Detroit Stars (1919-1931)

Independent: 1919

Negro National League: 1920-1931

Background

The original Detroit Stars Negro League baseball team was established in 1919 as an independent barnstorming club. The team was founded by Rube Foster, who also owned the Chicago American Giants. The Stars were co-owned by John “Tenny” Blount. 

In 1920, Foster put together the first organized Negro baseball league, the Negro National League (NNL). The circuit was composed of Foster’s American Giants, the Stars, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Indianapolis ABCs, the Cuban Stars West (a traveling team), St. Louis Giants, Dayton Marcos, and a club called simply the Chicago Giants.

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The Stars opened their inaugural NNL campaign in May 1920. In order to make the league more competitive, Foster moved several players around, costing the Stars some talent.²Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit 1919-1933, by Richard Bak, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, c1994 ISBN: 0814324835 However, the core of Bruce Petway, catcher, and infielders Frank Warfield, Joe Hewitt, and Edgar Wesley. The latter led the NNL with 10 homers in 1920. Manager Pete Hill remained from the 1919 barnstorming team as well. Pitcher Bill Gatewood led the league in wins with 14, while Bill Howland notched 11. 

Season by season

The Stars played 64 league games and finished in third with a record of 37 wins against 27 losses in their inaugural season. Records are spotty, however, and the book Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars states the team’s mark in 1920 was 35-22.³Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit 1919-1933, by Richard Bak, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, c1994 ISBN: 0814324835 In 1921, they dropped to fifth with a mark of 30-33-1. In 1922, they finished with a record of 42-31-1, good for fourth place.th 42-31-1.

The Stars remained competitive, but in 1923, the Negro National League faced competition from another major league circuit, the newly formed Eastern Colored League. The new league was organized by Cumberland Posey, owner of the famous Homestead Grays from suburban Pittsburgh.

The Eastern Colored League was unabashed in raiding the rosters of the NNL, including the Stars. Pitcher Bill Holland defected to Lincoln Giants, while Clint Thomas and Frank Warfield wound up with Hildale in suburban Philadelphia. 

Talking Turkey

Those losses were mitigated, though, by the acquisition of a notable superstar. The same season the East-West League formed and started poaching NNL talent, the Stars came across a kid from Nashville named Norman “Turkey” Stearnes. 

His wife claimed his nickname came from the way he ran the bases, but he asserted it came from when he was a small boy with a big belly.⁴Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit 1919-1933, by Richard Bak, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, c1994 ISBN: 0814324835 In any case, the talented Stearnes kept the Stars competitive and went on to play 18 seasons in the Negro leagues, mostly for the Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, and the Chicago American Giants. He ranks among the all-time leaders in the Negro in nearly every batting category.

Indeed, he is fifth all-time in Major League Baseball (MLB) history with a .616 career slugging percentage. He ranks seventh with a .348 career batting average. He led the Negro National League (NNL) in home runs six times and won the NNL batting championship in 1929 with a .390 batting average. He repeated as batting champion during the abbreviated 1931 season with a batting average of .376. Stearnes was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 2000.

The end draws near

The Stars’ best season came in 1930 when they won the first half of the season. However, they fell to the St. Louis Stars in the post-season playoff and failed to capture the pennant. The following year, the Great Depression, along with the death of league founder Rube Foster, put a terrific strain on the NNL. The league’s last games were played in July, 1931. The Stars’ final series, according to newspaper reports, was scheduled to start July 24, hosting the Indianapolis ABCs. It is unclear, though, if those games were played. The league was out of business by the start of August, and several NNL clubs, including the Stars, disbanded.

A new team, the Detroit Wolves appeared in 1932 in the East-West League. They were owned by Cumberland Posey but only lasted one season. IN 1937, the Stars name was revived as Detroit obtained a charter franchise in the Negro American League. However, they only lasted one season as well.