The No Hitters & Two Perfect Games

Below is a brief account of ten different no-hitters that Robert Gilkerson was associated with, either as a player, a manager or a team owner.

 

HORACE JENKINS - July 24, 1909

Illinois Giants 3, Chicago Wrigleys 1

Robert Gilkerson left his hometown of Pittsburgh in early July 1909 and headed to Chicago hoping to take his baseball career to the next level.  He played at least one game for the Chicago Union Giants when he arrived but soon joined the Illinois Giants.  In one of his first games with the new team, Gilkerson assisted in a no hitter while playing second base.  On July 24th, his new teammate, Horace Jenkins, struck out nine men, giving up a run on two errors, but allowed no hits against the Chicago Wrigleys.

JAMES HARVEY - July 4, 1911

Chicago Union Giants 2, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin 0

By 1911, Gilkerson was back playing for the Chicago Union Giants full time.  In fact he was the team's captain that year and was playing second base when James Harvey threw a no-hitter in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin on July 4th.  According to the South Bend Tribune, "Harvey pitched a no-hit, no run game, only one man reaching second base."  The Chicago Union Giants won the game 2-0.

BILLY NORMAN (Perfect Game) - July 21, 1913

Chicago Union Giants 10, Guthrie Center, Iowa 0

Robert Gilkerson was spiked in a game in June 1913 that ended his season at second base.  That year however Gilkerson was also the team's manager.   Less than a month later in Guthrie Center, Iowa, the Union Giants defeated the local team 10 to 0.  On the mound that day was William Rufus Norman.  According to the Omaha Daily Bee, "The most remarkable game of the season was played at Guthrie Center, only twenty-seven men facing the colored phenom, Norman, during the entire game and not a man reaching first base."  No line or box score for the game has been identified.  While the score was reported in several other newspapers, none made mention of it being a no-hitter.

EDGAR BURCH - May 28, 1917

Lost Island Lake Giants 5, Toulon, Illinois 0

Gilkerson's playing days ended in 1913 but he stayed on with the Union Giants for several more years as the traveling business manager.  In 1917 however he severed ties with the Chicago club and started his own team.  They had yet to adopt the name of Gilkerson's Union Giants and instead went by a few different monikers that summer.

While playing in Illinois, he often passed his new team off as the "Chicago Union Giants."  This was the case in Toulon, Illinois where the Stark County News reported, "The Chicago Union Giants held Toulon to a no hit, no run, game Monday afternoon on the local grounds, while the Giants secured five runs and could have run up a larger score had they been so minded."  The paper did not record the name of the pitcher.  In Iowa however, Gilkerson's team was known as the Lost Island Lake Giants.  The Des Moines Register provided a line score for the exact same game (above) where that team name is used and Edgar Burch is credited with the no-hitter.

EDGAR BURCH & RUBE CURRY (Combined) - June 8, 1919

Gilkerson's Union Giants 7, Sutherland, Iowa 0

In early 1919, Gilkerson's team was still playing near Ruthven, Iowa and still promoting themselves as either the historic Union Giants of Chicago or the Ruthven Union Giants.  By the end of the season, they settled on Gilkerson's Union Giants.  In one of the first games of the season Edgar Burch and Rube Curry threw a combined no-hitter against the Sutherland, Iowa team in front of 1,500 people.  According to the Ruthven Free Press, "Burch pitched the first six innings and did not allow the visitors a hit, and Curry who threw the last three also held them hitless."

RUBE CURRY (Perfect Game) - August 31, 1919

Gilkerson's Union Giants 11, Wellsburg, Iowa 0

The best bit of pitching in a Union Giants uniform however came in the second half of the 1919 season when Rube Curry pitched a perfect game against the Wellsburg, Iowa team.  The Des Moines Register recorded the achievement this way, "The winning pitcher was never in danger at any time during the full nine innings.  The locals failed to put a man on first base, either by the free walk route or by a hit."  The Sioux City Journal reported the win a few days later:  "Wellsburg lost to the Union Giants 11 to 0.  Curry, pitching for the Giants, did not permit a Wellsburg runner to reach first base."

Even a decade later the Kansas City American Sports made note of the accomplishment:  "Currie also pitched a no-hit, no-run game against Wellsburg, while he was playing with the Union Giants in 1919.  He didn't allow a man to get to first."

LUTHER FARRELL - September 20, 1922

Gilkerson's Union Giants 5, Whitehall, Wisconsin 0

By 1922, Curry and Burch were gone from the rotation and Luther Farrell was the new ace of Gilkerson's Union Giants.  In a game in Whitehall, Wisconsin near the end of the season, Farrell blanked the locals in a 5-0 win.  According to the Winona Daily News, "Luther, the colored southpaw ace, was the shining light of the game.  His fast and wicked shoots completely baffled the Whitehall batters with the result that not a single hit was collected off his delivery in the nine frames.  Only one Whitehall player reached first during the game.  That was on a walk.  Luther whiffed ten batters."  The Chicago Whip's recap of the game recorded 12 strikeouts for Farrell.

