CHARLES "CHINO" SMITH

By 1920 Chino had relocated to New York City. The 1920 Census identifies him a cabby and chauffeur. Chino’s stat line began appearing in semi-professional baseball box scores in 1923. His first season with the professional Eastern Colored League was in 1925. He was primarily a right-fielder but also played second base.

Baseball for Negro leaguers during this time involve three components. The teams would play their regular season games during the Spring and Summers, concluding their seasons at about the same time as the players in the all-white Major League Baseball. The players would then go on barn-storming tours across the country playing against each other or against teams fielded by the white major leaguers, such as Babe Ruth’s Allstars and Lou Gehrig’s Allstars. Chino’s team played one series versus the Bustin Babes & Larrupin Lous. Following the barn-storming schedule, Chino and other Negro leaguers would sail to Cuba for the Cuban Winter League.

By 1927 he had established himself as the best hitter in black baseball. That year he had a .451 batting average and a .703 slugging percentage playing for the Brooklyn Royal Giants. For the 1929 season he joined the New York Lincoln Giants which was recognized as one of the best teams in the Negro leagues at the time. That year he led the league in batting average (.464), home runs (23), doubles (27), runs (82), and outfield assists (14). In 1930 he remained with the New York Lincoln Giants. The American Negro League had disbanded; however, the teams determined that they would continue playing. He once again led the league in batting average (.492), doubles (17) and triples (5).

On July 5, 1930, the Giants played the Baltimore Black Sox in Yankee Stadium. This was the first time that two black teams had played in Yankee Stadium. The game benefitted the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the crowd size has been estimated at anywhere between 14-20,000. The doubleheader was so successful that the Yankees began renting the stadium to the Giants whenever the Yankees were out of town.

Smith’s playing style has been described as “scrappy” and “pugnacious.” A report of one game indicates that he was “banished from the game” after hitting an umpire in the head with his bat. One player declared,

“This guy could do more with fans down on him. He’d get up to bat and spit at the first two pitches. If the fans booed, he pretended to charge them, making them boo even louder. Then he hit the ball out of the ballpark and would go around the bases waving his arms at the stands.” (Bill Holland – New York Lincoln Giants)

After the completion of the 1930 regular season the Pittsburgh Homestead Grays played a best of 11 series against the Giants to determine the Negro League baseball champion. The Grays won 6 games to 4. In the fifth inning of the final game, Chino charged for a fly ball from right-field. He collided with second baseman, Rev Kannady. Kannady’s knee slammed into Smith’s stomach, and he was carried off the field in pain. He traveled to Cuba that fall to play in the Cuban league but he wasn’t himself physically. Word was spreading that he had contracted yellow fever and he played only a handful of games before returning to New York City.

In the 1931 season he played only a few games for his old team, the Brooklyn Royal Giants. His last game appears to have been on August 6, 1931. Chino Smith died on January 15, 1932, in Manhattan. His death certificate indicates that he died from stomach and pancreatic cancer.

Chino Smith won three Negro League batting titles in only six years of play. His teams won two Cuban Winter League championships and he is still the only player in professional baseball history to end his career with a batting average over .400. After his death, his body was returned to his family in Antioch. He is buried at the historic New Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church; however, his grave remains unmarked and its exact location unknown.

photos by Fred Salley