At the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, there are 37 inductees who have been honored primarily based on their careers in the Negro Leagues.
Three of those Hall of Famers – Hilton Smith, Satchel Paige and Bullet Rogan – have some other things in common: (i) each had superb pitching skills, (ii) each played a substantial part of their career with the Kansas City Monarchs, (iii) in retirement, each resided in Kansas City, and (iv) they are all buried here.
That last item is what prompted this Hot Stove edition.
“Hall of Fame” Cemetery Monuments: Satchel Paige and Bullet Rogan have monuments at their gravesites that honor their Hall of Fame status. Bullet Rogan’s was a recent installation (2023) after a GoFundMe campaign raised the necessary funds. Now, it’s Hilton’s turn.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM), the American Association Kansas City Monarchs and museum supporter Kevin Kenney have established a GoFundMe page to raise the cost of $8,000. The monument design:
The donations are charitable contributions to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and the link for those interested in participating is…..here….. Any excess funds will go to the museum. To encourage your participation, let’s look at this Hall of Famer.
Hilton Smith: In 1971, Satchel Paige became the first Negro Leaguer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Bullet Rogan was #15 (1998) and Hilton Smith was #18 (2001). Smith’s greatness is nicely summarized on his Cooperstown plaque:
The first words on his plaque hint at why many baseball fans have not heard of Hilton Smith. The “quiet but confident” Smith played in the shadow of the colorful Satchel Paige.
Smith joined the Monarchs in 1936. Buck O’Neil joined the team in 1938, and he and Smith were roommates on the road for many years. Satchel Paige, already well known for over a decade playing in the Negro Leagues and barnstorming, joined the Monarchs in 1940. The three players were part of several successful seasons, including winning the Negro Leagues World Series in 1942.
Below, all three are in this team photo, as is fellow Hall of Famer Willard Brown.
Paige’s popularity was a major draw for the Monarchs, and so they worked him into as many games as possible. Monarchs owner J. L. Wilkinson also hired Satch out to other teams as a gate attraction, earning a fee for himself and a percentage of the gate for Satch. To save wear and tear on Paige’s arm, Satch would often pitch just three innings to satisfy the crowd, and then Hilton Smith or another starter would come in for the final six innings.
So, how good was Smith? Hall of Famer Monte Irvin played against Smith in the Negro Leagues, saying “He had had one of the finest curveballs I ever had the displeasure to try and hit. His curveball fell off the table…He was just as tough as Satchel was.” Per NLBM President Bob Kendrick, “The old saying was, if you were going to hit anything, you better hit it off Satchel because you weren’t going to touch Hilton Smith.”
Below, from a special 1972 Topps set featuring Negro Leaguers.
Although there was little doubt that Hilton Smith was a Hall of Fame player, his path to Cooperstown was long and difficult. Thanks to Buck O’Neil for not giving up.
Hilton Smith’s Journey to the Hall of Fame: After Satchel Paige was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971, other Negro Leaguers were slowly added. The pace was reminiscent of baseball integration after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947. Many teams took years to add Black players, and the last one, the Red Sox, waited until 1959.
From 1971 to 1994, a total of 10 Negro Leaguers were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not a good look.
In Joe Posnanski’s wonderful book about Buck O’Neil (The Soul of Baseball), there is a chapter on the struggle of Hilton Smith to be recognized by the Hall of Fame. In the summer of 1983, months before he died, Smith wrote long letters to the Hall of Fame about why he deserved to be inducted . They were not answered. He asked his dearest friend, Buck O’Neil, if he would ever get in. “You will get there,” Buck said, “You deserve to be there.” “They don’t know me,” Hilton said. “We will remind them,” Buck said.
When Smith died in November of 1983, Buck attended the funeral and says he told Hilton, “I’m still going to get you in the Hall of Fame someday.”
In 1994, Buck eloquently told the world about the Negro Leagues in the Ken Burns PBS series on baseball. And things started to happen. Buck was asked by the Hall of Fame to do “scouting reports” on Negro Leaguers who should be considered for the Hall of Fame. The reports (samples below from a Joe Posnanski article), in Buck’s handwriting, covered 11 players, and they would all ultimately be inducted.
