Samuel Taylor saw history with the Kansas City Monarchs
By Leon Devance
For the St. Louis American
For the love of the game, the National Negro Leagues played baseball from morning until dark, often traveling to play double headers, with no off-days. Negro League players competed against played top athletes from both semi-pro and professional teams.
Negro League players also changed baseball from the way it was played. The Major Leagues featured hitting home runs, while Negro League players introduced the game to the stolen base, hit and run, advancing base runners and suicide squeeze, among other interventions.
Despite these innovations, Negro League players were denied the opportunity to play in the majors, enduring both systematic and personalized discrimination.
Samuel Taylor, of East St. Louis, a catcher by trade who also played leftfield, played with the Kansas City Monarchs from 1952 through most of 1954 under manager Buck O‘Neill. Taylor said the Negro Leagues teams had talent to compete with most Major League teams.
“We had top competition from the Indianapolis Clowns (who signed Hank Aaron, the career Major League home run hitter), the Philadelphia Stars, the Memphis Red Sox and the Birmingham Black Barons, who signed Willie Mays,” said Taylor.
“The Pittsburgh Crawfords had Josh Gibson, the black Babe Ruth, who legend has it hit over 800 home runs. All these players could field and hit the ball with the best players in the Major Leagues.”
Taylor could not resist continuing the roll call of greats who passed before his eyes.
“The Negro Leagues had ball players like Sam Jethroe, Luke Easter and Al Smith, players who knew how to play the game. Elton Wallace was the manager and, to play for him, you had to know how to play correctly. And Wallace could have easily managed in the majors if given the chance,” Taylor said.
“And the Monarchs had the best pitcher of all time, Satchel Page, who faced Gibson in the Negro Leagues World Series and made his outfielders sit down, then struck out Gibson on three pitches.”
Because the Negro Leagues kept no official statistics, Taylor believed his best year was with the Midgets, when he hit .325 with 25 home runs and 51 runs batted in. Taylor contended that his catching skills are comparable to Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, but said he patterned his game after the Dodgers’ Roy Campanella.
“I studied Campanella because he was my idol,” said Taylor. “I admired his style of catching because he was a good receiver. Campanella had the perfect crouch for a catcher.”
Taylor insisted the catcher’s main responsibility is to know each of his pitchers’ best pitch and what is working that day. The catcher also has to know the opposition’s strengths and weakness and call the game.
“When I was behind the plate,” Taylor said, “I was the field general.”
Taylor said he was offered a chance to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals, but the team members refused to suit up if he was signed. There was an attempt to sign him with Arkansas, but Taylor refused.
Taylor said that the Negro Leagues was interesting on the field but challenging off it.
“We went to different places, to visit and play. In all, we played in 29 states and Canada. Barnstorming meant playing good local teams. And there were places that never let you forget that you were a black man,” Taylor said.
“One time, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, I went to a restaurant, along with four Cubans who did not speak English well. After a long wait, the police arrived and asked if anyone spoke English. I finally admitted that I spoke English and that we were members of the Kansas City Monarchs. The policeman then gave us the directions to a better restaurant to eat at.”
Taylor and others who played in the National Negro Leagues never questioned if they had enough talent to play in the Major Leagues.
“Quincy Troupe once wrote that players in the Negro Leagues were born 20 years too soon,” Taylor said.
“But anyone who played in the Negro Leagues is a living legend.”
