James Lee Newberry (June 9, 1919 – June 23, 1983), nicknamed "Schoolboy", was an American

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...

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 in the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

. Newberry played professionally from 1944 to 1956, playing with the

Cincinnati Clowns The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. The ...

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal pre ...

of the

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

and

Hankyu Braves The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...

. While with the Barons, Newberry was a teammate of

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

in the late '40s.

Piper Davis Lorenzo "Piper" Davis (July 3, 1917 – May 21, 1997) was an American professional baseball player who played in the Negro American League from 1942 to 1950 for the Birmingham Black Barons. His nickname was the name of the mining town he was from. ...

, the manager, had most of the players take turns watching out for the young Mays—except for Newberry and

Alonzo Perry Alonzo Thomas Perry (April 14, 1923 - October 13, 1982) was a professional baseball first baseman and pitcher in the Negro leagues and in the Mexican League. He played from 1940 to 1963 with several teams. The power hitter was indirectly respons ...

. "No one knew what they would get into after a game. They liked the ladies and they liked their beer," Mays said. Newberry and John Britton were the first African-Americans to play on a Japanese baseball team. He played in the minor leagues from 1954 to 1956. Newberry died in June 1983 in Cook County, Illinois at the age of 64.Jimmy Newberrry's profile at Seamheads.com
/ref>

References

External links

an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball and minor league stats
an
Seamheads

Jimmy Newberry
at SABR Biography Project 1919 births 1983 deaths People from Camden, Alabama American expatriate baseball players in Japan Birmingham Black Barons players Cincinnati Clowns players El Paso Texans players Hankyu Braves players Abilene Blue Sox players Port Arthur Sea Hawks players Amarillo Gold Sox players Baseball players from Alabama 20th-century African-American sportspeople Baseball pitchers {{Negro-league-baseball-pitcher-stub

See also

References

External links