If you look closely, you will see a lot of categories rated “8.” In the baseball scouting tradition, that’s the highest grade. Here are excerpts from Buck’s report on Hilton Smith:
(Right-handed. 8 curveball, top-level makeup). Front-line, first-division type pitcher. Two fastballs – one overhand riser, other three-quarter sinker. Excellent curveball. Dizzy Dean counterpart. Very desirable.
From 1995 to 2001, one Negro Leaguer was inducted each year. In 2001, it was Hilton Smith, and Buck went to Hilton Smith’s gravesite to tell him, “Hilton, you’re a Hall of Famer.”
In Joe Posnanski’s book, Joe often quotes Buck with lyrics because he thought Buck’s words sounded like a song. Here is how he quoted Buck on Hilton’s induction:
I wish he had lived
To see that day
He was a little sad
At the end of his life,
Just a little,
Thought he had been forgotten,
I wish he had lived
To hear them say,
“You were great,
You were one of the greatest ever,”
But I’m sure he heard it.
John Donaldson and the Hall of Fame (Not Yet): Hilton Smith was the 18th Negro Leaguer in the Hall of Fame. In 2006, after formation of a special committee, 17 were added at one time to bring the count to 35. The notable omission in 2006 was Buck O’Neil who had done so much to help others get inducted. On July 29, 2006, Buck spoke on behalf of the 17 at the induction ceremony in Cooperstown. A little over two months later (10/6/06), Buck died at the age of 94 in his adopted hometown of Kansas City.
Buck was finally inducted in the Hall of Fame posthumously in 2022, along with Bud Fowler, to bring the current count to 37 Negro Leaguers.
In 2025, two Negro Leaguers were on the “Classic Baseball Era” ballot – John Donaldson and Vic Harris. They were not selected.
John Donaldson is a fan favorite of Hot Stove. In 2017, in Hot Stove #49, I told the story of the All Nations barnstorming team owned by J. L. Wilkinson. The star pitcher on the team was John Donaldson, shown below in the Schmelzer’S uniform he wore from 1915 to 1917. Schmelzer’S, a sporting goods store, was a sponsor of All Nations. The second capital “S” is intentional, to match the store’s logo.
In 1920, J. L. Wilkinson founded the Kansas City Monarchs as part of the first organized Negro League. Many players from the All Nations roster joined the Monarchs, including John Donaldson who is said to have suggested Monarchs as the team name. Donaldson was a precursor to Satchel Page and was often billed as the “Black Walter Johnson” or “the greatest Colored pitcher in the world.”
Although Donaldson played some for the Monarchs in the early 1920s, he was primarily a barnstormer who was a popular draw across the country for decades. His games have been meticulously documented by a dedicated group led by Pete Gorton (check out the website here). Hopefully, Donaldson will get another chance at the Hall of Fame.
Chip Schmelzer (RIP): The name of the sponsor of the All Nations team will be familiar to some Hot Stove readers. Schmelzer’S operated in Kansas City from 1887 until the depression. The company was started by John F. Schmelzer, the great-great grandfather of Charles J. Schmelzer III, a Kansas City attorney known to most of us as Chip Schmelzer.
When I was researching for Hot Stove #49, Chip invited me to his law office to see his collection of Schmelzer’S memorabilia. His walls and shelves were full of catalogs and old-time equipment for fishing, baseball, golf and many other sports. One of my favorites is a bat with a Schmelzer label and identified as a “COBB MODEL.” Here is Chip with the bat, and other items from the family collection are on the wall behind him.
In 2021, the Schmelzer family donated the collection to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This past December, Chip (“a jokester with legendary charm, self-deprecation and wit”) passed away at the age of 79 (obituary here). RIP Chip.
Satchel Paige Gravesite: When Satchel Paige died in 1982, Rev. Emanuel Cleaver gave the eulogy at Watkins Brothers Memorial Chapel. Paige’s body was then carried in a 1938 Packard hearse to Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery where he was buried on “Paige Island,” which is surrounded by cemetery roads. The initial gravestone was modest and left open the mystery of his age.
