2025 Traditional Baseball Period Committee Candidate: Vic Harris

The next article is a part of a sequence regarding the 2025 Traditional Baseball Period Committee poll, protecting long-retired gamers, managers, executives, and umpires whose candidacies will probably be voted upon on December 8. For an introduction to the poll, see right here, and for an introduction to JAWS, see right here. A number of profiles on this sequence are tailored from work beforehand printed at SI.com, Baseball Prospectus, and Futility Infielder. All WAR figures discuss with the Baseball-Reference model except in any other case indicated.

Vic Harris was a feisty and feared participant, a high-average, left-handed spray-hitting left fielder with solely average energy who nonetheless stood out throughout his enjoying profession, primarily from 1923 to ’43, and primarily with the powerhouse Homestead Grays. He made an excellent larger mark as a supervisor. Along with his max-effort fashion setting an instance for his gamers, he piloted the Grays to seven pennants (some sources depend an eighth) in a 12-season span (1937–48) within the second Negro Nationwide League, a mark unparalleled within the main Negro Leagues.

In The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues, James A. Riley described the distinction between Harris the participant and Harris the supervisor:

Harris had good pace and was a succesful base stealer and feared base runner who thought the basepaths belonged to him. A slashing scrapper, he performed to win, and his zealous hustle and aggressiveness typically went past the bounds of reckless abandon, incomes him the sobriquet “Vicious Vic” and the fame as one of many “4 huge, dangerous males of black baseball.” He was good together with his fists and fast to make use of them. As soon as when the crew was touring by vehicle and a participant within the automotive that he was driving engaged in verbal feedback that Harris discovered offensive, he stopped the automotive, pulled the participant from the automotive, and bodily whipped him on the spot. Thought of by many to be a unclean ballplayer, on one other event, whereas engaged in an argument with an umpire, he spit within the arbiter’s face.

In some ways his conduct towards umpires was in distinction to the commonly quiet method he used together with his gamers, by no means saying an excessive amount of and preferring to encourage them by instance to provide their most effort. Though he was not famous as a superb strategist, the gamers responded to the fiery manger by giving good performances on the baseball diamond.

Elander Victor Harris was born on June 10, 1905 in Pensacola, Florida, the son of a farmer and the oldest of three siblings who performed within the Negro Leagues, together with Neal (b. 1906) and Invoice (b. 1908). The Harris household moved to Pittsburgh in 1914, the place Vic performed on the sandlots and with the native YMCA crew. Although he drew curiosity from Homestead Grays supervisor/proprietor Cumberland Posey, he started his skilled profession with the NNL’s Pittsburgh Keystones in 1922, then moved to the Cleveland Tate Stars (an NNL affiliate crew) in ’23, hitting .288/.367/.300 as an 18-year-old based on the information at Seamheads, which has been painstakingly reconstructed utilizing field scores solely of video games in opposition to main Black competitors — not barnstorming in opposition to semipros or native groups — and moreover audited and balanced. He cut up the 1924 season between the NNL’s Cleveland Browns (managed by pioneer Sol White) and Chicago American Giants, leaping on the alternative to play beneath Rube Foster on the latter squad.

Although he began the 1925 season with the Chicago American Giants, Harris was quickly signed by Posey, starting an affiliation with the Grays that may cowl the following 24 years save for a few transient interruptions. Field scores for his first two years with the Grays are scarce; the crew was impartial at that time, enjoying a schedule that included league groups in addition to impartial, semiprofessional, and native groups. Throughout this time, the Grays typically billed themselves as “World’s Coloured Champions,” and so they steamrolled opponents; in 1926, they gained 43 straight video games whereas barnstorming and completed the yr 143-13-10 (.917) based on Harris’ 2011 biography by Dr. Layton Revel and Luis Munoz for the Middle for Negro Leagues Baseball Analysis. In 1927, Posey named him the captain of the crew. In 1928, Harris hit .333/.415/.542 in 82 PA.

The Grays joined the brand new American Negro League in 1929. The six-team circuit included three groups with future Corridor of Famers serving as player-managers, specifically the New York Lincoln Giants (shortstop John Henry Lloyd), the Philadelphia Hilldale Membership (middle fielder Oscar Charleston, who didn’t final lengthy as supervisor and who would be part of the Grays later that season), and Atlantic Metropolis Bacharach Giants (first baseman Ben Taylor). The Grays went solely 32-29 in league play, with Harris hitting .296/.354/.419 (88 OPS+) in 291 PA. The Baltimore Black Sox, that includes Rap Dixon, Dick Lundy, and Oliver Marcell, gained the pennant. With no Negro World Sequence in opposition to the NNL winner (such occasions occurred solely from 1924–27 and ’42–48), the Grays performed the Chicago American Giants in a “Coloured Championship Sequence,” however even with the addition of Charleston, they had been swept in 5 video games and shut out in 4.

