The Kansas City Monarchs on a Canadian tour in the '30s. "Bullet" Rogan is left rear, Newt Allen right rear. Chet Brewer, owner J.L. Wilkinson, and George Giles stand on left. Andy Cooper stands at right. Two House of David players kneel in front. "Bullet" Rogan Collection  (Headline - Winnipeg Tribune, June 27, 1933  Picture -- Monarchs on the Canadian prairies 1930's.; Black Archives of Mid-America, www.blackarchives.org )

George "Junior" Walton, first baseman with the San Francisco Sea Lions, one of the touring clubs in the late 40s.

In this photo, in 1948, Walton is preparing to face the Birmingham Stars in an exhibition tilt in Brandon.  

The advertisement for the match has a few typos (including the name of one of the clubs).  (Brandon Daily Sun, June 24, 1948)  
  

The 1933 House of David tour featured one of the best pitchers in baseball history, Grover Cleveland Alexander.  (Winnipeg Tribune, June 13, 1933)

For the House of David, Doc Talley (right), of the famous "pepper game", was a fixture on the team for nearly 40 years.  Talley, who joined the team in 1914, played until the year of his death, 1950. (Photo, www.maryscityofdavid.org/html/baseball.html)

Alexander headed up his own traveling team in 1938 in a tour of the prairies.

First barnstorming ball teams of the season hit Regina today as Grover Cleveland Alexander leads his House of Alex into action and brings along the colored San Antonio Missions for company. The 2 clubs get together at Park de Young at 8:45. Only recently placed in baseball's Hall of Fame, Alexander is "cashing in" and leads a whiskered team under his own name. The Alexanders have been doing right well since "Old Pete" took them on the road and feature some outstanding men like "Hambone" Olive. They have a pepper-ball act. Missions, like the Alexanders, are making their first trip to Saskatchewan and advance notices indicate that they have the goods. Regina park officials refused to bring any tourists until these top-notch teams came on the scene. Casey Moroschan will be calling the balls and strikes.  (Regina Leader-Post Wed. July 6, 1938)

The Leader-Post also carried a summary of the previous day's Alexanders' game which they played in transit from Winnipeg to Regina at Broadview, Saskatchewan. To their surprise, the powerful 1938 Broadview Buffaloes, run-away leaders of the Southern League, had up-ended them. Shortly after that, on July 13, 1938, the Buffaloes prevailed over another touring, unshaven team, the House of David.

Before packed houses at Park de Young, the Alexanders played twice on Saturday, July 9 and again on Monday July 11, the latter being a 6 - 3 win against the San Antonio Missions. The Missions' pitcher in that contest was one of the Ligon brothers who would go on to form the Ligon Colored All-Stars who became a fixture on the prairies in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Top minor league and major league clubs also made their way to the prairies, usually in October (you know that old saying about prairies -- eleven months of winter and one month of bad skating) but still drew the fans.

In one game, played in Lethbridge in 1932, The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Royals combined for 40 hits, including 11 homers as the Royals won 15-12 in 10 innings.  That fall, the Earl Mack Major League All-Stars also hit the trail on the prairies.  In Edmonton there was a particularly warm welcome as two of the major leaguers -- Heinie Manush and Babe Herman -- were former Edmonton stars.  The all-stars also featured Lefty Grove, Charlie Gehringer and Bill Dickey.  Grove had just wrapped up his seventh straight 20-win season.

A 1935 exhibition produced a classic pitching duel between two of the Negro Leagues greatest stars -- Satchel Paige and Chet Brewer (right).  Neither gave up a run in the 0-0 tie.  Paige fanned 17, Brewer struck out 13. (Winnipeg Evening Tribune, June 7, 1935)

Ten years earlier, noted Negro League pitcher John Donaldson tossed a perfect game (with 19 Ks) in the semi-finals of the Moose Jaw Kiwanis tournament.  Donaldson suited up with a team from Radville, Saskatchewan.  In the finals, Radville was trounced 14-0 by Scobey, Montana which featured two members of the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919.  Swede Risberg and Oscar Happy Felsch were among the players given lifetime suspensions.

Race seemed to be important, as the headline attests.  (Regina Leader-Post, June 23, 1948)  In a preview of the Dai Nippon Tokyo Giants visit to Winnipeg, the Tribune article noted:

" ... Advance notices of the visitors, indicated that they will be a hard team to beat.  That they are a colorful aggregation goes without saying.  They are all high school of university graduates, and like the rest of their race, they become efficient at whatever they set out to accomplish."  (Winnipeg Evening Tribune, June 12, 1935)

In their first three games in Winnipeg, the Giants won 15-0, 4-3 and 9-5.  In the opener, the pitcher, Victor Starffin (also spelled Starfin) was identified as "Russo-Japanese hurler, ace moundsman".  His parents had fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. (He is credited with a 303-176, 2.09 lifetime record and is tied for the all-time Japanese lead with 42 wins in a single season. Starffin was the first non-Japanese to be selected for the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame).

(Ad far left)  In 1963, Satchel Paige and his All-Stars made a stop in Stenen, Sask. to play the local All-Stars.  Paige's group won 7-0.

(Ad bottom right)  This one is from a 1933 newspaper, The Canora Courier, for the game between the Detroit Colored Giants and the Northeastern Saskatchewan League All-Stars.

(Top right)  And there were some pretenders on the barnstorming trail using variations on the names of some of the more popular touring squads to draw in customers.  In 1939 a team called the House of Davidites made a western swing featuring 1936 Olympic sprint star Helen Stephens.  Terry Bertolino, co-author of the definitive book on the House of David teams, says none of those in the Davidites lineup were players for the real HOD squads. 

