1909
Born November 9, 1909
Montgomery, AL, USA
Jerry Benjamin Marquee
b. November 9, 1909 · Memphis Red Sox 1932, Indianapolis ABCs/Detroit Stars 1933, Homestead Grays 1935–1947, Toledo Crawfords 1939, New York Black Yankees 1939, Cleveland Buckeyes 1945, New York Cubans 1948
Jerry Benjamin played center field for the Homestead Grays through most of the run of nine consecutive pennants, batting leadoff in front of Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, which is a useful job to have if runs scored are how you are measured. He has 634 of them in the surviving record.
A switch-hitter with speed, he was chosen for East-West All-Star games in 1937, 1943 and 1945, and appeared in the Negro League World Series when it was revived in the 1940s.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1909, Benjamin batted .298 with 891 hits and 134 stolen bases across 752 recorded games. He was sixty-five when he died, on November 23, 1974.
Honors
| Award | Times | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Negro Leagues East-West Classic | 3 | 1937, 1943, 1945 |
Batting, season by season
| Year | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | MRS | 41 | 143 | 25 | 41 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 11 | .287 |
| 1933 | ID | 35 | 124 | 27 | 38 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 17 | 0 | 13 | .306 |
| 1935 | HG | 44 | 180 | 38 | 57 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 31 | 10 | 1 | 6 | .317 |
| 1936 | HG | 39 | 150 | 43 | 54 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 23 | 21 | 0 | 10 | .360 |
| 1937 | HG | 52 | 219 | 59 | 65 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 35 | 30 | 0 | 13 | .297 |
| 1938 | HG | 42 | 165 | 42 | 51 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 26 | 24 | 1 | 4 | .309 |
| 1939 | HG/NBY/TC | 30 | 114 | 23 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 1 | 6 | .219 |
| 1940 | HG | 44 | 170 | 38 | 54 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 17 | 1 | 16 | .318 |
| 1941 | HG | 57 | 224 | 33 | 61 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 27 | 23 | 2 | 8 | .272 |
| 1942 | HG | 67 | 267 | 53 | 73 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 28 | 33 | 2 | 15 | .273 |
| 1943 | HG | 71 | 294 | 83 | 110 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 38 | 25 | 0 | 12 | .374 |
| 1944 | HG | 53 | 228 | 43 | 74 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 31 | 19 | 0 | 4 | .325 |
| 1945 | CBE/HG | 51 | 210 | 42 | 69 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 2 | 4 | .329 |
| 1946 | HG | 59 | 245 | 38 | 61 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 21 | 22 | 0 | 7 | .249 |
| 1947 | HG | 52 | 204 | 38 | 47 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 3 | .230 |
| 1948 | NYC | 15 | 56 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 2 | .196 |
| Career | — | 752 | 2993 | 634 | 891 | 108 | 41 | 28 | 358 | 312 | 10 | 134 | .298 |
On this day & linked events
1974