One of the world’s greatest baseball pitchers of all time threw against the Kenmare team 91 years ago

John Donaldson to be considered for Baseball Hall of Fame this coming Monday

By Peter Gorton

Contributing author of "Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota"

There was a time when just about everyone in North Dakota knew the name and fame of pitcher John Wesley Donaldson. He was a baseball legend. And in 1915, this famous black barnstorming hurler came to Kenmare.

This month, he is being considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York.

The story of Donaldson, who proved himself to be the "World’s Greatest Negro Pitcher" in a time when baseball was divided by the color line, is a timely topic for your consideration as we await the final list of 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. The final vote will be announced on Monday, February 27, 2006.

Donaldson’s story was hidden away in hundreds of local newspaper stories that preserved some of the magical moments and the overwhelming numbers of strikeouts accumulated by this left-handed wonder.

The pitcher’s prime years were 1911 to 1919, when he was the star hurler of J.L. Wilkinson’s All Nations team. The All Nations featured a mix of
players of many ethnic backgrounds, and the ballclub first brought interracial baseball to hundreds of American cities. He was the best-known barnstorming pitcher in the decade before Satchel Paige, and Paige pitched on many diamonds where Donaldson had dominated earlier.

On June 25, 1915 Donaldson and the All Nations arrived in Kenmare. That day the locals were defeated 5 to 3. The legend of John Donaldson had spread to another North Dakota city, a legend that was relatively unknown until recent years. I received a call five years ago from Steve Hoffbeck, my former high school
history teacher, asking if I would like to join a team of writers to
contribute to his latest book, "Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota" (MHS PRESS, 2005). The book chronicles the accomplishments of black baseball players in the state. Hoffbeck wondered if I would take on the challenge of researching the career of an elusive old-time pitcher—John Donaldson. I took on the assignment and searched thousands of reels of microfilm in archives in seven states and found the box scores of his long-ignored, but stellar, baseball exploits.

Last July the Hall of Fame asked for recommendations of Hall-Of-Fame-worthy ballplayers for a special Negro Leagues and Pre-Negro Leagues election. Already armed with the wealth of research, I formed the Donaldson Network, a dedicated group with one goal, to uncover as much of Donaldson’s hard-to-track career as possible before the final Hall of Fame vote. Today the volunteer network consists of over 150 researchers, historians and authors. To date we have documented over 250 victories and over 4,000 strikeouts for Donaldson—ranking him among the game’s all-time best.

A brief history of Donaldson’s career:

The color line prevented John Donaldson from entering white organized baseball and reaching the national stage—or reaching real fame and fortune. The weak structure of black baseball in the decade from 1910 to 1920 gave only limited opportunities for a highly-talented pitcher to thrive. All black professional teams, according to historian Jules Tygiel, "relied on barnstorming to locate audiences." Therefore, Donaldson became a barnstorming pitcher with the All Nations team, a touring ballclub founded and guided by a genius of marketing—the white owner J. L. Wilkinson (who is also on the special February Hall of Fame election ballot).

The All Nations squad competed against anyone who would play them—white semi-pro teams, regional all-star teams, and professional all-black teams, and Donaldson was the star with undisputable talent.

Donaldson and the All Nations team brought interracial baseball to town and cities across the face of the U.S., from Missouri to Montana and from Wisconsin to farthest North Dakota. Donaldson’s charisma and composure was a countermeasure to the deep-seated prejudice of these communities and his stellar character acted against the stereotypes of the era. His excellence on the mound was a deterrence to racism and his pioneering presence on the mound planted the seeds to bring forth improvements in racial attitudes in those towns. Donaldson was the predecessor of Satchel Paige as a barnstorming hurler, for Paige pitched in many of the same towns where Donaldson had showcased his formidable talents just a decade or two earlier.

The heart of Donaldson’s story is formed by his baseball skills. The left-handed pitcher, according to the noted historian Robert Peterson, "had near-perfect control and averaged 20 strikeouts a game" and had a "sharp-breaking curve ball that was faster than most pitchers’ fastballs" during his prime seasons from 1912 to 1918. Upon the founding of the Negro League in 1920, he played mainly as an outfielder for the "top clubs," most notably the Kansas City Monarchs all the way into the 1930s.

Testaments to his greatness

Donaldson’s tremendous talent and pitching skills prompted Hall of Fame manager John McGraw of the New York Giants to say, "I think he is the greatest I ever have seen and I would give $50,000 for him if it weren’t for the color line in baseball."

