Professional Career
In July 1920, Rogan and Dobie Moore joined the Monarchs. Rogan quickly became the premier pitcher and biggest box-office draw in the young league. By his third season with the Monarchs, 1922, he hit .390, and his 13 home runs were good for second in the league. On August 6, 1923, Rogan combined with teammate and manager José Méndez to pitch a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Bears, Méndez pitching the first five innings and Rogan the last four. That season he hit .364 with a league-leading 16 wins and 151 strikeouts to lead the Monarchs to their first pennant.
In 1924 Rogan hit .395 while compiling a 18–6 record and leading the Monarchs to their second league title. He starred in the first Black World Series, leading the Monarchs with 13 hits and winning two games as Kansas City defeated the Eastern Colored League champion Hilldales. That winter he led the 1924/25 Cuban League with nine victories for the champion Almendares club.
Rogan may have reached his peak in 1925, leading Kansas City to its third straight league championship with a 17–2 record and a .381 batting average. In the playoffs against the St. Louis Stars he hit .450 and won three more games, including one shutout. However, before the World Series rematch with Hilldale, Rogan suffered a knee injury while playing with his young son. Forced to undergo surgery, he missed the series. Without their star, the Monarchs went down to defeat in six games.
The following season, Rogan took over from José Méndez as manager of the Kansas City Monarchs. In that season's NNL playoffs against the Chicago American Giants, he pitched and lost both games of a series-deciding doubleheader to the younger Bill Foster. As late as 1928 at the age of 34, Bullet Rogan was the best hitter (.358) and arguably the best pitcher (10–2) on the Monarchs. That year he slammed three home runs in a game against the Detroit Stars.
Rogan continued at the Monarchs' helm in 1929 when they won their fourth NNL championship and recorded the best record (62–17) in the history of the league. On April 29, 1930, in Enid, Oklahoma, Rogan played for the Monarchs in baseball's first night game. In August he was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. He remained out of the lineup for more than a year, finally returning on September 28, 1931.
When Wilkinson did not organize a Kansas City Monarchs team for 1932, Rogan joined a white independent team in Jamestown, North Dakota, where he played until August. He batted .315 and went 20–3 as a pitcher before returning to the reorganized Monarchs in September. In the winter of 1933 and 1934, Rogan returned to Hawaii and the Philippines as a member of the Philadelphia Royal Giants, a black all-star team. The Royal Giants toured Japan and China as well. In 1936, at the age of 43, Rogan appeared in the East-West All-Star Game.
Read more about this topic: Bullet Rogan
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