>> this gentleman talked about how he thought my book harry truman's excellent adventure, what did you say, greatest book ever written? greatest book. i think you said greatest book ever written. i'm writing that down for a blush. harry truman's excellent adventure is the story of harry and bess truman in the summer 1953, about six months after they left the white house. they took a road trip. they lived in independence, missouri, just outside kansas city, and harry had to give a speech in washington, and their daughter lived in new york, and so they decided to just drive their chrysler from missouri to the east coast and back again. i think it took about 2 1/2 weeks, but at the time ex-presidents had no secret service protection. they had no pensions, and harry was not a wealthy guy by any means. a lot of the expenses of the white house were paid directly out of his salary.

so when he -- actually when he left the white house in early '53, he had had to take a loan out from a bank in washington to help make ends meet, and he also refused to commercialize the presidency. he would not take lucrative speaking fees. he would not sit on corporate boards, that sort of thing. i'm glad the presidents still don't do that. so anyway, he was really kind of a poor guy. he was the last president to become a regular citizen again in a way, and so on this trip they stayed at hotels, and they ate at roadside diners, and they crashed with friends in indianapolis one night, and so it's kind of the story of this trip and also how being an ex-president has changed. yeah, they came to new york. they actually stayed at the waldorf in new york for four nights, and i was curious how they could afford that, and then harry saved all his

correspondence and at the truman library i found a letter from the general manager of the waldorf saying, i hear you're coming to new york. we would be happy to have you as our guest, and harry wrote back and said he thought that would be all right. so he wasn't averse that taking a few perks here and there but they did the trip on the cheap and then i went back and, you know, recreated it and was able to find some people who had encountered him. he got pulled over on the pennsylvania turnpike for driving in the left lane. i don't know what it is in new york, but in pennsylvania you have to drive right. you keep right, only drive left to pass. but harry i guess just liked to get in the left lane and just keep going, so he got pulled over by a cop, and the cop actually, a state trooper, still alive, manly stampler, and i found him. he's retired in arizona, and there were reports that he had just pulled truman over to get

his autograph, and i asked manly about this, and he said, no, i didn't. i didn't. i wish i had. might be worth something today, but he never got his autograph. >> surprised that the american indian didn't rise in pedestrian evidence. maybe he wasn't allowed to compete. >> i don't know. the question was about american indians participating in pedestrianism matches and i really did not come across much of that. i will say that most of the major matches took place in the east coast, new york, boston, philadelphia, and some of them in london. also, many of the pedestrians were very poor, they were working guys, and so they had sponsors. they had to find somebody to put up the $100 entry fee for them, and, you know, obviously that person was hoping they would win, and so i would imagine it was difficult for some people even to find someone willing to help them pay the $100 entrance fee.

yes? >> i think you mentioned that the pedestrians -- there were trading cards? >> yes. >> did you find any of those? >> i was able to find -- the question was about pedestrians on trading cards, and, yes, i was able to find a reproduced one. the originals are quite expensive, they can be 200 or $300. and as i said, my books don't generate, you know -- that's a tough one to get past the wife. do you mind if i buy a $300 trading card of a pedestrian? it's not like it's going to be honus wagner and be worth $1 million some day, but there are companies that reproduce vintage trading cards and so i was able to get one from them, and it's in the book, which is on sale there. yes?

>> those who walked like cross country -- [ inaudible ]. >> the cross country walks and the difficulty therein, yeah, there were no -- there weren't even -- there were really no marked roads. a lot of westin's walks cross country, especially going east coast to west coast, he also did a walk to los angeles, were done along railroad beds. a lot of the walking he did, which is even more difficult i think in some ways than walking on bad roads. and as i said, they -- there were no reliable road maps, and so he would often find himself off course. one of the problems with the walk from boston to washington that he attempted to do in ten days and was four hours late, he got to philadelphia and took a long turn, and it wasn't until you reached the next town, 10, 15 miles down the line, that you realized, oh, i took the wrong road and you just had to circle

back and get back on track. so it was very difficult. >> what were the prizes? >> yes. the prizes. as i said, most of the six-day races you would win a percentage of the gate. so you might win for a big race $20,000. often the long distance races were done for gambling, so there would be wagers made. westin would find a backer, somebody willing to put up $10,000 and was confident that he could finish the race, finish the walk from portland, maine, to chicago in less than 30 days. that was that bet. and then find another gambler who was willing to put up $10,000 to say he couldn't. it was interesting because in races like that, it wasn't really a race, you're racing against time, but in walking feats like that, there was a lot of fear that someone might try

