Brown's Tennessee Rats Baseball Team, Holden, Missouri, Norman Little - Grandfather to Herb Nelson and Aurelia Thomas-Ray

Based in Holden, MO, this Barnstorming Black Baseball team & Minstrel Show traveled the Midwest, sleeping in tents, traveling in Model-Ts, winning games and hearts with their talented entourage. Phil S. Dixon continues to find and share more about this popular, but largely unknown, team of the early 1900s. Walter Brown's (Uncle Walt) Tennessee Rats Baseball team, 1914, Holden, Missouri. Norman P. Little, 3rd from Left, Front Row, grandfather to Aurelia Little Thomas-Ray and Herb Nelson from Warrensburg, MO William (Bill) "Plunk" Drake, 4th from left, back row.

"Norman Little" 
Jack "Miles" Ventimiglia, The Daily Star-Journal, Warrensburg, Mo. 
Warrensburg's Black History Month received a nod from a baseball fan at Warrensburg Middle School.
Building worker Herb Nelson filled a display case with personal items, including a photograph of his grandfather, Norman Little, who played ball and possibly drums (and hoope roller), and walked a tightrope for Walter Brown's Tennessee Rats. 
Brown, who lived in Holden, owned a barnstorming black baseball team that doubled as an entertainment troupe that played in the Midwest. Little's baseball history got Nelson interested in the game. "I played Legion ball and I tried out for the Cincinnati Reds," Nelson said. 
Getting a tryout suggests a quality player, but Nelson admits having a hole in his swing," the downfall of many would-be major league players. "I couldn't hit the curve ball," he said. The display of photographs, cereal boxes, and jerseys includes a story about ragtime music great Blind Boone. Boone lived in Warrensburg before achieving world renown for his piano prowess. "He learned to play on my great-grandmother's piano," Nelson said. 
Nelson looks forward to the coming season, with the Royals having opened spring training Thursday against the Rangers. "They look good on paper this year," he said.

©2014 The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.)

Holden, Missouri

Tennessee Rats - Independent Negro team. Teams went by the name of “Tennessee Rats”. Rivers of America at the turn of the century, i.e. Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri, were so polluted with garbage that rats regularly swam in them. America in the nineteenth century was just as polluted as it was in the twentieth century when government regulations finally started to clean up the by the 1950’s. Sometimes a team would go by anti-heroic or unwholesome nicknames to debase themselves, on purpose, as a marketing ploy, i.e. burglars, kickers, river rats, savages. Even today, amateur teams go by such self-deprecating tags such as “field rats” (baseball and soccer) and “gym rats” (basketball).

1911 Browns Tennessee Rats

Walter A. Brown - Manager, played coronet

John Donaldson - Pitcher and Left Field

Sam Butler - Pitcher and Short Stop

Eugene Bell - Pitcher, Short Stop, Left Field, 1st Base, and Catcher

Morton - Pitcher, 2nd Base, and Left Field

Williams - Pitcher

Greene - Catcher

Jackson

Noble Wilson - Catcher

Norman Little - Infielder, Right Field, and Pitcher, hoop roller

Bille - 1st Base and 2nd Base

Will Pertell (Purtell?) - 2nd Base

Herman Goodall - 3rd Base, Left Field, and 2nd Base

Archie Lee - Left Field, 3rd Base, Pitcher, 2nd Base, and Left Field

Johnson - Left Field and Center Field

Will Anderson - Center Field

Harrison Clay - Right Field

Barker - Right Field and Pitcher

Brown's Tennessee Rats Baseball Team, Holden, Missouri

The Tennessee Rats was a small club of black baseball players formed in Holden, Missouri running from approximately 1910-11 to 1926.

Run by Walter A. Brown, the Tennessee Rats was almost purely a traveling team, and toured much of Iowa, North and South Dakota, Missouri and surrounding states, playing baseball and in the early years, producing a minstrel show to add to the box office take after the baseball games. While the Negro National League was not formed until 1920, the Tennessee Rats did manage to find some top-notch players, and at least one of them, John Donaldson, would go on to play with the All Nations, Kansas City Monarchs and several other teams.

