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:
“I was a fire-breathing Catholic C.O.,
and made my manic statement,
telling off the state and president, and then
sat waiting sentence in the bull pen
beside a Negro boy with curlicues
of marijuana in his hair.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“Good news about someone never gets past the door, but bad news will travel a thousand leagues away.”
—Chinese proverb.