The 1919 Detroit Stars baseball team competed in Negro league baseball during the 1919 baseball season. In their first year of competition, the Stars won the championship of independent western Negro league clubs. While the Seamhead website reports that the team compiled a record of 27–13, the "Game Log" below includes 44 wins based on 1919 games for which contemporaneous newspaper accounts have been located.

The Stars played their home games at Mack Park in Detroit with a handful of games also played at Navin Field. The team was owned by Tenny Blount and led by player-manager Pete Hill who compiled a .396 batting average and .892 slugging percentage.

Key personnel Ownership The team was established in 1919 by owner Tenny Blount (1873–1934), sometimes also known as "Teddy" Blount, with assistance from Rube Foster who owned the Chicago American Giants. Blount was an Alabama native who moved to Detroit in 1913 and became a prominent "numbers man".("numbers man")

Hall of Fame inductees Three players from the 1919 Stars were later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Pete Hill was the team's manager, center fielder, and leading batter. During the 1919 season, Hill compiled a .396 batting average with a .488 on-base percentage and an .892 slugging percentage. By late July, he had already hit 16 home runs leading the press to describe him as a rival of Babe Ruth for 1919 slugging honors. (In 1919, Hill's batting average was 74 points higher than Ruth, and his slugging percentage was 235 points higher than Ruth.) Hill was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 by vote of the Negro League Committee. Oscar Charleston also joined the Stars late in the season. He was a left-handed slugger and played center field for the Stars. He died in 1954 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976. José Méndez, a native of Cárdenas, Cuba, was the team's shortstop and also appeared in 12 games as a pitcher, compiling a 2.14 earned run average. Nicknamed "The Black Diamond", Méndez died in 1928 and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Other batters In addition to the three Hall of Fame inductees, the Stars received strong performances from several other position players.

First baseman Edgar Wesley, a left-handed hitter from Texas, compiled a .322 batting average and a .610 slugging percentage for the 1919 Stars. In 146 at bats, he tallied eight home runs, 21 extra-base hits, and 43 RBIs.

Joe Hewitt, an infielder from Alabama, led the team with 153 at bats and ranked second with 36 runs scored and third with 36 hits.

Second baseman Frank Warfield, a Kentucky native, led the team with eight triples.

Pitchers Sam Crawford was the team's leading pitcher, compiling a 10–4 record and 2.89 earned run average (ERA).

John Donaldson also pitched for the Stars, compiling a 2.33 ERA. Donaldson was regarded as one of the greatest pitchers of the era, appearing in approximately 700 games"Website listing all of John Donaldson's 690 games as a pitcher." with over 400 wins"Website listing all of John Donaldson's 413 known wins as a pitcher." and 5,000 strikeouts."Website listing all of John Donaldson's 5,081 strikeouts as a pitcher." He was voted a first-team member of the 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro leagues best players ever.

Season overview During April and May, the Stars opened the season with a 13-game win streak, including victories over all-white semipro teams. In late May, an all-white team from Wyandotte, Michigan recruited Detroit Tigers pitcher Rudy Kallio to start a game against the Stars; the Stars scored eight runs off Kallio. The local semipro champion, the Maxwells, lost two games to the Stars in the first half of the season, then recruited major league pitcher Ralph Comstock to start a July 13 games against the Stars. With Comstock pitching a strong game for the Maxwells, the Stars lost their first game to a white team by a 4–3 score. The Stars played a total of six games with the Maxwells in 1919, winning three games and losing two.

The Stars' principal rivalry for the western championship of Negro league baseball came from Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants. The Giants won two of three in a series played in Chicago in June. When the teams met for a series in Detroit in early July, the Stars won three games. The also played a seven-game seriesin late July and early August that was billed as the championship series. The Stars won five games to take the championship.

As noted in the "Game Log" below, the Stars also played multiple series with other Negro League teams, including the Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos from Ohio, and the Hilldale Club from Pennsylvania.

In the last game of the season, the Murray All Stars recruited Detroit Tigers pitcher Bernie Boland; Boland held the Stars scoreless.

Roster

Name Image Position Height Weight Bats Place of birth Year of birthOscar Charleston CF 5'8" 185LeftIndianapolis, Indiana1896Sam Crawford P 6'1" 200RightDallas, Texas1892John Donaldson LF6'1"180LeftGlasgow, Missouri1891Frank DuncanLF 6'1" 180LeftMacon, Georgia1888Bill Francis 3B5'5" 140RightPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania1879Jelly GardnerLF5'7" 160LeftRussellville, Arkansas1895Willie Green 3B Joe HewittSS5'7" 140LeftNew Market, Alabama1885Pete HillCF5'8" 170LeftBuena Vista, Virginia1882Dicta Johnson P5'7" 134RightElizabethtown, Illinois1887Tom Johnson P6'0" 180RightBryan, Texas1889Dave Malarcher 3B5'7" 150BothSt. James Parish, Louisiana1894José MéndezSS5'10" 152RightCárdenas, Cuba1885Bruce PetwayRF5'10" 159BothNashville, Tennessee1885Andrew Reed 3B Vicente Rodríguez C5'11" Candy Jim Taylor3B5'5"165RightAnderson, South Carolina1884Frank Warfield2B5'7"160RightPembroke, Kentucky1899Edgar Wesley1B5'11"215LeftWaco, Texas1891Frank Wickware P5'10"180RightGirard, Kansas1888

Statistics The following batting and pitching statistics are drawn from the Seamheads web site which appear to be incomplete.