Many researchers do not consider the Tennessee Rats a "formal" Negro League team. However, like other barnstorming teams of the time, they had a considerable impact on the desegregation of baseball. Today, the Tennessee Rats are rarely mentioned in Negro baseball history, and stats and rosters are hard to find. Walter Brown's Tennessee Rats didn't come from Tennessee; they originated out of Holden, Mo. The Rats played the Chillicothe Athletics on September 2, 1917 and the Chillicothe Elks on October 2, 1920 and October 15, 1922. Brown, who formerly lived in St. Joseph, was a true pioneer of our national game and musicals. He was the first to hire John Donaldson, Chet Brewer, Eddie Dwight, and many others who have influenced my career in sports.

From Baseball Team Names Dictionary

Holden, Missouri-"Tennessee Rats 1912-1914 Independent Negro Team. Team went by the state name of "Tennessee Rats", Rivers of America at the turn of the century, i.e., Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri, were so polluted with garbage that rags regularly swam in them."

Norman Little - Holden, Warrensburg,  Missouri

The Kansas City Sun 17 July 1915 

Mrs. Norman Little left for Cecota last week where she will spend the remainder of the summer with Brown's Tennessee Minstrel Norman Little.

A paper at Omro, Wis., says of the minstrel show which will appear at the Grand Friday: "Brown's Tennessee Minstrels, who have been appearing before large audiences at the Opera House on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening, closed their engagements here last evening and left this morning for New London. The company, sixteen in number, possesses a fine band, and entertained the public by discoursing some of their fine selections during each afternoon of their stay. Their entertainments, which they gave, were all that they represented. The singing and dancing comedian, Fred Stone, was certainly a master of his art, and made a big hit with his audience. The ladies' trio, which was given Monday evening, was very good, their costumes were attractive and unique. The negro, melodies which they rendered, such as "Old Black Joe." "Sunny Tennessee," brought out the harmony in their voices and was much appreciated by the audience. They were repeatedly encored. The audience was also entertained by Norman Little the expert Hoop Roller and Juggler, and gave some very fine attractions and also his trick dog Diana performed some very wonderful feats. The show was one of the best minstrels that has visited here in some time, and are welcome to Omro when in this vicinity.

Norman Little the Hoop Roller and Juggler, and a member of the baseball team known as Brown's Tennessee Rats, is in the city visiting his father, George W. Little.  Oct. 10, 1914

John Wesley "Cannonball" Donaldson the Greatest Pitcher You've Never Heard Of

John Wesley "Cannonball" Donaldson The Greatest Pitcher You've Never Heard Of
Born in Glasgow, Missouri

Written by: John Klima

The greatest pitcher nobody has ever heard of is buried in section 7, lot 1, row 17, grave 97 of Burr Oak Cemetery, where for more than 30 years, barely a soul knew about the man resting in an unmarked corner grave, his story buried alongside Chicago trumpeters and outfielders. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9517683/john-wesley-donaldson

Then he had a visitor.

The first time Peter Gorton walked onto the cemetery grass, he couldn’t escape forgotten feelings of indignity. He was drawn to this quiet parcel of land and the history beneath his feet, and for years, unearthing this man’s memory has motivated him. They have little in common, but when the white 41-year-old workaday dad and weekend ballplayer discovered the black left-hander who pitched his way into folklore a century ago, he found his baseball calling. Here rests John Donaldson, and nobody remembered his name.

“THE GREATEST COLORED PITCHER IN THE WORLD"

There was a time when John Donaldson was as famous as Satchel Paige. He was heralded as the “famous colored twirler,” whose only crime was playing his best years before 1920 when the Negro Leagues were officially created. Not only did Donaldson miss his chance to pitch in front of large crowds, he missed the chance to cement himself into contemporary baseball history. The pitcher who won more than 350 games and had 4,500 strikeouts has largely been lost to time.

