When I asked Double Duty Radcliffe who he’d want up to bat with the game on the line, he didn’t hesitate: Buck Leonard! “Was he a great clutch hitter?” I asked. “Ha! Great ALL kind of hitter!” was the response.
Though he didn’t quite have the raw power of Josh Gibson, Walter “Buck” Leonard was one of the most dangerous hitters in Negro League history, combining a high average with home runs.
Leonard was born and died in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and in the 90 years in between he was one of the best first basemen in history, and a fine gentleman.
Leonard started his baseball career playing sandlot ball in Rocky Mount while working in a railroad shop, and in 1933 Leonard was recruited by old-time star Ben Taylor to play with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, once a top team, but by ’33 just a strong semipro club. Taylor, who was considered the top-fielding first baseman of his day, passed along his tricks of the trade to his recruit. The next season, at the advanced rookie age of 26, Leonard joined the Homestead Grays and would stay with them until they folded two decades later.
Leonard and Josh Gibson, batting third and fourth, respectively, in the Grays’ lineup for a decade, were the Negro League’s version of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, and the Grays’ lineup, which also included Sam Bankhead, Cool Papa Bell, Howard Easterling, Jud Wilson and Vic Harris, was considered the Negro Leagues’ murderers row, winning nine consecutive pennants in the 30s and 40s.
Leonard did not look the part of a slugger, standing only 5’-10” and weighing about 170 pounds in his early years, but he filled out to about 190 pounds, and his left-handed swing, similar to sweet-swinging Billy Williams, was a thing of beauty.
“You couldn’t shoot a fastball in a cannon past him,” recalled Negro Leaguer Sherwood Brewer. Another Negro Leaguer recalled a tape-measure homer that Leonard hit: “It went over the fence, over a row of trees, hit the water tower, and it rained for two weeks!”
Leonard practically owns the East-West All-Star game record book, playing in the most games (13), scoring the most runs (9), hitting the most homers (3), most RBIs (14), most total bases (27), even the most stolen bases in a single East-West game (2). He also ranks second in East-West at bats (48), and walks (7).
Leonard’s homers, in 1937 against Ted Trent, in 1941 against Double Duty Radcliffe, and in 1943 against Theolic Smith, are some of the biggest moments in black all-star history.
Besides being an outstanding hitter, Leonard was as slick a fielder as ever played the position in the Negro Leagues, and he boasted a strong throwing arm, and often cut down runners attempting to go to second or third on bunts. Though it’s hard to compare anyone to the great Lou Gehrig, Leonard was most certainly a superior fielder, and came darn close as a slugger.
Leonard, like Gehrig, was quiet and humble, and preferred to stay away from the limelight. As a result, he was very popular with teammates and the press. One reporter, Wendell Smith, raved about Leonard’s hitting, fielding, and the fact that after baseball he hoped to become a mortician back in Rocky Mount.
Besides being a powerful team, the Grays were known as one of the most traveled teams in the Negro Leagues. “Every day in a different town, sometimes three games a day,” remembered Leonard. In 1938, the Grays traveled 30,000 miles and played 210 games. For home games, the Grays played at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field or the Washington Senator’s Griffith Stadium, but had to dress and shower at a “black YMCA” because they weren’t allowed to use the Big League park’s locker rooms.
Sportswriter Sam Lacy of the Washington Tribune newspaper, tried to convince Senators’ owner Clark Griffith to integrate his team in the 1930s, to no avail, but remarked, “Here were great players like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Cool Papa Bell coming into Griffith Stadium every Thursday and Sunday night when his team was away [on the road]. These players belonged in the Major Leagues.”
In 1937, Leonard batted .383 with 36 homers, and in 1938, Leonard was batting .480 in July until he cooled off a bit and finished at .354. In 1939, Leonard finished the season above the magical .400 mark (.417), one of only a handful of players to do so.
In ’42, Leonard hit 42 homers in all games, and helped the Grays to their first of four consecutive Negro League World Series, winning it all in ’43 and ’44 against the Birmingham Black Barons.
In ’44, Leonard tied Gibson for the league home run title and hit .500 in the World Series. In 1945, Leonard hit .375 but was nipped by Gibson for the home run crown, but in 1948 he led the league in homers (13 in league games and 42 overall) and average (.395) and the Grays won the last Negro League World Series, again against the Black Barons.
In his prime, Leonard made $1000 a month (almost $10,000 in today’s dollars) and two dollars a day meal money (about $20 in today’s dollars) in the Negro Leagues, making him probably the third highest paid player after Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. He also played many seasons in foreign countries (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela), though he always maintained that “there was no place like Rocky Mount!”
Leonard batted .341 lifetime in league games, and .382 in exhibitions against Major Leaguers. Double Duty was right. Leonard was a great ALL kind of hitter!
Leonard played minor league ball for a few seasons after the Negro Leagues faltered, the last with Durango of the Central Mexican League in 1955 when he batted .312 with 13 homers in 62 games at age 47.
Bill Veeck once offered Leonard a contract with his St. Louis Browns, but the classy first baseman was in his 40s and declined, saying he “didn’t want to embarrass anyone or hurt the chances of those who might follow.”
Leonard was given a high school diploma from Rocky Mount High School in 1959, at age 52, as there were no high school in Rocky Mount for African-Americans in the 1920s when Leonard was high school age.
After his playing days were over, Leonard worked as a truant officer and physical education teacher. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972 (the same year as his teammate Josh Gibson), and died in 1997.
