Interracial Baseball Games: 1944

It is not always easy to determine if an interracial game between "All-Star" teams was truly a "major-league" game. It was fairly common for "All-Star" teams to include a few career minor-leaguers (although career Pacific Coast League players were sometimes career "minor-leaguers" by choice) and it is not always clear how many minor-leaguers is too many. For example, the Baltimore Elite Giants played Sunday doubleheaders against a team of "Major League All Stars" on September 10 and September 24. Both of these doubleheaders took place during the 1944 American and National League regular seasons, which limited the ability of these teams to include active major-league players. They did, however, include a number of former and future major-leaguers. But were there enough such players? For example, this team used three pitchers in these four games. Johnnie Wittig pitched in 83 games for the New York Giants between 1938 and 1943 (and one game with the Boston Braves in 1949) and clearly qualifies as a "major-leaguer" (if not really an "all star"). The All-Stars lost both of Wittig's starts (he went 0-1). But the other two "major-league" pitchers were Don Kerr, who was described as "formerly of the Orioles" and somebody identified in box scores as "Romay", neither of whom appear to have ever played in either the American or National League.

Retrosheet has decided to exclude these games (for now). This leaves games involving four teams which are more clearly "major-league" quality: the Birmingham Black Barons (BIR); the Kansas City Royals (KCR), a black barnstorming team; and two white "all-star" teams, identified here as MLS and AGS (the latter standing for the Augie Galan Stars).

October 11, 1944 at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles, CA
Kansas City Royals                  1 0 0   0 0 0   0 3 0    -   4  8  3
Major League All Stars              0 3 0   0 1 0   0 0 1    -   5 11  2
WP: R. Barrett, LP: C. Brewer
Retrosheet game file



October 15, 1944 at Seals Stadium, San Francisco, CA
Birmingham Black Barons             5 0 0   1 0 0   0 1 0    -   7 14  0
Augie Galan All Stars               0 0 0   0 0 0   1 3 0    -   4 11  3
WP: J. Markham, LP: S. Gibson
Retrosheet game file



October 22, 1944 at White Sox Park, Los Angeles, CA
Major League All Stars              0 0 0   1 0 0   0 0 0    -   1  5  2
Kansas City Royals                  0 0 0   0 0 2   0 1 x    -   3 10  1
WP: H. Smith, LP: J. Paepke
Retrosheet game file



October 22, 1944 at White Sox Park, Los Angeles, CA
Kansas City Royals                  0 0 0   0 0 2   0  -   2  6  0
Major League All Stars              0 0 0   0 0 0   0  -   0  3  3
WP: P. Bassett, LP: NA. Burns
Retrosheet game file

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