In 1989, the gravestone was replaced with a 6’8” tall, 7,000-pound granite monument. The original gravestone is on display at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The monument includes Satchel’s lifestyle hints of “HOW TO STAY YOUNG,” the best-known being “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
His likely birthdate of July 7, 1906, is used, but we should remember what Satchel said about age. “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” and “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Bullet Rogan Gravesite: Charles Wilber “Bullet” Rogan was a star two-way player for the Monarchs in the 1920s and 1930s. He is the member of a very exclusive club. Only two players have exceeded a WAR of 20 for both hitting and pitching – Bullet Rogan and Babe Ruth. A third is on the way. Shohei Ohtani has passed 20 WAR in hitting and is at 15.1 for pitching. Barring injury, Sho-Time will be there soon. Click here for a clip of Bob Kendrick speaking on Ohtani and Rogan.
Bullet Rogan died in 1967 and is buried at Blue Ridge Lawn Memorial Gardens. He had a modest headstone, but in 2023, it was replaced by a “Hall of Fame” monument financed by a GoFundMe campaign organized through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Below, Bob Kendrick (right) with the Rogan family at the gravesite. Looking for a repeat of that this year for Hilton Smith.
Hilton Smith, Jackie Robinson and the Monarchs: Late in the 1943 season, Buck O’Neil was drafted into the Navy. He kept up with Monarchs news in letters from Hilton Smith and others, and one always stuck in his memory: “Hilton wrote to me about this one player he had recommended to the Monarchs, a football and track star at UCLA name Jack Roosevelt Robinson.” In 1945, the Monarchs signed Jackie Robinson.
No one can tell this story better than Bob Kendrick, so I yield to Bob and encourage you to watch this four-minute video which doubles as a civil rights history lesson. Click here.
Below, Jackie with Satchel Paige in 1945.
Buck was still in the service in 1945, so did not get to play with Jackie on the Monarchs. Without Buck around, Hilton Smith’s roommate was Jackie Robinson. Hilton told Buck that the team was barnstorming in Oklahoma when the team bus pulled into a gas station. Jackie went to use the restroom and was chased away by the owner, “Hey boy! You know you can’t go in there.” Jackie told the owner to stop filling the tank on the bus. The owner, realizing the dollars he would lose, relented and let the team use the restroom. With this valuable lesson in capitalism, the Monarchs decided to never again patronize any gas station or restaurant where they couldn’t use the facilities.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – A Cautionary Tale: In researching this post, I Googled “Kansas City Monarchs in Hall of Fame.” Google now often features an “AI Overview” before giving the search results, and this is part of what showed up in the AI Overview on my search:
Elston Howard Wilkinson? No such person. But…
Elston Howard played for the Monarchs from 1948 to 1950 and roomed with Ernie Banks. His contract was sold to the Yankees during the 1950 season, and in 1955, he became the first African American on a Yankees roster (eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color line). Howard had a fine MLB career, but he is not in the Hall of Fame.
J. L. Wilkinson was the owner of the Monarchs and is one of the 37 Negro League inductees in the Hall of Fame.
Be careful out there AI users.
Lonnie’s Jukebox – Monarchs Edition: Across the lobby from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is the American Jazz Museum. The entryway is highlighted by neon signs from the vintage days of jazz in Kansas City.
The sign on the left is for the Street Hotel (a/k/a Streets), which was at 18th and Paseo and was featured in the Green Book that listed places where Blacks were welcome. Buck O’Neil: “My first year I roomed at the Streets with Henry Milton, but on the road, I usually bunked with Hilton Smith. Milton at home. Hilton on the road.”
In his autobiography (I Was Right on Time), Buck wrote of how the Monarchs “tapped our feet” to Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy, the Blue Devils, Count Basie and Jay McShann. He heard Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Harry Edison before they became famous. At the Streets Hotel, he ate in the same dining room with Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Big Joe Turner, Dinah Washington and Duke Ellington.
