Negro Leagues Tribute: Kansas City Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running and most successful franchise in the history of the Negro Leagues. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1931. Immediate contenders, the Monarchs became bitter rivals to black baseball’s reigning power, Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants. In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which they transported from game to game in trucks. This was five years before any major league team played night games.

The Monarchs were independent from 1932-36, barnstorming through the Midwest, frequently touring with the House of David baseball team. Hall-of-Famers Hilton Smith, a pitcher, and Willard Brown, a slugging shortstop/outfielder, became Monarch mainstays during this time.

The Monarchs joined the newly formed Negro American League in 1937, winning the first league title. They won ten league championships before integration (1923-25,’29, ’37, ’39-42, ’46), and titles again in 1950, ’53, and ’55. At the start of this run the Monarchs acquired their most famous player, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Satchel Paige, who at the time was regarded as the best pitcher in black baseball.

The Monarchs triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924, defeating the Eastern Colored League champion Hilldale team, in a thrilling ten-game series. They won the next two league championships and also won the renewed Negro League World Series in 1942 against the Homestead Grays.

In 1945, UCLA football star Jackie Robinson hit .387 as the Monarchs’ shortstop. He became the first Monarch to make the jump to white baseball, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. As baseball gradually desegregated in the late 1940s and 1950s, the Monarchs developed a niche as the foremost developer of black talent for the major leagues. The team sent more players to the majors than any other Negro League franchise, including Robinson, Paige, Ernie Banks, Elston Howard, Hank Thompson, and Willard Brown. Other notable Monarch Hall-of-Famers included Buck O’Neal, Bullet Rogan, and Hilton Smith.

Only once over all the years of their existence did the Monarchs not have a winning season. After sending more players to the major leagues than any other Negro League franchise, the team was finally disbanded in 1965.

-Gary Livacari

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