In the days before black baseball became the economic force that motivated white baseball to integrate in 1947, Donaldson was one of its original stars. Newspaper accounts compared his change-up to that of Christy Mathewson and his fastball to that of Rube Waddell -- both dominant pitchers of the 1900s. In the early years of black baseball, Donaldson was a trailblazer for the trailblazers. And because he played his best baseball in small towns instead of big cities, he faded like his change-up.

Donaldson became famous when he pitched on diamonds carved out of farmlands in the Midwest, in front of fans sitting on picnic blankets and on the hoods of Model-Ts. Donaldson pitched off shoddy mounds and perfected a high arm angle, so that his fastball roared down a fearsome slope. The local bush leaguers had never seen anything like him before. He left thousands of strikeouts behind him.

Almost 30 years after Donaldson was laid to rest, Gorton, a Minnesota native, began hearing stories in small-town Minnesota about a smoke-throwing left-hander from the Negro Leagues. Armed with a passion for baseball and a strong sense of history, Gorton visited a historical society in Bertha, Minn. where he got his first look at Donaldson, on a yellowing advertisement for the pitcher’s barnstorming troupe:

Derogatory experiences were a way of life. Even the team name was meant to convey filth to white fans. Various newspapers called them “darkies.” The Rats survived off gate percentages and passed the hat when somebody hit a home run -- sometimes courtesy of Donaldson, who played centerfield when he wasn’t pitching.

Donaldson understood that discrimination was part of the deal, and years later, he recalled how fans paid admission for the right to say what they wanted, but he refused to be anything less than dignified. “When I go out there to play baseball,” Donaldson said, “It is not unusual to hear some fan cry out, ‘Hit the dirty n-----.’ That hurts. For I have no recourse. I am getting paid, I suppose, to take that. But why should fans become personal? If I act the part of a gentleman, am I not entitled to a little respect?”

Donaldson’s dignity moved Gorton, who traveled to Glasgow and interviewed anybody in the town of 1,263 who said they had a memory of the hurler. Gorton read every edition of the local newspaper from 1905 until 1930. He found no descendents, but did find a rich oral history.

“He got along with everyone,” Gorton says. “People who I talked to said they didn’t see him as a black person, they saw him as a great baseball player and they wanted him to play on their team. That was remarkable to me.”

So were Donaldson’s exploits. Gorton collected what he could and then began a one-man letter-writing campaign to public libraries and historical societies throughout the Midwest, providing strangers with leads if Donaldson had been to their town, and asking for their help. One headline at a time, Donaldson’s games arrived in Gorton’s mailbox, and the lefty came back to life.

“Donaldson, the left handed colored man, registered the phenomenal record of nineteen strikeouts.”

“Struck out, by Donaldson, 16.”

“One of the greatest pitchers in the bush today.”

“Donaldson, the southpaw, did the twirling act and he had the best of them guessing.”

“Donaldson was again on the mound and those who witnessed the game say he was as strong at the end of the twelfth inning as he was at the beginning of the game the day before.”

Soon, the forgotten pitcher had a volunteer army. Gorton’s network unearthed an 18-inning, 31-strikeout game, a 27-strikeout game and four 19-strikeout outings. But a bigger world awaited Gorton when his group began unearthing Donaldson’s career with the All-Nations team, which was the forerunner to what became Negro League baseball’s most prestigious club.

"I WOULD GIVE $50,000 FOR HIM AND THINK I WAS GETTING A BARGAIN.”

The All-Nations were an inter-racial barnstorming team formed in 1912 that sold tickets on the gimmick that black, white, Latino, and even female ballplayers could play together. Donaldson teamed with a Cuban right-hander, Jose Mendez, to form one of the period’s most dominating duos. Donaldson continued to rack up strikeouts, and nearly a century later, Gorton continued piecing his career together:

“Struck out, by Donaldson, 28”

“Donaldson is credited with twenty-five strikeouts.”