LUTHER FARRELL (No Hit One Hit Loss) - June 26, 1923

Tomahawk, WI 2, Gilkerson's Union Giants 0

In early July 1923, the Chicago Defender reported that Luther Farrell pitched another no-hitter in Wisconsin, however this time it was for a loss.  The Tomahawk Leader's recap of the game however, printed two days after the fact, included this rebuke of the no-hitter:  "The remarkable feature of the game was that Tomahawk won although they only got one safe hit and that was by Wangler who beat out an infield hit to the bag."  Wangler's hit did not contribute to the score however.  The Leader confirms that Tomahawk's two runs were achieved without a hit.

TOM COX - July ?, 1925

Gilkerson's Union Giants 14, Guttenberg, Iowa 0

Charles "Tom" Cox was in his second season pitching for Gilkerson when he threw a no-hitter in Guttenberg, Iowa according to the Chicago Defender.  The line score was printed on July 18th but the date of the game was not provided.

ADMIRAL WALKER - August 22, 1926

Gilkerson's Union Giants 4, Newton Maytags 0

In his second year with the Union Giants, Admiral Walker pitched a no hitter against the Newton Maytags of Newton, Iowa in August.  Several newpapers noted that 36 assists were made by the two teams in the game.  The next season, Walker would go on to pitch for the Kansas City Monarchs.

FRED SIMS - August 26, 1926

Gilkerson's Union Giants 10, Lone Rock All Stars 0

A few days after Walker's no-hitter, Union Giants pitcher Fred Sims threw another one in Thornton, Iowa.  This time it was against the Lone Rock All Stars... or was it Rockdale?  Multiple newspapers reported the win over the All Stars, an African American team based in Lone Rock, Iowa.  The newspapers in Davenport, Iowa however reported, "Jimmy Sims hurled a no-hit, no run game at Thornton, Ia., yesterday, the Gilkersons defeating Rockdale by the score of 10 to 0.  The Giants secured 14 hits, including two home runs by 'Steel Arm' Davis."

The Cuban Players

There were at least seven different Cuban players on the Union Giants over the years, including one Hall of Famer.  For most seasons, starting in 1922, Gilkerson had one or two Spanish-speaking players on his roster at a time.  In 1929 and 1930, he had three.  In 1935, shortly before the team folded, Gilkerson even briefly changed the name of his team to the Cuban Giants.

Robert Gilkerson's connection to the baseball-loving island went all the way back to his playing days.  In October 1910, while Gilkerson was still playing for the Chicago Union Giants, the Benton Harbor News-Palladium reported that Gilkerson and the team had just "returned from a trip to Cuba, where they played a series with the Havana team."  

In 1911, the Escanaba Daily Press reported in November that Gilkerson himself was preparing to leave for Cuba where he played for a Cuban team during the winter months.  How much time he actually spent on the island however, is not well documented.  Once he became a team owner, it would be years before Gilkerson signed anyone born on the island.

The Cuban player that spent the most time with Gilkerson's Union Giants was Rogelio Crespo (pictured above, on right).  He was with Gilkerson for a total of ten seasons: 1922-1925, 1928-1930 and again from 1932-1934.  During his long run with the Union Giants, Crespo likely helped bring other Cuban players to the team.  When he wasn't barnstorming with the Union Giants, Crespo played for various teams back in Cuba as well as the Cuban Stars (East).   In fact, several of the Cubans that eventually played for Gilkerson also spent time on the Cuban team from New York.

The reason that Gilkerson kept bringing Crespo back year after year wasn't his connections however, it was his versatility and his reliability.  Most seasons, Gilkerson had him playing at different spots in the infield, either second base, shortstop or third base.  In 1923, 1925 and 1933 however, he was primarily an outfielder for the club.  While other players came and went over the course of a season, Crespo rarely missed a game.

One rare exception was in August 1924 when Crespo was spiked at third base in a game against the Twin City Red Sox of Sauk City, Wisconsin, a team that featured Happy Felsch, former member of the Chicago Black Sox.  The hard slide split Crespo's leg open "from knee to ankle."  According to the Fennimore Times, "Crespo was taken to the Cunningham hospital, where eight stitches were put in to bind the wound."   He was back on the field in a couple of weeks. 

