Roosevelt Davis Marquee

b. November 19, 1904 · St. Louis Stars 1924–1931, Chicago American Giants 1929, Kansas City Monarchs 1930, Indianapolis ABCs 1931, Cleveland Stars 1932, Pollock's Cuban Stars 1932, Columbus Blue Birds 1933, Pittsburgh Crawfords 1934–1935, 1937–1938, New York Black Yankees 1936–1938, 1940, Newark Eagles 1938, Memphis Red Sox 1939–1940, Cincinnati Clowns 1943, Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns 1944–1945, Cleveland Buckeyes 1945, Cuban Giants

Roosevelt Davis pitched in the Negro Leagues from 1924 into the mid-1940s and was traded, sold or signed by well over a dozen clubs along the way. He began with the St. Louis Stars, won titles there, and later pitched for the Pittsburgh Crawfords teams that carried several future Hall of Famers.

His reputation rested partly on what he did to the ball. Contemporaries described an emery ball and a cut ball among his pitches, delivered with enough conviction that hitters spent as much time inspecting the baseball as swinging at it.

Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1904, Davis appeared for the Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Newark Eagles, Memphis Red Sox, New York Black Yankees and the Clowns among others, was named to an All-Star squad in 1939, and compiled a 97-62 record with 89 complete games in the surviving record. He died on December 28, 1968, at sixty-four.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Negro Leagues East-West Classic	1	1939

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	AVG
1924	SLS	25	40	4	6	0	1	0	2	2	.150
1925	SLS	35	61	4	10	1	0	1	5	1	.164
1926	SLS	36	55	2	8	0	0	0	1	3	.145
1927	SLS	34	58	6	13	1	1	0	4	3	.224
1928	SLS	24	34	4	10	1	0	2	4	2	.294
1929	CAG/SLS	35	48	3	10	2	0	0	1	2	.208
1930	KCM/SLS	21	48	3	11	1	0	0	3	2	.229
1931	AB2/SLS	7	21	1	4	2	0	0	4	2	.190
1932	CLS/CUP	8	22	2	3	0	0	0	1	2	.136
1933	CBB	8	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
1934	PC	5	10	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.100
1935	PC	13	32	4	11	2	0	0	4	3	.344
1936	NBY	14	25	1	3	0	0	0	0	1	.120
1937	NBY/PC	9	19	0	3	0	0	0	2	2	.158
1938	NBY/NE/PC	5	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1939	MRS	5	16	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.063
1940	MRS/NBY	2	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
1943	CC	9	20	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	.150
1944	CIC	8	26	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	.077
1945	CBE/CIC	4	13	0	1	1	0	0	1	2	.077
Career	—	307	569	34	101	11	2	3	33	28	.178

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1924	SLS	7	4	25	12	0	120.2	142	62	31	51	4.62
1925	SLS	16	6	35	19	0	168.0	175	83	26	48	4.45
1926	SLS	7	5	36	18	3	145.1	182	87	46	49	5.39
1927	SLS	10	8	34	17	2	162.2	193	75	36	63	4.15
1928	SLS	8	0	24	9	1	98.0	108	40	13	36	3.67
1929	CAG/SLS	6	7	34	15	3	144.2	148	63	32	58	3.92
1930	KCM/SLS	11	3	21	11	0	115.1	134	60	46	68	4.68
1931	AB2/SLS	2	4	7	4	0	50.1	60	25	23	27	4.47
1932	CLS/CUP	3	3	8	7	0	58.1	60	22	13	41	3.39
1933	CBB	2	2	8	4	0	44.0	50	13	9	16	2.66
1934	PC	1	0	5	2	1	23.0	25	10	10	12	3.91
1935	PC	5	1	13	8	1	86.0	87	30	24	49	3.14
1936	NBY	2	4	14	9	1	66.2	76	33	22	27	4.46
1937	NBY/PC	2	4	8	6	0	46.2	56	31	9	22	5.98
1938	NBY/NE/PC	0	3	5	3	0	11.2	32	18	9	4	13.89
1939	MRS	2	3	5	5	0	40.0	44	13	4	20	2.92
1940	MRS/NBY	0	1	2	1	0	9.2	7	1	3	6	0.93
1943	CC	5	2	9	6	2	61.1	45	16	10	37	2.35
1944	CIC	6	2	8	8	0	60.0	59	16	16	42	2.40
1945	CBE/CIC	2	0	4	3	0	32.2	19	6	9	13	1.65
Career	—	97	62	305	167	14	1545.0	1702	704	391	689	4.10

On this day & linked events

1904

Born November 19, 1904

Bartlesville, OK, USA

1968