Russell Page

Russell Page, 1932

For several seasons in the 1930's Gilkerson had a pitcher named "Paige" on his roster.  It was not, however, the one you're thinking of.

Russell Page was from Peoria, Illinois.  Like his older brother Ernest Page, Russell was a star athlete at Peoria Central High School and at Western Illinois State Teachers College (now Western Illinois University).

In May 1930, it was announced that Page was named the captain of Western's baseball team.  He was still a freshman at the time.  The 1931 yearbook described him as "one of the outstanding moundsmen in the Little Nineteen."  They added,  "He has been pitching steady ball all season and with good support he should win the greater number of his games."

That summer, as early as June 9th, Page was pitching for Gilkerson's Union Giants.  He was with the team all the way to the West Coast, pitching games in Oregon and Washington.  When he wasn't on the mound he could occasionally be found playing the outfield.  By mid-August however, Page no longer shows up in any of the Union Giants' box scores.   

In the fall, Page did not return to Western Illinois.  It would have been his junior year at the college.  He did however come back to the Union Giants in the summer of 1932, pitching from early May until late September.  Their annual tour took the team farther than ever before, even reaching California for the first and only time.  Toward the end of the season, Page was being listed as "Paige" in most box scores, particularly in Nebraska.

The legend of Satchel Paige was still taking shape in the early 1930s, but talk of his greatness had clearly reached the Midwest.  So much so, that on September 16, 1932 the Omaha World-Herald reported that Satchel Paige had pitched for Gilkerson in the first annual Midwestern baseball tournament.  Almost certainly, it was Russell and not Satchel on the mound that day.   The Union Giants lost the game 3-2 to the Norfolk, NE team.  The "Paige" pitching gave up ten hits, striking out just four and walking three.  Not exactly the stuff of legends.

At the beginning of the 1933 season, the Sioux City Journal reported, "Russell Page, right handed pitcher with Gilkerson's Union Giants for the last two years" had signed with the Sioux City Ghosts.  According to a few available line scores, Page appears to have pitched for the Ghosts in early June.  Before July however he was back with Gilkerson.

In a July 3rd game in Billings, MT, "Russell Paige" was playing left field for the Union Giants according to the Billings Gazette.  For almost all of 1933, Page's last name was again misspelled as "Paige" in box scores.  Like the year before, when he wasn't pitching, he was usually playing the outfield.  Page finished out the season with the Union Giants.  In one of the last games of the year, he hit a home run against the Dunn County All Stars in Menomonie, Wisconsin.  

In 1934, Page did not return to the team.  It is unclear if Page ever played organized baseball again.  He appears to have lived in Macomb and nearby Davenport, Iowa in the decade afterwards.

As for Satchel Paige, a few baseball historians have claimed that he pitched for Gilkerson's Union Giants at one time or another.  I however found no evidence to support that claim.   In fact, as far as I can tell, Satchel Paige and the Union Giants never met on a ball diamond, not even as opponents.

The closest they got was a game in Winnipeg, Manitoba in May 1934.  Satchel was scheduled to pitch for the Bismarck, ND team in the opening game of a series of contests with the Union Giants.  Satchel however failed to show up for the game.  After the fact, the Winnipeg newspaper reported that Paige wasn't unable to pitch because he was in jail.  It turned out, while on his way to Bismarck, Satchel had been detained in Chicago for breaking his contract with the Pittsburgh Crawfords.   It didn't help his case that he had borrowed the owner's car to get there.

In the end, the Bismarck team didn't need him for the series.  They swept the Union Giants in eight games in Winnipeg.  This was a sign of things to come.  The Union Giants' reign as one of the top barnstorming teams in the country was coming to an end.

Odebea Kirksey

The Sun (Omaha, NE), May 20, 1931

Another mystery man from the 1931 Union Giants was a pitcher named Kirksey, sometimes listed as Kirkson in box scores.  He started out with the team early in the season and lasted only about a month.  

Despite the brief stint, he seemingly pitched well for Gilkerson.  In fact, in late May, Kirksey pitched a one-hitter against the Jamestown, ND team.  The Union Giants won the game easily, 7-0.    One of the last line scores that Kirksey shows up in was from June 11, 1931.  Kirksey started the game but was relieved at some point by Hurley McNair.  The Union Giants scored four runs in the 9th inning of the game to defeat the Sioux City Stockyards team in De Smet, South Dakota.