In later years, the Union Giants traveled to Canada regularly, sometimes multiple times a season.  Crespo and the other Cuban players generally went along without incident.  In July 1932 however, having already visited Canada once that season, Crespo refused to travel north of the border.  The Bellingham (WA) Herald reported, "Al Crespo, Giant second sacker, stayed here last night, refusing to go to Vancouver with the team.  Crespo, it appears, was born in Cuba, and fearing any 'foreign entanglements' arising from questioning by the immigration authorities of Canada, he decided to stay here while the team was across the line."   Even though the Union Giants continued to travel to Canada the next two seasons, Crespo doesn't appear in any Canadian box scores after this point.

In 1923, Gilkerson added a second Cuban to the squad when catcher Frank Cárdenas joined the Union Giants.  Cárdenas was behind the plate from May until October of that year.  Cárdenas did not return in 1924 but pitcher David Gómez joined the Union Giants, pitching for the team that entire summer.  Gómez also stayed just one season.  He would go on to pitch for the Cuban Stars (West) for the next several years.

In June of 1925, the Union Giants briefly had an outfielder and backup catcher by the name of Abreu, sometimes spelled Abrew, Abru, or Abrean in box scores.   I originally thought this could have been Eufemio Abreu, however Eufemio was playing pretty consistently for the Cuban Stars (West) in June of 1925.  Perhaps a young Juan Abreu?  For now, it remains a mystery.  Whoever he was, he only stayed with Gilkerson's club for about a month.

Crespo left the Union Giants in '26-'27 to play for the Cuban Stars (East) once again.  When he returned in 1928, he was joined in the infield by Pelayo Chacón, a teammate from the Stars.  Crespo played second base and Chacón was at third for almost the entire season for the Union Giants.

Ogden Standard-Examiner
July 27, 1931

Chacón left in '29 but Frank Cárdenas returned to the team as catcher that year.   The big addition in 1929 however was Cristóbal Torriente.  Torriente stayed with the team, on and off, for three years, primarily as a pitcher but also playing the outfield.  The veteran player was well past his prime at this point in his career but he could still pitch and hit and was often billed as the star attraction on Gilkerson's squad.  

With Cárdenas behind the plate and Torriente on the mound, the Union Giants had a distinct advantage, which was pointed out by the Sioux City Journal, "When the Cuban battery is working they talk over the situation in Spanish, much to the discomfiture of opposing hitters."  The Sioux City newspaper however also reported that Cárdenas had been on the injured list for part of the 1929 season.  

In 1930, Gilkerson got a new Cuban catcher to pair with Torriente, José María Fernández.  Fernández however was only with the team during the first half of the season.   As reported in the Chicago Defender, Fernández and pitcher "Yellowhorse" Morris both left Gilkerson to join the Chicago American Giants in early July.  Torriente also appears to have left the team around the same time.  He returned in 1931 for most of the season.

The last Cuban (sort of) to play for Gilkerson was pitcher Juan Padrón during the ill-fated 1935 season.  According to Seamheads, Padrón was actually born in Key West, Florida.  The Grand Rapids Press described him as "a Cuban of Spanish and West Indian descent.  He speaks Spanish fluently.  He goes back to Cuba each winter, after playing baseball during the summer months in the United States, and plays quite a few games at Havana each winter."

St. Louis Argus, Sep 4, 1931

Padrón had been living and playing in Michigan since at least 1930.  In Grand Rapids in 1931, Padrón pitched in several exhibition games against Major League teams, including both teams in the World Series that year, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Athletics.  Against the Cardinals, Padrón pitched a 10-inning complete game, striking out seven batters and allowing just six hits and one run, which was enough for the win.  A month later, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series.

At the start of the 1934 season, Padrón was leading a team in Michigan called the Cuban Giants.  The team disbanded by June and several of the players, none of them actually Cuban, joined up with Gilkerson mid-season.  In 1935, Padrón joined Gilkerson as well.  The team started out as the Union Giants as usual but by June of 1935 they were now calling themselves the Cuban Giants.  The Green Bay Press-Gazette said the team was "formed out of former Cuban and Hawaiian players."  In truth, Padrón was the only member of the team with any Cuban heritage.  Gilkerson's entire operation came to a stop before the end of the summer.

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.

Immediately following the season (October 6, 1927), The Daily Post-Tribune (LaSalle, IL) recorded four fewer losses:  "Gilkerson's outfit played 138 games.  Of these 138 they won 118, lost 18 and ended two in ties.  For those who must have statistitics [sic] and accurated figures and percentages with their baseball, it can be pointed out that Gil's team had a winning percentage of .855 of total number of games played."

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."

36,000 Rabid Baseball Fans (July 4th - A Century Ago)

By late June of 1925, Gilkerson's Union Giants were already barnstorming in Minnesota and northern Iowa, having played more than 30 games by that point in the season.  

