Wendell Smith, the pioneering African American sportswriter who worked for black-owned newspapers (Pittsburgh Courier) and white-owned newspapers (Chicago Sun-Times) between 1937 to 1972, was either the first, or one of the earliest, black members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He was posthumously awarded the J. G. Taylor Spink Award in 1993, which was included in the following year’s Baseball Hall of Fame ceremonies. And, as fate would have it, he was instrumental in helping pave the way for Jackie Robinson to join the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A sumptuous selection of Smith’s writings has been put together in one volume. Michael Scott Pifer’s The Wendell Smith Reader: Selected Writings on Sports, Civil Rights and Black History showcases his observations about sports and its heroes in a segregated and desegregated nation. Smith’s critical eye on America brings to life the fine line between sports and politics, old prejudices and new values, and the racial divide.
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This is Pifer’s first book. Who is this newly christened author helping to shed new light on Smith’s literary talents? It’s an unusual story. His author bio listed him as living in Gainesville, Florida, and having “reviewed more than 1,500 Wendell Smith pieces and interviewed more than a dozen sports professionals.” He barely had an online footprint, wasn’t a social media maven, and had no published pieces to his name. Yet, his book was released by McFarland, one of the world’s largest publishers of baseball history.
An April 23 interview with WGN Radio’s Rick Kogan that I came across produced an unexpected response. Pifer has been a “pet sitter” for the past 22 years. He saw 42, the 2013 biographical film about Robinson where Smith is portrayed by actor Andre Holland, and wanted to read a book about him. He was surprised when he couldn’t find one. A call to the Jackie Robinson Foundation also came up empty. “I’m not capable of writing a biography,” he told Kogan, but he did some research and hoped to “persuade somebody” from the University of Florida “to take an interest.” This strategy didn’t work, either.
Pifer eventually made contact with retired sports columnist-author Ron Rapaport. The latter said an old professor once told him, “If you can’t write the book you want to write, write the book you can write.” This was all of the inspiration the pet sitter-cum-budding baseball historian needed, and he did just that.
Smith was born in Detroit in June 1914. His childhood was apparently a pleasant one, according to Michael Marsh, who wrote the book’s introduction, and “avoided most of the racial drama.” He was a good student and athlete, excelling at basketball and baseball. Yet his success in winning an American Legion baseball championship game led to heartbreak when Detroit Tigers scout Wish Egan said they couldn’t sign him because of his skin color. He would attend West Virginia State College and develop his “media skills” instead.
Smith extensively covered the Negro Leagues at the Courier since there were two local teams, the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays. He worked hard to integrate baseball. He aligned with other black sportswriters, including Sam Lacy (Baltimore’s Afro-American) and Joe Bostic (Harlem’s People’s Voice), to attain greater recognition for their important contributions.
This brought him into contact with Dodgers executive Branch Rickey. Smith observed him as quiet but “gracious” during a 1943 meeting organized between baseball officials and several black newspaper leaders. Marsh suspected Rickey’s graciousness could have been a “combination of idealism and business reality” since he saw the potential in signing young black players to replace his aging white stars. His original plan was to launch the United States League in place of the Negro Leagues, which he viewed as “rackets.” Smith wasn’t pleased but didn’t let it affect their relationship. When Rickey asked his opinion about which black baseball players could succeed in the majors, Smith recommended Robinson. It was at this pivotal moment that baseball’s color barrier began to crumble.
Pifer has put together an exceptional collection in The Wendell Smith Reader. It’s divided into different sections focusing on areas like black history, racism, women, and foreign affairs. The majority of Smith’s writings are taken from his lengthy tenure at the Courier. There are also pieces from the Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily Defender, and Tuesday at Home Magazine. One notable exception is the Chicago Herald-American, the first white-owned newspaper he worked for. The pieces Pifer wanted to reprint “also appeared (in slightly altered form) in the Courier,” so he opted not to duplicate them.
Racism was a topic Smith regularly focused on. He opposed it in all forms and found unique ways to bring it back to certain themes in his writing. In a Dec. 10, 1938, piece, Smith brilliantly juxtaposed segregation in baseball with several baseball leaders’ opposition to Hitler’s treatment of Jews: “Being an American institution, designed to promote fair play, democratic ideals and the theory that all men are equal, it will be the duty of this organization to send a protest to Hitler. But they’ll feel mighty sheepish about it. They play the same game as Hitler. They discriminate, segregate and hold down a minor race, just as he does. While Hitler cripples the Jews, the great leaders of our national pastime refuse to recognize our black ball players.”
Smith’s observations about Robinson take up an entire chapter. The sportswriter accompanied him during the 1946 season with the minor league Montreal Royals. A June 7, 1947, column included this mesmerizing description of the Boston Red Sox and Boston (now Atlanta) Braves foolishly passing on his services: “They were afraid to buck tradition - an undemocratic one at that - and consequently lost the best drawing card in the sports world today. Tide and time wait for no man, they say. The whole world can change in two years. In fact, it has changed.”
Smith, who as it says in the book’s introduction “was an equal opportunity critic willing to rebuke anyone regardless of race,” mastered the reporting and the opinion sides of journalism. His strong prose and his interviewing skills make his writing still a joy to read. And it was those enviable journalistic and personal characteristics that enabled Smith to establish a “notable record in the Black press and the mainstream media, paving a path for future Black sportswriters.” Thanks to an intellectually curious pet-sitter who simply wanted to learn more about him, that impressive record will be forever etched in the minds of baseball historians and fans alike.
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Michael Taube, a columnist for four publications (Troy Media, Loonie Politics, National Post, and Epoch Times), was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.