“Struck out - by Donaldson, 22”

Over the past decade, Gorton’s network has uncovered about 1,900 games in which Donaldson pitched, many for the All-Nations, where Donaldson won his greatest fame and left ghosts to chase.

“He went from being this small town guy to this historically significant guy,” Gorton says. “I’d start tracking the All-Nations and found hundreds upon hundreds of games from all over. He was an automatic 10-strikeout-a-game guy.”

Gorton soon received a tip that helped put Donaldson’s physical ability in proper perspective. He heard from a man in St. Paul whose grandfather had taken motion picture film footage of Donaldson pitching. Gorton raced to the scene. The man “plopped me on the couch, told me not to say a word, and to just watch,” he says.

Gorton was stunned when he saw the greatest pitcher nobody ever heard of flicker to life, firing a few fastballs in 1925. When Gorton showed the video to a couple of veteran scouts, one said that Donaldson reminded him of a left-handed Bob Gibson.

“It’s amazing that nitrate film survived for 80 years in some moldy basement,” Gorton says. “I love watching it.” Then he offers hopefully, “There might be more! He has reels and reels.”

Still other evidence eludes Gorton, including a game against the New York Giants sometime around 1915 when Giants manager John McGraw is believed to have offered the light-skinned pitcher a contract if he would agree to pass as Cuban instead of black at a time when there were a handful of Cuban major leaguers.

Gorton can’t find the game, but he did find Donaldson’s version of the story, published in 1932. “One prominent baseball man in fact offered me a nice sum if I would go to Cuba, change my name and let him take me into this country as a Cuban,” Donaldson said. “It would mean renouncing my family. One of the agreements was that I was never again to visit my mother or have anything to do with colored people. I refused. I am not ashamed of my color.”

Donaldson’s dignity moves Gorton as much as Donaldson’s stuff moved McGraw, who is quoted as saying, “If Donaldson were a white man or if the unwritten law of baseball didn’t bar Negroes from the major leagues, I would give $50,000 for him and think I was getting a bargain.”

Gorton admires Donaldson’s vibrant elegance as much as All-Nations owner J. L. Wilkinson did. When he decided he wanted to rename the All-Nations, Donaldson suggested a title that would befit the grace and class he strove to inspire.

