NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUE - PRINTED ART SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: BUCK (JOHN) O'NEIL, LESTER LOCKETT, JOE BARNES, TED "DOUBLE DUTY" RADCLIFFE, JOSH JOHNSON, CASEY JONES, BOBBY ROBINSON, R. MICHAEL ARMSTRONG - HFSID 275242

NEGRO LEAGUE LEGENDS
Seven great players from the era of segregated baseball sign a numbered 19½x15½ print.
Printed Art signed: "Lester Lockett", "Joe Barnes", "Double Duty [Ted Radcliffe]", "Buck O'Neill", "Casey Jones", "Bobby Robinson" and "Josh Johnson". B/w with brown hue, 19½x15½. Also signed by the artist: "R. Michael Armstrong". Limited edition numbered in pencil "AP 220 of 375", and dated "7/95". Barred from self-styled Major League Baseball by an unwritten color rule, African-American athletes organized their own professional leagues, beginning with the Negro National League in 1920. Negro league teams, which held their own All-Star games and World Series, fared well in exhibition games against their white counterparts. Negro League ball declined after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, the last Negro American League game being played in 1960. LESTER LOCKETT a slugging third baseman and outfielder, played from 1937-1955, much of the time for the Chicago American Giants. He played in four East-West All-Star Games and in two World Series (for the Birmingham Black Barons). JOE BARNES played for the Memphis Red Sox and the Kansas City Monarchs, interrupting his baseball career for military service in World War II. TED "DOUBLE DUTY" RADCLIFFE earned his nickname when he played as catcher and a pitcher in two consecutive games in the 1932 Negro League World Series. BUCK O'NEIL, a talented first baseman who led the Negro National League in hitting in 1946, managed the Kansas City Monarchs to five pennants and two championships between 1948 and 1955. The first black coach hired in the Major Leagues (by the Cubs in 1962), he had a prominent role as a spokesman in Ken Burns' documentary history of baseball. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 2006. CLINTON "CASEY" JONES, who caught for the Memphis Red Sox and Cincinnati Crescents (1940-1955) was the Negro American League MVP in 1950 and a 2-time All-Star.Catcher JOSH JOHNSON, nicknamed "Brute," shown in the uniform of the Homestead Grays, starred for four Negro League teams in the 1930s and 1940s. BOBBY ROBINSON, active 1925-1942, was known as "the human vacuum cleaner" for his legendary fielding skills. In addition to O'Neil, Radcliffe, Jones and Robinson have passed away since they signed this artwork. Lockett suffers from Alzheimer's. Group signatures of Negro League veterans are becoming increasingly rare. Fine condition.