The American Negro League didn’t final, and so the Grays went on the street as an impartial crew once more. By this time that includes Charleston in addition to 18-year-old catcher Josh Gibson, Corridor of Famers Judy Johnson at third base and Smokey Joe Williams on the mound, in addition to 2022 Period Committee candidate George “Tubby” Scales at second base, the crew went 40-14 in play in opposition to different main Black groups, with Harris hitting a sturdy .359/.424/.576 (145 OPS+, per Seamheads) in 259 PA in these video games. The Grays beat the Lincoln Giants six video games to 4 in a sequence for the title of “Coloured Champions of the East.”

Although Harris’ offensive efficiency dipped the following yr, the 1931 Grays – who moreover added Wilson at third base (changing Johnson) and one other future Corridor of Famer, Willie Foster, on the mound — are thought of one of many all-time juggernauts regardless of being strictly a barnstorming crew. They went 143-29-2 in opposition to all ranges of competitors in accordance to researcher Phil Dixon, and 30-17 in opposition to top-level competitors based on Baseball Reference, then beat the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs six video games to a few in what was billed because the “Coloured Championship Sequence.”

The Grays joined the brand new East-West League in 1932, however their roster was raided by Pittsburgh Crawfords proprietor Gus Greenlee, with Charleston, Gibson, Ted Web page, Ted Radcliffe and others defecting from the Grays; Satchel Paige, who had pitched for the Baltimore Black Sox and Birmingham Black Barons the yr earlier than, joined as effectively. Harris, for his half, left to hitch one other Posey-owned crew in the identical league, the Detroit Wolves, managed by Dizzy Dismukes and that includes Corridor of Famers Johnson, Cool Papa Bell, Mule Suttles, and Willie Wells in addition to Dixon and Quincy Trouppe. Although the crew went 26-5 in league play, it folded midseason and Harris returned to the Grays; he hit .333/.426/.484 (151 OPS+) for the season in 226 PA, although the league itself folded in June.

The Grays joined the second model of the Negro Nationwide League for the 1933 season however had been expelled in June for utilizing a participant beneath contract to a different crew, and completed the yr enjoying an impartial schedule. Harris hit .309/.330/.479 (118 OPS+) in league play and was chosen to play within the first East-West All-Star Recreation, a brainchild of Greenlee. In balloting carried out by the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender, Harris the truth is acquired extra votes than any participant in addition to Turkey Stearnes.

The next yr, within the subsequent spherical of an ongoing battle between the 2 Pittsburgh-area homeowners, Greenlee poached Harris from Posey and the Grays, and he was once more an All-Star on a star-laden squad (Bell, Charleston, Gibson, Johnson, Paige — and that’s simply the Corridor of Famers), hitting .335/.389/.428 (129 OPS+). After the common season, the Crawfords barnstormed in opposition to Dizzy Dean’s All-Stars. The high-intensity Harris began a brawl when he was known as out for interference whereas beating out a bunt by pulling the masks off an umpire. Although police acquired management of the scenario, Harris was detained, charged, and ultimately convicted of assault and battery. He was fined and given six months probation.

Posey satisfied the NNL to readmit the Grays and lured Harris again by agreeing to let him take over as supervisor (although he’s not credited as such till 1936) in addition to enjoying. “He was fiery, and he knew I used to be fiery, so he made me supervisor,” Harris later stated. Boasting a powerful lineup — that includes Corridor of Fame first baseman Buck Leonard, Scales, Harris, and extra — however a woeful pitching in addition to employees ace Ray Brown, the Grays completed under .500 in league play in 1935 (26-36-2) however improved to 27-24-1 the following yr, Harris’ first on the helm.

In 1937, the 25-year-old Gibson returned to the Grays and hit an ungodly .417/.500/.974 (273 OPS+) with 20 homers in 39 video games; Leonard added one other 13 homers, and the 32-year-old Harris had one in every of his greatest years with the bat (.327/.398/.545, 142 OPS+). Additional aided by improved pitching, the crew gained the NNL title with a 45-18-1 report, starting what Riley termed the “lengthy Grey line”” of 9 straight pennants.

With the righty-swinging Gibson and the lefty-swinging Leonard each topping a 200 OPS+, and with pitchers Brown, Edsall Walker, and Roy Partlow anchoring the employees, the Grays went 41-13 in league play in 1938, profitable each halves of the NNL season to repeat as champions (one thing they’d do in yearly of this run besides 1941). Harris made the East crew for the East-West All-Star crew once more. He did in order effectively in 1939, with Gibson (.402/.492/.824, 251 OPS+) and Leonard (.385/.485/.780, 238 OPS+) every hitting 11 homers whereas completely annihilating opposing pitching. In a four-team playoff sequence after the season, the Grays beat the Philadelphia Stars, three video games to 2, however misplaced to the Baltimore Elite Giants, three video games to 1 (with one tie). By the way, for some motive Seamheads (and Baseball Reference) don’t depend this as a pennant gained for Harris. Different sources reminiscent of Riley and the CNLBR bio do, however as Seamheads’ Scott Simkus defined to me, on crew letterhead from 1943, the Grays listed themselves as “Negro Nationwide League Champions 1937-38-40-41-42,” skipping over ’39.

