Negro Leagues royalty and a barnstorming star in Japan: The overlooked Rap Dixon

How do most kids start playing baseball?

Maybe their dad played?

Maybe they saw a game and wanted to hit long home runs like their big, giant heroes out on the field?

Maybe they just had nothing better to do.

Back in the early 1900s, a teenaged Rap Dixon decided to seriously pursue the sport because, well, he didn't want to cut open a cat during science class:

Herbert Dixon completed only two years of high school. Purportedly Dixon’s schooling ended and his career in baseball started one day when his high school science teacher announced that the class was going to dissect a cat. Dixon, feeling squeamish, exited quickly and went straight to a sporting goods store; with the money he had earned working weekends at the Bethlehem Steel Company, he purchased a glove and bat, took a train to Atlantic City and joined the Bacharach Giants.

And thus, one of the more legendary, and often overlooked, Negro Leagues careers began.

Early Days

"There's lots of layers of not just history but historians that we have to work through to understand who Rap Dixon was," baseball historian and author Bill Staples told me. "If you think about it, he's one of the people who was born so long ago, in 1902. Anybody born from that era, they kind of get lost to time."

But playing for more than a dozen different teams over an almost two-decades-long career, Dixon was a certified star. Every Black baseball expert puts him batting over .300 for his career -- some as high as .340. He was selected onto the famous 1952 Pittsburgh Courier Greatest Black Players Team. In 2020, Dixon was named as one of the 19 position players on the Negro Leagues Centennial Team. He's the only one, of the 19, who's not been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Even the beginning of Rap's pro career -- his nickname came from his ability to rap the ball -- was star-studded: Playing for the Harrisburg Giants from 1924-27, the young Dixon, along with future Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston and basketball/baseball stalwart Fats Jenkins, was part of one of the greatest outfields of all time. SABR's Ted Knorr, an expert Dixon researcher, did a statistical look back -- finding that that Hilldale trio was indeed the best Negro Leagues outfield ever. Taking win shares and OPS into account, they may have even ranked with Detroit's Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford and Bobby Veach among the top 10 in any league, anywhere before integration.

"Cool Papa Bell names his all-time team," Ted Knorr, citing "The Greatest Team of All Time" by Nick Acocella and Don Dewey, explained. "He puts Charleston at first base. I don't know why he did that, but it enabled him to name four outfielders instead of three. And he named Monte Irvin, Turkey Stearnes and Dixon in the outfield."

The Numbers

After being part of those great Giants teams, Dixon joined the Baltimore Black Sox of the Eastern Colored League in '28, and he had one of the best seasons of his career. The laser-armed right-fielder led the league in nearly every offensive category -- 13 homers, 58 RBIs, 21 steals and a .398 average. Later that year, in an October expedition, his Black Sox faced off against a team of Major League All-Stars and Dixon continued his hot hitting. He torched 300-game winner Lefty Grove: Three hits in four at-bats, including a single, a double and a homer.

"A triple shy of the cycle," Staples said. "And Lefty Grove is a Hall of Fame pitcher. That embodies, encapsulates how good he could've been against Major League pitching."

In 23 games and 83 at-bats against Major or Minor League hurlers, Dixon dominated his white opponents for a .410 batting average and .687 slugging percentage.

The next season, according to Layton Revell's bio, Dixon had another candidate for best season of his career: He hit .432 (!) with 16 homers and 25 steals across two leagues. Baseball-Reference has him at 92 RBIs with a ridiculous 1.204 OPS.

"The son of a gun had, and this is documented in the paper, not a box score, but he's the only guy to get four triples in a game since 1897," Knorr laughed. "It was in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Cramton Bowl. That ballpark has a deep right field, kind of like the L.A. Coliseum had in left field, and that's where Dixon hit four balls. I'm surprised he didn't hit one inside the park. And he did one of them off Satchel Paige."

Dixon also produced a baseball feat that's never been -- and perhaps will never be -- topped: Base hits in 14 straight at-bats.

There were two walks in between, but Rap kicked off his run by going 3-for-3 in two doubleheader games and then 5-for-5 and 3-for-3 in another. And he did it against some formidable pitchers, including Phil Cockrell, All-Star Sam Streeter and Hall of Famer Smokey Joe Williams. The MLB record for consecutive at-bats with a hit is 12, set by Jose Miranda just last season.

A Memorable Trip to Japan

But during those prime 1920s years, perhaps the best, most culturally significant showcase of Dixon's skill set came nearly 7,000 miles away. On the other side of the globe.

Dixon boarded a ship to join the 1927 Black barnstorming tour of Hawaii, Korea and, most impactfully, Japan. A tour they'd go 35-2-1 on.

The then-24-year-old was a superstar for the barnstorming Philadelphia Royal Giants, a tick better than future Hall of Fame teammate Biz Mackey. Go ahead and search his name in Staples' story about the trip -- he gets hits and runs and steals in nearly every contest. He even pitched his team to a win in one game. Rap didn't get 14 straight hits in Japan, but he did, at least according to Knorr, collect eight consecutive at one point.

"Dixon had the five tools," Staples told me. "Especially with the speed and that arm. [Japanese Hall of Fame baseball historian] Kazuo Sayama wrote in his 1985 SABR article, 'Their throws were like arrows.' I think they were specifically talking about Rap Dixon's arm."

Dixon threw out runners on the bases but also entertained the crowds after the series was over -- tossing balls from home plate over the outfield walls upwards of 400 feet away. Additionally, he showed his immense strength at the plate -- hitting the longest ball ever hit at Koshien Stadium at the time: A 420-foot triple off the fence. It rocketed so hard off the boundary that "it bounced back toward the infield, allowing him to safely reach third base."

Even though their home teams lost almost every game, the Japanese crowds enjoyed the Giants' flair, their skill games, the carefulness they took not to embarrass their opponents. The team was even invited to Emperor Hirohito's palace after their series, where Dixon and Mackey both received trophies for their performances.

"The Negro Leaguers kind of kept [the Japanese players'] spirits up high," Staples said. "Encouraged them to keep learning and growing. Sayama likes to say, 'Professional baseball would have eventually happened in Japan at some point, but because of the tour of the Black Giants, it helped to secure and solidify its presence in 1936.'"

"He is, without question, one of the greatest outfielders in the United States."

John McGraw, the future Hall of Fame manager of the Giants, thought Dixon had the skills to play in the Major Leagues. But then injuries, the constant traveling and drinking began to catch up with Dixon as he hit his 30s. Still, he had memorable moments.

In 1930, the outfielder became the first Black player to hit a home run in Yankee Stadium during a doubleheader between the Black Sox and Lincoln Giants. He hit two more in the second game.

"Some people call it the House that Ruth Built," Knorr said. "I call it the House that Dixon Rehabbed."

Dixon went to the very first Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game in 1933, and again in 1934. He stole the first base in the game's history.

Rap was also part of the legendary 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords team that featured Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson and other Black baseball icons. Revel reports Dixon led the team with a .317 average.

Whether it's Charleston or McGraw or any one of those Japanese fans on hand during those 24 games in 1927, Dixon is routinely noted as one of the best of his era. An era that we're still learning about -- still finding new stats and new games -- and discovering stars who were not given the distinction they deserved.

"I definitely think he was a Hall of Famer," Staples said. "You know, he died at 41 of a heart attack. He didn't have any children. I think that's part of the reason why his legacy is getting lost, too. We talk about the color line, but to me, it doesn't really drive home the gravity of what happened to these guys. They lost their livelihoods. To me, Rap Dixon could've been on the 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates playing against the New York Yankees."