John Beckwith Marquee

b. January 10, 1900 · Chicago Giants 1920–1921, Chicago American Giants 1922–1923, Baltimore Black Sox 1924–1926, 1931, Harrisburg Giants 1926–1927, Homestead Grays 1928–1929, 1935, New York Lincoln Giants 1929–1930, Newark Browns 1932, New York Black Yankees 1933–1934, Newark Dodgers 1934

John Beckwith hit .350 in the games the surviving record covers, with 97 home runs in 587 of them, which is a rate of power almost nobody in the Negro Leagues of the 1920s matched. Contemporaries described balls hit out of parks that had never been cleared.

He was a shortstop and third baseman of considerable size and a difficult teammate by most accounts, which helps explain a career spent moving: the Chicago Giants, the American Giants, the Baltimore Black Sox twice, Harrisburg, the Homestead Grays, the New York Lincoln Giants, Newark and the Black Yankees.

Born in Louisville in 1900, Beckwith drove in 550 runs in the games that were scored and played his last recorded game in 1937. He died on January 4, 1956, six days short of fifty-six.

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1920	COG	30	115	12	28	6	0	1	14	6	0	1	.243
1921	COG	46	184	32	72	14	5	4	39	15	1	8	.391
1922	CAG	66	223	44	80	21	5	7	52	19	5	11	.359
1923	CAG	72	270	36	82	21	9	8	77	19	0	5	.304
1924	BBS	33	119	33	46	6	1	7	31	11	4	10	.387
1925	BBS	50	183	47	74	14	1	15	64	24	0	3	.404
1926	BBS/HBG	54	199	42	66	17	4	9	54	19	7	4	.332
1927	HBG	67	265	62	92	20	3	8	57	18	0	1	.347
1928*	HG	19	72	8	22	2	2	1	10	2	9	0	.306
1929	HG/NLG	56	207	57	80	17	2	14	60	22	2	2	.386
1930*	NLG	23	74	25	36	7	3	6	33	8	0	4	.486
1931*	BBS	33	112	26	38	4	1	12	35	10	4	0	.339
1932	NWB	2	8	2	3	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	.375
1933*	NBY	16	61	9	21	5	0	2	15	6	0	0	.344
1934	NBY/ND	14	30	6	7	3	1	2	4	1	1	0	.233
1935	HG	6	15	0	2	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	.133
Major leagues	—	496	1818	373	632	141	31	76	457	156	20	45	.348
All seasons	—	587	2137	441	749	159	37	97	550	182	33	49	.350

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	L	G	GS	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1920	COG	1	1	1	8.0	7	4	4	5	4.50
1921	COG	0	2	0	9.2	10	4	2	7	3.72
1926	BBS	0	1	0	1.0	1	0	2	0	0.00
Career	—	1	4	1	18.2	18	8	8	12	3.86

Seasons outside MLB's recognized major leagues appear in All seasons, but not in Major leagues or the leaderboards. For John Beckwith, that is 1928–1933. Why totals can differ.

On this day & linked events

1900

Born January 10, 1900

Louisville, KY, USA

1956

Died January 4, 1956

Image: The Penn Studio, public domain