Oscar McKinley Charleston (October 14, 1896 – October 5, 1954) was an American center fielder, first baseman and manager in Negro league baseball and the Cuban League. Over his 43-year baseball career, Charleston played or managed with more than a dozen teams, including the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Negro league baseball's leading teams in the 1930s. He also played nine winter seasons in Cuba and in numerous exhibition games against white major leaguers. He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
One of the Negro leagues' early stars,Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 57. Charleston was, by 1920, generally considered "the greatest center fielder and one of the most reliable sluggers in black baseball."Strecker, p. 35. He and Josh Gibson share the record for Negro league batting titles with three. He was the second player to win consecutive Triple Crowns in either batting or pitching (after Grover Cleveland Alexander), a feat matched just one time by a batter. He is now credited with having won the Triple Crown (leading in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in) three times, which is the most for any player in Major League Baseball. He holds the third-highest career batting average, behind Gibson and Ty Cobb, and the fourth-highest career on-base plus slugging (1.066).
In 1915, after serving three years in the U.S. Army, the Indianapolis native continued his baseball career as a professional with the Indianapolis ABCs. He played in the Negro National League's inaugural doubleheader on May 20, 1920. His most productive season was with the St. Louis Giants in 1921, when he hit 15 home runs, 12 triples, and 17 doubles, stole 31 bases, and had a .437 batting average. In 1933, Charleston played in the first Negro National League All-Star Game at Chicago's Comiskey Park and appeared in the League's 1934 and 1935 all-star games. In 1945, Charleston became manager of the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers and helped recruit black ballplayers such as Roy Campanella to join the first integrated Major League Baseball teams. His career ended in 1954 as a player-manager for the Indianapolis Clowns.
Early life and family Oscar McKinley Charleston was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 14, 1896, the seventh of eleven children; his younger brother Bennie Charleston played alongside him on the 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords. Charleston's father, Tom Charleston, was a construction worker and a former jockey. Oscar spent his youth playing sandlot baseball and was a batboy for the Indianapolis ABCs.Holway, p. 100. See also:
On March 7, 1912, fifteen-year-old Charleston lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to Company B of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry Regiment and served in the Philippines, where he ran track and played baseball on the regiment's team. In 1914 the seventeen-year-old, left-handed pitcher played a season representing the regiment in the Manila League. Charleston also pitched a 3–0 shutout and scored a run during a local all-star game. At the end of his tour of duty, Charleston decided not to reenlist. He returned to Indianapolis in April 1915.Holway, p. 100. See also:
On November 24, 1922, Charleston married Jane Blalock Howard, a widow from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The couple often traveled together during the early years of their marriage when he was a player and manager for the Harrisburg Giants. The Charlestons had no children and separated during the 1930s, but they never divorced.Strecker, p. 36.
Career and statistics Between 1915 and 1954, Charleston was a player and/or manager for the Indianapolis ABCs, Lincoln Stars, Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars, Saint Louis Giants, Harrisburg Giants, Hilldale Club, Homestead Grays, and Pittsburgh Crawfords, as well as the Toledo Crawfords, Indianapolis Crawfords, Philadelphia Stars, Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, and the Indianapolis Clowns. Charleston was a player-manager until 1941, but his thirty-nine year baseball career continued as a team manager until his death in 1954.Riley, p. 166. In addition to his play in the Negro leagues, Charleston participated in numerous exhibition games against all-white teams in the years before major league baseball became integrated in 1947. He also played nine winter seasons in Cuba.
Official statistics for the Negro league players are incomplete and vary among sources. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's website and Baseball Reference's website reported as of March 6, 2018, that Charleston's career batting average over 239 Negro league games and twenty-six seasons (1915–1941) was .339, with a slugging percentage of .545. The Hall of Fame website also noted that Charleston had a .326 lifetime batting average in exhibition play against white major leaguers. Data from other sources provided different statistics, but do not include specific periods of time. For example, the online version of Encyclopædia Britannica lists Charleston's lifetime overall batting average as .357, as did baseball historian James A. Riley in his book The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (1994). Riley further stated that Charleston had a .326 batting average in exhibition games against white major league players and a .361 batting average in nine seasons of winter games in Cuba.Riley, p. 326.