Starting in 1940, the Grays started splitting time between Pittsburgh’s Forbes Area, dwelling of the Pirates, and Washington, D.C.’s Griffith Stadium, dwelling of the Senators. Even whereas dropping Gibson to a two-year stint in Mexico, the crew continued to roll, with league play data of 36-20 (1940) and 50-25-2 (1941). Within the latter season, the Grays gained the league’s first half and the New York Cubans did so within the second half. The 2 groups met in a playoff, with the Grays taking three out of 4 video games, the primary two by scores of 20-0 and 5-0. This one is counted among the many Grays’ (and Harris’) pennants by Seamheads and B-Ref.

Additionally in 1941, Harris managed the East crew within the East-West Recreation for the primary of six seasons in an eight-year span (in a few years, there have been two video games performed). He did double responsibility as a participant in 1942 and ’43, that whereas hitting .358/.421/.401 (122 OPS+) within the latter season, his first with an OPS+ above 100 in league play since ’39.

With Gibson again within the fold and hitting for a 200 OPS+, the Grays went 47-19-3 in league play in 1942. They then confronted Paige and the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs, winners of the Negro American League, within the first Negro World Sequence since 1927. Lengthy story quick, the Grays had been swept within the 4 video games that formally counted; banged up on account of quite a few accidents, they recruited gamers from the Philadelphia Stars and Newark Eagles, together with Corridor of Fame pitcher Leon Day, and gained a sport that was performed beneath protest and ended up not counting. Harris wasn’t a lot assist, going 2-for-17.

In 1943, Harris started a go away of absence as supervisor, taking a job in a protection plant. Legendary supervisor Sweet Jim Taylor took over, and Bell returned, 40 years outdated however nonetheless enjoying at an All-Star stage. Harris, by now in his late 30s, was often accessible to play throughout dwelling video games, and efficient when he did; in 1943 he hit .358/421/.401 (122 OPS+) in 153 PA. The Grays beat the Birmingham Black Barons within the Negro World Sequence in each of these years; Harris went simply 4-for-28 within the first of these sequence and didn’t play within the second.

Again in command in 1945, Harris led the Grays to 1 extra NNL pennant through a 41-21-2 report, although the crew was swept 4 video games to none by the Cleveland Buckeyes within the Negro World Sequence, scoring simply three runs as Gibson, Leonard, and Bell mixed to go simply 8-for-43.

With their pitching in decline, the Grays slipped to 3rd within the NNL in 1946 and fourth in ’47, each with data round .500. They — and your entire baseball world — misplaced Gibson, who collapsed and died on account of a stroke on January 20, 1947, only a month after his thirty fifth birthday. The crew did regroup to win the second half flag in 1948 and end with the NNL’s greatest general report (42-24-1), then beat the Baltimore Elite Giants 2-1-1 in a playoff and took 4 out of 5 from the Birmingham Black Barons within the Negro World Sequence.

With the Negro Leagues dropping top-tier expertise to the Nationwide and American Leagues as soon as Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the colour line, the NNL disbanded after 1948. Harris was amongst those that had seen the handwriting on the wall early. In 1942, after Dodgers supervisor Leo Durocher had brought on an uproar by expressing a willingness to make use of Black gamers if the homeowners permitted them to signal, Harris had stated, “In the event that they take our greatest boys, we will probably be however a hole shell of what we’re as we speak.” He signed on to teach the Baltimore Elite Giants within the NAL for 1949, managed the Birmingham Black Barons in ’50, then retired to California, turning into the pinnacle custodian for the Castaic Union Colleges in Castaic, California. He died of most cancers on February 23, 1978.

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Per the analysis of Graham Womack, it seems that previous to 2006, the one critical consideration Harris acquired for the Corridor of Fame got here in 1982. A March 10, 1982 article within the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch by Bob Broeg listed dozens of gamers and different candidates from the nineteenth and early-to-mid-Twentieth century, together with Negro Leagues gamers, as a part of “a prolonged checklist to be reviewed” by the VC, of which he was a member from 1972–2000. Former New York Giants shortstop Travis Jackson and commissioner Blissful Chandler had been elected that yr, and plenty of others from that checklist have since been elected, however not Harris. He could have been on comparable lists earlier than and/or after that, however not each report of the VC’s exercise was fairly so exhaustive. He was included among the many 94 preliminary candidates for the 2006 Particular Committee on the Negro Leagues vote. He didn’t make the lower for the 39-candidate closing poll, from which 17 had been finally elected, however, famously, not Buck O’Neil.

