One Dipper Baseball: An Interview with Cornell Blakely

With the traveling exhibition Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experiencecoming to the Hughes Main Library on November 2, the library uncovered some of the local stories on the subject – and along the way had a unique interview with Cornell Blakely, former left-fielder for the Greenville Black Spinners.

First, let’s cover all the bases: African-American baseball emerged in the latter part of the 19th century as a solution to staunch segregation and prejudice. When African- Americans were excluded from playing on white professional teams, players took the matter into their own hands and formed professional, semi-professional and informal baseball teams.

Barnstorming teams, which traveled from city to city to compete with each other, were established. Over time, various leagues formed including the Negro National League in 1920, Negro Textile Teams, first mentioned in 1895 and Eastern Colored League in 1923. The height of the African-American league popularity spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s. Beginning in 1947 with Jackie Robinson’s entrance into white major league baseball on the Brooklyn Dodgers, African-American league baseball began to wind down as integration was finally achieved.

But back when African-American baseball was in full swing, the Greenville Black Spinners was a local team that had their turn on the turf and in 1946 a player named Cornell Blakely scored a spot on the lineup.

Cornell “Corn” Blakely came onto the African-American baseball scene as a nine-year-old batboy for the Greenville Black Spinners. After five years, the players discovered that Blakely’s talents extended beyond handling the pine. “They found out I could play left field,” he says. Blakely was promoted from his sideline stead to left field in 1946. To go along with his new gig, Blakely was given a jersey- a far too large one at that. “I was the smallest on the team and they gave me the biggest uniform,” Blakely laughs. But an ill-fitted outfit did not hold him back. Once he made his way onto the field, Blakely quickly developed a reputation for speed. “I was a leadoff batter and a pinch hitter. I could run fast,” Blakely recollects. “I would steal home a lot because I was so fast,” he adds. Case in point: when Blakely was on base, fans would cheer on his speed. “They would say ‘steal bases!’ They would cheer ‘steal third!’ and ‘steal home!’,” he says.

Shouts came from packed stands. According to Blakely, Greenville Black Spinner fans came in droves. “Every time we had a game, it was always a packed house. Black, white, everybody came when we played local in Greenville,” Blakely boasts. Blakely was not the only scream-worthy Spinner. Teammates included Blakely’s brother, Lawrence Blakely, outfielder Henry Jackson and pitcher Adam Foster.

Aside from Greenville, the Black Spinners made their mark in several Southern cities. “We played all over the Carolinas. Spartanburg, Charlotte, Athens, Asheville, Orangeburg and Anderson. Those were the areas that we played,” he explains. “Every other week we were somewhere else.” Favorite opponents included the Birmingham Black Barons, the Spartanburg Sluggers and the Asheville Blues. The Greenville Black Spinners proved dominant in the diamond, making it to the playoffs several times, including once with the Spartanburg Sluggers.

With this kind of exposure, it’s no wonder scouts were quick to take notice of Blakely. After watching him for three years, Jimmy Gaston, president of the white Greenville Spinners, scouted Blakely to go down to “Dodgertown,” the Brooklyn Dodgers’ major league baseball camp. “I was the first black person that I know of from Greenville to leave the Carolinas and go to major league camp in Vero Beach, Fla. You had to be great.” he explains. “It was great to be chosen to be at the camp, and to get through camp. I was excited to be there,” Blakely exclaims. “I was on top when I went there,” he recalls.

Blakely entered the camp as a free agent, aiming to score a spot on the Canadian-American League. But making it to the minors was not his ultimate goal: “I wanted to make it to the majors,” he proudly states. Blakely began training at Dodgertown in 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson became the first African-American in Major League Baseball. His timing meant that he got to experience integration firsthand. “At the camp, it was all in one. No segregation. It was beautiful. Everybody was one,” he says. “There were no special rules. We had to get up, be in the bathroom, dining room and on the field at the same time,” Blakely adds.

The level of integration astonished Blakely. “One thing about the camp that I was surprised of was that there was one dipper to drink out of. There was no sign for colored or white – one water barrel and one dipper. There was no discrimination. We would line up after the dipper. There was no special dipper for anyone. I was amazed,” he remarks. These measures were part of the goal of togetherness. “They wanted to get used to association with each other,” he says. On the whole, Blakely saw integration of baseball as a triumph. “We’re all changing around or moving around, trapped in this world together. We finally got to it when we found a great baseball player in Jackie Robinson,” he declares.

Although Blakely was eventually released as a prospect, it was not without making his mark on African-American baseball. While training at Dodgertown, one newspaper wrote that he was “faster than Sam Jethroe.” “He was the fastest man at the time,” Blakely explains.

Although Cornell didn’t make it to the majors, he makes light of his departure from the diamond, calling on his fear of airplanes. “When I started, they traveled by bus. I thought about it afterwards, and I would have to have gotten out because I was afraid to fly.”

Cornell Blakely will be a guest presenter at the November 12 program “Negro Textile League Baseball in the Upstate and the Story of Negro Leaguer ‘Chino’ Smith”