Henry A. Kimbro 1912–1999

Professional baseball player

Not “Evil” at All

Joined the Elite Giants

A Powerful Hitter

Sources

Although some would say that the old Negro Leagues had no star comparable to the great Ty Cobb, many have always maintained that Cobb’s match was Henry “Jumbo” Kimbro. He is often referred to as “the black Ty Cobb.” Kimbro was a powerful center fielder with the Elite (pronounced “E-Light”) Giants organization, which was based mostly in Baltimore. His career spanned 17 years, from 1937 to 1953. Had he not been considered too old at the time that baseball’s color barrier fell in 1947, he undoubtedly would have been signed to the major leagues along with Jackie Robinson, John Wright, Roy Campanella, and others. It was his misfortune and major league baseball’s great loss that Kimbro was born a few years too early and played out his career at a time when African American baseball players were relegated to the shadows of the Negro League.

Not “Evil” at All

Henry Allen Kimbro was born February 10, 1912 in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up living on the out-skirts of that city. His education ended after he finished elementary school because the high school he was supposed to attend was too far away. Because of his race, Kimbro was not allowed to attend the high school closer to his home. The fact that he had been effectively denied an education weighed heavily on Kimbro throughout his life. He was always very conscious of his inability to express himself well and, as a result, became a quiet loner. “That [lack of an education] had its effect on me,” Kimbro told Brent Kelley in an interview for the book, Voices from the Negro Leagues. “I couldn’t say the things I wanted to say because I didn’t go to school to learn to do that. It just tore me all to pieces. So I didn’t talk too much. Somebody come and want to talk to me about something or other, and if he don’t watch himself I’d be gone. I think that’s where this ‘evilness’ come from.” The “evil” Kimbro referred to was a label that he had been saddled with early in his baseball career. The combination of his brooding personality and explosive temper led people to consider him “evil.” “There was so much I wanted to do and some things I couldn’t do,” Kimbro told Kelley. “That hurts you. It hurts real bad. People started calling me ‘bad man’ and ‘evil’ and all that kind of stuff and it just followed me around my whole baseball time and after that.”

Joined the Elite Giants

Kimbro spent his childhood playing sandlot baseball in the many parks that occupied every corner of Nashville. As he grew older, Kimbro eventually played with a semi-pro team in Nashville, but resisted invitations to leave the city to play on other teams. When Kimbro was 24 years old, Jim Taylor, manager of the Chicago American Giants, persuaded him to travel through the South with the team. “I had never been no place,” Kimbro recalled for Kelley, “so I said, ’yeah, I’ll go.’” The following year, 1937, he began his professional baseball career by joining the Elite Giants organization. The team played in Columbus, Ohio, and then moved to Washington, D.C, for the 1938 season. In 1939,

At a Glance…

Born Henry Allen Kimbro, February 10, 1912 in Nashville, TN; died July 11, 1999, in Nashville, TN; married to Erbia Kimbro; children: Phillip, Larry, Harriet, Erbia Maria, Demetria.

Career: Professional baseball player in the Negro Leagues; Columbus Elite Giants, 1937; Washington Elite Giants, 1938; Baltimore Elite Giants, 1939–49; New York Black Yankees, 1941; Baltimore Elite Giants, 1942–51; Birmingham Black Barons, 1952–53; retired as player, 1953; manager, Baltimore Elite Giants, c. 1950s; bought Bill’s Cab Company, Nashville, c. 1944, served as owner\operator for 22 years; also owned a service station in Nashville for 22 years.

Awards: Member of All-Star East-West game, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947;several times during the 1940s led the league in runs scored, doubles, triples; batting title (.346average) Cuban Winter League, 1947–48, and set league record with 104 hits; inducted into Wall of Fame, Milwaukee, 1998.

the team moved to Baltimore, where they remained until the Negro Leagues largely disbanded in the 1950s. Except for the year 1941, when he was traded to the New York Black Yankees, Kimbro played his entire career with the Elite Giants organization.

Kimbro was a stocky center fielder, 5’8” and 175 pounds. He threw right and batted left. James Riley described him in The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues as “a compact blend of speed and power.” Kimbro was extremely fast on the basepaths, and was a very successful base-stealer. He had amazing strength in his upper body and was a powerful hitter. His shoulders were huge, a product, Kimbro always said, of swinging on ladders on the playground after school. He excelled in all aspects of the game. “A good defensive center fielder with great range and a good arm, he [Kimbro] was regarded as the best center fielder in the Negro National League in his prime,” Riley wrote. “Henry Kimbro was so good in center field,” observed Kelley, “that Wild Bill Wright was moved to right field, and Wright was a great center fielder himself and a great baseball player. But Kimbro was also a great ballplayer.” As a fielder, Kimbro was exceptionally good at snagging fly balls. He was very fast and would run out into alleys to catch fly balls that seemed impossible to catch. “I was a pretty good fielder if the ball was hit in the air,” Kimbro recalled for Sports Illustrated in 1992. “Because I was fast. wooooo, I was fast,” His weakness, however, was handling ground balls. Kimbro explained to Sports Illustrated, “I saw my best friend, a shortstop, lose two front teeth when the ball caught a bad hop. Fields in those days had rocks, gravel, all kind of stuff to make a ball kick up in your face. I got kind of ball shy. A grounder would come at me, and everyone would hold their breath.”