Kirksey, it turns out, was Odebea Kirksey from Omaha, Nebraska.  Prior to playing for Gilkerson, Kirskey had pitched for the Cultural Center Red Sox in the Omaha Colored Baseball League.   On May 20, 1931, the Omaha newspaper, The Sun, wrote, "The report is that Odaby* Kirksey is getting $40 a week and expenses with the Union Giants.  That's a lot of money for a kid like him and it will take a lot of hours at the packing houses to give him that much money.  No wonder they are grabbing at chances to play baseball when they can make as much in three hours as they can make all day and see the country with it."  

Kirksey must of had a good reason for leaving the Union Giants so quickly.  Whatever it was, it didn't have anything to do with his arm.  Kirksey soon returned home to Omaha where he was back pitching for the CC Red Sox before the end of the month.  In 1933, he was still pitching in the Omaha "colored" league, this time for the South Omaha Globe Trotters.  Beyond these few meager facts, much of Kirksey's short life remains a mystery.  

Kirksey died in 1936 at the age of 24.  The Omaha newspapers first reported it on July 30th.  They gave no cause of death but indicated that he had been in the hospital.  

Source:  Find A Grave

*The Omaha newspapers had trouble spelling Kirksey's full name.  Here are just some of the variations I found over the years:  Odaby, Odeabea, Odeble, Odebeh and Odbie Kuksy.

The 1920's: A Decade of Winning

Fargo Forum, June 9, 1928

For more than a decade the Union Giants were known as one of the best barnstorming teams in the country.  In 1928, Robert Gilkerson was interviewed by the North Dakota newspaper, The Fargo Forum, where he defended his team's reputation, "We do not claim to be the best traveling team in the business, but if there are any teams claiming that honor, we'd like to meet them in a three game series, and we'll bet our end of the gate receipts on the outcome."

Gilkerson added, "There are plenty of strong traveling teams this season but any team that can win 95 percent of their games, playing the best aggregations in the middlewest, and barring none, is certainly worthy of consideration."

The idea that the Union Giants won 95% of their games was a bit of a stretch.  It may have been true when considering a short run of games, the Union Giants were known for long win streaks, but it simply wasn't sustainable over the course of a whole season and certainly not long term.  So, it's fair to ask, how good were the Union Giants really?  

Unfortunately, when it comes to independent traveling teams like Gilkerson's there were no official records or stats.  They did not belong to any league or conference and did not report to any governing body.  Instead, year-end totals were compiled and occasionally sent off to various newspapers by team owner Robert Gilkerson, mostly to promote the team the following year.

A century later, these records remain buried and forgotten in old sports columns, spread out over a decade and isolated in different parts of the country.   To my knowledge, no one had ever tracked them all down, compiled and publicly shared them until now. 

With this in mind, during the 1920's, the Union Giants are reported to have won 1,017 games out of 1,301 played.  This would put Gilkerson's combined winning percentage for the decade at over 79%.  The team's best overall year, according to the totals, was 1927, when they won nearly 84% of their contests.   Both are elite numbers and demonstrate clearly how the majority of their opponents were simply outmatched by the Union Giants.  Even on their worst year, the team won over 72% of their games.

Here are the totals broken down by year (sources below):

YEAR	W	L	T	PCT
1920	91	20	4	.809
1921	97	23	1	.806
1922	89	29	2	.750
1923	88	22	4	.789
1924	101	38	1	.725
1925	91	30	4	.744
1926	117	22	4	.832
1927	118	22	2	.838
1928	103	23	3	.810
1929	122	26	4	.816
TOTALS	1017	255	29	.793

The question remains, are these numbers accurate?  The totals seem almost too good to be true and there would have been nothing preventing Gilkerson from simply embellishing his wins and losses to help promote his team.  

On this point, I can offer this amateur analysis.   I've positively identified the outcome of approximately 60% of the 1,301 games the Union Giants are said to have played during this 10-year period.  I used box scores, line scores and accounts of games from a variety of newspapers that had no real interest in making the Union Giants appear better than they really were.  Of the more than 780 games I've verified for this period, the Union Giants won roughly 74% of them.  For 1927, the Union Giants' best year according to Gilkerson's numbers, I show them winning over 78% of their games.

