Oscar "Heavy" Johnson (1895–1960) was a
baseball player in the
Negro leagues. He played
catcher and
outfielder. Johnson was one of the Negro league's foremost power hitters in the 1920s, reportedly weighing 250 pounds, and known for hitting home runs.
[ .] Longtime
MLB umpire
Jocko Conlan once said that Johnson "could hit a ball out of any park."
Johnson was part of the all-black
25th Infantry Wreckers, a teammate of other future Negro leaguers including
Bullet Rogan,
Lemuel Hawkins, and
Dobie Moore. He briefly played for the
St. Louis Giants
The St. Louis Stars, originally the St. Louis Giants, were a Negro league baseball team that competed independently from as early as 1906 to 1919, and then joined the Negro National League (NNL) for the duration of their existence. After the 192 ...
in 1920 while on Army furlough,
hitting .300 in three games,
[Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database] but did not join the Negro leagues until his discharge in 1922. In his rookie season with the Kansas City Monarchs, Johnson batted .406,
and posted a .345 average in the Cuban winter league. Johnson won a retroactive
triple crown in 1923 with a .406 batting average, 20 home runs and 120
RBI
RBI most often refers to:
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*Run batted in
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in 98 games.
[Peter Ventura and Patrick Rock (2004). Negro National League 1923 Yearbook. Ohiopyle: Replay Publishing] He was the first player in Negro league history (1920-1948) to win two league batting titles (having led the Negro National League in 1922 and 1923 with a .406 batting average). Just eight more players would win at least two batting titles over the next two decades, and four of them matched Johnson in winning consecutive batting titles (of the nine, only Johnson and
Artie Wilson
Arthur Lee Wilson (October 28, 1920October 31, 2010) was a professional baseball player. He was an all-star for the Birmingham Black Barons of Negro league baseball before playing part of one season in Major League Baseball for the New York Giant ...
are not currently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame).
Johnson was also the first member of the Monarchs to hit a home run at the new
Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
Johnson was credited with more than 60 home runs against all opposition in 1924, and batted .296 in the
1924 Colored World Series
The 1924 in baseball, 1924 Colored World Series was a best-of-nine match-up between the Negro National League (1920–31), Negro National League champion Kansas City Monarchs and the Eastern Colored League champion Hilldale Club, Hilldale. In a te ...
, which was won by the Monarchs.
[ Johnson then moved to the Baltimore Black Sox, where he posted averages of .345 and .337 in his 2 seasons with the club. In 1927, with the Harrisburg Giants, Johnson hit .316, teaming with John Beckwith and Oscar Charleston. Johnson split the 1928 season between the Cleveland Tigers and the Memphis Red Sox, posting a .315 average overall.][
Former pitcher Bill "Plunk" Drake said that Johnson was once sleeping on the bench when he was awoken and told to pinch-hit; he grabbed a fungo bat and hit a home run.]
References
External links
an
Seamheads
Heavy Johnson
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Oscar
1895 births
1960 deaths
Baltimore Black Sox players
Harrisburg Giants players
Kansas City Monarchs players
Memphis Red Sox players
St. Louis Giants players
Leopardos de Santa Clara players
Newark Browns players
Louisville White Sox players
People from Atchison, Kansas
American expatriate baseball players in Cuba
20th-century African-American sportspeople
United States Army soldiers