On the American Jazz Museum website, there are several Spotify playlists, and I settled on this one: “The heydays of 18th & Vine took place from the 1920s to the 1940s. This is music that would have been heard throughout the streets, clubs and dance halls of the district.” The full 25-song playlist is here, and several of the artists are those name-checked above by Buck. Below, a sampling from the playlist:
“Walkin’ and Swingin’” by Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy with pianist Mary Lou Williams.
“Boogie Woogie” by Count Basie. Buck O’Neil became good friends with Yankee fan Count Basie, and they would bet on Yankee games. Buck: “I always bet against the Yankees which wasn’t a good idea in the late thirties and early forties, so Bill Basie walked off with more than a few of my dollars.”
“Mr. 5 x 5” by Jimmy Rushing who sang with the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten and Count Basie. The title of the song references Rushing’s body dimensions, 5’ tall and 5’ wide.
“St. James Infirmary” by Julia Lee, George Lee & His Orchestra. Buck played with Monarchs catcher Frank Duncan who he said, “was testimony to the close relationship between baseball and jazz – Frank was married to Julia Lee, who was Harry Truman’s favorite blues singer.” Julia Lee regularly performed at Milton’s (one of the neon signs above).
“Piney Brown Blues” by Big Joe Turner. I learned about Joe Turner in the 1950s when his #1 R&B hit “Shake, Rattle & Roll” was covered by Bill Haley and the Comets at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Yardbird Suite” by Charlie “Yardbird” (and “Bird”) Parker. Born in Kansas City and schooled in Kansas City jazz (including a stint with Jay McShann), Parker went to New York and developed the improvisational style of bebop. Parker is featured in a new album titled Bird in Kansas City (album info here; liner notes by Chuck Haddix, curator of the Marr Sound Archives at UMKC and host of KCUR’s Fish Fry).
In 1994, Mayor Emanuel Cleaver bid $144,000 on behalf of the city to acquire a plastic saxophone once played by Charlie Parker. There was some controversy about the expenditure at the time, but the saxophone became the centerpiece of the American Jazz Museum. It’s not just any saxophone. Bird had pawned his brass saxophone and was given this Grafton plastic sax to play at a 1953 concert at Massey Hall in Toronto with other jazz greats. The concert was recorded, and the album became legendary. A remastered version was released in 2023 (KCUR report on the Cleaver purchase and the new album here). Bird died in 1955, but his music is still being released decades later.
“When Lights are Low” by vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Buck: “Another great musician I called a friend was Lionel Hampton. Ham was a baseball fanatic who loved the Monarchs. When I managed the team in the late forties, we gave him a uniform to coach first base. ‘You’re coming to so many games, we might as well put you to work,’ I told him.” Below, from a 1949 newspaper article, with bat in hand is Lionel Hampton. On the far right is Willard Brown, another Monarchs player in the Hall of Fame.
Bonus Cuts: The next two selections are not on the museum playlist, but they feature one of the artists named by Buck. Jay McShann was one of the giants of Kansas City jazz (pianist, vocalist, composer and bandleader). He became a resident of Kansas City and recorded an album here in 1991 with Michael T. White (saxophone and clarinet), Tommy Ruskin (drums) and Milt Abel (bass). The sales proceeds from the album (titled Warm) were donated to Project Warmth. McShann died in 2006 at the age of 90.
The 13 songs on the album can all be played on Spotify here and YouTube here. The first lyrics you will hear are “Goin’ to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come” which is what Hilton, Satchel, Bullet, Buck and Jay did for their storied careers. We are so lucky they came our way.
Walk-Off Reminder: That GoFundMe link for the Hilton Smith monument is here.
Walk-Off Photo: From a post by NLBM President Bob Kendrick: “Bet you two ‘Bucks’ this photo makes you smile! Before Willie Mays became known as the ‘Say Hey Kid,’ his nickname with the Birmingham Black Barons was Buck (Young Buck). Love this pic of him with Buck O’Neil at an event in KC! Photo courtesy of Debbie Sauer.”
