Cleveland Buckeyes (1942-1950)

Negro American League: 1942-1950

Background

The Buckeyes franchise of the Negro American League (NAL) was awarded to Cleveland and Cincinnati on January 2, 1942– and there in lies the confusion concerning the team’s first season.

In newspaper reports of the team’s acceptance into the NAL at the league’s annual meeting, Ernest Wright from Erie (the Buckeyes’ owner), Wilbur Hayes from Cleveland, and DeHart Hubbard from Cincinnati were listed as the “Cleveland-Cincinnati Club delegates.” The sub-headline of the article, though, only named Cincinnati as the newest NAL member.

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Cleveland, Cincinnati, or both?

In historical records for the NAL’s 1942 season the club is usually listed as the Cincinnati-Cleveland Buckeyes. Indeed, the team split home games between the two Ohio cities in their first year, while also playing several neutral-site games in places like Youngstown and Erie. 

One newspaper, The Afro-American, reported on a series against the Birmingham Black Barons played by the Cleveland Buckeyes in Cincinnati ²Buckeyes Trip Barons in Four Out of Five, The Afro American, Jun. 20, 1942 , while the same paper referred to them solely as the Cincinnati Buckeyes a few months later.³ NAL Prexy Sees Baseball as Usual in 1943, The Afro American, Dec. 29, 1942

The confusion didn’t seem to affect the team’s play, though, as they finished in first place in their inaugural season. The Buckeyes finished a game and a half ahead of the powerhouse Kansas City Monarchs. This came after the tragic loss of catcher Ulysess Brown and pitcher Raymond Owens in a car accident. ⁴Two More Battles, AP via The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sep. 8, 1942 However, the Monarchs were awarded the pennant based on a better winning percentage. This despite the fact that Kansas City had played 22 fewer league games than the Buckeyes.

Cleveland or bust

At the NAL national meetings in January 1943, it was announced that the Buckeyes would be based solely in Cleveland.⁵ Baseball Solons Meet in NY The Afro AmericanJan. 2, 1943 The club started the 1943 season with a non-league series against the Homstead Grays, members of the second Negro National League, and the Negro League World Series runners-up, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The clubs would play several more times in 1943. The Buckeyes finished in second place in the NAL that year, a game and a half behind the Monarchs.

The team, playing at League Park, parttime home of Cleveland’s other pro baseball team, the Indians, ended the 1944 campaign with a record of 46-33, good for third place but still six and half games behind the pennant-winning Kansas City Monarchs. In 1945, however, the Buckeyes won the pennant, stamping their ticket to the Negro World Series where they faced the mighty Homestead Grays. Cleveland swept the four-game series. 

Playing in the shadows?

Many armchair baseball historians say the Buckeyes’ achievements were overshadowed by the success of the Indians. However, the Tribe was pretty mediocre in those days, finishing in the middle, or near the bottom, of the standings from 1942 through 1947. Their attendance was right in the middle as well, if not a little worse for some seasons. 

The Indians did manage to win the 1948 World Series, the year after the integration of Major League Baseball. Ironically, a year before Larry Doby became the American League’s first black player, the Buckeyes became the first Negro league team to sign a white player, pitcher Eddie Klep. ⁶ Reverse English–White Hurler Tries Out for Cleve. Buckeyes The Afro American Apr. 6, 1946

The end of the Buckeyes

Integration of the Majors, of course, was the biggest reason for the demise of the Buckeyes and the Negro leagues as a whole. The 1948 season was the last for which either Negro circuit was considered Major League. In 1949, the NAL absorbed four teams from the NNL and continued on as a minor league. 

Before the start of the 1949 campaign, in February, the Buckeyes announced they were moving to Louisville⁷Buckeyes to Louisville in NAL Shift, Grays Top Talent Goes in Draft, The Afro American, Feb. 19, 1949, but they stayed there only two months. Owner Ernest Wright hoped for improved attendance in Kentucky, out of the shadow of the now-very-successful Indians. That didn’t happen, though, and in June the Buckeyes moved back to Cleveland, where they played until the halfway point of the 1950 season. With a record of 3-33 in the loop’s first-half standings, the Buckeyes dropped out of the NAL and folded in July of that year.