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Turkey Stearnes

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Turkey Stearnes was born May 8, 1901, in Nashville, Tennessee. A quiet Southerner who spent his summers blasting long balls for the Detroit Stars and his winters laboring in the Motor City's auto plants to make ends meet, Norman Turkey Stearnes was one of the most prolific home run hitters in the Negro leagues. He died on September 4, 1979, in Detroit, Michigan.

He led the Negro National League in homers six times and reportedly hit at least 140 round-trippers in 585 career games. A swift, athletic center fielder, Stearnes also collected a slew of doubles and triples with his unusual left-handed stroke.

Stearnes joined the NNL, Negro National League Detroit Stars in 1923, and, batting third hit 0.353 and tied for the league lead with 17 HR home run. He won the NNL home run title four of the next five seasons and was among the leaders in doubles, triples, and batting and slugging averages throughout the 1920s. He was hitting 0.323 with a league-high four HR when he was lured back to Detroit by a team that needed his leadership and box office appeal. During the second half, he hit 0.353 and led Detroit to a playoff with St. Louis for the pennant. In the seven-game series, he hit 0.481 with three HR and 11 RBI, runs batted in.

Stearnes jumped to the Kansas City Monarchs when Detroit failed to pay his salary late in the Depression year of 1931. He again led the league in HR with eight and hit 0.350. With the collapse of the NNL, he joined the Chicago American Giants in the newly formed East-West League. Manager Dave Malarcher batted Stearnes leadoff to take full advantage of his talents. He hit five HR, which was enough to lead the league and helped Chicago to the championship.

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