JOHN DONALDSON; GREATEST COLORED PITCHER IN THE WORLD.
What Gorton discovered next changed his life. When he asked the curator if he could take the poster off the wall for a closer look, he noticed a familiar face -- himself. Beneath Donaldson’s feet was a photo of the 1987-88 District 24 Champion Staples Fighting Cardinals High School basketball team. The gangly Gorton is fourth from the right, almost directly below the face of the greatest pitcher nobody has ever heard of. Donaldson hadn’t been under Gorton’s feet – Gorton had been under Donaldson’s nose.
“Right then and there, I was tied to it,” Gorton says. “I felt from that day there was something I was drawn to.”
"IF I ACT THE PART OF A GENTLEMAN, AM I NOT ENTITLED TO A LITTLE RESPECT?”
Gorton discovered fans had once loved Donaldson, who was born Feb. 29, 1892 in Glasgow, Missouri, a small town near the Mason-Dixon line. Donaldson sprouted into a physical powerhouse with a positive demeanor whose options did not match his optimism. He grew up striking out the town team and joked in later years that he had been born with a ball in his hand. By the time he was a teenager, he knew his lightning left arm might take him far away from home.
A young black ballplayer’s best bet back then was to catch on with a barnstorming team. Donaldson joined the Tennessee Rats in 1911 and ventured deep into the Midwest, pitching against town teams in the rural Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Rats played as many games as they could book, lived in the bus, ate out of paper bags, and considered themselves lucky.
“Donaldson suggested the name ‘Monarchs’ one day when we were feeling around for a name,” Wilkinson told the Kansas City Call in 1948. “Right away, the name sounded good and we adopted it.”
Thus were born the legendary Kansas City Monarchs.
Satchel Paige became the most famous Monarch, but Wilkinson always believed that Paige would have to wait for his turn if he was in the same rotation with his former ace. “John Donaldson was the most amazing pitcher I ever saw,” Wilkinson said.
"HOPEFULLY THIS WILL END WITH DONALDSON IN THE HALL OF FAME"
After years of research, Gorton’s path finally led him to section 7, lot 1, row 17, grave 97. It was the first time he visited Donaldson’s unmarked gravesite at Burr Oak Cemetery. Gorton arrived with the conviction that began driving him a decade ago.
“From a modern perspective I still can’t understand how it could have ended up the way it did,” Gorton says. “It’s not right. Thousands of newspaper articles say how famous this guy was. How could somebody who was as prominent and at the front of an incredible period of change in this country end up in that situation?”
Donaldson finally gained a small measure of respect in 2004. Researcher Dr. Jeremy Krock, who leads the Negro League Baseball Grave Marker Project, learned that Donaldson was buried at Burr Oak. Krock credits Gorton’s work for bringing Donaldson’s career to light. A donation was made to purchase a head stone. The greatest pitcher nobody has ever heard of finally had a name again.
“Pete Gorton has single-handedly kept the John Donaldson name alive,” Krock says. “Pete championed the case for [Donaldson’s inclusion on] the Hall of Fame ballot in 2006 and started the Donaldson network going with a large number of dedicated volunteers. Hopefully this will end with Donaldson in the Hall of Fame.
Gorton doesn’t consider the work done. Donaldson wasn’t elected in 2006, but Gorton firmly believes Donaldson belongs enshrined with half-brothers Rube and Willie Foster, both Hall of Fame Negro League left-handed pitchers. He wants Donaldson to be included more often in discussions of the best pitchers in Negro League -- and baseball -- history.
“We may never finish digging,” he says.
Gorton’s network discovered that Donaldson was the first fulltime black scout in baseball history when the White Sox hired him in 1949. When the White Sox learned that Donaldson had been one of their own, they paid $2,000 for the headstone.
Donaldson signed Negro Leaguer veterans Sam Hairston, Bob Boyd and Connie Johnson for the White Sox, but he couldn’t get the front office to commit to signing Birmingham Black Barons outfielder Willie Mays in 1950. Donaldson also knew about Henry Aaron and Ernie Banks when they were rookie Negro Leaguers, but couldn’t get the White Sox to let him sign younger black players. Frustrated, he resigned, and worked for the Post Office until his death in Chicago in 1970.
While researching in Memphis, a member of Gorton’s network saw a handwritten letter Donaldson wrote about Mays. Donaldson never lost his dignity even when he lost the player who would have made him famous all over again. In the letter, he thanked the Black Barons owner for the opportunity to scout Mays. The closing of the letter speaks to Donaldson’s pride, in words he could have spoken just as easily to the visitor at grave 97, Peter Gorton, the man who trumpeted his forgotten name:
I am respectfully your friend,
John W. Donaldson Journalist, author and scout John Klima is a regular contributor to ThePostGame.com and the author of Willie’s Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, The Last Negro League World Series and the Making of a Baseball Legend. To learn more about pitcher John Donaldson or to contact the Donaldson Research Network, visit http://johndonaldson.bravehost.com.

