Negro Leaguer of the Month
June, 2000

Maceo "Breed" Breedlove
Position: P, OF
Career: 1922-1944
Teams: Johnny Baker Legion, St. Paul Giants, Pioneer Limited of Minneapolis, Original Negro House of David, Twin Cities Colored Giants, Broadway Clowns

HT: 6'-1"; WT: 190 lbs
Batted and threw right
Born: 1900 in Fayetteville, Alabama
Died: 1993 in Minneapolis, MN

I had the great fortune to meet Mr. Breedlove in 1993, a few months before he died at the age of 92. He was very sick and unable to speak, but he let me know how grateful he was that I had found "the boxscore that he had been searching for for 50 years."

Maceo grew up in Fayetteville, AL and played baseball with his four older brothers. His father was a coal-miner, and moved the gamily to Edgewater for work. Maceo hooked up with a local team made up of the children of miners.

His early success came as a pitcher; he was blessed with a great arm. But like another pitcher/slugger named Ruth, Maceo's lethal bat had to be in the lineup everyday so he became an outfielder.

Breedlove moved to the Twin Cities in 1922 and lived there for more than 70 years. Although Minneapolis didn't have what was considered a Negro League team in one of the organized leagues, they did have some very good black traveling teams; the best of these was the Twin Cities Colored Giants.

Now to the "boxscore". Maceo had talked for years about a game in which he homered twice off Satchel Paige. I found this boxscore and 3 others in which Maceo faced top Negro League pitchers.

In 1934 Maceo faced Double Duty Radcliffe and singled in 4 at bats. The following year, Maceo's Giants played a 3-game series vs. a Bismarck, ND integrated team loaded with Negro League pitchers. In the first game, Maceo ripped two singles off Barney Morris, a top Negro League pitcher.
In game two, Maceo belted a homer and single off Hilton Smith, who many think was every bit the pitcher Satchel Paige was.

In the last game Maceo faced Paige, who was in his prime and in the middle of a 30-win season. In the first inning Maceo belted a two-run homer over the wall; he doubled in at bats 2 and 3, barely missing homers. And then his last at-bat.........

Maceo recalled the at bat in an interview in the 1980s. It matches the Bismarck Tribune's account.

"At the time, Satchel Paige was the greatest man that was out there. He struck out a man any time he wanted. So they had us beat pretty bad and wasn't nobody out there but him and his catcher [Satchel had called in all the fielders].

"Looked like everybody in North Dakota at that ball game. One boy on the Bismarck club knew me and said, 'Satchel done picked the baddest boy on the club to show up.'

"I bet I hit 15 foul balls. He was throwing so fast I just couldn't get around in time. He couldn't get me out with his fastball so he threw me his dinky curve and I hit it into left field and nobody was out there! I ran around the bases and came in!"