John Henry Lloyd, according to baseball historian James A. Riley, regarded Donaldson "as the toughest pitcher he had ever faced." Riley rates Donaldson as the "first great black left-hander" and "one of the best lefthanders in the history of black baseball."

Former Negro League players voted for John Donaldson as their choice for the first-team left-handed pitcher in the renowned 1952 Pittsburgh Courier poll of the best black players of all time.

The color line forced Donaldson to pitch in hundreds of towns across the country from Palm Beach to Pasadena, always living up to the expectations of greatness thrust upon him by his team and by his promoters. Town after town along the nation’s railway system witnessed first hand the pitcher and the man who, nearly a century later, deserves to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the merits of his accomplishments.

Filled the stands everywhere

Donaldson traveled throughout the United States and thrilled crowds everywhere he went. The organizations that employed his awesome talents turned profits throughout his career. One tactic used by management was advertising Donaldson and his teammates. Large banner headlines primed the ticket buying public with feats that would build his legend and fill the stands of small town America everywhere they went. This promotion of an African American from Glasgow, Missouri, was revolutionary. Never before had a black man took such prominence in local newspapers, building a famous persona with every stop on the railway system.

Donaldson broke many deep-rooted stereotypes. One such example took place in Duluth, Minnesota, on June 15, 1923. Traveling on the rails with his barnstorming ball-club and their corresponding sideshow, Donaldson arrived in the Zenith City to acclaim from the local press. He knew the civil unrest that had besieged the local community a mere three years prior. On June 15, 1920, three black circus workers were brutally lynched by a mob of nearly 10,000 angry citizens seeking revenge for an alleged assault upon a young white woman. Donaldson took the mound and proceeded to defeat a group of all-star players from across the region. As blacks fled the city in fear, Donaldson bucked the current and spoke with a universal language that he had so eloquently began speaking years earlier—baseball. This colossal display of courage was only one instance of the special character that was John Donaldson.

In the spring of 1927 an ambitious symbol of American courage was pinned on a young Minnesotan named Charles Lindbergh. He grew up in tiny city of Little Falls as the son of a Congressman. As the world read headlines of his daring solo crossing of the Atlantic, John Donaldson was invited to headline the baseball festivities associated with the celebration of his homecoming to Little Falls. With Donaldson on the mound the mood was electric. The crowd gasped for air as they first heard the single engine of the Spirit of St. Louis as she wheezed and chugged her way over the pines. In unison, spectators craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the famous Lindbergh as he flew overhead. Donaldson and Lindbergh shared one thing in common that day: They were famous to all who were lucky enough to see them with their own eyes.

Hall of Fame biography

Short Biography of Donaldson from the Hall of Fame’s website announcement of the February 27, 2006, vote of Pre-Negro League and Negro League players, managers, and owners:

John Donaldson (John Wesley Donaldson), 1913-1934 (A left-handed pitcher with a devastating curveball who excelled in the pre-Negro leagues era...The mainstay of J.L. Wilkinson’s All Nations Team, which broke ethnic barriers with players from different countries and nationalities…Won more than 250 games during his barnstorming career and averaged better than 11 strikeouts per game… Finished his career playing centerfield and pitching with the Kansas City Monarchs….A first-team member of the renowned 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro league’s best players.

Highlights, record:

John Donaldson’s verifiable statistical analysis consists of games Donaldson pitched in that have been documented in hundreds of surviving newspapers from his era.

John Donaldson’s major statistics are:

Wins: 235+

Strikeouts: 3950+

Donaldson is presumed to be the all-time leader among black pitchers in Wins, Strikeouts, Winning Percentage and Shutout games, and also is among the top black pitchers all-time in Earned Run Average.

The Donaldson network uncovered even greater number totals. If the combination of both documented games are combined with known totals Donaldson currently registers with 264 wins, 94 losses and 4,058 strikeouts as of January 19, 2006.

How Donaldson’s record was discovered:

December 6, 2005 – Minneapolis Star Tribune

A legend of the past gets shot at Hall

It is the rarest of things when a person finds his or her true calling. It is rarer, still, to look the moment in the eye, realize it for what it is, and follow the winding, relentless path with abandon.

Meet John Donaldson and Peter Gorton — two men whose lives have intertwined in the rarest of ways, with the possible end result being Donaldson’s election to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Gorton, who works for a downtown Minneapolis law firm, received a call out of the blue five years ago from Steve Hoffbeck, his old social studies teacher.

Hoffbeck was writing a book on the history of black baseball players in Minnesota and wondered if Gorton, despite inexperience in the area, would take a crack at researching an elusive old-time pitcher named John Donaldson.