A Powerful Hitter

Kimbro was also an incredible offensive player. Former teammate Frank Duncan, Jr., ranked Kimbro with greats Josh Gibson and Wild Bill Wright as one of the best pure, everyday hitters he had ever seen. Charlie Davis, a lefty who came to the Negro Leagues in 1950, also called Kimbro one of the great hitters. James “Jimmy” Dean, who pitched for the Philadelphia Stars between 1946 and 1949, was another who acknowledged Kimbro’s excellent hitting ability. “Henry Kimbro was a hard man to pitch to. He could hit,” Dean told Kelley. “He was a tough act to follow.”

Kimbro’s best seasons were from 1944 to 1947, although it must be said that he posted very good averages in the other years as well. Riley summarized Kimbro’s achievements in those peak years in several offensive categories. “In 1944 he hit .329, led the league in stolen bases, and finished only one run behind league leaders Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard; in 1945 he hit .291 and tied with Cool Papa Bell for the league lead in at-bats; in 1946 he hit .371 and led the league in runs scored; in 1947 he hit .353 and led the league in runs scored, and tied for the league lead in doubles.” Riley also noted that for three seasons between 1944 and 1947, Kimbro was among the top ten hitters in the league.

Kimbro was traditionally the leadoff batter. He almost always let the first pitch go by, and did not like to hit slow pitches. He also did not try to swing for home runs. “I didn’t believe in that home run business,” Kimbro told Kelley in 1994. “I liked to shoot that ball through that infield. I’d hit that ball between third base and shortstop-that was my spot.” Although he was not considered a home-run hitter, Kimbro did hit one that was especially glorious, and for which he received no credit. Kimbro hit a towering home run out of Briggs Stadium-now Tiger Stadium-in Detroit. A sportswriter mistakenly credited the remarkable homer to Bill Hoskins, the left fielder who had batted after Kimbro. “I was really disgusted but I never did say anything about it. I just let it go,” he said to Kelley. Fifty years later, the lack of credit for the home run still angered Kimbro. His amazement at this accomplishment had not dimmed with time. “I hit that ball out of Briggs Stadium! Out of Briggs Stadium. You know what size Briggs Stadium is-it’s a mile high. I hit the ball out of the park over the right field roof,” Kimbro told Kelley. USA Today finally made the feat official when it reported in 1997 that “Henry Kimbro…was the second player-black or white-to hit a ball out of Detroit’s Tiger Stadium.” Ted Williams was the first.

Major league baseball’s color barrier, which did not fall until Jackie Robinson integrated the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, also prevented people from noticing Kimbro’s greatness. At the age of 35, he was considered past his prime, too old to make the transition once the racial barrier fell. Yet in 1947 he hit .353, and .314 in 1948. During the 1949 and 1950 seasons, Kimbro hit .352 and .370 respectively.

Once the majors had been integrated, African American ballplayers were signed into the professional ranks in ever increasing numbers. With the prime talent siphoned out of the Negro Leagues, the quality of play fell dramatically and the Negro Leagues eventually disbanded. Kimbro played until 1953, and continued to post high batting averages. His career spanned 17 seasons, and he played in six Negro League All-Star East-West games.

After his retirement from baseball in 1953, Kimbro bought a new DeSoto and worked as a taxi driver for Bill’s Cab Company in Nashville. In 1955, Kimbro bought the cab company, although he did not change the name. He also owned a service station in Nashville, and operated both businesses for 22 years. He kept working despite a heart attack and a stroke, maintaining between 13 and 15 cabs. A second stroke convinced Kimbro to retire, and he sold the business. He was well known and widely respected in his native Nashville, and made frequent appearances at Negro League reunions around the country. In 1998, Kimbro was honored as an inductee in the Yesterday’s Negro League Baseball Players Wall of Fame, which is maintained by the Milwaukee Brewers ball club, and the County Stadium Wall of Fame. When Brent Kelley asked him if he would be a ballplayer again, Kimbro answered, “You mean if I could go back? Yeah. I loved to play baseball. I loved to play the game.”

Kimbro passed away on July 11, 1999. His wife, Erbia, sons Phillip and Larry, and daughters Erbia Maria Kimbro Drew, Harriet Kimbro Hamilton, and Demetria Kimbro survived him. “He lived a very good life and played against some of the top players of his day,” said Larry Walker, owner of the Old Negro League Baseball Shop in Nashville, where Kimbro often spent time. “He’s one of the greatest Negro League players that ever lived. He was a great man and a great player. We will all miss him,” Walker told the Nashville Tennessean.

Sources

Books

Kelley, Brent. Voices from the Negro Leagues. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1998.

Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994.

Periodicals

Maclean’s, July 26, 1999, p.12.

Nashville Scene, August 2, 1999.

Nashville Tennessean, July 31, 1999.

New York Times, July 15, 1999, p.A20 (N).

Sports Illustrated, July 6, 1992, p.80; July 26, 1999, p.R1.

USA Today, May 20, 1997.

Other

Additional information for this profile was obtained from http://www.milwaukeebrewers.com\media\feat\fame72199.html 1999; http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com\1999\July\Kimbro_obit.html 1999; and http://www.execpc.com\[]sshivers\1998inductees.html

—Ellen Dennis French