Facing Oscar Charleston
In a summer of constant rainy Sundays at the Doherty Oval in 1927, the Silk Sox needed a big gate. They hoped they would get it by playing the Harrisburg Giants – led by, as newspapers called him, “the colored Babe Ruth,” the supremely talented Oscar Charleston.
In 1953, the Silk Sox’s Bennie Borgmann, then a major league scout, said, “… the greatest ball player I’ve ever seen was Oscar Charleston. When I say this, I’m not overlooking Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, and all of them.”
Oscar Charleston
Artwork by Graig Kreindler - www.graigkreindler.com; from the collection of Jay Caldwell
At 5’9”, 185 lbs., Oscar McKinley Charleston was a non-drinking, no-nonsense individual and a true leader – one who never backed down from a fight. A defensive whiz in centerfield, Charleston played shallow as his speed allowed him to go back and catch balls hit over his head. Negro League icon and Hall of Famer Buck O’Neil told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1996: “(Charleston) was simply the best ballplayer I ever saw. The closest thing to Oscar Charleston, later on, was Willie Mays.”
Pitcher Satchel Paige went further, calling Charleston the best outfielder ever and said there was “no comparison” between him and Mays. “He played back of second base,” Paige told the New York Daily News in 1971, “and you couldn’t hit one over his head. I know it sounds drunk, but he could outrun the ball. He could.”
Appearing at the Doherty Oval at age 30, Charleston was in his prime.
His teammates included Walter Cannady, Fats Jenkins, Rap Dixon, Heavy Johnson and John Beckwith – making Harrisburg one of the best offensive squads the Silk Sox ever faced. “The Greatest Negro Team in U.S.,” the Passaic Daily News wrote. “Charleston hit 62 homers in 195 games last year.”
The Paterson Evening News added: “(Charleston) has more home runs to his credit than Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and that is saying something for the Yankee twins certainly are the best white home run sluggers in the business and any man who is going to be better than them certainly must be able to smack the old apple.”
The game was a battle of pitching aces with the Silk Sox’s “Big” Bill Durbin hurling for the home team and Harrisburg starting Darltie Cooper, who would go 16-7 against Eastern Colored League competition that season.
Harrisburg struck first. In the first inning, Jenkins walked and José Pérez singled. After Cannady popped up, Charleston hit to Borgmann at shortstop who threw home attempting to get Jenkins. Borgmann’s throw struck Fats’ hand and the ball bounded away, allowing two runs to score. Charleston raced home with the Giants’ third run on a single.
Oscar Charleson with Cuba’s Almendares team
The Silk Sox answered in the second on a two-run single by Charlie “Blackie” Lajeskie.
In the third inning, the fleet Charleston walked. He then stole and second and third. Johnson walked. Beckwith singled, scoring Charleston. Rap Dixon followed with a long home run, giving Harrisburg a 7-2 lead. In the Passaic Daily News, Sam Ingram wrote, “… it looked like the locals were in for a bad beating.”
But in the fourth, the Silk Sox’s George Braun hit a two-run homer, making the score, 7-4. After Harrisburg scored an unearned run on an error in the seventh, Frank Talcott relieved Durbin and was masterful, striking out three and allowing one hit in the final two innings. The Brooklyn Citizen wrote: “He showed wonderful form against the Giants best hitters.”
Silk Sox Comeback
With the score 8-4 in the eighth, Ingram wrote, “…the Sox heavy artillery went into action and before the smoke had cleared away they had sent five runs over the plate…”
With one out, player-manager Jimmy Eschen walked, Bibbs Raymond singled and Howard Lohr blasted a home run. Braun followed with his second homer of the day, tying the score. Lajeskie, who had singled, scored the go-ahead run on a Borgmann grounder to Cannady at short. The Paterson Morning Call wrote, “Borgmann sprinted like mad and beat the peg,” also writing that first baseman Pérez was off the bag when he jumped to catch Cannady’s throw.
But the Giants weren’t done yet. In the top of the ninth, with one out, Pérez doubled. After Cannady flew out, up to the plate stepped Charleston.
Eschen ordered Talcott to walk him.
Some fans “razzed” the decision. “Babe Ruth,” the Paterson Evening News pointed out, “is passed intentionally several times in a game and there is little said of the matter, but when it happens here the fans make a howl.”
Eschen’s move to walk the great hitter was a wise one. Talcott retired Heavy Johnson on one of his “benders,” giving the Silk Sox the hard-fought victory over Charleston and his Harrisburg Giants, 9-8.
This was the great Oscar Charleston’s lone appearance against the Doherty Silk Sox. In 1954, returning home to Philadelphia after managing the Indianapolis Clowns, Charleston fell down a flight of stairs, paralyzing him from the waist down. He died soon after at 57.
“His death, like his life,” wrote John B. Holway in Blackball Stars, “went virtually unreported in the white press, which remained, to the end, almost thoroughly ignorant of the man who may have been the greatest baseball player of all time.”