102 Years Ago Donaldson Struck Out 21 New Ulm Batters

102 Years Ago Donaldson Struck Out 21 New Ulm Batters

It was Aug. 12, 1914 when John Donaldson, an outstanding black left-handed pitcher, struck out 21 New Ulm baseball players in an exhibition game between what were then the New Ulm Athletics and the traveling All Nations team which also included the noted Cuban player Mendez.

Site of the game was not recorded in the story appearing in the New Ulm Review (see the link:

http://johndonaldson.bravehost.com/pdf/01667.pdf

for the entire report of the contest.

Donaldson has been passed over by the baseball Hall of Fame committee but Peter Gorton of Minneapolis has dedicated a long campaign to have him join Satchel Paige and other black players in their segregated baseball Hall. His campaign has documented Gorton winning 399 games including the one in New Ulm. Donaldson played many of his games with and against Minnesota teams. Check out this website for more information:

johndonaldson.bravehost.com

Gorton July 11 presented the campaign's story to the Negroe Baseball Conference with the material shown above. The entire presentation will be reproduced as Object 4925 on this New Ulm Sports Central site.

The box score published in the Review for the 1914 game included such names as: Cordes at 3b, Hannah and Chick Williams, Pfeiffer, Hodgins the catcher, Friedl at short, Sheldon at first and Dahms in left. Dahms likely was Reily Dahms, a Bowing Hall of Famer in New Ulm.

The umpires were Mayer, a name mentioned several times in early baseball (he may have been a teacher) and Berg. In later years Tom Berg of New Ulm was a frequent umpire. Some Mayer was a young man about that time it is also possible that Berg was quite young.