Read more here about John https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/john-donaldson-2/

Plunk Drake

Position: pitcher

Batted: Right; Threw: Right

Height: 6 ’-0”, Wt. 210

Born:June 8, 1895 in Sedalia, Missouri, US

Died: October 30, 1977 in St. Louis, Missouri, (Aged 82)

Career: 1914-1930Teams: Tennessee Rats, All-Nations, Brinswade (No. Dakota), St . Louis Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Indianapolis ABCs, Detroit Stars, Nashville Elite GiantsWilliam “Plunk” Drake was a nice man off the field, but between the lines was a fierce competitor who intimidated batters and often hit them with pitches on purpose, hence the nickname “Plunk.”
Drake was born in Sedalia, Missouri and first played for money with the traveling 1914 Tennessee Rats team which combined baseball and a minstrel show to provide entertainment throughout the Midwest; Drake made $12.50 week ($286 in today's dollars).
In 1915, Drake started with the All-Nations, an integrated traveling team that traveled in its own private train car and featured players with many nationalities, but was more famous because of their star left-handed pitcher, John Donaldson. When Drake joined the All-Nations he and Donaldson formed a terrific 1-2 punch with lefty Donaldson and righty Drake. Drake made $100 a month with the All-Nations (about $2300/month in today's dollars).
After the All-Nations played a game in Brinsmade, North Dakota, the Brinsmade town team offered Drake a raise and he jumped. Brinsmade hoped that Drake could help them in their battles with Cando, North Dakota. The two towns in the northeast part of the state, about 27 miles apart, had a rivalry like the Red Sox and Yankees, but instead of playing in front of 40,000 fans, they usually drew from four to eight hundred, and instead of taking a streetcar or train to the game, fans drove Model Ts on dirt highways, and after a heavy rain games were often canceled due to “bad roads.”
Before Drake arrive in the middle of the season, Cando had beaten Brinsmade twice, but Drake stepped in and became the team’s leading pitcher and beat Cando twice, once by a 6-3 score.
During the season, Brinsmade played Drakes former team, the Tennessee Rats (lost 1-0), the integrated All-Nations (Drake won and threw a three-hitter, though he faced a Japanese pitcher and not John Donaldson), and North Dakota town teams from Harvey, Bisbee, Minot, Starkweather and Cando. The Brinsmade Star newspaper reported that Drake hopped a train home to Missouri after his successful season.
Drake returned to Brinswade in 1916, and in order to pay for his services the team put on a dance and wrestling matches to raise money. In the season opener, Drake beat Cando 2-1 in front of more than 500 fans. Drake was on top of his game most of the year and he beat Knox, North Dakota 3-1, beat Maddock 9-3 on a three-hitter with seven strikeouts, threw a two-hitter 1-0 win against Starkweather, a no hitter against Cando in the “York Celebration Tournament” with 11 strikeouts, a 9-3 win over Knox with seven strikeouts. and a three-hitter against the All-Nations though he lost 4-2.
After the Brinswade season was over, Drake caught on with the Negro League's St. Louis Giants. After spending the 1917 season with the Kansas City Monarchs, Drake went back to semipro ball in '18, but in 1919 he returned to his home state with St. Louis where he played for the next four seasons and won more than 30 Negro National League games. Drake was fortunate enough with St. Louis to pitch to Hall of Fame catcher Biz Mackey, and another Hall of Famer, Oscar Charleston, ran down many of Drake's mistakes in center field. Drakes best season with St. Louis came in '21 when he won 20 league games and more than 30 overall. After the season the Giant played a series against the Majors' St. Louis Cardinals, and Drake lost one of the game, 4-3, in 12 innings as the Cards took five of eight game.
Drake spent 1922-25 with the Kansas City Monarchs where he threw to catcher Frank Duncan, and his teammates included Jose Mendez, Bullet Rogan, John Donaldson and Dobie Moore. Drake, a fine pitcher with a healthy ego, did not think that Rogan could out-pitch him.
In 1922 the Monarchs challenged the Minor League's Kansas City Blues, one of the American Association's top teams. The Blues carried more than 20 players during the year who had played, or would play, in the Majors, including Bunny Brief, who hit 40 homers for the Blues in '22. In a six game series, the Monarchs won five games, and Drake won one of the games, 6-2, and also hit a homer.
In 1924 and '25, Drake's Monarchs played in the Negro League World Series. In '24, the Monarchs beat the Hilldale Daisies with Drake pitching in four games as a reliever. In '25, the Monarchs lost to the Daisies, and Drake was hit hard and took the loss in two games.
During his career, Drake played winter ball in California, and in during the '24-'25 season he led the league with 11 wins.
Drake was known for a good fastball, terrific curve, and fine control, and struck out as many as 20 men in a game. And, of course, batters usually didn't get too comfortable at the plate thanks to Drake's disposition. Drake, like many pitchers, was a weak hitter, usually batting under .200, but he was a fine bunter and, because of his size, occasionally blasted one!
In 1926, Drake played with the Indianapolis ABCs under player-manager Bingo DeMoss, and in '27 he followed DeMoss to Detroit and played with the Detroit Stars. With Detroit, the 32-year-old Drake went 7-5 in league games.
During the '27 season, when Detroit played the Birmingham Black Barons, Drake met a young pitcher Barons, Satchel Paige, and taught him his version of the “hesitation pitch,” in which he would pause for an instant after his front foot touched the ground, then continue with the pitch, throwing the batters timing off. Paige perfected the pitch and threw it for the next 30 years!
Drake played with the Dayton Marcos and Memphis Red Sox in the late 20s, and finished his career at age 35 with the St. Louis Stars which featured Mule Suttles, Cool Papa Bell and Double Duty Radcliffe, and ended up winning the Negro National League pennant.
During his career, Drake played against Major Leaguers many times, including a series of games against Babe Ruth, whom he considered a friend.
After retiring from playing, Drake managed a basketball team, then worked for many years for Famous & Barr, a department store in St. Louis.
Donaldson got his start by attending George R. Smith College in Sedalia. In 1911, he pitched for the Tennessee Rats based in Holden, Missouri and, on one day, Donaldson struck out 31 in an 18-inning game.
Four years later, he pitched three consecutive no-hitters for the All Nations team operated by Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson, whose All Nations team of Chinese, Japanese, Cubans, Indians and Hawaiians proved players of any ethnicity could form a winning club.
His time there launched his career. Eventually, Donaldson became the highest-salaried black pitcher in baseball, earning $450 a month at his peak.

