James Everett Bonner (, ) was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player who played for

Dai Tokyo The Shochiku Robins () were a Japanese baseball team that played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The franchise originated in the Japanese Baseball League (NPB's predecessor) and existed from 1936–1953, when it merged with the Taiyo Whales. ...

in the

Japanese Baseball League The was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine le ...

. Joining the team in its inaugural year, he was the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to play baseball professionally in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, 11 years before

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...

broke the

color barrier Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Early life

James Everett Bonner was born in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, the fourth of five children of Peter and Martha Ann (Lewis) Bonner. His parents divorced at an early age, and his mother remarried Rory Goldsmith, a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

worker. Goldsmith died when Jimmy was just a child, and by the age of 13 he was working as a courier for a drugstore.

Baseball career

Bonner began playing baseball in junior high, and by 1932 he was a

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, basketball, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water ...

for the Shreveport Black Sports. At 5 feet 10 inches, he was ambidextrous, throwing right-handed and batting left-handed. Later that year, he moved to

West Oakland West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and married Lillian Victor from Waggaman, an unincorporated community near

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. In 1934, he played for the San Francisco Colored Giants (not to be confused with the modern MLB franchise), and in 1935, joined the Oakland Black Sox. In 1936, he became a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

for the Berkeley Grays in the Berkeley International League, an ethnically diverse consortium of

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

teams. He gained the nickname "Satchel" for his impressive performances in the league, once throwing 22

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out, unless the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter reaches first base safe ...

s in a single game. On September 8, 1936, Japanese-American businessman Harry H. Kono recruited Bonner to play for Dai Tokyo Baseball Club in the newly formed Japanese Baseball League. Dai Tokyo and the

Nagoya Golden Dolphins Nagoya Kinko (long name: Nagoya Kinnosachihiko) was a Japanese baseball team that played in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL) before it merged with another team. It was owned by the daily broadsheet ''Nagoya Shimbun''. Notable players for the te ...

had suffered from a lack of domestic talent, so they began to look towards the United States. On September 18, Bonner boarded the SS ''President Pierce'' bound for Japan, arriving on October 5. His salary was 400

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

a month, in contrast to the 140 yen average for a typical Tokyo Giants player. The Japanese press heralded his arrival with headlines like "Black Pitcher Rushes onto the Scene, Excellent Fielder, Holder of Amazing Strikeout Record." Bonner played several positions, including pitcher and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. His record on defense in Japan was generally disappointing; he was far more successful on the plate, with a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .458 in 24

at-bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, b ...

s. In mid-November, Bonner was dismissed after only a month on the team. Historians have come up with a variety of explanations for his poor performance as a pitcher in Japan, including a smaller

strike zone In baseball, the strike zone is the area of space through which a pitch must pass in order to be called a strike even if the batter does not swing. The strike zone is defined as the volume of space above home plate and between the batter's kne ...

due to the lower average height of Japanese men as well as the smaller and more slippery

baseballs A baseball is the ball used in the sport of baseball. It consists of a rubber or cork center wrapped in yarn and covered with white natural horsehide or cowhide, or a synthetic composite leather. A regulation baseball is in circumference i.e. ...

used in Japan compared to American balls.

Later life and death

After returning to the United States, Bonner became a

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., a locom ...

for the

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

while continuing to play baseball semi-professionally. He joined the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

in 1943 and returned to Pullman after the war, where he worked until his death in 1963.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonner, Jimmy 1906 births 1963 deaths African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball first basemen Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Oakland, California Baseball players from Louisiana Military personnel from Louisiana People from Mansfield, Louisiana Semi-professional baseball players Shochiku Robins players Shreveport Black Sports players United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen African Americans in World War II African-American United States Army personnel