The following is an excerpt from my book Last Train in Cooperstown: The 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees from the Negro League Baseball Era, which contains a profile of the Hall of Fame catcher James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey, born 7/27/1897:
“Eagle Pass, Texas is a small town south of Del Rio near the
Mexican border. Here on July 27, 1897 James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey
opened his eyes the first time. This makes him another member of
the Texas fraternity of Negro League ballplayers from the Lone Star
state; that includes Andy Cooper, Willie Wells, Rube Foster, Louis
Santop, and others. Before becoming a teenager he moved with his
family to Luling which is east of San Antonio on the road to
Houston. The Mackeys were sharecroppers. Biz, along with his
brothers, worked on the farm most of the day and then played
baseball until dark. They used boards as bats and anything they
could find as a ball. By 1916 the black amateur baseball team in
Luling, the Oilers, had three Mackey brothers on its roster; Ray,
Ernest, and Biz.
The San Antonio Aces, a black minor league team, signed Biz in
1918. Charlie Bellinger, the Aces’ owner, had a friendship with
Indianapolis ABCs’ manager CI Taylor. Bellinger always looked for
good ballplayers in Texas that would help Taylor’s team. After the
Aces folded in 1919, he sold Mackey and five other players to the
ABCs.
Biz arrived in Indianapolis at the perfect time. The first official
African American baseball league, the Negro National League
(NNL), formed in 1920 with the ABCs one of the charter teams.
The twenty‐three year old Texan shared the dugout his first year
with Hall of Famers Oscar Charleston and Ben Taylor, along with
“Cannonball” Dick Reading. Used as a utility infielder and outfielder,
Mackey also began to learn the craft of playing the game under the
master teacher, CI Taylor. With his manager’s help, Biz became a
switch hitter and developed into one of the team’s top run
producers. Some records show he hit over .300 each of his three
years in Indianapolis, helping the team finish second in 1921.
CI Taylor died before that year ended, replaced by his brother
Ben as the ABCs’ manager. However, with his mentor CI gone,
Mackey’s ties to the team were loosened. The owners of the newly
formed Eastern Colored League (ECL) in 1923 looked to lure away
NNL players. Accepting an offer from Ed Bolden, owner of the
Hilldale Club, Biz headed east without hesitation.”
Mackey’s Hall of Fame induction solidified him with the white contemporaries his era, Gabby Hartnett, Mickey Cochrane, and Bill Dickey, as one of the best catchers in baseball history.
To read more about "Biz" Mackey and the Negro League baseball era Last Train to Cooperstown
