1909 Bill Pettus and Others Jump To Majors

01/09/1909 Ten more Negro League stars join the majors this off season. This brings the total of players to leave the Negro Leagues and join the majors to 40. Out of those 40 players three have retired, Bud Fowler, Frank Grant and Sol White. This years crop of former NeL players includes; Bill Pettus and Doc Wiley who jumped from the New York Lincoln Giants to the New York Yankees. William Tenny leaves the Kansas City Monarchs and heads to St. Louis to join the Browns. Bill Lindsay and Charles Dougherty jump from the American Giants and the Leland Giants to the White Sox. Pelayo Chacon, Cuban star joins the Superbas in Brooklyn. Arthur Gilliard leaves the Negro leagues to become a Red Sox. Ashes Jackson jumps from Kansas City to the Cardinals of St. Louis. Last but certainly not least is Spotswood Poles who leave Philadelphia to head west to Pittsburgh to become a Pirate.

The addition of the black players we are starting to see a change in the landscape of the league. Major league clubs with black teams in their own towns are reaping the benefits of players jumping onto their rosters. It will be interesting to see how this effects the league. Will there be new champions in ballparks were there wasn't a pennant celebration? Will roster changes help or hinder the chemistry of the franchise? After all some players will be loosing their starting roles to the new team mates.