Wesley Barrow

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Wesley Barrow
Catcher/Pitcher/Manager
Born: (1900-11-13)November 13, 1900
West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Died: December 24, 1965(1965-12-24) (aged 65)
Gretna, Louisiana
Negro league baseball debut
1926, for the Chattanooga Black Lookouts
Career statistics
NNL Managing Record31-23-2
Teams
As player (incomplete)

As manager

As coach

Wesley "Big Train" Barrow (November 13, 1900 – December 24, 1965) was an American Negro league player and manager in the 1940s who was once regarded as "one of the best developers of Negro talent in the South."[1]

Early life and playing career[edit]

Wesley Barrow, Jr. was born on November 13, 1900, in West Baton Rough Parish, Louisiana to sharecroppers Wesley, Sr. and Nancie.[2] Finishing school at the 6th grade, Barrow plied his trade as a part time catcher as a young man on various semi-pro and barnstorming teams beginning in 1920. He married his wife Mary in 1924 and settled in New Orleans.

Turning Professional[edit]

In 1926, Barrow made his professional debut with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League, where another rookie pitcher named Satchel Paige was among his teammates.[3] He would team up with Paige again briefly on the legendary 1934 Pittsburgh Crawfords, appearing in relief against brothers Dizzy and Daffy Dean as part of their barnstorming tour.[3] He moved back to New Orleans and later joined the New Orleans Black Pelicans in 1939.[3] In 1943, he made his way to the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1943 as a coach and backup catcher.[2] In 1945, he joined the Harlem Globetrotters, a barnstorming team.[4]

Managing career[edit]

Independent Ball[edit]

From 1940 to 1941, Barrow managed the independent Algiers Giants, a former Negro Southern League team located on the west side of New Orleans.[5]

Negro Southern League[edit]

In 1945, Barrow was tapped to manage the New Orleans Black Pelicans of the Negro Southern League. Barrow moved to Tennessee in 1946 and managed the Nashville Cubs in the second half of the season, leading them to a first place finish and a playoff appearance.[6] He was named to the Eastern team's coaching staff for the Negro Southern League's East-South All Star Game that year.[7][8]

West Coast Negro Baseball Association[edit]

The brainchild of Abe Saperstein, the West Coast Negro Baseball Association opened the season in 1946 with six teams in Pacific Coast League cities. The Portland Rosebuds, owned by track and field legend Jesse Owens, raised the curtain on the season with Barrow as skipper and starting pitcher.[9][10] Within 2 months, the Rosebuds and the league disbanded.[11]

Negro Major Leagues[edit]

Following a third place finish in 1946,[12] the Negro National League's Baltimore Elite Giants hired Barrow as manager "in their overall plan of building a playoff contender in 1947."[13] A favorite of owner Tom Wilson who passed away mid-season, Barrow quickly fell out of favor with Wilson's business partner and new owner Vernon Greene.[14] The Black press pulled no punches, as the Richmond Afro-American reported that Barrow looked "decidedly amateurish" when pulling infielder Junior Gilliam mid-game following a fielding error.[15] A month later, Barrow was fined an undisclosed amount by Greene for failing to find two players "for not running out taps."[16] By the end of July, Barrow was relieved of his post by Greene.[17]

Return to New Orleans[edit]

From 1949-1950, he played at catcher and managed the New Orleans Creoles of the Texas Negro League alongside female player Toni Stone.[18]

Western Canada[edit]

Following the success of western Canada tours by his Creoles,[19] Barrow ventured northwest to Winnipeg, Manitoba to manage the integrated Elmwood Giants of the Manitoba-Dakota League.[20] He was joined on the Giants by several Negro League stars, but the team finished in last place and more than 11 games out of first.[21] After losing 12 of their first 14, Barrow was replaced by Ted Radcliffe.[22]

Twilight in New Orleans[edit]