While these winning percentages fall below what Gilkerson provided, they are still quite impressive.  With 40% of the games still unaccounted for, it is within reason to expect the gap between the two set of numbers to narrow.  I would even say, for most years, Gilkerson's totals are still plausible.  Based on my preliminary numbers alone, the 1925 team was likely a little worse than Gilkerson said.  At the same time, the 1926 Union Giants might prove to be better than reported.  

In the end, if it turns out that Gilkerson did in fact boost his numbers, it wasn't really necessary.  His team clearly lived up to their reputation as one of the great independent barnstorming teams of the decade. 

Here are the newspaper sources for each of the above totals along with some additional information.  As you will see, most years had multiple sources.  Any discrepancies or conflicting reports are also noted.

1920 (Record: 91-20-4):  The Chicago Whip, March 5, 1921.  The Dubuque Times-Journal and The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 10, 1921.  Both Dubuque, Iowa papers also reported their run differential and number of shutouts for 1920.

1921 (Record: 97-23-1):  The Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 26, 1922.  Grant County Herald (Lancaster, WI), May 31, 1922.  The Vernon County Censor (Viroqua, WI), June 7, 1922.  June 14, 1922.

Nearing the end of the season, The Chicago Whip on October 22, 1921 reported their record as 91-23-1.

1922 (Record: 89-29-2):  Montreal River Miner (Hurley, WI), August 10, 1923.  

The Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, MI) also published the Union Giants' 1922 record on August 7, 1923.  They however listed 89 games played instead of 89 wins.

1923 (Record 88-22-4):  The Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 27, 1924.  The Bricelyn Sentinel (Bricelyn, MN), June 13, 1924.  Reedsburg Free Press (Reedsburg, WI), September 11, 1924.  The Omaha Monitor, September 26, 1924.  The Grand Island Independent (Grand Island, NE), October 2, 1924.

                           

1924 (Record 101-38-1):  The Chicago Defender, October 18, 1924.

The August 7, 1925 editions of the Daily Times (Davenport, IA) and the Davenport Democrat and Leader both listed the Union Giants' 1924 record this way:  "Last year the colored boys copped 101 of their 139 contests."  This fails to acknowledge either one of their losses or more likely, their one tie.

1925 (Record 91-30-4):  Moline Daily Dispatch (Moline, IL), October 14, 1925.  Bureau County Tribune (Princeton, IL), October 23, 1925.

The Sioux City Journal reported on April 17, 1926 one less win and one more loss: 90-31-4.

1926 (Record 117-22-4):  Winside Herald (Winside, NE), June 30, 1927.   

The Brainerd Daily Dispatch (Brainerd, MN), August 10, 1927 listed their record with two less ties, 117-22-2.  Several other newspapers that year published their record as 117 wins and 22 losses, with no mention of ties.  The real outlier however was the Daily Times (Davenport, IA), May 3, 1927 which listed the Union Giants' record for 1926 as 134-32-4.

1927 (Record 118-22-2):  The Winnipeg Tribune, June 7, 1928.

The Daily Times (St. Cloud, MN), August 24, 1928:  "The Gilkerson Union Giants copped 118 games this season and lost but 22."  No mention of ties.

1928 (Record 103-23-3):  The Albert Lea Tribune (Albert Lea, MN), June 26, 1929.

The Fargo Forum (Fargo, ND), August 8, 1929 listed the Union Giants with 105 wins and 23 losses in 1928.   During the 1928 season, the Brainerd Dispatch reported on July 9th, that the Union Giants had already played 147 games that year, winning 101 of them.  This seems to be pure fabrication.

1929 (Record 122-26-4):  The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), Apr 19, 1930 and April 20, 1930.  The Bismark Tribune (Bismark, ND), June 4, 1930.

The Daily Times (Davenport, IA) and the Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA) on April 25, 1930 listed their 1929 record with four fewer losses:  122-22-4.  The Daily Pantagraph initially provided their record this way on April 16, 1930:  "won 92, lost 24 and played four tie games out of 122 contests waged in 1929."  (The math is clearly wrong here.)  Another early provided record that was later updated came from the Bismark Tribune.  On May 27, 1930 they wrote, "last year, the Giants played 105 games, 23 of which they lost.  Three of their games ended in ties."

James Allen, Pitching Detective

As mentioned in an earlier post, the 1931 Union Giants had a number of great players, including several veterans of the Negro Leagues.  The team also had a handful of talented young players, many of which went on to play professionally.  One member of the team that is perhaps lesser known however is pitcher James Allen from Des Moines, Iowa.