For the following decade and alter, the Corridor of Fame thought of the e-book on the Negro Leagues and Black baseball closed for electoral functions, “pending extra data that got here forth from the analysis neighborhood.” Due to an ideal storm that included an explosion of curiosity and scholarship pushed by the Negro Leagues Centennial celebration, in addition to Main League Baseball’s lengthy overdue reckoning on the subject of Negro Leagues historical past, branding and symbolism, and the illustration of Black Individuals in any respect ranges throughout the sport, these candidates once more grew to become eligible for the 2022 Early Baseball Period Committee poll. O’Neil and pioneer Bud Fowler had been elected, whereas Harris, Scales, John Donaldson, Grant Johnson, and Dick Redding had been additionally candidates. Of that group, the 2 candidates who got here the closest to election with out reaching 75%, specifically Harris (62.5%) and Donaldson (50%), are the 2 on this poll, which is each smaller in measurement and bigger in scope than the Early Baseball one, because it permits for simply eight candidates (as an alternative of 10) who made their biggest contributions to the sport earlier than 1980 (as an alternative of earlier than 1950).

If Harris had been merely thought of on his deserves as a participant, they may not be sufficient, although the checklist of historians who imagine he’s worthy on that foundation alone (Phil Dixon, John Holway, Larry Lester) — effectively, that’s a heavy-hitting lineup to start out with. To those eyes, Harris’ 114 OPS+ (.305/.375/.434) in opposition to high-level Black competitors (together with his play with impartial groups, such because the Grays for a lot of the 1925-31 interval) is superb however not elite, and likewise his 15.8 WAR in 3,624 PA in opposition to such competitors. The identical is true if one seems to be solely at his time within the main Negro Leagues (2,728 PA, 111 OPS+, 10.6 WAR). To tug from a available instance, fellow Early Baseball candidate Scales, in comparable enjoying time through the interval (3,504 PA versus high-level Black competitors) posted a 141 OPS+ and 25.7 WAR, and did even higher (147 OPS+ in 2,613 PA) within the main Negro Leagues. For all of Harris’ baserunning prowess, what I don’t see within the statistics is a giant stolen base complete (42 through Seamheads, 27 through Baseball Reference) which may signify a stage of ability and leisure worth not totally captured by the accessible numbers, as is the case for the likes of Lou Brock and Maury Wills.

Placing that apart, it’s Harris’ unparalleled success as a supervisor within the main Negro Leagues that’s his actual promoting level; as famous, he gained extra pennants than some other such supervisor, and even with out counting 1939 as one in every of them, it’s not shut. Charleston, Taylor, Andy Cooper, Rube Foster, Dave Malarcher, Jose Mendéz, and Frank Warfield are tied with the next-highest complete of three. Harris’ 269 video games above .500 lead the pack as effectively, with the next-closest being Bullet Rogan’s 146 above, compiled in simply 5 seasons; Rogan (.698) is the one supervisor with a better profitable share than Harris (.663), and he’s already enshrined, primarily for his profession excelling as each a pitcher and outfielder. If anybody had been going to elect a supervisor primarily based upon what he did through the 1920-48 interval within the main Negro Leagues, I don’t see how the road begins with anyone however Harris. Main historians, together with Riley and Holway, designated him as a supervisor on their all-time groups.

Definitely, Harris was helped by having had inside circle guys like Gibson, Leonard, and Bell within the Grays’ lineup, with different Corridor of Famers reminiscent of Brown and Wilson enjoying key roles as effectively. However the final I checked, Yankees managers reminiscent of Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Joe Torre have all been enshrined regardless of relying upon the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter and too many different Corridor of Famers to checklist whereas profitable a number of championships. Whether or not or not these skippers had been significantly sturdy tactically, in addition they needed to navigate the complexities of coping with superstars and their egos, to not point out the opposite elements of main a ballclub. For Harris, doing so beneath the hostile circumstances of the Negro Leagues, the job was most likely no picnic.

The final time he was on the poll, I wrote, “I feel Harris is worthy of election to the Corridor and would come with him on my poll — if area weren’t a difficulty. I’ve a more durable time shifting him into one of many 4 accessible spots to which voters are restricted.” This time round, I really feel extra strongly about together with him, partially as a result of I couldn’t final time and since he got here so near election. If I dedicate one of many three spots on my digital poll to him and one to Dick Allen, on whom I’m an excellent firmer sure, that leaves me to decide on one candidate from amongst Luis Tiant, Tommy John, and Donaldson, whose profile will observe subsequent. No person stated this was going to be straightforward.