Oscar Charleston Marquee Hall of Fame 1976

b. October 14, 1896 · Indianapolis ABCs 1915–1918, 1920, 1922–1923, New York Lincoln Stars 1916, Chicago American Giants 1919, Detroit Stars 1919, St. Louis Giants 1921, Harrisburg Giants 1924–1927, Hilldale Club 1928–1929, Homestead Grays 1929–1931, Pittsburgh Crawfords 1932–1938, Toledo Crawfords 1939, Toledo-Indianapolis Crawfords 1940, Philadelphia Stars 1941

Only Josh Gibson at .371 and Ty Cobb at .366 are ahead of him. He led his league in runs six times, in stolen bases five, and in hits and in home runs four times each, and he did it while playing center field: 846 games there, and 476 more at first base as he got older.

The counted record gives him 1,157 hits, 139 home runs, 815 runs batted in and 223 stolen bases over 884 recorded games from 1920 to 1941. Nine further seasons in independent Black baseball, from 1915, add another 561 hits that fall outside the count. The figures are partial because nobody with the resources to keep them thought them worth keeping.

He played for a dozen clubs and managed several of them, most famously the Pittsburgh Crawfords teams of the 1930s that had Gibson and Satchel Paige on them at once. He was chosen for three East-West All-Star games. The Hall of Fame elected him in 1976 through its Negro Leagues committee, twenty-two years after he died.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Negro Leagues East-West Classic	3	1933, 1934, 1935

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1915*	ABC	57	221	31	57	9	5	2	31	13	0	14	.258
1916*	ABC/NLS	33	122	25	39	1	3	0	13	14	0	7	.320
1917*	ABC	48	178	26	52	6	4	1	19	14	0	3	.292
1918*	ABC	40	154	39	60	8	8	3	46	13	0	13	.390
1919*	CAG/DS	45	179	47	71	9	6	8	43	19	0	16	.397
1920	ABC	76	285	60	95	18	5	5	45	35	1	20	.333
1921	SLG	62	226	90	98	12	10	12	74	34	2	35	.434
1922	ABC	89	354	92	135	24	15	17	90	39	1	27	.381
1923	ABC	84	308	68	112	25	6	11	94	48	0	25	.364
1924	HBG	58	222	67	91	27	5	15	65	28	6	22	.410
1925	HBG	71	255	97	109	23	3	20	97	51	0	17	.427
1926	HBG	48	169	43	52	12	1	10	43	34	6	24	.308
1927	HBG	69	247	68	98	20	6	13	73	49	0	21	.397
1928*	HIL	60	207	54	72	11	6	11	44	40	3	11	.348
1929	HG/HIL	82	291	71	106	23	7	7	64	56	1	8	.364
1930*	HG	53	217	47	68	17	2	12	55	18	1	7	.313
1931*	HG	48	190	36	63	14	6	3	33	18	0	1	.332
1932*	PC	68	247	45	79	17	4	4	40	29	0	16	.320
1933	PC	70	262	69	89	19	7	14	67	25	0	7	.340
1934	PC	59	200	35	64	10	2	7	41	27	3	6	.320
1935	PC	41	155	21	42	10	1	2	29	16	3	8	.271
1936	PC	32	93	18	32	8	0	4	18	13	1	0	.344
1937	PC	15	41	4	9	2	0	1	6	2	0	0	.220
1938	PC	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1939	TC/TC2	17	58	9	17	3	0	1	7	7	0	1	.293
1940	TIC	8	17	2	6	1	0	0	1	3	0	1	.353
1941	PS	2	4	0	2	0	0	0	1	2	1	1	.500
Major leagues	—	884	3188	814	1157	237	68	139	815	469	25	223	.363
All seasons	—	1336	4903	1164	1718	329	112	183	1139	647	29	311	.350

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1915*	ABC	1	1	6	5	40.2	38	20	18	23	4.43
1916*	NLS	0	0	1	0	1.2	1	0	0	1	0.00
1917*	ABC	0	0	3	1	16.1	6	3	9	7	1.65
1918*	ABC	0	1	4	2	15.0	18	10	5	5	6.00
1919*	CAG	1	0	1	1	9.0	4	1	3	5	1.00
1920	ABC	0	0	3	1	16.1	22	6	6	5	3.31
1921	SLG	0	0	2	0	4.2	13	6	1	2	11.57
1923	ABC	1	2	5	3	29.1	31	15	13	7	4.60
1926	HBG	0	2	2	1	16.0	17	10	8	6	5.63
1927	HBG	0	0	1	0	2.2	6	5	2	1	16.88
1933	PC	0	0	2	0	5.1	1	2	4	1	3.38
Major leagues	—	1	4	15	5	74.1	90	44	34	22	5.33
All seasons	—	3	6	30	14	157.0	157	78	69	63	4.47

Seasons outside MLB's recognized major leagues appear in All seasons, but not in Major leagues or the leaderboards. For Oscar Charleston, that is 1915–1932. Why totals can differ.

On this day & linked events

1896

Born October 14, 1896

Indianapolis, IN, USA

1954

Died October 5, 1954

1941

Final major-league game: Oscar Charleston

Oscar Charleston played a final major-league game on August 12, 1941.

Image: Unknown author Unknown, public domain