Allen was a big part of Gilkerson's starting rotation in 1931.  According to the year-end stats published in the Chicago Defender, Allen had a record of 15-4 on the season.   When he wasn't starting on the mound, Allen pitched in relief and played the outfield.

Despite the impressive record, Allen only played the one season for Gilkerson.  Unlike most of his teammates on the 1931 squad, Allen never got a shot in the Negro Leagues.  If he had offers from bigger clubs, he chose not to pursue them.  Instead, Allen pitched in and around Des Moines for most of his baseball career.     

Allen graduated from North High School in Des Moines in 1929 where he starred in football and basketball.  In the summers, he had already been pitching for several different African American baseball teams.  At 16, Allen toured around Iowa and Nebraska pitching for the traveling Tennessee Rats for a season.  Closer to home in Des Moines, Allen played for Scott's Little Giants and then the Capital City Giants starting in 1929.  In a Sunday School league that same year, Allen threw a no-hitter, striking out ten.  Allen played for the Capital City Giants again in 1930.

In early June of 1931, an "Iowa State News" announcement in the Chicago Defender read, "James Allen left for Sioux City, Iowa, where he will join Gilkerson Giants as a pitcher."  Allen would barnstorm around the Northern Plains and into the West with the Union Giants for the next several months.

By mid-July the Union Giants had made their way to the Pacific Northwest.  In front of more than 3,000 people in Portland, Oregon, Allen struck out 10 of the city's All-Stars.  The Oregon Daily Journal reported that Allen had "good control and plenty of stuff."  The Union Giants won the game 12-6.  Union Giants' second baseman "Red" Haley went four for five at the plate that day.

Against the Amateur All-Stars of Salt Lake City, Allen struck out nine but also walked nine.  According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Allen "never was seriously threatened until the ninth inning, when the Amateurs chased over three runs."  The Union Giants won 9-4.  

In early September, now back in Sioux City, Iowa, Allen was still pitching fine ball.  The Sioux City Journal wrote, "A fellow named Allen unraveled a superior brand of pitching from his right arm to win over the Stock Yards club for Gilkerson's Union Giants, 5 to 3, here Tuesday evening."   Allen had pitched a shutout into the ninth inning.  

The Union Giants finished their season with a series of games in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska against the House of David team.  Several articles promoting the team at the time made mention that Gilkerson had five college athletes on the 1931 squad.  According to the articles, that included Owen Smaulding, Joe Johnson (Joe Lillard), "Subby" Byas, Russell Page and James Allen.  The first four mentioned did indeed attend college.  I found no evidence however that Allen was ever enrolled in higher education.

In the summer of 1932, Allen did not join back up with Gilkerson.  Instead, he pitched for Dusty Rhodes' Clowns, an African American team based in Des Moines.   The Clowns changed their name in 1933 to the Black Barons and Allen was once again on the mound for the local team that year.  By 1937, Allen was pitching for the Negro Elks of Des Moines.

In 1938, Allen joined the Des Moines police force as a night patrolman.  He played for the Elks that summer but his baseball days soon came to an end.  The exception being, for a few years, Allen participated in a local African American East-West all star game held in Des Moines.  

In 1940, he was the starting pitcher for the Westerners.  The Des Moines Register at the time described Allen as, "former North High athlete and Sunday school ball player."  Allen gave up ten hits in the game and his team committed five errors but they still managed to win 6-5.  

In the years that followed Allen would occasionally pitch for the police department in their annual game against the local fire department.   In 1942, he struck out eight firefighters and won the game with his bat, hitting two key doubles in the game.

Allen remained on the Des Moines police force for more than 20 years, quickly moving up the ranks to detective.  Despite having never fired a gun prior to joining the force, Allen proved to be an excellent shot.  During his time as a detective he won multiple statewide awards and acknowledgements for sharpshooting, specifically with a pistol. 

In 1960, he resigned from the force and moved to San Diego.  He retired in 1976 as a machinist with the U.S. Naval Air Station, North Island.  James S. Allen passed away in 1984.   His obituary mentions that he had been a semi-professional baseball player with the Tennessee Rats, the Black Barons and Capital City Giants.  The summer he spent with the Union Giants, playing alongside so many other great ball players while touring the country, was not included in the bio.