A Tribute to Silas Simmons, b. 1895 – d. 2006: Everlasting Fan of the Game

To write a biography of Satchel Paige, whose career lasted longer than any player before or since, eyewitness accounts were critical. I talked with 200 former Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers who played with or against Satchel. One of the most extraordinary was Silas Simmons, a veteran of the early Negro Leagues whom I met in 2006 in Florida at a party celebrating his 111th birthday.

Simmons was amazingly tuned in given his age and his frail physical condition. He remembered just what the game was like when he started playing semi-pro ball in 1911. He also remembered the waves Satchel was making in Negro Leagues baseball even though Paige was getting in to the game around the time that Simmons was getting out.

For me, Simmons and the rest of the aging ballplayers I talked to were essential in setting the scene of what baseball was like when the game was divided into black and white universes. They painted for me the glory and the tragedy, the greatness of the best of the African American ballplayers and the heartbreak that they couldn’t showcase their skills on the grand stage of the all-white Majors.

Simmons’ history in the Negro Leagues was uncovered only in his old age, by baseball historian and genealogist David Allen Lambert, who, in the fall of 2005, located Simmons and spread the word. Not long after, The New York Times wrote a front-page story, commenting on, among other things, the joy with which Simmons attended contemporary games. In October 2006, Dr. Layton Revel, founder of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research and a great source for my book, organized the birthday party where I met the 111-year-old former pitcher and outfielder. The sad news is that Simmons died 15 days later at his nursing home in St. Petersburg, Florida; the great news was that he relished the occasion, and those of us who attended got a chance to celebrate his life and contributions to baseball.