to sabotage him so he wouldn't make it. he actually brought a food taster with him when he did the walk to portland, maine, to chicago to make sure nobody tried to poison him because even if you made him sick for two days, it might be enough for his schedule to be off, and westin was meticulous about his schedule. he scheduled every minute. every race, a six-day race or a walk from new york to los angeles, he had everything scheduled out. when he would sleep, when he would eat, those sorts of things. if he was taken -- you know, if he was taken off that schedule, he would be in trouble. yes? >> no question but a couple of comments. it seems that speed that you referred to seems phenomenal, especially over those periods of time of number, number one. number two, truman's famous for being a walker. every day he took his

constitutional. >> referring to the speed of the pedestrians in the competitive races, i think, and it's hard to tell -- we have no photographs much less moving pictures, it's a shame. it was still the age of, you know, line drawings and engravings, but the way people describe westin's walk really sounds similar to what race walking is today. they said he had a wobbly walk, that he moved his hips. he swung his hips. so i have a feeling that he walked fast, much like modern race walkers do. and as far as truman, you mentioned harry truman, yeah, he walked -- i forget what it was. what was his old military pace of 60 steps a second or 60 steps a minute or something. he was famous for his walks. liked to walk around washington. there's a good story where the

secret service hated it. well, the secret service had been protecting fdr, you know, for 12 years and reallypppppppc have to worry about fdr going on long walks, and so they were used to sitting around and smoking all day. one day harry just bounds out of the office, he has to go deposit his check at the bank and it took him two blocks to catch up with him, and then the secret service did a thing where they decided they were going to fix the traffic lights so he would always hit the walk signal whenever he was out on one of his walks in washington, and, of course, as soon as he found that out he was furious that they would do that. he kept walking, and he returned to independence, missouri, and he walked right up to the very end. he died in '73. i think he was 88 years old, but right up until the end he was still walking. he was a firm believer in walking, and, in fact, he was probably young enough -- i think

he remembers the 1884 -- at least he would have heard from, you know, his parents or other older people about the great walking matches that had taken place about ten years before he was born. okay? one more. [ inaudible question ] >> how would timing work with athletes took a nap? well, you were on your own when you took a nap. you could sleep as long as you wanted, but you were sacrificing all that time on the track. now, in the arenas, especially the major arenas, i know in new york and chicago there was a large clock on the wall, and so everybody could kind of keep track about how long people slept, how long they were on the track, that sort of thing, but nobody really kept statistics on exactly how long somebody was on the track or exactly how long

somebody slept. if you took a nap, you were really taking your chances because the rest of the field could just continue walking. yeah, it's interesting. the idea of timing and timing to the second and minute, it was -- you can't really trust all the times you hear sometimes, you know, where somebody would say, oh, i walked 500 miles in 5 days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes. well, you know, how good was the clock? they didn't have quartz timing or anything, so a lot of that in the book i kind of try to take with a grain of salt when people say, oh, you know, he walked 100 miles in, you know, 19 hours. it's like it's not always easy to be sure. yes? >> can you tell us --

[ inaudible ]. >> okay. good question. how did they eat? they ate while they walked, and they were allowed to have an attendant who would help them, i don't know, cut the steak or something while they were walking. i don't know what they did, but they took their meals and they took their drinks while they walked. obviously to save time. maybe they'd have a big old piece of rare meat and just chew on it and that was it. i don't know how you would eat the greasy eel broth while you were walking without burning yourself. but, yeah, meals were taken while they walked. all right. well, thank you so much again. i really appreciate your attention. [ applause ] american history tv normally airs on the weekends, but with

congress on recess throughout august, we're featuring highlights during the week. coming up, a look at the kansas city monarchs of baseball's negro leagues and their impact on professional baseball. then a discussion on race in sports with hall of famers bill russell and jim brown. and later another look at the history of competitive walking. tonight american history tv explores the overland campaign, a series of major battles that took place in virginia in 1864 between union forces under ulysses s. grant and confederates led by robert e. lee. watch the 150th anniversary commemoration ceremonies marking the beginning and conclusion of the overland campaign as well as a look at the battle of cold harb harbor, the campaign's final major conflict. that's all tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3.

here is a look at our prime time lineup for this week on the c-span networks. each night starting at 8:00 eastern. on c-span, a debate on genetically modified food. wednesday night highlights from the new york ideas forum including cancer biologist andrew hessle. friday night we'll visit important sites in the history of the civil rights movement. on c-span2 it's book tv in prime time beginning at 8:30 p.m. eastern with a discussion about fracking. tuesday night at 8:00, afterwar afterwards. on wednesday the authors of "the new machine age." thursday night a discussion about the future of politics with former maryland governor robert ehrlich and al frahm. and friday in depth.

