https://www.detroitathletic.com/blog/2016/02/10/turkey-stearnes-detroit-stars/
Norman 'Turkey' Stearnes was Detroit's Greatest black baseball player.
Detroit Athletic
If you were to sit down with a group of Detroit Tigers fans and poll them as to the identity of the greatest player in the history of the city of Detroit, you would likely receive a concentration of two or three answers. I suspect that most of the respondents would say Ty Cobb, one of the five original Hall of Fame electees in 1936. A fair share of folks would vote for Al Kaline, who is almost certainly the greatest Tiger of our lifetime. And there might be a few who would throw their support toward Miguel Cabrera, the reigning American League batting champion.
If we were to amend the question, and ask the same group to name the greatest black ballplayer in Detroit history, the answers might include the perennially underrated Lou Whitaker, or the fearsome Cecil Fielder, or the beloved Willie Horton. It is quite possible that no one would register a vote for a player from the old Negro leagues. Historian Dick Clark, who specialized in the study of the Negro leagues, and who passed away in December of 2014, would have differed with that consensus. Clark, who followed Negro leagues baseball with the same passion that current-day fantasy players follow the contemporary game, believed that Norman “Turkey” Stearnes was the finest African-American player to play for a professional Detroit franchise.
“Stearnes was the greatest black ballplayer in Detroit baseball history,” said Clark back in 2014, on the eve of the Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference that was held in Detroit that summer. “Not major league or Detroit Tigers history, but baseball history.” Clark’s all-time Detroit outfield would have included Stearnes in left field, alongside Cobb in center and Kaline in right.
One can agree or disagree with Clark, but he was a man of higher wisdom when it came to the Negro leagues. He was probably one of the 10 most knowledgeable historians on the Negro leagues, along with people like Adrian Burgos, Leslie Heaphy, Larry Hogan, Larry Lester, and James Riley. He also knew his Michigan sports history, having been born and raised in Detroit.
He went to Henry Ford High School, attended Eastern Michigan University, and spent most of his adult life working within the state of Michigan. When Clark said something about Detroit area baseball, those sentiments were worth serious consideration.
Clark had good reason to voice his support for Stearnes. The Hall of Fame outfielder played for a number of teams in the Negro leagues, including the legendary Kansas City Monarchs and the Chicago American Giants, but it was with the Detroit Stars where he forged the bulk of his reputation. Playing for the Stars from 1923 to 1931, and then again during the franchise’s brief revival in 1937, Stearnes emerged as a legitimate five-tool talent. For his career, he batted over .400 three times and won six league home run crowns. He could run, too, even though his awkward baserunning style earned him the nickname of “Turkey.” A fine fielder, Stearnes owned a strong throwing arm that played well in right field, even though he appeared more often in left.
Statistics and record-keeping for the Negro leagues remain incomplete, but advancements in research in recent years have given us the framework of Stearnes’ dossier. In Negro leagues competition, he batted .344, hit 176 home runs, and slugged .621—all frightening career numbers. Among the most feared hitters in the Negro Leagues—Satchel Paige put him in the same category as the legendary Josh Gibson—he made five All-Star teams. He also did well in limited competition against white teams. In 14 such games, he batted .313 with four home runs.
Stearnes played 10 seasons with the Stars, but his Detroit career would have lasted even longer if not for the Great Depression. Because of the effects of the Depression, the Stars could not pay Stearnes’ salary in 1931. So he essentially became a free agent, taking his services to the Monarchs.
Stearnes did retain strong ties to Detroit. During the winter, he worked in the auto plant owned by Walter Briggs, the owner of the Tigers, earning about $6 an hour. Like all ballplayers of the era, Stearnes could not live off his meager baseball salary alone. He needed steady work in the off-season, even if it meant working for an owner who was not allowed him to sign him as a baseball player because of the color of his skin.
Even after his playing days, Stearnes continued to work and live in Detroit. An ardent fan of the Tigers, he could often be seen attending games at Briggs Stadium. So it is not surprising that Stearnes remains a known entity to longtime fans of the Detroit baseball.
But why does Stearnes remain so underrated on the national landscape? Perhaps it’s because of his quiet nature. He liked to talk baseball, but didn’t like to delve into in-depth conversations on other topics. The opposite of Satchel Paige in personality, he said little to teammates or writers, often answered questions with single-word answers, and never bragged about his ample talents. When it came to self-promotion, Stearnes did next to nothing. It simply wasn’t his nature.
Stearnes was also something of a vagabond, at least during the second half of his career. After his departure from Detroit, he bounced from team to team, doing his best to scrape together a decent living during the persistent economic disaster that plagued most of the country. He played in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia—all major markets in the East or Midwest—but never remained in one location for very long. If only Stearnes had played longer in one of these media centers, it might not have taken him so long to earn election to the Hall of Fame. That call finally came in 2000.
Another theory behind Stearnes’ overlooked status has to do with the passage of time. Stearnes’ peak years fell in the 1920s and thirties, long before the integration of the major leagues. He retired in 1941, a full six years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. There was never talk of Stearnes being the first black man to play major league ball in the 20th century, if only because such a concept was so foreign prior to the mid-1940s.
It’s only fitting that we take some time during Black History Month to pay some respect to Turkey Stearnes. But perhaps we should start recognizing him throughout the rest of the year, too. After all, here is a man whose plaque is featured outside of the walls of Comerica Park.
The late Dick Clark believed that Stearnes was one of the best players that Detroit ever saw—and the city’s greatest black star. I’m more than willing to go along with the esteemed Mr. Clark on that one.
