1906
Born September 3, 1906
Atlanta, GA, USA
Willie Cornelius Marquee
b. September 3, 1906 · Memphis Red Sox 1929–1930, Birmingham Black Barons 1930, Chicago American Giants 1933–1943, 1945–1946, Cincinnati-Cleveland Buckeyes 1942, Jacksonville Red Caps 1942
Willie Cornelius was small for a pitcher and threw a screwball and a knuckleball to compensate, and it worked well enough that he was chosen for three East-West All-Star games and started more than one of them for the West squad.
He spent most of his career with the Chicago American Giants, arriving in the early 1930s and staying more than a decade, through the years when the club moved between the Negro National and Negro American Leagues.
Born in Atlanta in 1906, Cornelius compiled a 54-65 record with 65 complete games and 537 strikeouts in the surviving record. Cornelius died on October 30, 1989, at eighty-three.
Honors
| Award | Times | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Negro Leagues East-West Classic | 3 | 1935, 1936, 1938 |
Batting, season by season
| Year | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | MRS | 9 | 25 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | .280 |
| 1930 | BBB/MRS | 29 | 45 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .133 |
| 1933 | CAG | 15 | 39 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | .154 |
| 1934 | CAG | 16 | 36 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .167 |
| 1935 | CAG | 12 | 23 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .174 |
| 1936* | CAG | 8 | 17 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .235 |
| 1937 | CAG | 20 | 40 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | .075 |
| 1938 | CAG | 20 | 30 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | .167 |
| 1939 | CAG | 18 | 34 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | .265 |
| 1940 | CAG | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 |
| 1941 | CAG | 10 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .350 |
| 1942 | CAG/CCB/JRC | 16 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .350 |
| 1943 | CAG | 17 | 48 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .208 |
| 1945 | CAG | 16 | 25 | 5 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .440 |
| 1946 | CAG | 4 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .375 |
| Major leagues | — | 203 | 395 | 55 | 85 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 38 | 45 | 8 | 2 | .215 |
| All seasons | — | 211 | 412 | 57 | 89 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 39 | 50 | 8 | 2 | .216 |
Pitching, season by season
| Year | Team | W | L | G | GS | SV | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | MRS | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 41.0 | 49 | 19 | 10 | 30 | 4.17 |
| 1930 | BBB/MRS | 7 | 10 | 27 | 17 | 0 | 130.0 | 127 | 77 | 63 | 73 | 5.33 |
| 1933 | CAG | 6 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 98.2 | 109 | 55 | 40 | 49 | 5.02 |
| 1934 | CAG | 4 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 84.0 | 103 | 54 | 34 | 40 | 5.79 |
| 1935 | CAG | 4 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 59.0 | 78 | 36 | 34 | 39 | 5.49 |
| 1936* | CAG | 3 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 52.2 | 63 | 33 | 18 | 36 | 5.64 |
| 1937 | CAG | 5 | 4 | 17 | 12 | 1 | 103.0 | 82 | 33 | 35 | 66 | 2.88 |
| 1938 | CAG | 9 | 1 | 20 | 8 | 3 | 102.0 | 84 | 24 | 30 | 77 | 2.12 |
| 1939 | CAG | 3 | 8 | 15 | 10 | 0 | 99.1 | 95 | 50 | 28 | 47 | 4.53 |
| 1940 | CAG | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0.00 |
| 1941 | CAG | 0 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 61.2 | 57 | 24 | 23 | 21 | 3.50 |
| 1942 | CAG/CCB | 2 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 35.0 | 51 | 25 | 19 | 15 | 6.43 |
| 1943 | CAG | 4 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 62.0 | 65 | 27 | 22 | 11 | 3.92 |
| 1945 | CAG | 3 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 50.2 | 71 | 44 | 13 | 17 | 7.82 |
| 1946 | CAG | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17.1 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 2.60 |
| Major leagues | — | 51 | 62 | 169 | 118 | 4 | 950.2 | 990 | 473 | 361 | 501 | 4.48 |
| All seasons | — | 54 | 65 | 177 | 125 | 4 | 1003.1 | 1053 | 506 | 379 | 537 | 4.54 |
Seasons outside MLB's recognized major leagues appear in All seasons, but not in Major leagues or the leaderboards. For Willie Cornelius, that is 1936–1936. Why totals can differ.
On this day & linked events
1989