Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Recognizing Black Arkansan players
Black History Month is an appropriate time to reflect on the contributions Black athletes from our state have made to the great game of baseball.
Arkansas is a baseball state and always has been, dating back to the days when many towns across the landscape fielded teams. Even casual baseball fans should be familiar with native sons like Lou Brock (El Dorado), Torii Hunter (Pine Bluff) and Willie Davis (Mineral Springs), who rose from obscurity to stardom in the Major Leagues.
Brock played for 19 years in the Major Leagues, mostly with St. Louis, and he hit .306 while stealing 118 bases for the Cardinals in 1974. He still ranks second behind Rickey Henderson on the list of all-time leaders in stolen bases in the majors. Hunter was a dynamic center fielder and a five-time all-star who played 12 of his 19 years in the Major Leagues with the Minnesota Twins. Davis played 14 of his 18 years in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers and he ranked 76th on the list of all-time base-stealers.
But what about athletes like Alfred “Slick” Surratt (Danville), Neale Henderson (Fort Smith) and John Scott (Magnolia)? All three played at some point with the Kansas City (Mo.) Monarchs, a barnstorming team and charter member of the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1965, when the franchise finally disbanded.
I received an education on the Negro Leagues when I attended a lecture by Phil Dixon a few years ago at the Little Theatre (now Arkansas Public Theatre) in Rogers. Dixon is a baseball historian and Kansas City native who’s written books about the Negro Leagues, including the Monarchs.
“The Kansas City teams were to the Negro Leagues what the New York Yankees were to the American League,” Dixon said at the time. “The Monarchs’ roster included many great players like Satchel Paige, who was the LeBron James of his day. From 1930 to 1937, the Monarchs won over 800 games. In 1933, they won 134 games and lost only 14 all year. They were the first team to travel the country by bus instead of a train, and they carried with them a portable lighting system for night games, five years before a night game was played in the Major Leagues.”
The small crowd who listened to Dixon’s presentation that day, myself included, were surprised at the Monarchs’ connection to Northwest Arkansas. We learned the Monarchs played games in Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Bentonville and even Green Forest. Dixon’s lecture inspired me to learn more about guys like “Slick” Surratt, a left-handed batter and outfielder who played two years for the Detroit Stars before joining the Monarchs in 1949.
“Known for his speed, he was an excellent bunter who joked that, if he hit a ground ball that bounced more than once before it got to the fielder, he could not be thrown out,” according to his biography in the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Jackie Robinson, a former Monarchs player, helped change the world of sports when he broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947. Sadly, players like Surratt, Henderson and Woodson from Arkansas and many others throughout the country did not receive the chance to play in the Major Leagues because of the restrictions placed on Black athletes at the time.
Arkansas is proud of great players from our state like Brooks Robinson, “Dizzy” Dean, George Kell, Donnie Kessinger, Brock and Hunter who rose to stardom in baseball. During Black History Month, it is also fitting to highlight players who’ve long been forgotten or were never fully recognized for their ability.
The great game of baseball demands it.