The \u201932 NSL was considered a major league because Rube Foster<\/strong>\u2019s original NNL had fallen apart, and that league\u2019s flagship team\u2014the Chicago American Giants<\/a>\u2014along with the Indianapolis ABCs and the Louisville Black Caps, opted to join the NSL. The NSL also welcomed in the champions of the previous year\u2019s Texas-Oklahoma League, the Monroe (Louisiana) Monarchs<\/a>. Along with the Memphis Red Sox and Birmingham Black Barons, former members of the NNL themselves, these additions made the Southern League the obvious successor to Foster\u2019s league.<\/p>\n Amidst the depths of the depression, black professional baseball hit its lowest point in 1932, with teams and leagues folding, players constantly on the move, pennants disputed, and fans often bewildered. The chaotic nature of the \u201932 NSL poses many difficulties for historians. It\u2019s hard even to know what teams were really in the league. We\u2019ve chosen to use the standings published in the Chicago Defender<\/em> as the standard, although different contemporary sources name several other teams as league members. It\u2019s quite possible (even likely) that further research will result in changes and additions in the future.<\/p>\n The NSL\u2019s first-half championship was disputed between the American Giants and the Monroe Monarchs, with the league eventually awarding the title to Chicago. Dave Malarcher<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s team, led by Willie Foster<\/strong><\/a> (10-5, 2.01), Turkey Stearnes<\/strong><\/a> (.315\/.390\/.500), Melvin Powell<\/strong><\/a> (8-3, 2.49), and Steel Arm Davis<\/strong><\/a> (.301\/.353\/.497), went on to defeat the second-half champion Nashville Elite Giants 4 games to 3 in the league championship series.<\/p>\n The Monarchs, featuring Leroy Morney<\/strong><\/a> (.378\/427\/.522), Roy Parnell<\/strong><\/a> (.350\/.387\/.556 and 5-1, 0.83), Dick Matthews<\/strong><\/a> (11-2, 2.17), Elbert Williams<\/strong><\/a> (9-6, 1.91), and Barney Morris<\/strong><\/a> (10-4, 3.06), made the most of their one year in the big time, and felt understandably aggrieved about their exclusion from the NSL\u2019s official postseason. (See Thomas Aiello<\/strong>\u2019s The Kings of Casino Park<\/em> and Bill Plott<\/strong>\u2019s The Negro Southern League<\/em> for more about this.) Monroe played, and won, a \u201cDixie Series\u201d against the Austin Black Senators, pennant winners of the Texas Negro League, and then played what was billed as a world championship series against the independent Pittsburgh Crawfords (won by the Crawfords).<\/p>\n Although we now have coverage of every traditional major Negro league, that does NOT mean the DB is \u201cfinished\u201d in any sense. We still have fielding and various secondary statistics (pitchers\u2019 HRs allowed, HBP for batters, etc.) to add to leagues\/seasons that were based on NLRAG work, as well as new games and final audits for these seasons (and many others). There are also many Latin American seasons in the pipeline (Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela), as well as the California Winter League, Negro leagues vs. minor league games, the ManDak League, the Negro leagues after 1948, and a lot more. And biographical research continues. There is still a long, long way to go before the records of segregation-era black ballplayers could be considered anywhere near complete.<\/p>\n
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