american history tv on c-span3 an entire week on the civil war. tonight a look at the overland campaign in virginia. on tuesday the war's only battle in washington, d.c., the battle of ft. stevens. wednesday night, the 150th anniversary of the union defeat at the battle of the crater. and thursday the capture of atlanta and general sherman's march to the sea. and on friday, a look at hollywood's portrayal of slavery. find sour television schedule one week in advance at cspan.org and let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-626-3400 or e-mail us at comments@c-span.org. join the c-span conversation. like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. next, author and baseball historian phil dixon discusses the history of the kansas city monarchs, the longest running tran chis en from chis. they featured a number of future hall of fame players including

jackie robinson and introduced new innovations to the game like the use of lights for night games. the dwight d. eyssisenhower presidential library and museum hosted this hour-long event. >> first i want to say good afternoon, and i want to thank some people, of course, tim for giving me this opportunity to come down and speak with you today. i'm really excited about it and samantha who handled a lot of the publicity for the event. she did just a wonderful job, and without people like that -- also there was a local radio station that did a great interview and between newspaper and radio, i'm always appreciative of all the people who support your visit, and so i want to thank all of them before i get standarded. i'm going to jump right into it and tell you a little bit about why i'm here. the kansas city monarchs was a

negro league baseball team and perhaps most of you have heard of them or some of their great players. maybe you heard of jackie robinson or satchel paige. they were organized in 1920 and 1924 and then won their first world championship. that was 90 years ago. i was trying to figure a way to honor these great men who purely played for the love of the game because they didn't make great salaries back then, and so i decided i was going to visit 90 cities to basically commemorate the monarchs' efforts as a negro league baseball team. now, they played in more than 90 cities, so i'm going to 90 cities and, believe me, that just scratches the surface of all the places that the kansas city monarchs did. they were great ambassadors for the game. for me my journey started a long time ago. as a child i collected baseball cards, and i kind of went nuts with that. so i found out about baseball

and i just kept collecting, collecting, collecting and the collection kept growing, growing, growing. and my knowledge grew, so not only did i know about the baseball statistics, but the thing that captured me the most were baseball stories. so i liked to read the backs and whatever stories they had and then i gravitated to books and just kept growing. and finally, this kind of brings me home to abilene and here's what happened. i got my first full-time job working for a retail store. i was out of college and they bounced me around to a few places. i was in colorado springs, albuquerque for a little while, wichita, and then i ended up in topeka, kansas. i always talked baseball, no matter where i went. i always talked baseball. someone mentioned there was a negro leaguer who had played ball who lived in topeka.

and i got to know this negro leaguer, his name was carroll ray and he was on that '24 team. through that association -- he later passed -- and i decided to do a little tribute to him. so in doing this tribute, you know, once again being that kind of person who loves to collect information, you know, i challenged myself. i said i'm going to find every game the kansas city monarchs ever played. that was pretty aggressive idea back in that 1980. there was no internet at that time. so if you wanted to know the name of the library say if they played in abilene, you write to the library, had to go the library. they had a big book with all the library addresses from the state of kansas and then i write them down. i would write letters. i had all these letters. it was a labor of love and a passion that just kept on growing.

and needless to say, i was able to find games that were played in abilene because of that. so as a tribute to the kansas city monarchs who were way in kansas city, what i'm doing now is going to towns that they played and the name of my program is the kansas city monarchs and our hometown. now, give you a little bit of overview of the kansas city monarchs. as i said just a moment ago, they were organized in 1920, and they were a charter meqsnvj of the negro nationalñr league, an they won their first championship in 1923, but at that time they didn't have a world series. so 1924 they played the eastern colored league, the hilldale team and the monarchs won. hilldale was out of darby, pennsylvania. 1925 they return to the world series but they did not win. hilldale won that year. they returned back to the world series as the best team in the

eastern colored league and they won. the kansas city monarchs continued to play and by 1929 they had won another championship under the leadership of a guy by the name of wilber bullet row began. we'll be learning more about him in a moment. and along the way the kansas city monarchs played exhibition games, and i'll pretty much explain how that happened. in the negro league, they had a regular schedule. so you had eight teams and they had a regular schedule. but most of those games would be on the weekend when they could draw the largest audience. so they would play fridays, saturdays, sunday, and then sometimes on monday. in between that if you're coming from kansas city going to st. louis, well, there's a lot of cities in between, and, remember, we're talking about the golden age of town baseball, and these are grown fellows who are playing baseball, and some of them were, you know, workers in the town but they loved

