Utica observer dispatch obits past 3 days professional#
…”īut Petway started garnering widespread acclaim by the end of 1909 - just a few years after his professional debut with the Cuban X-Giants - when the Indianapolis Freeman’s Harry Daniels gushed when naming Buddy the greatest “race” catcher of his day: “ Fleet Walker, Clarence Williams and Bruce Petway are, in my opinion, the best catchers of all time. I want to call the attention of the fans who saw Petway in his day and ask if they can note the difference in his style to that of the leading receivers of his era, Duncan, of Kansas City, and Mackey, of Hilldale. What infielders want and like is a ball coming to hand that they can grab, handle, touch the runner and get it away for a possible killing at another base. Such throws are not conducive to effective baseball from the standpoint of continuous play. Notice that some catchers use their shoulders with the ‘snap’ and that makes a ball heavy and hard to handle. I choose Petway for this reason - while other catchers have the snap throw they do not have it perfected like he did. He was a student of the game, worked hard and was always willing to try anything for the good of the team. “Bruce Petway had one of the best throwing arms I ever saw. Rollo Wilson, in which Solomon, like Dismukes, ranked his choices for greatest catchers. In April 1927, White penned a lengthy letter to esteemed Pittsburgh Courier scribe W. During Ty Cobb’s palmiest days as baseball’s greatest base runner Petway, with Lloyd receiving his throws, stopped him cold while in Cuba.”Īlso chipping in with his opinion was the great Sol White, another jack-of-all-trades legend who also became a seminal author, columnist and historian of African-American baseball. Petway himself was a great base runner and had an uncanny judgment of foul fly balls. “Some said Petway was not a good receiver but Petway would intentionally drop balls to encourage base runners to start, as very few had the nerve on days when he was in charge of the mask and protector. One could possibly count all the thefts against Petway during a season on one hand and then have a few fingers left. There were not as many fast men afoot playing baseball then as now, but there were more base runners. His best days were spent during the base-running craze. “Topping the list is none other than Bruce Petway, whom I claim to have been the greatest throwing catcher I ever saw. Citing, among other achievements, Petway’s famed ability to catch a certain petulant Tiger stealing, Dizzy laid out a convincing argument. In early 1930, for example, legendary pitcher/manager/executive/baseball Renaissance man Dizzy Dismukes placed Petway at the top of his list of the greatest backstops of all-time in black baseball. That’s especially true for his defensive skills with a whip of an arm and the trailblazing ability to throw runners out while still crouched, Petway definitely deserves some love from the HOF and baseball history enthusiasts.
That is, of course, if the Hall does what’s right and once again opens its doors to segregation-era African-American baseball figures.Ī native of Nashville, Tenn., Petway has often been dubbed - by both contemporaries and ensuing historians - the best African-American catcher of the first quarter of the 20th century. Kind of building on my post from a week or two ago about Frank Duncan (as well as earlier ones about Rap Dixon, Bud Fowler and others), here’s another post about a Negro Leaguer who could - or should - be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
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