California Winter League is a former baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 Winter League. It is the first integrated league in the 20th century as players from Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 and Negro League Baseball

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up 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 relatively successful leagues beginning in...

 played each other in training games. The league existed for almost 50 years during the first half of the 20th century across Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

. The league showed that players can play together regardless of skin color.

The California Winter League (officially the Southern California Winter League originally before shortening the name) began play in the late 19th century. By 1910, Negro League teams would go west for the winter and play top white teams. While the teams were not integrated, this made the California Winter League the first integrated league in the USA in the 20th century. Among the Hall of Famers to appear in the California Winter League were Walter Johnson

Walter Johnson

Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators...

, Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...

, Stan Musial

Stan Musial

Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals . Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection , and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball...

, Turkey Stearnes

Turkey Stearnes

Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes was an African American center fielder in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.-Early Life and career:...

, Arky Vaughan

Arky Vaughan

Joseph Floyd "Arky" Vaughan was a professional baseball player. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball between 1932 and 1948 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Dodgers, primarily a shortstop...

, Smokey Joe Williams, Bob Feller

Bob Feller

On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service...

, Bullet Joe Rogan, Kiki Cuyler

Kiki Cuyler

Hazen Shirley "Kiki" Cuyler was a Major League Baseball right fielder from 1921 until 1938. He was born in Harrisville, Michigan.Cuyler broke into the big leagues in 1921 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and became a fixture in the lineup in 1924...

, Rube Foster, Dizzy Dean

Dizzy Dean

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He was the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. Dean was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953....

, Buck Leonard

Buck Leonard

Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in along with his long-time teammate Josh Gibson.-Biography:...

, Ted Williams

Ted Williams

Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...

, Jimmie Foxx

Jimmie Foxx

James Emory "Jimmie" Foxx , nicknamed "Double X" and "The Beast", was a right-handed American Major League Baseball first baseman and noted power hitter....

, Dave Bancroft

Dave Bancroft

David James "Beauty" Bancroft was an American baseball player who played Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1930. He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame....

, Willie Foster, Earl Averill Sr., Bob Lemon

Bob Lemon

Robert Granville Lemon was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976....

, Cool Papa Bell, Ralph Kiner

Ralph Kiner

Ralph McPherran Kiner is an American former Major League Baseball player and has been an announcer for the New York Mets since the team's inception. Though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging outpaced nearly all of his National League...

, Heinie Manush

Heinie Manush

Henry Emmett Manush , nicknamed "Heinie" due to his German heritage, was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964....

, Hilton Smith

Hilton Smith

Hilton Lee Smith was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. In 2001 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.-Biography:...

, Red Ruffing

Red Ruffing

Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing was a Major League Baseball pitcher most remembered for his time with the highly successful New York Yankees teams of the 1930s and 1940s...

 and Max Carey

Max Carey

Max George Carey was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who starred for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1961...

. Other stars included Dobie Moore

Dobie Moore

Walter "Dobie" Moore was an American shortstop and right-handed batter in the Negro Leagues who played his entire career with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League...

, Babe Herman

Babe Herman

Floyd Caves "Babe" Herman was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who was best known for his several seasons with the Brooklyn Robins ....

, Chet Brewer

Chet Brewer

Chester Arthur "Chet" Brewer was an American right-handed pitcher in baseball's Negro Leagues. Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, he played for the Kansas City Monarchs, and from 1957 to 1974 he scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates....

, Mule Suttles

Mule Suttles

George "Mule" Suttles was an American first baseman and outfielder in Negro league baseball, most prominently with the Birmingham Black Barons, St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles...

, Bob Meusel

Bob Meusel

Robert William "Bob" Meusel was an American baseball left and right fielder who played in Major League Baseball for eleven seasons from 1920 through 1930, all but the last for the New York Yankees...

, Wild Bill Wright, Dazzy Vance

Dazzy Vance

Charles Arthur "Dazzy" Vance was a star Major League Baseball starting pitcher during the 1920s.-Biography:...

, Wally Berger

Wally Berger

Walter Anton Berger was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for four National League teams, primarily the Boston Braves. One of the league's top sluggers of the early 1930s, in his initial season he hit 38 home runs, a record for rookies which stood until . He still...

, Biz Mackey

Biz Mackey

James Raleigh "Biz" Mackey was an American catcher and manager in Negro league baseball. He came to be regarded as black baseball's premier catcher in the late 1920s and early 1930s...

, Sammy T. Hughes

Sammy T. Hughes

Samuel Thomas Hughes was an American second baseman in baseball's Negro Leagues. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he played primarily for the Elite Giants through their various stops in Nashville, Columbus, Washington and Baltimore, always in the Negro National League.He died at age 70 in Los...

, Newt Allen

Newt Allen

Newton Henry "Newt" Allen was an American second baseman and manager in baseball's Negro Leagues.Born in Austin, Texas, he began his Negro League career late in 1922 with the Kansas City Monarchs and, except for brief stints with other teams in 1931 and 1932, stayed with the Monarchs until his...

, Sammy Bankhead, John Beckwith

John Beckwith

John Beckwith may refer to:*John Christmas Beckwith English organist and composer.*John Charles Beckwith , English organist*John Charles Beckwith...

, Tank Carr and Gavvy Cravath

Gavvy Cravath

Clifford Carlton "Gavvy" Cravath , also nicknamed "Cactus", was an American right fielder and right-handed batter in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies...

. The most prominent individual in the league's history was Joe Pirrone. Schedules were short, usually about 10-20 games, with white teams often taking turns against the black team. Some years the league consisted only of one black team and one white team. At its peak, the league talent level has been estimated to be between AA and AAA. The league finished its run in 1946; the integration of Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

, increased exhibition contests between black and white players and limiting rules by long-time league opponent Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and as the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death...

 helped end its long history.

All-time leaders

• Batting Average - Dobie Moore
  Dobie Moore
  Walter "Dobie" Moore was an American shortstop and right-handed batter in the Negro Leagues who played his entire career with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League...
  
   - .385
• Home Runs - Mule Suttles
  Mule Suttles
  George "Mule" Suttles was an American first baseman and outfielder in Negro league baseball, most prominently with the Birmingham Black Barons, St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles...
  
   - 64
• Wins - Satchel Paige
  Satchel Paige
  Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...
  
   - 56
• Strikeouts - Satchel Paige
  Satchel Paige
  Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...
  
  - 766