…A pitcher stares into the batter’s box, reading the catcher’s signals, and prepares to deliver his best fastball.
One more strike, just one more strike, and we win the game.
As the hot Georgia sun beats down, sweat drips from the bill of his cap. Our pitcher takes a glance at the runner on third, sets, does a high leg kick, and throws…
Summertime in Atlanta means many things to many people, but for Sharon Gregory (Enterprise Services), summertime is when the Boys of Summer play baseball and she is reminded that her dad, Joe Ben Williams, played in the Negro Leagues for the Atlanta Black Crackers.
J.B. Williams played professional baseball from 1947-49. He is now 88 and lives in his hometown of Monroe, LA. Nicknamed “Lefty” because he was a talented left-handed pitcher, Joe Ben played for the Atlanta Black Crackers and the New Orleans Creoles. Sometimes Joe Ben played a little first-base, but he didn’t get to bat much because they used a designated hitter.
The three years between 1947 and 1949 were the swansong of the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 by signing with the Dodgers. His success allowed more black players to play Major League baseball and the interest in the Negro Leagues began to wane. But that didn’t matter to Joe Ben, because being a pro baseball player was his dream.
…The baseball leaves the pitcher’s hand and spins plateward. The batter, in an instant, realizes the ball will cross the plate and his muscles fire as he takes a mighty swing. Our pitcher tenses when he sees the bat in motion…
As a young man, J.B. worked at United Gas as a utility lineman in Monroe, LA and played baseball on Sundays. Monroe had a team called the Monroe Monarchs and their outstanding play and enormous popularity in the 1930s helped lead to the foundation of the Negro Leagues. J.B. was such a good player for the Monarchs that he decided to quit working as a lineman and try to play baseball full time.
The first team Joe Ben played for professionally was the New Orleans Creoles. In his first season with New Orleans, he made the Negro League All-Star Game in Richmond.
One on Ben’s favorite memories of that season was when the Creoles traveled to Champaign, IL and played against the University of Illinois in a “suit-for-suit” contest in which the winning team would get the uniforms of the losers. J.B. pitched and they beat Illinois 7-0. With their freshly-won uniforms in hand, the team went to a local park for a huge BBQ supplied by the team’s owner.
Branch Rickey came to Louisiana that season and gave Joe Ben a try-out with the Dodgers, just like Jackie Robinson had done the year before. Rickey liked what he saw and told him to stay in touch, but Joe Ben was so busy playing ball that he never called the Dodgers back. “I could have been famous!” he smiles.
One fateful day toward the end of the season, Joe Ben was pitching against the Atlanta Black Crackers. The Black Crackers had famous players Robert Lomax “Butch” Davis and Homer “Goose” Curry. Joe Ben struck both of them out in the same inning and a fan ran out on the field, gave him a dollar, and said, “Man, I’ve been wanting to see that for a long time!”
Joe Ben was the winning pitcher and received an visit from the Atlanta manager after the game. He wanted Joe Ben to switch teams. Enticed by an upcoming Atlanta barnstorming tour of the midwest and northeast, J.B. said yes.
The Black Crackers played nearly every day. They would travel so long on the bus that “the sun would go down on their faces and come up in their faces.” There was one large seat across the back of the bus reserved as the most comfortable bed for the next day’s starting pitcher.
There were no telephones, but if J.B. could learn the address of where he was playing in advance, his hometown would send him lots of letters. He was 23 years old and was the youngest player on a team of 15 professionals.
The players didn’t make much money but they got paid twice a month. They would make $30-40 when they played on Sundays. Other days they made far less. The stands would be so full of fans that they often had to rope off the field to separate the fans from the baseball diamond.
When J.B. played for Atlanta, they had purchased a new bus. After three months of constant road games, the bus was a wreck.
In the end, Joe Ben gave up baseball because he was worn out from playing every day. He felt that if he continued to play he could have been a bigger star but back then it was just a game. Also, his older brother was in the military and he needed to return home to take care of his parents. He would save newspaper articles of his baseball exploits and send them to his brother overseas.
Today, Joe Ben still loves the game. He’s always watching either westerns or baseball. His favorite team is the Atlanta Braves and he thinks they are currently the best team in baseball. And Sharon is so proud of her daddy.
…The ball whistles through the hitting zone and stops with a loud POP…into the catcher’s mitt. STRIKE THREE! We win! We win!…
Thanks J.B., for keeping this sweet game alive for everyone.
Great story!