The assignment led Gorton to the historical society in Bertha, about 15 miles from his hometown of Staples, northwest of St. Cloud. Inside, he saw a poster featuring Donaldson, who played in Bertha in the 1920s. He looked down from the poster and saw a picture of boys playing basketball nearly 20 years ago.

Peter Gorton was in that picture.

"I was looking for John Donaldson," Gorton said, "and I found myself."

An inkling

The juxtaposition of the pictures marked the "beginning of a strange odyssey," Gorton said.

Gorton compiled more than enough research for a chapter in Hoffbeck’s book "Swinging for the Fences," which was released in February. But he felt there was more information out there — and a reason to keep seeking it.

Other researchers had come to Bertha looking for information on Donaldson, but because Gorton is from the area he knew the county newspaper would be a better place to look than the local paper — knowledge that helped uncovered countless articles and boxscores from games in the 1920s. Later, when searching for an article rumored to be in an old paper from Wells, Minn., Gorton randomly flipped open the first copy he found from the approximate era — and turned right to the story.

Gorton has looked at more than 5,000 rolls of microfilm. He keeps meticulous track of boxscores, and his computer is choked with files, scanned clippings and photos. He and his wife, Kelly, spent an anniversary at an old ballfield.

It’s all part of a greater good.

"This guy just got inside me," Gorton said. "There’s something about him. Every day we would come up with something astounding."

Legend spread quickly

Donaldson, a flame-throwing, knee-bending lefthander, pitched for a barnstorming team called All Nations that made several appearances in small Minnesota towns starting around 1912 — eight years before the formation of the Negro Leagues.

Word of his legend spread quickly as he moved from town to town, dispatching with ease the best hitters the area had to offer. Documents show he was 80-5 over a two-year stretch. Equally impressive was his diplomacy and grace in an era of fierce segregation.

"He was famous, and people in Minnesota loved him," Gorton said. "They also respected him because he was so good, so nice."

Donaldson later pitched three years for the town team in Bertha — commuting by train on the weekends from Minneapolis, where he lived with his wife, Eleanor — and scattered seasons for other Minnesota towns during the 1920s.

John McGraw, the Hall of Fame manager from the New York Giants, once said, "I think he is the greatest I have ever seen, and I would give $50,000 for him if it weren’t for the color line in baseball."

Donaldson scouted for the White Sox after the game was integrated. He died in 1970 and is buried in suburban Chicago.

Hall of Fame consideration

Finding these facts — and that was just a quick snapshot — made Gorton wonder how he could get others to appreciate something he considers "historically significant." The answer came this summer, when the Baseball Hall of Fame announced an open call to nominate players from the Negro Leagues and earlier for a special election.

Gorton increased his efforts to find official statistics, enlisting a network of 150 people across the country to scour old newspapers. Gorton beat the nominating deadline of Halloween. In late November, Donaldson was listed among the 39 candidates to gain entry to the Hall of Fame in the special election.

Gorton and his "Donaldson network" have documented more than 200 victories and 3,500 strikeouts already. By the time of the vote in February, Gorton hopes to boost those numbers to 250 victories and 4,000 strikeouts.

Donaldson will need to earn nine votes from a 12-member committee to gain election. For Gorton, however, helping Donaldson achieve baseball’s ultimate honor is only part of what fuels his drive. The greater motivation is spreading a story that Gorton feels he is meant to tell.

"Do I think he is worthy of being a Hall of Famer? Absolutely," Gorton said. "Do people know who he is? No way. But he’s not lost anymore. Somebody knows about this, and now we have to share it with people."

WHAT WAS SAID

In 1952, the Pittsburgh Courier ran a list of the greatest black players of all-time. Eleven of the 16 players named on the "first team" are currently in the Hall of Fame. Four others, including John Donaldson, are on a special ballot that will be voted on in February. Here is a sample of some Minnesota newspaper accounts of Donaldson, a superb lefthanded pitcher who hurled mainly in the 1910s and 1920s — decades before Major League Baseball was integrated.

"He became the talk of the fans in every place that he played and became the drawing card and the moneymaker of the organization he was connected with." WELLS FORUM ADVOCATE.

"His strikeout record is 26 men in one game, and it is said that but for his color he would be in the big leagues." LITTLE FALLS DAILY TRANSCRIPT.

"Scoring for the locals was a tough proposition...Donaldson seemed unable to get over his strikeout habit." MARSHALL NEWS MESSENGER.