William Miller "Big Bill" Gatewood (August 22, 1881 – December 8, 1962) was an American Negro league baseball pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. He pitched for the Leland Giants, Chicago Giants, St. Paul Colored Gophers, Chicago American Giants,"BEARS ROMP AWAY FROM GIANTS 8 TO 1" San Diego Union, San Diego, California, December 30, 1912 New York Lincoln Giants, Cuban X-Giants, Philadelphia Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, St. Louis Giants, Indianapolis ABCs, Detroit Stars, St. Louis Stars, Toledo Tigers, Milwaukee Bears, Memphis Red Sox, Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, and Birmingham Black Barons.
Career Sportswriter Harry Daniels named Gatewood to his 1909 "All American Team.""The Base Ball Spirit In The East." Indianapolis Freeman, Indianapolis, Indiana, Saturday, December 25, 1909, Page 7, Columns 1 and 2
In the first week of June in 1920,"Dayton Marcos to Meet Stars" Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan, June 4, 1920, Page 19, Column 4 at age 38, Gatewood left the St. Louis Giants and joined Tenny Blount's team, the Detroit Stars."Star Trucker Series Evened" Saginaw News, Saginaw, MI, July 17, 1920, Page 5, Column 3 Part-way through the second season, he moved on to the Cuban Stars.
A 6'7" tall spitball pitcher, Gatewood was a first line pitcher in Blackball's pre-league days, and pitched the first no-hitter in NNL league play, beating the Cincinnati Cuban Stars on June 6, 1921. As his pitching skills deteriorated, he remained in the game as a manager.
Gatewood managed the St. Louis Stars and Birmingham Black Barons. He is credited with giving Negro leagues great James Cool Papa Bell his famous nickname,1974, J."Cool Papa" Bell Named to Baseball's Hall of Fame, Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, 13 February 1974 and for convincing him to learn to switch hit in order to take advantage of his speed. Gatewood is also credited with teaching Satchel Paige his "hesitation pitch" while managing him in Birmingham.
After Gatewood died, he was buried in an unmarked grave and did not receive a proper headstone until a Society for American Baseball Research group called the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project installed a proper gravestone in 2010."For Negro League Players, A Measure of Recognition" The New York Times, July 1, 2010, Page A1 of the New York Edition Gatewood's grave did not have a headstone for about 48 years."A Legacy Written in Stone" The Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, MO, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, Page B1
References
"A Legacy Written in Stone" The Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, MO, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, Page B1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/1021981250/?match=1&terms=A%20Legacy%20Written%20in%20Stone
Sources The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues by James A. Riley {1994} Publisher: Carroll & Graf (New York NY) Draft registration card, 1918, National Archives & Records Administration
External links and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats and Seamheads and Seamheads