baseball as well, so these are grown men playing baseball. as you can see, the monarchs during the 1920s, this is an article from the kansas city, kansas, daily traveler. they only lost three times in over 400 exhibition games. so the towns had good teams, but the monarchs were hard to beat. and during that time when they were barnstorming, of course, the first time they came to abilene was in 1923, and they were on the trains, but in 1925 there was a highway act, and they started building up the highways connecting all the major cities and some not so major together, and so the owner of the kansas city monarchs, being this creative genius that he was, his name was j.l. wilkinson, he decided he would use a bus to transport his players, and they could go places on a different schedule than the railroad. they could get more games in. they could go to cities who weren't along the railroad lines. so in that he became the first

in the kansas city monarchs, the first team to travel exclusively by bus. the other thing that i think is always interesting is that the kansas city monarchs in 1930, they popularized night baseball. when you think of night baseball, you don't often think of the monarchs. most people remember the date, i think it was may 24th, 1935, and they talk about cincinnati lighting up its park, and that's the date i learned as a child. this is when night baseball started in the major leagues but actually with the kansas city monarchs, it started in 1930 and wilkinson once again being the baseball innovator and genius that he was, he wanted to make night baseball popular. so he patterned it after what he has seen with carnivals and circuses who had lights and he worked on it and he created some towers he could take on trucks from city to city and he popularized this night baseball.

now, the major leagues were skeptical of the night baseball. so it's been recorded that ben johnson, the president of the passing fad. it would never last, and wilkinson said that lights will be to baseball what talkies are to movies. another bit -- interesting bit of history is that the first all-night world series where all the games were played in the night was 1985 when the kansas city royals played the st. louis cardinals. so it took that long. as a matter of fact, the first world series game at night wasn't until 1971 and back in the 1930s the monarchs were already popularizing that. as a matter of fact their pitcher, one of them pitched the first no litter back in 1930 under the lights. this was one of his greatest innovations and one he doesn't often get credit for but he should because it revolutionized

major league baseball and baseball everywhere. so the monarchs spent a lot of time barnstorming, and in 1930 the depression had pretty much hit most of the major cities that were in the league, so st. louis, chicago, all those cities were in depressions. and so wilkinson decided to pull his team out of the league and go 100% barnstorming. so what he was able to do through that is to take the monarchs to places that they couldn't go in between their schedule. so like in between their schedule -- he could come out to western kansas, take a week, take a few days and come back to kansas city. well, when he got out of the league, they went as far as the pacific coast. they were in portland, washington state, idaho. they went down to mexico and went over the border into mexico. they went up to canada. they went all the way to

saskatchewan. going all those places you can see they rarely lost. this was an awfully good team. but the barnstorming is the part that most people had the opportunity to see the kansas city monarchs. this is the way that most baseball fans had to chance to see the kansas city monarchs, especially outside the major cities. now, this picture here is a barnstorming picture. you can see, you know, the towns' teams, they knew how great the monarchs were, and a ballplayer can recognize another ballplayer, no doubt about it. so when they saw the kansas city monarchs, they recognized how good these players were, and this picture right here, this game was played in blue rapids, kansas, and so that's 1939, and that shows how popular they were. teams were willing to pose with

the kansas city monarchs and this is at a time when racial divides could be pretty tough, but the kansas city monarchs were welcomed almost every place they went. so because of his great innovations, j.l. wilkinson, who we have pictured here, is now a member of the baseball hall of fame in cooperstown, new york. one of his pictures -- i might mention wilkinson also when they organized the negro national league, he was the only white manager in the league or white owner in the league and how that came about was because in 1911 he organized a team called the all nations and the all nations had many nationalities on one team traveling together. so jose mendez was with them. he was a cuban. they also had john donaldson, an african-american out of glasgow, missouri. one of the greatest left-handers

that ever lived. they had an italian guy. a couple guys who played formerly in the major leagues. they had whites, they had blacks, they had a native american that played with them and the first professional japanese player played on wilkinson's team. and so that team played right up until world war i and they were pretty much decimated by the draft of world war i. so when the monarchs and that whole opportunity comes available in 1920 because of his goodwill and his friendliness and his relationship was various races, he was picked to organize a team, and that's how he became the only white owner in the negro national league. also mendez, outstanding player. he was the monarch's first manager. he had started with wilkinson years ago. he also has been enshrined in cooperstown, new york. also along the way they had other players that joined them. this gentleman by the name of andy cooper. andy cooper's original lly bornn

