The birth of an unknown legend
The 1908 Harrisburg Giants with Spottswood Poles (second from right in front row)
Today marks what would have been the 136th birthday of a great, if relatively unknown, outfielder named Spottswood Poles.
Poles plays for the all-Black Harrisburg Giants from 1906-08 and later becomes a highly decorated soldier in World War I while fighting with a segregated unit in France, earning five Battle Stars and a Purple Heart for his service.
Poles, often called “the Black Ty Cobb,” spends most of his career playing in loose confederations of segregated teams that precede the formal birth of the Negro Leagues in 1920.
Prior to that, Poles goes 25-for-41 for a .610 batting average in documented exhibition games against all-White major leaguers.
Three of those hits come in consecutive at-bats off future Hall of Famer Pete Alexander.
The 5-foot-7, 165-pound Poles, also seen here in an Ars Longa card, is credited with a .318 lifetime batting average and in 2006 comes within a couple of votes of being elected to the Hall of Fame.
His next opportunity for election comes in December 2031. That is when the Hall’s committee on Early Baseball Era meets again to discuss candidates from that oft-forgotten time – Spottswood Poles’ time – in the game’s history.
John McGraw
Without the segregation that does not end until Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Poles may well have been playing in the early 1900s for a major league team. More than a generation before Robinson’s historic arrival in Brooklyn, New York Giants Hall of Fame manager John McGraw says he would, if allowed, sign Poles to play for his team.
Poles ends up quietly living out his post-playing career in Harrisburg, Pa., where he and his wife Bertha operate a fleet of taxis.
The local newspaper upon Poles’ death in 1962 inexplicably devotes only a handful of paragraphs to his obituary, completely ignoring his accomplishments both on the field and in the Army.
As for missing out on playing in the major leagues, Poles simply says, “Maybe old Poles was before his time. I never had a chance.”