They started their annual tour in Illinois, as always, and had already been through parts of Wisconsin as they proceeded north and west for the summer.

The Union Giants however were in high demand, particularly for Fourth of July celebrations, which meant Gilkerson could take his team wherever the payout was the greatest.  In 1925, that would mean backtracking to south central Wisconsin for a series of big games over a three day holiday weekend.  That year, in fact, they would play in front of one of their largest crowds ever.

The Union Giants were certainly no strangers to baseball fans in Wisconsin.  For much of the previous five years, Gilkerson's team had played a good portion of their season in and around the Badger state.  It helped that the team was given a lot of newspaper coverage in the state during those years, particularly from Roundy Coughlin, the popular sports columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal.

On July 3, 1925, the Union Giants were one of the main attractions for Derby Days in Darlington, WI.   Their matchup with the Madison Blues, a local semipro club, would be the first of three games with the capital city team.  The series would take place over the long holiday weekend in three different towns.

Advertisements for the Darlington celebration often mentioned, "the Union Giants carry with them a fine vocalist which will entertain you during the game."   It is not clear who this could have been and was never mentioned at any other time in advertisements promoting the Union Giants that season.

The two day celebration had a combined attendance of more than 12,000 paid admissions.  Crowds poured in as early as 8 am on Friday to see the baseball game.  City and fair officials said they had never seen such a crowd for a morning game.  

The Union Giants defeated the Blues in Darlington by a score of 6-4 in ten innings.  No box score was published for the contest however it was mentioned that (Admiral) Walker and Tom Young made up the battery for the Union Giants.

The big game however was the next day in Waterloo, WI where a reported "36,000 rabid baseball fans" watched the Union Giants and the Madison Blues play at Firemen's Park on the 4th of July.  The Union Giants lost the game, 7-2.  

Roundy Coughlin, in his column for the Wisconsin State Journal, remarked, "Of all sights ever saw at ball games in these parts were knocked for a row yesterday at the Fireman's park at Waterloo they say that over 36,000 paid one-half-buck each to get into the park.  Out of that many about 25,000 saw the ball game."

He continued, "The Firemen at Waterloo also had a very fine system in handling the crowds, you must remember that is some crowd in a town that is only about around 800 in population - and they did fine work to keep things moving the way they did."

He added, "You never saw so many autos in your life, I thought every auto in the world blew in for the day."

As for the game itself, Roundy provided this analysis:  "There were plenty double plays and some fine catches in outfield and in blazing sun the game was a good ball game.  The Blues got hot in one inning and scored five runs."

"Some stupid base running in ninth lost the Giants a run at least.  With five runs behind they wouldn't play them bags safe and this hurt their chances, a safe game would have been very sound baseball here, that's a cinch."

"Porter went into box in sixth for Giants and the left hander stopped the Blues cold while in the box.  If he started the ball game they might be playing yet, he had all kinds of stuff and was burning them in there."

In the Wisconsin State Journal's recap of the game, they commented, "the Giants were almost faultless in the field, for that matter, committing but one error, but their inability to hit proved their downfall."

The third game of the series was held the next day at Sun Prairie, WI as part of their two-day Fourth of July celebration.  The Blues won again, 6-4, in front of a crowd of about 3,200 fans.

Roundy's recap of the game was far more critical of the Union Giants this time around, saying "Some punk fielding on ground balls by Steel Arm Davis for the Giants hurt - you think he was picking up hot potatoes out there."

He was even more harsh in his critique of their base running, adding "The Giants got caught on same play at first in this game that they did at Waterloo off first.  In eighth inning got man on first and he takes at least eight foot lead and is finally picked off first.  They yell their heads off on him not being out as they generally do on this one play all the time - Lewis called him out everybody in ball park saw that he was out.  Stand off there eight and ten feet and on a sharp peg can't help but be caught but this their chief beef play all the time they love to chew the rag on this one and - it is to laff out loud this play with that lead they take."  

In the Capital Times, columnist Hank Casserly was more generous in his assessment of the team especially when it came to Union Giants' catcher Tom Young:  

"This Young who catches for Gilkerson is about the sweetest piece of baseball machinery that has been seen around these parts in many a moon.  He has a million dollar arm and the way he throws the ball around the diamond would make any catcher in the big show envious.  He is only twenty years old and has a bright future.  His color, of course, bars him from the organizedball, but he can play with any team in the colored league, which contains a number of crack ball players."

Tom Young, who played for Gilkerson in '24 and '25, would indeed have a long career in the Negro Leagues, playing the longest for the Kansas City Monarchs.   His brother, Maurice Young, would eventually play for Gilkerson as well.