George "Mule" Suttles (March 31, 1901 – July 9, 1966) was an American

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

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 ...

, most prominently with 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 pres ...

, St. Louis Stars and

Newark Eagles The Newark Eagles were a professional Negro league baseball team which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948. They were owned by Abe and Effa Manley. History Formation The Newark Eagles were formed in 1936 when the Newark Dodge ...

. Best known for his power hitting, Suttles was elected to the

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 ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Negro league career

Born in

Edgewater, Alabama Edgewater is a census-designated place in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is northeast from the Birmingham suburb of Pleasant Grove. Its population was 883 at the 2010 census. This area was damaged by tornadoes on April 15, 1956 and ...

, Suttles played one game for the

Atlantic City Bacharach Giants The Bacharach Giants were a Negro league baseball team that played in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founding The club was founded when two African-American politicians moved the Duval Giants of Jacksonville, Florida, to Atlantic City in 1916 and ...

in 1921, and broke into the Negro National League in 1923 with the

. Suttles was renowned for hitting for power as well as

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. In five years with the Stars (1926–1930), he led the league in

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s twice and in doubles,

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

, and batting average once each. His 1926 season was the fifth time in league history that a player won the batting Triple Crown. Suttles' final seasons were spent playing first base for the

' "Million Dollar Infield" with

Dick Seay Richard William Seay (November 30, 1904 – April 6, 1981) was an American Negro league baseball player who played from 1925 to 1947 for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Newark Stars, Baltimore Black Sox, Philadelphia Stars, Newark Eagles, Pittsburg ...

at second,

Willie Wells Willie James Wells (August 10, 1906 – January 22, 1989), nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924 to 1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America. Wells was a fast ...

at shortstop, and

Ray Dandridge Raymond Emmitt Dandridge (August 31, 1913 – February 12, 1994), nicknamed "Hooks" and "Squat", was an American third baseman in baseball's Negro leagues. Dandridge excelled as a third baseman and he hit for a high batting average. By the time th ...

at third. He also managed, and was highly respected. He is one of nine players to have won multiple league batting titles.

East–West games

In five

East–West All-Star Game The East–West All-Star Game was an annual all-star game for Negro league baseball players. The game was the brainchild of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1933 he decided to emulate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, usi ...

s, he batted .412 with an .883

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

. He also hit the first ever home run in the history of the east–west game.

Career totals

In 26 documented exhibition games against white competition, Suttles hit .374 with five home runs. He hit .329 with 179

s in Negro League competition, the latter number second on the all-time list in Negro League play, behind only

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 ...

Legacy

Suttles, who stood , weighed in at 195 lbs, and used a 50-ounce bat, was known for his power, including several 500+ foot homers; a game against the

Memphis Red Sox The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the la ...

in which he blasted three homers in a single inning, and a home run at

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

's Tropicana Park that flew over a high center field fence and landed in the ocean.

saw the homer and remarked, "He hit this damn ball so far it looked like we were playing in a lot; it didn't look like no ball park." It was because of Suttles' strength that he got his nickname, and late in games when a big hit was needed his teammates would encourage him with cries of, "Kick, Mule!" Clarence Israel, an Eagles player, was quoted as saying, "He was considered my dad. Suttles was the most gentle person I ever saw." In 2001, writer

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. ...

ranked Suttles as the 43rd-greatest baseball player of all-time and the second-best

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

in the Negro leagues.

Death

Suttles died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Glendale Cemetery Glendale Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Akron, Ohio. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. History Glendale Cemetery was founded in 1839 by Dr. J.D. Commons. Here statues of prominent citizens, an av ...

Bloomfield, New Jersey Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's population was 53,105. It surrounds the Bloomfield Green Historic District. History The initial patent for the land that w ...

.''Encyclopedia of Alabama''
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Negro league career

East–West games

Career totals

Legacy

Death

References

External links