Philadelphia Stars: Philadelphia's Negro League Team

In honor of February being Black History Month, I want to periodically chronicle African American athletes of the past and present through out the month.

Today we start by taking a look at the Philadelphia Stars—Philadelphia's Negro League Baseball franchise.

1933 Philadelphia Stars (ExplorePAHistory.com)

Decades before Jackie Robinson crossed the infamous color barrier in Major League Baseball, black baseball players were making names for themselves on the diamond in another way. African Americans had been playing the game of baseball since the mid to late 1800's, forming teams after the Civil War days and traveling on their own around the country to play anybody that would challenge them.

It was not until 1920 that a meeting was held between owners of these independent teams that the Negro National League was formed. The first organized Negro league consisted of teams from the midwest. With the organization of the league came more upstart leagues along the east coast, and in the south. The game of baseball was quickly spreading to communities in more urban and rural regions.

Ed Bolden owned the Hilldale Daisies, founded in 1910 and located in Darby, Pennsylvania. The Daisies were one of the early powerhouses of the Negro Leagues in the Eastern Colored League. The Daisies won the ECL's first pennant in 1923. The following year the Daisies won the pennant again and lost to the Kansas City Monarchs, the team Robinson would later play for, in ten games of a best of nine series (there was one tie). The Daisies won the rematch in 1925 in six games.

Bolden took the Daisies out of the ECL in 1928 as a result of continuing frustration over a lack of organization in the league. He later had Hilldale return to the American Negro League, which lasted one year. Bolden was forced out of his team in 1930 after the debacle. He would not stay out of the Negro Leagues for long.

In 1934 Bolden returned to the game as owner of the Philadelphia Stars. He would be the man in charge of the team until his death in 1950. The Stars were funded by Eddie Gottlieb, a sports promoter who also had owned the Philadelphia Warriors, the basketball team that was home to some basketball player who scored 100 points in a game.

With Gottlieb financing the Stars the baseball team was sure to have some success. Financing the team was easy for Gottlieb. He was in charge of the booking arrangements for all of the Negro League teams in the northeast and he received a 10 percent cut of the ticket prices. The Stars had the financial foundation for success.

1944 Philadelphia Stars (NLBPA.com)

The Stars played their home games in two different stadiums. They started out at Passon Field for the 1934 and 1935 seasons.

Today, Passon Field is the location of West Philadelphia High School. Penmar Park was the home of the Stars from 1936 until the team disbanded in 1952. While Penmar Park was the primary home of the Stars they played many Monday night games at Shibe Park, the home of the Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies at the time.

While the Stars had the funding and the quality ownership the Stars only won one championship. That came in 1934, and in typical Philadelphia fashion, it came with a delay in the middle of the series.

The Negro National League instituted a split-season playoff system, having the winners of the first half of the season and the second half of the season play each other for the championship in a best of seven series. The Stars won the second half and the Chicago American Giants won the first half. Playing the first four games in Chicago the Stars put themselves in a hole as the series traveled to Philadelphia.

The Stars came home down three games to one in the series. Before the series would resume in Philadelphia though game five was delayed ten days for still unknown reasons. The Stars would later go on to win the delayed game five and followed that up with a victory in game six.

In that sixth game Stars' third baseman, Jud Wilson, appeared to hit umpire Bert Gholston. Hitting an umpire, much like today, would force an automatic ejection from the game, but Wilson remained in the game. Chicago's manager Dave Malarcher argued and pleaded for the ejection but Gholston refused and left Wilson in the game.

As the game progresses Stars' catcher Ameal Brooks was involved in a shoving match with another umpire but Brooks was not ejected. Again with protest by Malaracher the Stars' continued to play with no ejected players.

Controversy followed in the seventh and what was thought to be the deciding game. Malaracher had filing a formal protest to the Negro National League concerning Wilson's alleged shoving of the umpire without ejection.

Commissioner Rollo Wilson met with team owners and the umpiring crew to learn that Gholston had claimed he was threatened by Stars' players, forcing him to leave the Stars' in the game. Bolden then threatened to not play the seventh game if his third baseman was suspended. The Commissioner succumbed to the pressure from one of his more prominent owners and threw out the protest.

But the series would go on. Game Seven ended in a 4-4 tie due to darkness. Lights in baseball stadiums was unheard of at this time and an eighth game would be held the next day. Slim Jones, start pitcher for the Stars, pitched a gem as the Stars won the Negro National League Championship by a score of 2-0.

Even though the Stars had won the series in eight games, both teams filed protests after ward. The Stars claimed that the Giants had been using ineligible players and believed that Turkey Stearnes of the Giants should have been ejected himself after hitting an umpire early in the series. The Giants countered by protesting that two games should not have been played at night.

The Stars' championship was upheld and is still recognized by the league and baseball historians.

If you visit Cooperstown and tour the Baseball Hall of Fame, you will not see any player's plaque with a Stars cap on it. You will however find four players that played part of their career with the Stars. Oscar Charleston managed the club from 1941 to 1942. Biz Mackey played from 1933 to 1935. Jud Wilson played from 1933 to 1939 and managed the club in 1937. The most famous name is probably Satchel Paige, who played with the Stars in 1946 and 1950.

The Stars disbanded as a franchise at the conclusion of the 1952 season, when most of the league followed suit.

By 1952, Robinson had broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball and the best players in the Negro League were starting to flourish in the National and American Leagues. Attendance for the Negro League fell almost flat and the money therefore was not available. Some teams hung around until 1958 to keep a floundering Negro American League alive, but even that league had folded after 1958.