waco, texas, but he's raise in wichita, kansas. 1920 he plays for the detroit stars and in 1920 wilkinson traded two players to get him and he comes to the monarchs, remains there until he died while he was the manager in 1940. you becomes and because he was such an outstanding player, he, too, is in the major league hall of fame at cooperstown, new york. but of all the greatest players, especially during the 1920s, there was none greater than wilber "bullet" rogan and many people to this day have not heard higgs name. if i had the same group of people in 1920 and i would mention rogan's name, they would know exactly who i was talking about. he was widely publicized. here is the reason why i personally think he was the greatest all-around baseball

player that ever lived. and, you know, right before, you know, we went and started this whole new decade and the new century, they did all these polls of the greatest baseball players of all time. everybody picks babe ruth. but let me till what you rogan was able to do. rogan, like ruth, he was a pitcher and he invented a pitch called the palm ball which is a change of pace. so rogan was a great pitcher and he won over 400 games as a pitcher. also he was a great batter and he hit for home run pawer and he was 5'7" and he had over 400 home runs as a batter. he was a consistent .300 hitter for ample. he played the outfiled when he wasn't pitching and was gold glove outfielder, tremendous

arm. he was a fast runner. he could run 100 yard dash in less than ten seconds or in that area. and on top of that he managed the monarchs and he led them to the pennant in 1929, and in 1934 they had a record of 134 wins and 14 losses, and he managed that team, and when he wasn't doing all of that, he drove the bus. so there are lots of games that i could talk about that happened here in abilene, and this is kind of -- this is one of the things i do when i go to cities. i talk about the games this that particular town. there was one interesting game in junction city i'd like to add so we're going to get to that. but the first time the monarchs came, as i said, was in 1923. it was august 17th, and one thing that was unique, this didn't happen too often. in 1925 they came to abilene

twice in the same year. that was rare that they would go back to a barnstorming city twice. so i tell you, that says something for abilene right there. and, of course, in 19 -- i jumped to 1938, but there were some other games along the way. 1926 they came here in august and they got rained out. then they came back in september 15th of 1927. they got rained out again. and there's another game i know in 1939, i'm still trying to find information on it so i can't give you much detail on that but we've got some interesting games that i do want to talk to. keep in mind integration in the area of blacks being on teams with whites in kansas was not new, and so people were kind of already prepared long before the kansas city monarchs came. this is a picture here of the humboldt team in the 1880s. bud fowler, who was first african-american po play minor

league baseball played at topeka in 1886, and there was another gentleman by the name of burt wakefield who was out of troy, kansas, a guy by the name of -- his name was jones, burt jones, and he was from acheson, and they played in the kansas state league right up until 1899. so kansas was one of the last leagues to include african-american players. and a lot of people weren't aware of this knowledge. this is the earliest pike tour i have found of an integrated team in the state of kansas. now, these games, there were always scouts from other cities trying to figure out how they could beat the monarchs. in this particular article i saw a reference to the manager coming over from manhattan to scout the kansas city monarchs because they were going to be playing them and he wanted to see how they could beat the monarchs.

he scouts the monarchs which is kind of interesting because you wouldn't think that people were actually scouting teams at that time.zme. of course when he got over here this is what he saw. the kansas city monarchs, the first time they came through they pretty much handled the local team, beat them 10-2. as you notice, mendez is in the game. the guy who was in the hall of fame. and he's probably one of the earliest hall of famers and bullet rogan in the hall of fame was also there that day. wilkinson their owner was there as well. in that game there was a guy by the. >> i'm of swede he pitched the only four innings of the game. swede was a local player and he is just a heck of a good pitcher. in times like those, the looegse didn't always pay the larger bi amount of money so some ghis ifo they had a good enough job, they didn't leave and they could gee

work and town teams. they come to abilene, they pretty much beat abilene.t but because the score was 10-2, would you leave that abilene was praud proud of that.was and in the paper they printed that there's some mean satisfaction in knowing that thn kansas city monarchs defeated junction city 13-1, classen ter 13-1 and abilene only 10-2. so thought that was interesting. but that happened all the time. so if you couldn't beat them, nt you know, maybe you can lookere better than the surrounding cout towns. them now, what's interesting about n this game, when the monarchs organized in 1920, the first he league president was a gentleman by the name of andrew ru foster, and he had been managing teams. actually he had four teams, the cubans, he did the detroit stars, and his self.

