We don’t know if their paths ever crossed earlier, but on October 5, 1913, when they were both 25 and in the prime of their baseball careers, the two pitchers squared off against each other at Island Park in the Mohawk River in Schenectady. On Thursday, 111 years after their only meeting on the field – that occasion was a 1-0 victory for Wickware – that day will be commemorated by SUNY Schenectady County Community College, the Society for American Baseball Research and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. A historic marker telling the story of the Mohawk Giants’ 1-0 win over Johnson’s barnstorming team will be unveiled at 10 a.
m. on the SUNY Schenectady campus, and five speakers will offer a few remarks, including Baseball Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch. Even the most marginal baseball fan has heard of Johnson and his legendary career, and in 1913 he was coming off his finest season ever, posting a 36-7 record for the Washington Senators as well as an earned run average of 1.
14. Only avid Schenectady baseball fans, those with a deep interest in history, will be familiar with Wickware, but he was a standout among black players, and in the pre-game hype for the game, the Union-Star called it a matchup between “the best colored pitcher in the world against the leading white pitcher.” It would be nice to report that it was a great day for baseball and race relations, and it may have been, but unfortunately the story is quite complicated.
Frank Wickware Mohawk Giants team owner Bill Wernecke, who started the Mohawks that year, was having trouble paying his players and just before the game was scheduled to start, Wickware and his teammates refused to take the field, claiming Wernecke owed them $921, quite a sum in those days. To gain access to Island Park, you had to pass a ticket booth and walk across a small pontoon bridge to the field. It was quite a scene as nine of the 11 black players demanded to be paid, and Wickware may have been the most demonstrative.
By this time, some of the large crowed – reports have been estimated anywhere between 6,000 and 8,000 people – were getting a little upset over the delay, and the Union-Star reported what they called the “disgraceful” and “disgusting action of some of the Negro players.” In his 1999 book, “The Colored Mohawk Giants,” former Bethlehem Central history teacher and Schenectady resident Frank Keetz recounted the Union-Star report, which singled out the Giants’ star pitcher. “Wickware, in an ugly mood, used his tongue too freely as he strode about the crowd, swinging a bat dangerously near the spectators and muttering threats against Wernecke,” said the newspaper.
Keetz added in his book that “some in the crowd condemned the colored players, others condemned Wernecke, still others just wanted their money back.” When a business partner of Wernecke’s arrived with some money to pay the Giants, things cooled off and the game finally got started. Then, after Wickware had thrown just two pitches, the owner of Johnson’s team, Dave Driscoll, stopped the game and demanded to be paid by Wernecke before anything else happened.
Schenectady Sheriff Ackerman J. Gill, who must have been something of a diplomatic individual, then entered the scene and talked Driscoll into allowing the game to continue. Due to the late start the game only went five and a half innings before it was called due to darkness and the Giants leading, 1-0.
Johnson was brilliant, striking out 11 in just five innings and allowing just two hits and one run. Wickware, however, although struggling a bit, worked his way out of trouble on a couple of occasions and kept the visitors from crossing the plate while striking out five and allowing five hits. So, while it wasn’t without its drawbacks, the Johnson-Wickware confrontation was indeed a wonderful and fascinating part of Schenectady history.
The idea of putting up a historic marker to commemorate the occasion was originally the idea of The Society of American Baseball Research, which paid for the sign. SUNYS chenectady President Steady H. Moono said the college is happy to recognize the occasion and become caretaker of the marker.
“We are looking forward to honoring another part of history, recognizing the Mohawk Colored Giants and the contributions that the team made to Schenectady as an independent professional Negro League baseball team,” said Moono. “They brought spectators together to watch their games at what was once Island Park, a beautiful area on campus. We invite the community to join us as we pay homage to the players on the Giants and learn more about Schenectady’s hometown team that is part of baseball history.
” Walter Johnson Moono added that he and his staff at SUNY Schenectady really do appreciate the area they call home during their workday. “We are so fortunate to live and work in a place with such an incredible rich history, from the Stockade neighborhood to our campus with Elston Hall, the site of the former Hotel Van Curler which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and our Center for Science and Technology, home for 30 years to WGY/WRGB. History is woven through the fabric of Schenectady and our campus.
” The Giants played more than 70 games in 1913, winning 52 and losing 22 with two ties. They only played two more seasons before folding, but they also had a rebirth, playing at Central Park from 1929 to 1943 with Hank Bozzi the owner and catcher Buck Ewing as their standout player. Johnson, known as “The Big Train,” went on to win 417 games in his major league career before retiring from baseball in 1927.
Wickware played another season with the Giants, and kept on playing until 1925 for a variety of Negro League teams around the country. When his playing days were through, he did return to Schenectady and lived here until his death in 1967. Since becoming city historian in 2018, Chris Leonard has immersed himself into Schenectady history and one of his favorite topics has always been the area’s professional baseball teams, in particular the Mohawk Giants and the Schenectady Blue Jays.
He said the Mohawk Giants were always a popular draw with Schenectady baseball fans, but the thousands of fans that showed up on that Sunday was a much larger audience than usual. And were they rooting for Johnson and his All Americans, made up primarily of semi-pro players from Brooklyn, or Wickware and the Giants? “My gut feeling is that the core supporters would have cheered on the hometown team even though Walter Johnson was pitching,” said Leonard. “However, the game was sold out beyond capacity, which means many first-time fans probably showed up for the spectacle.
These fans may have wanted to see Walter Johnson beat the Giants, especially after the game started 75 minutes late, as the Giants refused to take the field until Wernecke gathered their back pay.” Bill Buell is a longtime Gazette reporter and columnist. He currently serves as the Schenectady County historian.
Buell can be reached at [email protected].