Batting Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; SLG = Slugging percentage Pos Player G AB H BB Avg. SLG SS Joe Hewitt 40 153 38 22 .248 .288 1B Edgar Wesley 41 146 47 12 .322 .610 2B Frank Warfield 39 144 31 22 .215 .396 CF Pete Hill 38 139 55 23 .396 .892 RF Bruce Petway 36 108 20 10 .185 .250 SS José Méndez 34 102 23 14 .225 .373 LF John Donaldson 33 98 17 7 .173 .255 LF Frank Duncan 22 82 19 11 .232 .354 C Vicente Rodríguez 28 79 21 10 .266 .342 LF Jelly Gardner 21 60 13 9 .217 .267 3B Candy Jim Taylor 10 34 8 7 .235 .294 3B Dave Malarcher 9 31 11 4 .355 .452 P Dicta Johnson 12 27 8 5 .296 .481

Pitching Note: G = Games; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; PCT = Win percentage; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L PCT ERA SO Sam Crawford 18 112.0 10 4 .714 2.89 55 John Donaldson 11 85.0 5 5 .500 2.33 38 Dicta Johnson 12 76.1 5 3 .625 4.72 54 José Méndez 7 46.1 3 0 1.000 2.14 21 Frank Wickware 7 38.1 3 2 .600 1.88 23

Game log

Date Opponent Site Result Attendance Source April 20 Maxwells Mack Park, Detroit W 8–4 3,500 April 27 Northway Motors Mack Park, Detroit W 3-2 May 4 Knights of Columbus Mack Park, Detroit May 7 London Tecumsehs London, Ontario W 5-3 May 8 Kitchener Kitchener, Ontario May 9 London Tecumsehs Tecumseh Park, London, Ontario W 4–1 May 10 London Tecumsehs London, Ontario May 11 Cleveland Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 18–3 May 18 Maxwells Mack Park, Detroit W 2–0 May 25 Hayes Wheel Co. Mack Park, Detroit W 5–0 May 30 Wyandotte Corrigan Field, Wyandotte, MI W 8–5 3,000 May 30 Dayton Marcos Mack Park, Detroit W 3–0 May 31 Dayton Marcos Mack Park, Detroit W 3–2 June 1 Dayton Marcos Mack Park, Detroit W 7–2 June 7 Cuban Stars Mack Park, Detroit L 4-5 June 8 Cuban Stars Mack Park, Detroit L 3–7 6,000 June 9 Cuban Stars Mack Park, Detroit W 6–2 June 10 Cuban Stars Mack Park, Detroit W 3–0 June 11 Cuban Stars Mack Park, Detroit W 6–4 June 17 Chicago American Giants Schorling's Park, ChicagoL 3–7 June 18 Chicago American Giants Schorling's Park, ChicagoL 5–8 June 19 Chicago American Giants Chicago W 5–4 June 22Pittsburgh GiantsMack Park, DetroitW 16-1 June 23 Pittsburgh Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 19–5 June 24 Cuban Stars W 9–4 June 26 Cuban Stars W 9–8 June 29Cowpers All-StarsMack Park, DetroitW 7-1 July 4Chicago GiantsMack Park, DetroitW 2-0 July 5Chicago GiantsMack Park, Detroit July 6Chicago Giants Mack Park, DetroitW 7–5 July 7 Chicago Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 11–3 July 13 Maxwells Mack Park, Detroit L 3–4 July 16 Bacharach Giants Atlantic City, NJ W 6–3 July 17 Hilldale ClubPhiladelphiaL 5–6 July 18 Bacharach GiantsAtlantic City, NJL 0–1 July 19Hilldale ClubPhiladelphiaRain July 20 Toledo Rail LightsMack Park, DetroitL 1–4 July 26 Chicago American Giants Navin Field, Detroit L 5–7 July 27 Chicago American Giants Navin Field, Detroit L 1–7 10,000 July 28 Chicago American Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 13–5 July 29 Chicago American Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 7–3 July 30 Chicago American Giants Mack Park, DetroitW 8–5 July 31 Chicago American Giants Mack Park, DetroitW 12–8 August 2 Chicago American Giants Mack Park, Detroit W 10–6 August 3Chicago American GiantsMack Park, DetroitL 1–9 August 3Hilldale ClubMack Park, DetroitW 3–1 August 4 Hilldale ClubDetroitW 7–1 August 5 Hilldale Club Detroit L 3–6 August 6Hilldale Club W 8–6 August 7 Hilldale ClubDetroitL 3–6 August 9Chicago American GiantsMack Park, ChicagoL 1-2 August 10 Chicago American GiantsMack Park, DetroitL 3–5 August 17WyandotteMack Park, DetroitL 0–1 August 23 Dayton Marcos Mack Park, Detroit W 5–3 August 24Dayton MarcosMack Park, Detroit August 30MaxwellsMack Park, DetroitW 6-5 August 31 Maxwells Mack Park, DetroitW 6–5 September 1MaxwellsMack Park, DetroitL 2–5 September 6Dayton MarcosWestwood Field, Dayton, OHW 9–4 September 7Dayton MarcosWestwood Field, Dayton, OHW 11–0 September 8Dayton MarcosWestwood Field, Dayton, OHW 4–3 September 13Cuban StarsMack Park, DetroitW 10–2 September 14Cuban StarsMack Park, DetroitW 8–1 September 21WyandotteMack Park, DetroitPostponed September 28 River RougeMack Park, DetroitW 16–2 October 4WyandotteMack Park, DetroitW 7–0 October 11 Murray All-Star Mack Park, DetroitRain October 12 Murray All Stars Mack Park, Detroit L 0–3

References