he was booking those teams and getting 5% to 10% of the gate oe wherever they played. and so they needed foster to osr come into the league to be a a part of the league because he controlled five, four, of the first teams. they had to convince him to give up his booking money could tom i in -- come into the league. they said we would give you 5% from every game that's played im the negro national league. so the new teams plus the teamse that used to book, they were going to give him 5%. degrees because they had an agreement with foster had to pa 10% to foster. he kept immaculate records, and so i was able to come across his record book, and what i was ablt to find out exactly how much money then made in abilene. if you look here, abilene according to the newspaper account had 1,000 people at thea

game and the monarch's share ano once again they got a share, the monarch's charged 65% of the gate if you hooked them in youre town. they made $341 in abilene.fr you can see theom gator seats fm the other cities they played in. junk city they made $406. burlington, $406 and low roy le, they didn't get a kroubt there, it was $75. it just gives you a view of how important these games were fromp a profitable stance. the monarchs had pretty much mh handled abilene, but abilene still had their great pitcher i swede. so theyt invited the monarchs backte twice in 1925 and this i the lineup that appeared here in 1925 when the monarchs came through. some of these names are like ro

bullet rogan. he was in left field that day. didn't pitch that day. so they come through and some oh the players like jart sweat, he was originally born in humboldt. newt allen grew up around kansas city. sylvester foreman is buried in coffeyville, kansas. bill drake was from sedalia. chet brewer born and raised in leavenworth and clifford bell was a texan but this is the team and this is the team that they m played. well, bullet rogan wasn't pitching that day but pearson for the local team struck out t ten of the kansas city monarchss and that was going some back th. then. bullet played the outfield went 1 for an2. wouldn't you believe it, he hit the only home run of the game. just an outstanding player.game. when they came once again, how much money did they make, rightk so we go back to foster's ledger, and there were 900 an

people ind th that first game ah the monarchs for their take of the game made $260. now, what's interesting if you f look, the monarchs in abilene on the 9th.on the if you go down to the 20th the there, you can see they were in birmingham, alabama, and you can see thatmi they made $160 playi0 on the first day they went to wt birmingham. so they made more in abilene than they did in birmingham.am and birmingham was a league town. you can see why theseu games ars pretty important and that's why the monarchs continue barnsto barnstormi barnstorming. i guess the people of abilene were not satisfied because they had never seen bullet nerogan pitch. so they had to invite them back. to see bullet rogan pitch. so they come to town and this is the final score. 11-4. and bullet rogan pitches and abilene scores four runs off of him which was quite a feat. there were 15,000 people at thit game, and i think day the public got their money's worth seeing

that game. the monarchs hit four home runsr and wouldn't you know it, bullet rogan added another home run tor his already dominant list of home runs. and once again, when people talk about the home runs that rogan hit if you go online, look in k some of the hits, these are not the home runs they talk about. these are games people generalll don't know about.ow and so this is kind of researchf i specialize in. of course, we mentioned sweat.ad he had went to pittsburgh stateo college, also played football a everyone posh ya. also and we mentioned that he was a a from humboldt and wade johnston is his name. he lived in steubenville ohio, and actually after he retired from baseball and was an older guy, he ran a store, a bait andd tackle store and he specialized in selling worms.cials w

that's what he did after his living. but in addition to hitting a home run, rogan struck out 12 that day, and this is a pretty good player.da so abilene finally got a chance to see bullet rogan. but abilene did something that . was quite a feat as well.eat a guy names hoss and taylor, first name unknown, hit home runs off of bullet rogan and the newspaper thought that was a of great feat, and so they wrote it up.p. they said it is something to be proud of because he's considered one of the world's best pitchers.e not the best pitcher in kansas u or missouri.ri the world's best pitcher. they knew something back then about baseball, and once again we can go back to foster's ledger and this is what we find. okay? so the monarchs take that day with bullet rogan pitching drew a better crowd, $420.

and let's see, and once again if you take a closer look you see that the marks left here and once again this had to be a b different secretary because the way they spelled abilene is completely different than the s first secretary, right? but we know the date around that's definitely abilene. so if you notice that on august the 2nd there in abilene and they don't play again until theh 8th and they're in st. louis ls playing against the st. louis stars. if you notice, abilene made more money than a league team, the st. louis stars. and i keepmo stressing that because people wonder why would they play all of these exhibition games when you have a league? and the reasonthes why is becaua one thing, it was income.gu one other game i like to talk ut about -- i usually try to talk about three or four games in every city. ;r)çh pick some of the more e mr interesting games to talk abouta so one of the games i wanted toh talk about -- and i might

