Early black players paid little, but played much
Phil Dixon outlined what it was like to be black and a professional baseball player before the major leagues were integrated at the start of the 1947 season. Dixon was the featured speaker at the spring meeting of the Allen County Historical Society Tuesday evening.
He dwelt on the Monarchs, a highly regarded Kansas City team that twice won the Negro Leagues world series and often played in small towns in what was called barnstorming. The Monarchs played in Iola twice in 1922, in Humboldt in 1923 and Chanute in 1937.
Dixon, 57, introduced to baseball through trading cards when he was a youngster, has done extensive research and written nine books. His first was a pictorial history of the Monarchs, which contained about 600 photographs. He collected the photographs from former players, their families and historical society museums throughout Kansas and Missouri, where the Monarchs did most of their barnstorming.
“I’ve been a fan all of my life,” Dixon said, noting he worked a few years in public relations for the Kansas City Royals and coached baseball for 35 years, during which “I learned a lot and taught a lot.” He also has been a director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
“The most fun is bringing this history back to communities that played a role in Monarch history,” he said.
The Monarchs were owned by J.L. Wilkinson and beloved by his players.
Wilkinson was the first to offer night baseball as a means to escape the hot summer afternoons of the Midwest, for fans and players alike. More than just lighting a field, Wilkinson mounted lights on trucks and took them on the road with the Monarchs.
The first night game was in Enid, Okla., in 1930. Chet Brewer pitched that game for the Monarchs. After his playing days he organized a team in California that sent many to the majors.
Wilkinson also was the first to transport his team from game to game on a bus. Others traveled mainly by train.
Even with the advantage of bus mobility, barnstorming was a trying experience.
Dixon recalled the Monarchs often played as many as 150 games on the road and one year between April and October returned home only six times to see their families.
Wilber Rogan and Jose Mendez, a Cuban, are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. They played in games at Iola.
