WILLIAM JULIUS (JUDY) 

William Julius "Judy" Johnson

Hall Of Fame Induction:  1975

And I saw Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt and even Pie Traynor.  He had a powerful, accurate arm.  He could do anything, come in for a ball, cut it off at the line, or range way over toward the shortstop hole.  He was really something.”

Johnson was the son of William Henry Johnson and Annie Lee Johnson.  His father was a sailor, a licensed boxing coach and the athletic director of the Negro Settlement House in Wilmington.  Judy learned to box from his older sister Emma, meanwhile playing baseball for the local Royal Blues.  His pro career started with Tom Jackson’s Bacharach Giants in 1918 for five bucks a game.  The following year, he tried out for Ed Bolden’s Hilldale team, the premier team in the area.  He was considered too small and failed to make the cut.  He joined the local Chester Stars to develop his skills.  In 1921, he signed with the semi-pro Madison Stars before finally hooking up with the Hilldale club.

In his first pro season, he played behind Bill Francis at third, hitting a modest .227.  Judy credits John Henry “Pop” Lloyd with his early development.  “He’s the man I gave the credit to for polishing my skills.  He taught me how to play third base and how to protect myself.  John taught me more baseball than anyone else.”  The well-schooled disciple of “Pop” developed into a full-time star leading the Hilldales to their first Eastern Colored League pennant, in 1923, with a .391 average.  The following season, Hilldale behind Johnson’s .324 average hosted the Kansas City Monarchs in the first official Colored world Series.  Johnson led all batters in hitting .364, and slugging .614.  He led the series in RBIs (8), hits (16), and added an inside-the-park home run in a thrilling nine-game series lost to the Monarchs.

Judy continued to punch in over .300 every season until he suffered a beaning in August 1926, in Atlantic City.  It affected is confidence, and he slumped to .268 (1927) and .224 (1928).  In 1929, Johnson shook off the wraps and proceeded to hit a hefty .390.  This prompted sportswriter Rollo Wilson of the Pittsburgh Courier to name Johnson the league’s Most Valuable Player.  Lloyd Thompson, writer and former scorekeeper for the Hilldale Club recalled, “Judy could do all that is required to make up a sterling third baseman and do it better than the rest of the field.  A right handed hitter, Judy developed a peculiar stance at the plate and hit the ball hard to all corners of the lot.  Slight of build, this Hilldale luminary was fielding gem, whose breath-taking plays on buts and hard smashes are treasured among many fans memoirs.”

After such a comeback, Johnson’s services were in much demand.  Johnson left Hilldale and became a player-manage for the Homestead Grays in 1930 and then returned to the Darby Daises, a spin-off of the Hilldales, in 1931.  He was back with the Grays at the start of the 1932 season, but midway through the season he jumped to the Pittsburgh Crawfords, where he finished his fine career in 1936.

In 1935, the Crawfords named Judy Johnson captain of their team over such stellar stars as Paige, Gibson, and Bell.  This star-studded team, managed by Oscar Charleston, won 39 games and lost 15, defeating the New York Cubans and Luis Tiant, Sr., in a seven-game series for the Negro National League pennant.

Following his retirement from the Crawfords, he traveled with them to Mexico to play against major league all-stars like Jimmie Foxx and Rogers Hornsby.  In twenty games against white major league talent, he batted .263.  He spent six seasons in the Cuban Winter Leagues (1923-1930) and hit .331 in 499 at bats.

After Johnson retired from baseball, he coached the Alco Flashes, a semi-pro basketball team.  They became the Delaware State Champions in 1937, featuring former pitcher Bill Campbell at guard and shortstop Bill Yancey at forward.  Meanwhile, he drove a cab for the Continental Cab Company in Wilmington before becoming a major league scout.

Johnson was renowned as a fine teacher of baseball art and worked as a scout for the Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics.  Mack told him, “If you were a whit boy, you could name your own price.”  He later scouted for the Milwaukee Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies.  He is credited with signing slugger Richie Allen and Billy Bruton, later to become his son-in-law.  “Judy could have done the major leagues a lot more good as somebody who could help develop ball players,” said Crawford teammate Ted Page.  He should have been in the majors 15 to 20 years ago as a coach.  They talk about Negro managers, I always thought Judy would have made a perfect major league manager.”

The articulate cool Papa Bell once bragged:  “Johnson was the best hitter among the four top third basemen in the Negro Leagues, but no one would drive in as many clutch runs as he would.  He was a solid ballplayer, real smart, but he was the kind of fellow who could ‘just get it donde.’  He was dependable, quiet, not flashy at all, but could handle anything that came up.  No matter how much the pressure, no matter how important the play or the throw or the hit, Judy could do it when it counted.”

After election to Cooperstown glory, in November of 1975, the city of Wilmington in recognition of his contribution to baseball and the improved quality of the life for young adults named the park on Second and Du Pont Streets “Judy Johnson Park.”

The patriotic Johnson died on Flag Day.  Half-masted flags flew for a full pledge pressure performer.  His wife, the former Anita T. Irons, a school teacher, had died earlier in 1986.  They had been married for 63 years and had one daughter, Loretta.

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