The Detroit Stars were an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

and played at historic

Mack Park Mack Park was the original home field of Detroit's Negro National League baseball franchise, the Detroit Stars. It was constructed in 1914 by Joe Roesink, sponsor of a local semi-professional team, a Dutchman of Jewish descent born in Grand Rapids ...

. The Stars had winning seasons every year but two, but were never able to secure any championships. Among their best players was

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

Turkey Stearnes Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes (May 8, 1901 – September 4, 1979) was an American baseball outfielder in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. Career Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Stearnes acquired his nickna ...

Founding

Founded in 1919 by

Tenny Blount John Tenny Blount (January 29, 1873 – December 22, 1934) was an American sports executive, who owned the Detroit Stars of the Negro National League. He was a friend of Rube Foster, and served as president of the Negro National League. Blount ...

with the help of

Rube Foster Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster, considered by historians to have been per ...

, owner and manager of the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Fo ...

, the Detroit Stars immediately established themselves as one of the most powerful teams in the West. Foster transferred several of his veteran players to the team, including player-manager

Pete Hill John Preston "Pete" Hill (October 12, 1882 – November 19, 1951) was an American outfielder and manager in baseball's Negro leagues from 1899 to 1925. He played for the Philadelphia Giants, Leland Giants, Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars, M ...

and legendary catcher

Bruce Petway Bruce Franklin Petway (December 23, 1885 – July 4, 1941) was an American Negro league baseball catcher in the early 20th century who came to be known as having one of the best throwing arms in the league. He is also said to have been one of the ...

. Left-hander John Donaldson,

Frank Wickware Frank Wickware (March 8, 1888 – November 2, 1967), nicknamed "Rawhide" and "The Red Ant", was a baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues from 1909 to 1925. In a nationally syndicated article written in 1915, it was said that Wickware "is anoth ...

Dicta Johnson Louis "Dicta" Johnson (born June 29, 1887) was an American spitball pitcher in Negro league baseball and during the pre-Negro league years. He played from 1908 until 1923, mostly for the Indianapolis ABCs and the Chicago American Giants. In 19 ...

, and Cuban great

José Méndez José Colmenar del Valle Méndez (January 2, 1885 – October 31, 1928) was a Cuban right-handed pitcher and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, he died at age 43 in Havana. Known in Cuba as ''El Diamante Negro'' ...

took up the pitching duties, and Texan Edgar Wesley was brought in to handle first base, a job he would hold for several years.

League play

The Stars became a charter member of the Negro National League (NNL) in 1920. New outfielder

Jimmie Lyons James Henry Lyons (October 9, 1889 – February 8, 1961) was a baseball player in the Negro leagues. He pitched and played outfield between 1910 and 1925. He played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Chicago Giants, Lincoln Giants, St. Louis Giants, ...

enjoyed a brilliant season at bat, and Detroit came in second with a 35–23 record. The next season Lyons was transferred to the American Giants, and the team slumped to 32–32 and fourth place. This would be their low point for some time. For the rest of their tenure in the NNL, the Stars were consistently good (finishing under .500 only twice), but not brilliant (finishing as high as second place only twice). The mainstays of the Detroit Stars during the 1920s were Hall of Fame center fielder

, who ranks among the all-time Negro league leaders in nearly every batting category; Hall of Fame pitcher

Andy Cooper Andrew Lewis Cooper (April 24, 1898 – June 3, 1941), nicknamed "Lefty", was an American left-handed pitcher in baseball's Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. An alumnus of Paul Quinn College, Cooper played nin ...

, a workhorse southpaw; pitcher

Bill Holland Willard Holland (December 18, 1907 – May 19, 1984)) was an American race car driver from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949 and finished second in 1947, 1948 and 1950. He also was runner up in the 1947 American ...

; and first baseman Wesley, who led the league in home runs twice and batting average once. Pete Hill left after the 1921 season. Bruce Petway took his place as manager until 1926, when

Candy Jim Taylor James Allen "Candy Jim" Taylor (February 1, 1884April 3, 1948) was an American third baseman and manager in Negro league baseball. In a career that spanned forty years, he played as an infielder in the early years of the 20th century for over a ...

briefly held the position. Bingo DeMoss, yet another Rube Foster protégé, took over in 1927, and finally led the team to its first postseason berth in 1930. The Stars won the second-half season title, only to lose the playoff series to the St. Louis Stars.

Decline and demise

After the collapse of the Negro National League at the end of 1931, the original Stars baseball team disbanded. They were replaced in 1932 by the

Detroit Wolves The Detroit Wolves were a Negro league baseball club that played for the 1932 season only. Founding In 1931 the Negro National League collapsed. It reformed in 1933, but in the interim Detroit was left without a Negro league team, as the Detr ...

of the

East–West League The East–West League was an American Negro baseball league that operated during the period when professional baseball in the United States was segregated. Cum Posey organized the league in 1932, but it did not last the full year and folded in Ju ...

Home fields

During the 1920s the Stars made their home at

before moving to

Hamtramck Stadium Hamtramck Stadium, also known as Roesink Stadium is (as of 2012) one of only 12 remaining Negro league baseball stadiums. It is located at 3201 Dan Street, in Veterans Park, in Hamtramck, Michigan. The stadium was listed on the National Register ...

during the 1930–1931 seasons.

Baseball Hall of Fame inductees

These Detroit Stars alumni have been inducted to the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

Notable players

* Joe "Prince" Henry *

* Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe 1928–1930 * Norman "Turkey" Stearnes * John Donaldson 1919 *

Clint Thomas Clinton Cyrus Thomas (November 25, 1896 – December 2, 1990), nicknamed "Hawk", was a professional baseball player born in Greenup, Kentucky. He was an outfielder and second baseman in the Negro leagues from 1920 to 1938, where he earned the nic ...

Sam Crawford Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood tall and weighed . Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a s ...

1919

MLB throwback jerseys

The

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

wear Stars uniforms on Negro League Day.

References

External links

Franchise history at Seamheads.com

{{Authority control Negro league baseball teams

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

Defunct baseball teams in Michigan Baseball teams disestablished in 1931 Baseball teams established in 1919