Not all of the touring clubs met success.  The San Francisco Sea Lions decided to so some exploring on their own. This item, from Regina, was carried in the New York Times :

"Harold Morris, owner of the San Francisco Sea Lions, touring Negro baseball team, was a troubled man when he arrived here today -- minus his ball team.

He said his played jumped the club and signed to play with the Buchanan, Sask., All-Stars for the remainder of the season.

He only "player" Morris has left is Sammy Workman, an armless and legless performer who has been traveling with the team.

The Sea Lions have permission from the United States Immigration Department to stay in Canada until the end of August, Morris said.  A move, however, now is under way to have the players deported to the United States for jumping their bond, he added." (New York Times, June 30, 1949)

Four members of the 1948 San Francisco Sea Lions -- left to right -- first baseman George Walton, second baseman Luther Branham, shortstop Milton Poole and third sacker Louis Cannamore. 

During their 1949 tour of the prairies, the team ran into financial troubles and seven of the players stayed behind in Buchanan, Saskatchewan, with the local club who played in exhibitions and tournaments as the Buchanan All-Stars.  Walton and catcher Lee Landrum were among them.

(The Holland, Michigan, Evening Sentinel, May 27, 1948)

Among the 1950 travelers were the Brooklyn Cuban Giants.  Manager Brady Johnson (left) conferring with three of his infield stars - first baseman Coney Williams (with bat), second baseman Henry Smith and third baseman Joe Mitchell (standing).  (The Herald-Press, St. Joseph, Michigan, June 1, 1950)  Among the Giants who stayed awhile to play in Western Canada were Williams, Mitchell, shorstop Clemente Varona, catcher Thad Christopher, pitcher Bill Wilder and pitcher Russell Valentine.

San Francisco Tigers

The old stands at Adams Park are going to take an awful beating on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week when the top Negro baseball club on the West Coast, the San Francisco California Tigers are guests of the local Miners in a two-game exhibition series.

The Tigers are easily the best baseball attraction that local fans will get the privilege of witnessing this year.  Players from such clubs as the Kansas City Monarchs, New York Black Yankees, Memphis Red Sox and Chicago American Giants comprise the roster of the visitors.  Bill Flowers, Baldy Benson, Jake Page, Lightning Williams and Chappy Gray are outstanding figures in Negro baseball circles and all these players are stalwarts with the Tiger organization ... The Californians were winners of the Negro Winter League and from every city where they have displayed their wares, have come raving press reports of how good the Tigers are.  John Litzey is the ace speed ball hurler of the staff with Lefty Reed equally as remarkable when it comes to the art of throwing a baseball."  (Lethbridge Herald, July 12, 1947)

Marshall Boney (left) came to Manitoba with the barnstorming Brooklyn Cuban Giants in 1949 and decided to stick around.  He joined the Elmwood Giants and came back in 1950 for a second season in Canada. Zell Miles (right, The News Palladium, Benton Harbor, May 29, 1947) toured with the Harlem Globetrotters 1947 to 1949 before spending time in the Mandak League with Minot and Winnipeg. (However, the same photo was used in 1941 to identify Lyman Bostock - Chester Times, August 6, 1941) Below - a 1949 newspaper advertisement for a game in Grand Rapids, Iowa. (The Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 31, 1949)

Above right - Pitcher Mel Duncan of the Kansas City Monarchs in 1950, another of the touring stars who decided to stick around for while (Minot 1955-1956, Lethbridge 1958).

Above - two sport star Ted Strong who barnstormed in both baseball and basketball.  He was a key member of the famed Harlem Globetrotters for 15 season, 1936 to 1950.  He also started his baseball career in 1936 (with the Chicago American Giants) and spent most of his diamond career with the Kansas City Monarchs.    (Sources, left to right : Arlington Heights Herald, November 22, 1946, The Wisconsin State Journal, December 2, 1936, The Helena Daily Independent, February 15, 1937)

Baseball, especially with the barnstorming teams in town, wouldn't be complete without a little entertainment.  Ed Hamman (left) was among the best at his craft.  A player for travelling teams, going back to 1925, Hamman became a manger and owner along the way as he performed his routines with teams such as the House of David, Harlem Globetrotters and Indianapolis Clowns. As part of his show, Ed would mingle with fans offering copies of his book of humour and wisecracks. Hamman was as much a part of barnstorming baseball as the players, some of whom had their own comedic routines. 

King Tut (right) was known as the "Clown Prince of Baseball".  He performed skis before the during the games and made his way into the stands to meet fans personally.  One of his props was a three-foot high first baseman's glove. 

And, there's the curious case of the Calgary Black Sox, a barnstorming team of black players in the early 1920s. It appears the team may have little to do with the Alberta city in spite of the "Calgary" emblazoned across their uniforms. The team appears to have been based in Chicago.  One clipping does refer to the Calgary Black Sox of Chicago.  The team photo, left, carries a notation that it was from a Chicago photo studio. In the late summer of 1921, Alberta amateur baseball officials took action against the Sox.

A.A.A.U. Reflects on Wycliffe Nine
Puts Ban on Colored Aggregation Now Touring the West

CALGARY, Aug. 25 - Any further playing against the team now touring Western Canada under the title of Calgary Black Sox will automatically suspend themselves from the amateur baseball association and their amateur cards will be cancelled, said E. E. Battrum, of the Alberta Amateur Athletic Union today.  The Black Sox are a team of colored ball players hailing from the U.S. and are ineligible to participate in any kind of organized baseball, added Mr. Battrum. There is also another aggregation touring Southern Alberta under the name of Wycliffe, champions of B.C., and so far as the secretary can ascertain these players are also unregistered and on a barnstorming trip.  (Lethbridge Herald, August 25, 1921)