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475:. He played 56 games (47 with the Homestead Grays and nine with the New York Lincoln Giants), batting .386 with sixty runs batted in. He played sporadically in Negro baseball afterwards, playing two games for the Newark Browns in 1932, one for the Newark Dodgers in 1934, and six for the Grays in 1935.
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Beckwith served as a pitcher on five occasions (with one start), throwing 22.1 total innings and allowing eight runs. The rifle-armed player would start at seven other positions in the field in 3,394 total innings of play, with third base (1,422.1) and shortstop (805) being his primary positions. A
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decided to purchase him for his team after the 1921 season. Beckwith responded by batting .358 in 67 games with 52 runs batted in as the Giants won the league pennant that year. He played one more season with the team, batting .304 in 72 games with 77 runs batted in. In 1927, he unofficially bashed
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Over a career that spanned three decades, Beckwith with his signature 38-inch bat, routinely batted over .300 against official Negro league competition. Beckwith got his major league start with the
Chicago Giants as a twenty-year-old in 1920. They played as a travelling team, which resulted in two
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trounced him with an .427 average (he also finished second to
Charleston in home runs). It was the first and only time Beckwith finished in the top two for batting. Beckwith played 26 games for Baltimore before being shifted to the Harrisburg Giants in 1926 for 28 games. He batted .332. He stayed
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dead-pull hitter, Beckwith had one of the quickest bats around. In fact, opposing defenses sometimes employed an over-shift on the infield—a rare occurrence versus a righty. In 1921, the 19-year-old became the first basher to hit a ball over the laundry roof behind
Crosley Field.
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himself said that “not only can
Beckwith hit harder than any Negro ballplayer, but any man in the world.” In one year, he hit a 460-foot blast in Griffith Stadium; the ball would've gone farther had it not been stopped by a 40-foot high sign. Beckwith, who
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Standing 6-foot-3, and weighing upwards of 220 pounds, John
Beckwith was one of the mightiest sluggers to ever take the field. Pitcher Scrip Lee, who faced both men, declared that "Babe Ruth and Beckwith were about equal in power." The legendary
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last place finishes in their first two seasons as founding members of the Negro
National League. However, Beckwith was a bright spot for the team, batting .285 in 1920 and .371 in 1921.
530:(WAR) six times (ranking as high as third in 1925), batting average five times, on-base percentage four times, slugging percentage six times, and home runs seven times.
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678:
466:. He played 33 games and batted .371. In 1925, he batted .404 in fifty games with fifteen home runs. However, it was not enough to win the batting title, as
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Beckwith also took up managing, doing so for three different teams. He managed the Black Sox in 1925 to a 25–18–1 record before being replaced by
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486:. In 1927, he went 38–31 for the Giants for a second-place finish. In 1932, he managed four games for the Newark Browns of the
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72 home runs against all-comers (he hit 54 HRs in 1928). Beckwith went to
Baltimore in 1924 to play for the Black Sox of the
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713:
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with
Harrisburg for 1927 and batted .353 in 67 games. He left the league and returned to the Negro majors in 1929 with the
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called "one of my favorite ballplayers," made his last known Negro league appearance in 1938. Beckwith died in
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583:"Foster's Great American Giants play a stiff game against Kansas City Monarchs" Chicago Broad Axe, Chicago, IL, P3
572:"Stars Drive Ball off Mound to Win" Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan, Monday, May 31, 1920, Page 17, Column 3
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John
Beckwith's batting statistics from the Hall of Fame's Negro League project
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Beckwith ranked among the Negro leagues' career leaders in
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claimed that "nobody hit the ball any farther than —
404:(January 10, 1900 – January 4, 1956), nicknamed "
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774:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
639:Career statistics and player information from
609:"1925 Eastern Colored League Batting Leaders"
595:"1922 Negro National League Season Summary"
764:20th-century African-American sportspeople
749:Baseball players from Louisville, Kentucky
660:John Beckwith managerial career statistics
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669:Baseball Hall of Fame candidate biography
649:Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
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623:"1925 Baltimore Black Sox Statistics"
555:, six days before his 56th birthday.
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383:Career highlights and awards
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528:Wins above replacement
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734:Newark Browns players
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473:American Negro League
391:Negro National League
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230:Chicago Union Giants
134:, for the
118:, for the
68:Louisville, Kentucky
769:Baseball infielders
524:slugging percentage
448:Major league career
408:", was an American
350:Baltimore Black Sox
275:Baltimore Black Sox
220:Montgomery Grey Sox
120:Montgomery Grey Sox
645:Baseball Reference
542:or nobody else."
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197:Managerial record
142:Career statistics
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759:1956 deaths
754:1900 births
695:Bio Project
540:Josh Gibson
455:Rube Foster
703:Categories
643:, or
559:References
432:Early life
344:As manager
61:1900-01-10
653:Seamheads
544:Babe Ruth
516:home runs
484:Pete Hill
410:infielder
215:As player
168:Home runs
40:Infielder
436:Born in
422:baseball
681:at the
671:at the
457:of the
418:manager
414:catcher
200:63–53–1
95:Batted:
48:Manager
44:Catcher
506:Legacy
494:) and
101:Threw:
87:, U.S.
70:, U.S.
209:Teams
110:debut
103:Right
97:Right
76:Died:
56:Born:
693:SABR
651:and
647:and
522:and
500:1938
492:1936
416:and
374:1932
364:1927
354:1925
337:1935
327:1934
317:1932
307:1929
297:1927
293:1926
283:1926
279:1924
269:1923
265:1922
255:1921
251:1916
241:1917
234:1916
224:1916
158:Hits
152:.349
132:1938
116:1916
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662:at
641:MLB
520:RBI
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182:461
162:636
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