the Amarillo Colts and compete against the Monarchs.
And finally, it is a common misperception that
Buck O’Neil signed Ernie Banks (to both the Monarchs and the Cubs). It was not
Buck. Instead, that credit goes to William
“Dizzy” Dismukes,
a former Negro Leagues pitcher who served as a scout for the Monarchs in the
early 1950s. See details below:
Source:
The Pittsburgh Courier, Aug 13, 1955, p. 12.
Banks confirms that is was indeed Dizzy
Dismukes who signed him, when he completing his Professional Baseball Weiss Questionnaire in 1953.