Leonard Curtis Pearson (May 23, 1918 – December 7, 1980), nicknamed "Hoss", was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. He played from 1937 to 1949, playing mostly with the Newark Eagles. Pearson started his Negro league career at the age of 19 with the Newark Eagles. He played 24 games in the 1937 season and batted .234. He played with the Eagles for all but six games of his 463-game career (with brief appearances for two teams). He batted over .300 for the first time in 1940, when he batted .347 with a Negro National League-leading eight home runs. He regressed the next year with .278 but made his first East-West All-Star Game. In 1942, he batted a league-leading .347 while leading in hits (67), home runs (11), and runs batted in (56); he was named to both All-Star games held that year. Only six other players in

Negro league baseball 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 ...

history had achieved a batting Triple Crown, and it was Pearson and

Ted Strong Theodore Reginald Strong, Jr. (January 2, 1914 – March 1, 1978), was an American Negro league baseball player who played from 1936 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1951 for the Chicago American Giants, Indianapolis Athletics, Kansas City Monarch ...

of the

Negro American League The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season. Negro American League franchises :''An ...

that year that were the last players to achieve a batting Triple Crown. The following year, he batted just .271 but made another All-Star team. He made the All-Star team for the 1945 and 1946 seasons while batting .300 in each year (including leading the league in stolen bases with seventeen in 1946). He played his last major league season in 1948, batting .292.

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an
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1918 births Newark Eagles players Philadelphia Stars players Baltimore Elite Giants players 1980 deaths 20th-century African-American sportspeople Baseball infielders {{Negro-league-baseball-infielder-stub