Series Goes Ten! Monarchs Champions of Negro Leagues!

By Bjorn Skaptason, Tom's Town Historian

KANSAS CITY, October 20, 1924: Kansas City Monarchs pitcher-manager Jose Mendez pitched through pain today to nail down the championship in the first Colored World Series. The Tom’s Town nine, champs of the Negro National League, clinched their trophy on the road, winning 5-0 at Chicago’s Schorling Park, while playing as the home team against Philadelphia’s Hilldale club from the Eastern Colored League.

This first championship series between black squads was the brainchild of Monarchs owner J. L. Wilkinson, and followed his team’s 1922 victory over K.C.’s white champions, the Blues. After another stunner in 1923, when the Mendez squad beat up on the barnstorming Babe Ruth’s All Stars, major league baseball prohibited their teams from playing against Negro League teams. No joke, considering the ‘24 Monarchs included future hall of famers Mendez, “Bullet Joe” Rogan, and “Cool Papa” Bell. Even owner Wilkinson made his way to Cooperstown!

Mendez underwent surgery just before the series, and was under doctor’s orders not to exert himself. However, on game day the Monarch ace went with the advice of league founder Rube Foster, and put himself in the lineup. The risk paid big dividends as Mendez went the distance, and even drove in a run during the decisive five-run eighth inning. Mendez ended the series with a 1.42 E.R.A.

The Hilldale club also found it tough to reckon with super-utility man Rogan. The “Bullet” could pitch, hit, and play center field. A day after mowing down Hilldale batters with a rifle fastball, Rogan moved into the starting lineup as center fielder to dent the fences of old Muehlebach Park with screaming line drives.

No K.C. baseball fan was surprised that the Monarchs could mop the floor with the best white professional teams. The seeds of the revolution that brought Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and Satchel Paige to Major League Baseball were planted in Muehlebach Park in the Autumn of 1924.