2017 Inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame


Newspaper Link

Brown's Tennessee Rats Baseball Team, Holden, MO  Playing in Sioux Falls, SD, 1919

Brown's Tennessee Rats of Holden, Missouri 1908

1912 Brown's Tennessee Rats of Holden MO:

Soul of the Game

Movie about the Negro Leagues Link

Jack Marshall (baseball)

Jack 'Boss' Marshall (born May 11, 1893) was a Negro Leagues pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first several seasons.

Marshall was pitching for the (Holden, MO Brown's) Tennessee Rats by 1917 at the age of 24.

He would move on to the Chicago Union Giants traveling team, one of two teams using that name in 1919. During a game in Omaha, Nebraska, Marshall was reportedly arrested after an altercation where reporters claim he threw a punch at Center Fielder Jimmy Collins, who allegedly spiked one of Marshall's teammates when he slid into first base. When Marshall was arraigned the following Tuesday, he was released with a $25 fine and a charge for disturbing the peace.

Marshall went on to pitch for the Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars, and Kansas City Monarchs.

Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall
(Boss)
Born: May 11, 1893 in Carrollton, MO 

References

"Brown's Tennessee Rats..." Kansas City Sun, Kansas City, Missouri, Saturday, June 30, 1917, Page 8, Column 3

Footnote: The name "Royals" pays homage to the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show, rodeo, and championship barbecue competition held annually in Kansas City since 1899, (ironically) as well as the identical names of two former Negro league baseball teams that played in the first half of the 20th century (one was a semi-pro team based in Kansas City in the 1910s and 1920s that toured the Midwest and the other was a California Winter League team based in Los Angeles in the 1940s that was managed by Chet Brewer and included Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson on its roster). The Los Angeles team had personnel connections to the Monarchs but could not use the Monarchs name.