Early years, 1915–1920 After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army in 1915, Charleston returned to the United States and immediately began his baseball career with the Indianapolis ABCs. He was paid $50 per month.Holway, p. 100. See also: On April 11, 1915, Charleston pitched his first game for the ABCs, a three-hit, 7–0 shutout in an exhibition game against the Reserves, a semiprofessional team of white players. Charleston, called "Charlie" by his teammates, soon moved to the center field position, where he became known for playing shallow (close behind second base) and his one-handed catches. Charleston was especially adept at catching high flies, using his running speed to retrieve balls above his head. His strong batting and fielding skills also earned Charleston the nickname of the "Hoosier Comet."Holway, pp. 99 and 106; James, p. 193.
In addition to his skills as a ballplayer, Charleston was known for his combative nature and willingness to fight when provoked. One memorable incident occurred during a game that the Indianapolis ABCs played against a team of white major and minor leaguers in Indianapolis on October 24, 1915. When ABCs player Elwood "Bingo" DeMoss got into a dispute with umpire James Scanlon over a bad call against the team, Charleston ran in from center field and punched the umpire, knocking him to the ground. According to local newspapers, the ballpark erupted into "a near race riot." Charleston and DeMoss escaped the field and were arrested and jailed. The two players were released after posting bail and immediately left town to play winter baseball in Cuba.Riley, p. 165; Hogan, p. 134. Charleston was also temporarily dismissed from the ABCs and sent to play for the Lincoln Giants in New York until the controversy died down. He returned to the team in June 1916.
During another incident that occurred in Cuba in the mid-1920s, Charleston fought with Cuban soldiers during a Cuban League game against Havana. He was arrested and fined for his role in the fighting, but was released from custody and returned to the field to play the following day.James, p. 165. James "Cool Papa" Bell related a story to baseball historian John Holway of another confrontation involving Charleston. Bell told Holway that around 1935 Charleston tore off the hood of a white-robed Ku Klux Klansman during a trip to Florida.James, p. 165; Holway, pp. 99–100.
In spite of the controversy surrounding some of his behavior, Charleston contributed to the success of the Indianapolis ABCs. In 1916 he was a member of the team when it beat the Chicago American Giants to claim what the game's promoters called "The Championship of Colored Baseball." (The first Negro League World Series was not played until October 1924.) Charleston left the ABCs at end of the 1918 season to attend the Colored Officer Training Program during World War I, but he served less than two months before the armistice was signed to end the war and he was discharged. When Charleston returned to Indiana in 1919, the owner of the ABCs did not field a team, so he joined the Chicago American Giants.Hogan, pp. 124, 175–78; Holway, p. 104; Strecker, p. 34.
Negro league player, 1920–1941
When the Negro National League was established in 1920, Charleston returned to Indianapolis to play for the ABCs, playing center field for the team in the League's inaugural doubleheader on May 20, 1920, at Indianapolis. The ABCs beat the Giants 4–2 and 11–4.Strecker and Baas, p. 31; James, p. 166–67. Charleston remained with the ABCs until 1921, then signed with the Saint Louis Giants, who paid him $400 per month, the league's highest salary.Strecker, p. 35. See also: Charleston's most productive season was with the Saint Louis Giants in 1921, when he hit fifteen home runs, twelve triples, seventeen doubles, and stole thirty-one bases over sixty games.Strecker, pp. 35–36 and 38. Charleston's batting average that year was .434; he was also the league's leader in doubles, triples, and home runs.
When the Giants folded at the end of the 1921 season due to financial difficulties, Charleston returned to the ABCs and stayed until 1924, when he became a player-manager of the Harrisburg Giants in Pennsylvania. Charleston continued his career with the Harrisburg team until 1927. After it disbanded, Charleston played for the Hillsdale Club, a team near Philadelphia, for two seasons (1928 and 1929) and spent the next two seasons (1930 and 1931) with the Homestead Grays. As Charleston aged, he shifted from center field to first base during his final years playing for the Giants and two years with the Grays. Charleston also played nine seasons of winter baseball on teams in Cuba. His batting average for the nine seasons was .361.Riley, pp. 166 and 629; Holway, p. 105. A countrywide fan poll taken after the 1925 Eastern Colored League season for an "All-Eastern Team" gave Charleston the most votes, mostly placing him in center field, but he also received votes for left and right field, and as a manager.
In 1932 Charleston became player-manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, whose roster included future Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Judy Johnson, in addition to teammates Ted Page, Jud Wilson, Jimmie Crutchfield, and Double Duty Radcliffe. (Cool Papa Bell joined the Crawfords in 1933.)Strecker and Baas, p. 31; Strecker, pp. 35–36, and 38. The Negro National League was revived in 1933 and the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays became its leading teams in the 1930s. The two teams competed for more than a dozen Negro League championships and had several future Hall of Famers on their rosters, including Charleston.Hogan, p. 270.