James Everett Bonner ( ja, ジミー・ボンナ, Jimī Bonna, ) was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

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. Or ...

in the

Japanese Baseball League 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 league c ...

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

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to play baseball professionally in Japan, 11 years before

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

broke the

color barrier Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

Early life

James Everett Bonner was born in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market t ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

, 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, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

for the

Shreveport Black Sports This list of Negro league baseball teams is split into two pages, one listing the major league Negro teams and one listing the minor league and traveling Negro teams. Some teams are included in both lists. *List of major Negro league baseball team ...

. 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 th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

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

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

San Francisco Colored Giants (not to be confused with the modern MLB franchise), and in 1935, joined the

Oakland Black Sox Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the B ...

. In 1936, he became a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("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, who attempts to e ...

for the

Berkeley Grays Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

in the

Berkeley International League Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

, an ethnically diverse consortium of

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

teams. He gained the nickname "Satchel" for his impressive performances in the league, once throwing 22 strikeouts in a single game. On September 8, 1936, Japanese-American businessman

Harry H. Kono Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

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)"Nagoya Kinko"
Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed Mar ...

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 (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the ...

a month, in contrast to the 140 yen average for a typical

Tokyo Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. ...

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 major ...

. 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 i ...

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 during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

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 volume 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 k ...

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

baseballs A baseball is a ball used in the sport of the same name. The ball 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 9 to 9¼ inc ...

used in Japan compared to American balls.

Later life and death

After returning to the United States, Bonner became a porter 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 ...

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

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

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

References

{{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 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 sportspeople African Americans in World War II African-American United States Army personnel