Negro Leagues and Puerto Rico League
Wilson played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League from 1942 to 1948, where he was considered the league's best shortstop, and was named the starting shortstop of the league All-Star team four times from 1944 to 1948 (missing out only in 1945, when he was beat out by Jackie Robinson, shortly before he broke the baseball color line in 1947). During his time with the Black Barons, the team won the league championship in 1943, 1944 and 1948, advancing to, but never winning, the Negro League World Series.
In the 1948 regular season, Wilson, who was known as an opposite field hitter, batted .402, and is sometimes credited as the last player in a top-level league to bat over .400 (Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941). In 1948, Wilson mentored a young Willie Mays, who was just breaking into baseball.
Following the 1948 Negro World Series, Wilson played for the Mayaguez Indians of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, leading them to their first championship title in 1949. Wilson is credited for giving future Puerto Rican comedic actor Shorty Castro his nickname while playing in Mayagüez.
Read more about this topic: Artie Wilson
Famous quotes containing the words negro, leagues and/or league:
“I respect the ways of old folks, but the blood of a rooster or a goat cannot turn the seasons, change the course of the clouds and fill them up with water like bladders. The other night, at the ceremony for Legba, I danced and sang my fill: I am a black man, no? and I enjoyed it like a true Negro should. When the drums beat, I feel it in the pit of my stomach, I feel the itch in my hips and up and down my legs, I have got to join the party. But that is all.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Good news about someone never gets past the door, but bad news will travel a thousand leagues away.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)