John Beckwith (baseball)

John Christopher Beckwith (January 10, 1900 – January 4, 1956), nicknamed The Black Bomber, was an American infielder in baseball's Negro Leagues.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he ranked among the Negro Leagues' career leaders in batting average, home runs, RBI and slugging percentage (.587).

Standing 6-foot-3, and weighing upwards of 220 pounds, John Beckwith was one of the mightiest sluggers to ever take the field. Over a 16-year career (1918-34), the big righty, swinging his signature 38-inch bat, routinely batted over .400 against official Negro League competition. In 1927, he unofficially bashed 72 home runs against all-comers (he hit 54 HRs in 1928). Pitcher Scrip Lee, who faced both men, declared that "Babe Ruth and Beckwith were about equal in power." The legendary Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe claimed that "nobody hit the ball any farther than [Beckwith]—Josh Gibson or nobody else." Babe Ruth himself said that “not only can Beckwith hit harder than any Negro ballplayer, but any man in the world.” Beckwith, who played with such noted teams as the Chicago Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, Homestead Grays, and Lincoln Giants, was often overshadowed by Oscar Charleston, who twice topped him by a single longball for the league home run crown. Though he played nearly every position on the diamond, including pitcher, the rifle-armed Beckwith was best known as a third baseman. According to Baseball-Reference.com, three of his best offensive seasons in league play were 1925 (.407 with 16 HRs and 42 RBI in 46 games), 1930 (.471 with 20 RBI in 22 games), and 1931 (.364 with 11 HRs and 30 RBI in 30 games). If you breakdown Beckwith's league stats into modern 162 game intervals, he would average .347 with 205 hits—including 37 doubles, 10 triples, and 27 homers—107 RBI, and 118 runs scored per season. A dead-pull hitter, Beckwith had one of the quickest bats around. In fact, opposing defenses sometimes employed an over-shift on the infield—a rare occurrence versus a righty. In 1921, the 19-year-old became the first basher to hit a ball over the laundry roof behind Crosley Field. Years later, he hit a 460-foot blast in Griffith Stadium; the ball would've gone farther had it not been stopped by a 40-foot high sign. Beckwith, who Turkey Stearnes called "one of my favorite ballplayers," made his last known Negro League appearance in 1938. Beckwith died in New York City, six days before his 56th birthday.