mention the other games that i n have in abilene were rainouts and some things like that. occ there's one in 1939, still e's o trying to pull allne the detail o they camet as late as 1955. usually when i go somewhere to speak, there's an old baseball player in the audience say, heyn they were here in 1952. always i'm always finding new g information everywhere i go. exi and that's exciting to me because i go in instanley and g start stdigging that informatio out and see what happened in the game. so anyway one of the next games i wanted to mention was rogan's last season in 1938, and the monarchs came down and they were going to play in junction city. and this is what the newspaper wrote about rogan. they said his name is wrot undoubtedly the moste famous on in negro baseball of this or any other day.baseba

the outfield when he was not pitching rogan was and second to none on the mound in his heyday.ou he has speed, his fadeaway was similar to that of matherson and his control was almost perfect.h major league batters who batted against him said he was as goods as any pitcher they ever faced, and this is what they're writing about rogan in his final is goi heson. he's going back to all these places that the monarchs playedl and he's basically making that last round trip around the league. and that just kind of shows the popularity he had. when the monarchs showed up in d junction city, things had tion changed in baseball.gs the golden era of town baseball had begun to die.asebal and so at this particular pointp most teams had like college lie players and young guys and they would have these ben johnson leagues and they would be all

over kansas, and so one of the things the monarchs pretty much handled thosemu johnson league teams. so they started to book other o negro league teamsth to play y against the kansas city monarchs in cities throughout kansas.thrg so in the later years starting maybe 1937, you start to see ths monarchs playing other negro league teams outside of the league -- outside of kansas city and they're in communities likek this. the monarchs came to town with four hall of famers which is fam pretty unique. the name that is not shown was t the manager, andy cooper, who did not play. of course, we know he's in the u hall of rsfame. in they had picked up another guy named norman "turkey" stearns. he had been with drought and heo came overrm and wilkinson alway would try to get turkey -- he had him for a little bit in 1939 when they played in the doctor f po

denver post he wastournament.d avenues guy that used to talk to his bats. buck o'neill used to tell me the story that he always carried a 33 ounce and a 34 ounce bat. and buck said that he was e rooming with him and he said he went out and he came back and turkey was in there and he had y the 34 w and the 33 ounce bat a3 he carried his bats. a he slept with his bats. the room.to t and thehe monarchs had lost a go that day, and he had used the 33 bat, and it went about this far from going over the fence, and buck said he was talking to his bat it's and he was talking to e the 33.33. he said i used you today and i didn't hit the home run. o he said if i used you, i would have hit the home run and we would have won the game. turkey when they interviewed him years later they said how many home runs did you hit?em he said i have no idea because i only counted them when they wot the ball game.laye he's ar. great player and he's that team.urse,

you have bullet rogan in his hi final season.'s on and you haveth another guy name willard "home run" brown. willard brown was playing brown shortstop on this -- he's playing third base in this ly h' particular game but he played a lot of shortstop. he ended up being a great short player. he went to the major leagues. most people know about jackie robinson being first or african-american. you know about larry doby. two monarchs were the third and fourth. i don't know -- because they signed the same day.e they went to the st. louis to browns and willard brown was on. of them. the other was hank thompson. so they signed the third and fourth african-american players and willard brown goes out and he hits a home run on august 13th against bobo newsom. hits a home run and he becomes the first black player to hit ar home run in the major leagues, not jackie, not larry, willard

brown. willard brown is coming back to the monarchs and never gets back to the major leagues but he did play minor league baseball and t he had a over 400 home runs playing with the negro league u teams. i thinka he had another couple hundred home runs playing in ths m minor league ball in the, texas league and he holds the currenti word for home runs hit in the tc puerto rican winter league. they come to town with four negro leaguers. to show you how much ability was in the negro league, they lost. they had all those hall of fa famers andme they lost. i might also mention bibs.bib most african-americans at that time went to black colleges. bibs went to indiana state. he was out of terre haute, indiana, but he went to indiana state and most people know famous indiana state basketball player?

yeah, larry bird.e, yeah, that's right. but bibs was there and because of his great play at the college and some of the work that i was able to do to bring recognitiono to him and people started to pay attention to him, today he is i the indiana sports hall of fame and alsoindiof the indiana stat of fame as well. i thought you might want to takt a look at a few of these guys. because the when he ran. he back then they used to pick really good nicknames. nowadays if you listen to the baseball games, they just shorten up the players' names. back then they watched the bally players watch what you did, howh you act. one man got his nickname because he came out as a rookie and he wasn't nervous and the guys sais you're cool. then he becomes cool papa bail and turkey had his name because