Following his brief stint in Canada, Barrow returned to the Black Pelicans from 1952-53. With Barrow at the helm, the Detroit-New Orleans Stars competed in the Negro American League in 1960, by now considered a minor league.[23] Though the Negro American League folded in 1961, Barrow stayed in baseball, piloting the independent Gretna Jax Sports, billed as "one of the finest semi-pro teams in Louisiana."[24][25] He would hold that post and receive mentions in the press through May 1965, just months before his death.[26]

Death and legacy[edit]

Barrow died of an apparent heart attack in Gretna, LA shortly after visiting friends on Christmas Eve, 1965.[27] He was buried in an unmarked grave at New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Gretna.[28] Efforts by journalist Ryan Whirty and former player Milton Crosby led to Barrow's grave finally receiving a headstone in 2015.[29] In 1968, Pontchartrain Park in New Orleans was renamed after Barrow. It was demolished in 2011 following damage from Hurricane Katrina.[30] A new ballpark was erected on the same site, and today's Wesley Barrow Stadium has served as the home of Louisiana high school tournaments, several local college teams, and the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Creoles to Meet Black Barons". Decatur Daily. September 7, 1949.
  2. ^ a b Ryan Whirty (February 22, 2013). "Wesley "Skipper" Barrow legacy lives on". nola.com. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Dixon, Phil (2019). The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1538127391.
  4. ^ "Globetrotters' Infield is One of Diamond's Fastest". The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana). August 29, 1945.
  5. ^ "Algiers Giants Beat Laurel Cats". The Pittsburgh Courier. April 12, 1941.
  6. ^ "Negro Teams Play at Bowl". The Montgomery Advertiser. September 9, 1946.
  7. ^ Plott, William (2015). The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History 1920-1951. McFarland and Company.
  8. ^ "First Negro All-Star Game Set for Sulphur Dell Today". The Tennessean. September 22, 1946.
  9. ^ "Negro Teams in League Contest". The San Bernardino County Sun. May 17, 1946.
  10. ^ "Coast Opens New Loop in Baseball". The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah). May 5, 1946.
  11. ^ "Hidden El Paso: Sun City home to the Negro Leagues for one weekend - …". archive.is. 2013-02-08. Archived from the original on 2013-02-08. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  12. ^ "1946 Season- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database". www.seamheads.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  13. ^ "Snow Out at Baltimore; Barrow Named Manager". The Pittsburgh Courier. January 25, 1947.
  14. ^ Robinson, Frazier (1999). Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Leagues. Syracuse University Press.
  15. ^ "From A to Z". Richmond Afro-American. May 17, 1947.
  16. ^ "From A to Z". Richmond Afro-American. June 7, 1947.
  17. ^ "Barrow Fired as Elite Boss". Richmond Afro-American. July 26, 1947.
  18. ^ "Only Woman Baseball Player Here Friday Night". Alabama Citizen (Tuscaloosa, Alabama). September 10, 1949.
  19. ^ "Barnstorming". www.attheplate.com. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  20. ^ "1951 Snapshots ManDak". www.attheplate.com. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  21. ^ "Western Canada Baseball 1951". www.attheplate.com. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  22. ^ McNary, Kyle P. (1994). Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe: 36 Years of Pitching and Catching in Baseball's Negro Leagues. Minneapolis: McNary. ISBN 0964200201.
  23. ^ "Monarch Record .800". The Iola Register. June 7, 1960.
  24. ^ "Jax Post 21-5 Season Record". New Orleans States-Item. September 13, 1963.
  25. ^ "Sports, Indians to Meet Sunday". New Orleans States-Item. June 7, 1961.
  26. ^ Curry, Ernest "Butch" (May 1, 1965). "Sports Downbeat". The Pittsburgh Courier.
  27. ^ "Long-Time Baseball Manager Wesley Barrow Dies". Jet Magazine. January 13, 1966.
  28. ^ Whirty, Ryan (4 May 2015). "Negro League's baseball legend gets proper tombstone". The Louisiana Weekly.
  29. ^ "New Orleans Negro Leagues legend Wesley Barrow to receive new grave marker – Society for American Baseball Research". Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  30. ^ "In Memory of the First Barrow Stadium Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2021-04-16.

External links[edit]

  • Negro league baseball statistics from Seamheads
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