T.J. Young

Thomas Jefferson “Shack Pappy” Young was a catcher with a strong arm and powerful left-handed bat.  

Born in Wichita in 1906, Young broke into professional baseball in 1924 with the Wichita Monrovians, a barnstorming team formerly in the Western League of Professional Baseball Teams.  The next season, the Monrovians played a game against a team of Wichita Ku Klux Klan members.  Young did not play in that game because he joined the Kansas City Monarchs in 1925.

With the Monarchs, Young hit .394 in 1926, .290 in 1927 and .254 in 1928.  He bounced back in 1929 to hit .361, finishing fifth in the Negro National League batting race.

T.J.’s brother, Maurice, pitched briefly with the Monarchs in the 1920s, forming possibly the first battery of brothers in Negro League history.

In 1930, Young moved to first base and hit .324, followed by .296 in 1931, a season split between the Monarchs and St. Louis Stars.  Young also played with the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, New York Cubans and Newark Eagles, finishing his career in 1941.

After retiring from the Negro Leagues, Young played in Mexico where he caught a no-hitter pitched by former Monarch teammate Chet Brewer.