of the way he ran. it's willard brown with his sob there playing for the monarchs. interesting picture there. the player in the background has an alphabet, not a number. that was one of wilkinson's innovations that did not work. and, of course, this gentleman here was john "buck" o'neill in 1938. he was playing his first season with the kansas city monarchs.ot you know, baseball players go through certain phases. right now in the major leaguesb we're in the beard phase.in a lot of guys have facial hair. you notice these guys have no facial hair, and so that was tht phase that they were in at that particular time, the clean cut t kind of look. this is very young buck o'neill by the way, and the first african-american to come in theo major leagues or have been gues playing with a mustache was wa satchel paige. sosel if you find pictures of f

satchel paige, you will find he has a mustache in the 1930s ache which was kind of rare.of but once again satchel paige was kind of rare himself. so, you know, in going around and giving talks on the negro un lesi leagues and trying to go back to as many cities as i can and talk about various games they played in those cities, you know, occasionally, you know, you heaw something that really summarizes the experience, and i was methin listening to a song, a lady by the name of kim harris sanging a that song and i heard it and i said that's a great song. but you know what?you i'm a halfway decent poet. let me change it. ada i kind of adaptedpt it. so i'd like to say it for you today and i'll close with that. it goes something like this. my name is bullet rogan, my name is turkey stearnes. my name is buck o'neill but my e age is way beyond. i spent myspre prime in basebal

shoes but my sporting days are gone. now i'i'm just one more forgott face among the black teams. i worked the fields in tennessee but i dreamed of better days so i left the plow, the pick and bag to join the homestead grays. and all summer long we play the states then headed south for fall through rain and dust we rode the bus so we could play baseball. now we play for love and we we for pride and we seldom made ave much more. the bread, the beans, the hotel bugs, the crowds that don't roar. we made due and we came through because, damn it, we were pros.n and we played in the shadow of the babe, lou gehrig and the rest then stood lined the big league fence while they were l called the best. we stayed behind that colored line and watched those guys get rich. but did they see josh gibson

swing or satchel throw his stuff? or do you know how bad it feels when your best is not good enough? when clouds roll inen y across sky to hide the brightest moon, it's then you'll find some starg don't shine, some folks were d' born too son. so god bless you jackie rodriguez, willie mays and all,s you wore our number on your ou backs when you played big leaguo ball and every time you hit onet out, slid or laid one down, youn carried us from that old bus to the halls of cooperstown. now, my name is plunk drake, my name is newt allen, my name is i rainy bibs but you won't remember that. you i'm just one more along the i'm score who play with ball and scr bat. but whenye you seek out heroes k you praise the great pastime, remember those old brown faced pros, the stars that did not shine. [ applause ] >> and so with that conclusion, what i'd like to do is open it

up for any questions that you p might have related to the negro leagues and i want to thank everybody for coming.or i'm heading to junction city tomorrow, and believe it or nott sunday i'm o in salisbury, missouri. so i'm jumping across the state and just having a ball talking baseball and talking local baseball that doesn't get talket about very much but having fun y with the history of the kansas city monarchs and the town teams alive again. >> i think you can probably hear me. >> for tv. >> yes.>> this has been very interesting.n i thank youte very much for youu presentation. i'm so sorry there aren't more people here to enjoy this and t learn more about the monarchs. i would like to know has there ever been or do you think therei

ever will be a movie that goes back and delves into the histor of the monarchs because they d weree a great inspiration and a actually the foothold of all the black players in the american leagues today, in fact all sports i think. >> yeah, that's an excellent ths question. i think, you know, i'm a personi who grew up watching baseball movies, and i would say that there's been some attempts to write a few movies. there was one called the soul of the game. it wasn't that great a movie. t even 42, if you watch 42 which . was about jackie robinson that came out last year, they had onr little part in the front that in talks about the kansas city mon monarchs, and, you know, you don't see any footage. so i think not only the kansas city monarchs, a really good movie could be written about tht whole black baseball experience. i think you would need somebody who kind of knew what was going on to write a good movie about

it. and i might mention, too, when i first started doing research on the negro leagues, going back tk the early '80s. i have just seen so many things change. when i man first started doing d research, people said, oh, you d won't find photographs.won't fi and, of course, after i found 600 of them -- actually, i founl close to 1,000. 600 in the book. it was the negro baseball leagues, a photographic history, nobody believed you could find pictures anymore.ic histo i killed that whole myth.nd and now i'm also trying to popularize the fact that the monarchs and these teams in thea negro leagues played in all these cities and there's so many great story that is could be told. hopefully i'd like to see it in my lifetime as well.it >> thank you.>> thank i had a coach and a teacher when i was in junior high that playeh early days of pro football, and they got paid if the