Earl Taborn

The establishment of the Negro Leagues as a black institution in the late 1930’s ushered in the Golden Era of proffesional Negro baseball. But even the great Satchel Paige could not erase a hundred years of racial hatred and bigotry. The great wellspring of talent bubbling up from the Negro American and National leagues had been presented to many thousands of fans, black and white, through the performance of Paige.

Today it is scarcely possible to imagine pennant races without black players like Hank Aaron, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Kirby Puckett and many others. Yet, so many have forgotten the stars of Negro baseball’s Golden Era who directly passed the torch to the hands of the modern era’s black major league players.

Earl Taborn was born in Carrier Mills, Illinois, on July 21, 1922. His first opportunity to play in the Negro Leagues was after he returned from war, and it was with the Kansas City Monarchs. No team in the Negro Leagues can boast of a richer history than Monarchs. Throughout the years they brought to the public a consistently high caliber of baseball.

With the Monarchs, Taborn played the Negro World Series of 1948. He was catcher for pitchers like Satchel Paige, at times when thousands filled ballparks to see Paige perform. He was a hard hitter, having batting averages of .301 in 1948, and .345 in 1950. Leon Day was one of the pitchers he had to face.

Many great players of the Negro American Leagues decided to quit their teams in the United States and continue their baseball career in Mexico, as Willie Wells said, because "they were branded Negroes in the States and had to act accordingly; everything they did, including playing ball was regulated by their color".

In those days, the Mexican Baseball League, through Messrs. Jorge Pasquel and Ernesto Carmona used to travel to the United States to hire some important players of the Negro Leagues and bring them to play in Mexico. In 1950 Carmona made his last great sign up. Earl Taborn was starting catcher for the Mexico City "Diablos" in 1951.

Upon his arrival in Mexico he mentioned that he had indian blood in his veins and he was called Earl "the Red Skin" Taborn. Though he played most of his time in Mexico with the Veracruz team "Aguila", where he was one of their favorite players, and even though in 1957 and 1958 he had his best years at bat, being leader with 27 home-runs in 1957, it was his debut with that Mexico City team that made him, suddenly, an idol in Mexico.

He was a true success because Mexico had never seen a player like him. It was a real show the way he played: always enthusiastic, almost throwing himself to the mesh to catch the foul balls, he was very charming, aiming to eccentric. Adding all this to his good defense abilities and batting power, the fans had gotten a new idol.

His records in the Mexican League include: Home runs champion in 1957; Slugging leader in 1957 and more home runs in one inning in 1961.

© 1998-2005
Rosa María Taborn