William Julius "Judy" Johnson (October 26, 1899 – June 15, 1989) was an American professional baseball third baseman, shortstop, manager and scout whose career in Negro league baseball spanned 17 seasons, from 1921 to 1937. He also played in the Cuban League. Slight of build, Johnson never developed as a power threat but achieved his greatest success as a contact hitter and an intuitive defenseman. Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of the Negro leagues. In 1975, he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being nominated by the Negro Leagues Committee.

From 1921 to 1929, Johnson was a member of the Hilldale Daisies ball club and became an on-the-field leader respected for his professional disposition. His consistent swing and fielding prowess helped the Daisies win three straight pennants in the Eastern Colored League and the 1925 Colored World Series. After serving as a player-manager for the Homestead Grays followed by the Daisies in the early 1930s, Johnson signed with the Pittsburgh Crawfords; as a part of the vaunted Crawford line-up of 1935, Johnson contributed to a team widely considered the greatest in Negro league history. He retired in 1937 after a short second stint with the Grays.

Following his retirement from baseball as a player, Johnson became a scout for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. He was hired as an assistant coach by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, becoming one of the first African Americans signed to a coaching position on a major league ball club. In his later years, Johnson served on the Negro Leagues Committee and stepped down in 1975 to accept his Hall of Fame nomination. He suffered a stroke in 1988 and died a year later.

Life and career

Early life

William Julius Johnson was born on October 26, 1899, in Snow Hill, Maryland, to William Henry Johnson, a sailor and licensed boxing coach, and Annie Lee Johnson. Johnson had an older sister, Mary Emma, and a younger brother, John, both of whom were named after heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, a long-time friend of William Henry. Early in his childhood, the family moved to Wilmington, Delaware; by that time, his father worked at the docks as a shipbuilder and as the athletic director at the Negro Settlement House.

When Johnson was eight years old, his father began grooming him to become a pugilist. William Henry bought two pairs of boxing gloves: one pair for his son and the other for Mary Emma, his sparring partner. The sport was unappealing to Johnson, however; instead, he began playing sandlot ball and joined his father's local amateur team, the Rosedale Blues, which competed against black and white teams. In 1917, he stopped attending Howard High School to work in the shipyards in New Jersey and play weekend games on baseball teams that were drawn from the community, including the Rosalies and the Chester Stars. The following year, he joined the semi-professional ball club the Bacharach Giants for a $5 wage per game.

The Hilldale Daisies (1921–1929)

In early 1919, Johnson worked out for the Hilldale Daisies and was attached with the Madison Stars, Hilldale's unofficial minor league affiliate, to hone his skills. By 1921, with the Daisies in need of an infielder, Johnson signed a professional baseball contract worth $135 a month with Ed Bolden, who owned the Hilldale ball club. The rookie ballplayer was soon adorned with the nickname "Judy" because of his resemblance to Chicago American Giants pitcher Judy Gans; the name stuck with Johnson for the duration of his baseball career. Johnson spent his first year as a professional ballplayer at shortstop while his player manager, Bill Francis, played at third base, Johnson's natural position. Once the regular season began, Johnson struggled at the plate, finishing his rookie year with a .188 batting average (BA), yet he played every day and was mentored by Francis in the offseason in order to make the transition to third base.

The Hilldale club had another successful season in 1924, clinching their second pennant. The Daisies had high expectations when they met the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League (NNL) in the 1924 Colored World Series, the first official World Series between the respective champions of the NNL and ECL. Johnson led both teams with a .364 BA and hit a clutch Inside-the-park home run in Game Five of the best-of-nine series, but the Daisies lost, five games to four (with one tied game).

After the season, Johnson started playing winter ball in Cuba and was moved to the clean-up spot in the line-up for the remainder of his stint with Hilldale.

Like Charleston, Johnson remained productive in the latter stage of his career, hitting well above a .300 BA during his five-year stint with the Crawfords. In 1935, he was chosen as captain, and the Crawfords were favored to win the pennant race. In Game Seven, with the Crawfords trailing 7–4 and down to their final out, Johnson hit an infield single to load the bases and kept Pittsburgh's pennant hopes alive. Charleston followed next in the order and hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game and the series. In 1951, the Philadelphia Athletics hired Johnson as a scout. He urged the team, albeit unsuccessfully, to sign prospects Hank Aaron and Minnie Minoso. Before the Athletics relocated to Kansas City in 1954, the club assigned Johnson as an assistant coach tasked with instructing black players Bob Trice and Vic Power during spring training. Due to the brief nature of Johnson's assignment, Buck O'Neil is generally credited with being the first African-American to coach in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Johnson spent time scouting with the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s. He is credited with instigating the signings of slugger Dick Allen and Bill Bruton who later became his son-in-law. As one of the oldest surviving stars of the Negro leagues, Johnson was offered a seat on the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues when it was appointed by MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1971. The committee's responsibility was to select noteworthy Negro league players for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Johnson is recognized as the best third baseman of the Negro leagues; Arthur Ashe in his book A Hard Road to Glory termed his play as "the standard by which other third-basemen were measured". Former teammates, including Ted Page and Johnson's mentor John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, praised his composure under pressure, both on the field and at the plate.

Judy Johnson Field at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium is named for him.

In 2019, a memorial statue dedicated to Johnson was unveiled in his home town of Snow Hill, Maryland, in front of the town's library.

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Rendle, Ellen Judy Johnson: Delaware's Invisible Hero Wilmington: The Cedar Tree Press (1994)
  • and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats and Seamheads