John Barton Davis (July 13, 1883 – October 7, 1946) was a

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

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 several years before the founding of the first Negro National League. A 1907 St. Paul newspaper paper noted that Davis and fellow

St. Paul Colored Gophers The St. Paul Colored Gophers was a small club of black baseball players formed in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1907. They were not a formal Negro league team, as the commonly referred-to "Negro leagues" were not created until 1920. However, like oth ...

pitcher Clarence Lytle both had

No-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...

games to their credit."St. Paul Gophers Base Ball Club" The Appeal, St. Paul, Minnesota, August 31, 1907, Page 3, Columns 3 to 5
/ref> During World War I, when Davis registered for selective service and the draft, he listed he was working for

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated IH or International) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It wa ...

as a "dirt shaper" operator (which may have been a road grader). It also listed that he was married to Lizzie Davis."United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K87Y-FMN : accessed 29 Jan 2013), John Barton Davis
/ref> Davis died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1946 at the age of 63.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, John Algona Brownies players Chicago Giants players Columbia Giants players Cuban Stars (West) players French Lick Plutos players Leland Giants players Philadelphia Giants players St. Paul Colored Gophers players 1883 births 1946 deaths 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from Kentucky Baseball players from Saint Paul, Minnesota