The Pecan Park Eagle

Played CF like a Tris Speaker.

Handled the bat like a Babe Ruth.

Consult with sabermetrics genius Bill James and Oscar Charleston rises to number four on the list of best players of all time. Check with 92-year old Monte Irvin, and the old bats left throws left star of the Negro League also rises all the way to the apex as a serious candidate for the forever arguable title, “the greatest of them all.” According to Monte Irvin in a brief conversation we had on our drive together to this year’s National SABR Day celebration in Houston, Oscar Charleston in his own say-hey-day had to have been the ultimate personification of what we think of today as the five tool guy. That’s not exactly what Monte said. What Monte said was, “Oscar Charleston! Oh my! He may have been the greatest! He could do it all! From what I heard, there just wasn’t anybody else like him for all the things he could do better than most.”

That translates to me that Oscar Charleston could hit for average and power. He could throw hard with accuracy. He could run like a deer. And he could catch anything that he could get his glove on. And I have to trust Monte’s judgment on this one. After all, Monte Irvin was there to see him, and in time to know those players personally who saw him performing at his earlier best.

Monte Irvin only saw Oscar Charleston play once, and that was late in his career, after age had forced him to move from center field to first base, but that ravage had not stopped the outpouring of legend that occurred even then. Older players and fans regaled in retelling stories of how Charleston could take a fly ball in medium deep center field and then throw a strike to the catcher at home plate. We’re not talking one-bounce here; we are talking on-the-fly and through the strike zone on throws from the healthy hits region of center field.

Oscar’s hey-days range was so great that the left and right fielders basically guarded the lines and tended long foul balls. Charleston covered the rest of the ground. When Willie Mays came along, people compared his fielding ability to that of Oscar Charleston. Oscar Charleston actually started with comparisons as the “black Tris Speaker,”  but, as Willie Mays achieved fame in his own right, people began to shift comparisons to the newst star light, and Oscar Charleston’s legend lived on as the old-school version of Willie Mays.

The world forgets most of us and whatever we do, but the world remembers forever the truly great at things we care about. And that list of forever famous American investments definitely includes baseball. And a center fielder named Oscar Charleston.

Oscar Charleston was born on October 14, 1896 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He joined the Army at age 15 and served out most of his enlistment time in The Philippines. After the service, he immediately began his baseball career with the Indianapolis ABC’s in 1915. Over time, Charleston served as a center fielder, fist baseman, and manager for the ABC’s, the Chicago American Giants, the Lincoln Stars, the St. Louis Giants, the Harrisburg Giants, the Philadelphia Hilldales, the Homestead Grays, and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. His career batting average was .348, but like most of the other great Negro Leaguers, integration came too late for Oscar Charleston against “official” major league pitching.

Oscar Charleston was an intelligent, fiery leader who once pulled the hood off a KKK buffoon in a down South confrontation with racists that threatened to grow ugly until Oscar made his bold move. Ignorance and evil backed off under the exposure to light and all further ugliness was avoided.

Sadly, death came early for oscar Charleston. He passed away on October 6, 1954 at the age of 57.

Oscar Charleston was later posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.