Negro Leagues
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he began playing on a local semi-pro team at age 14 and dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue his career. He was nicknamed "Junior" during his time playing in the Negro leagues with the Baltimore Elite Giants, where he was voted an All-Star three straight years from 1948 to 1950; veteran George Scales taught him to switch hit.
Read more about this topic: Jim Gilliam
Famous quotes containing the words negro and/or leagues:
“The warped, distorted frame we have put around every Negro child from birth is around every white child also. Each is on a different side of the frame but each is pinioned there. And ... what cruelly shapes and cripples the personality of one is as cruelly shaping and crippling the personality of the other.”
—Lillian Smith (1897–1966)
“Struck in the wet mire
Four thousand leagues from the ninth buried city
I thought of Troy, what we had built her for.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)