New Orleans Negro League player Johnny Wright inducted into Hall of Fame

25th July 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

Was John “Johnny” Wright the greatest pitcher that New Orleans ever produced?

As the pitching ace for one of the greatest baseball dynasties of all time, Wright is surely in the running for that title.

Over his illustrious career, Wright rose from the pitcher’s mound at Hoffman and McDonogh 35 schools to eventually become the anchor of the starting rotation for the Homestead Grays, the Pittsburgh- and Washington, DC-based Negro Leagues juggernaut that won nine Negro National League pennants between 1937 and 1948. During that span, the Grays also won three Negro World Series.

Now that six top-level Negro Leagues have been given official major league status, the achievements of the Grays rival those of even the great New York dynasties of that era.

And Wright was at the center of it all, and as such, said Ro Brown, a longtime sports journalist in New Orleans and a passionate Negro Leagues fan, said Wright rivals any baseball hurler in the entire baseball history of New Orleans.

“If I had to pick the most accomplished Negro Leagues player from New Orleans, it would be him,” Brown said. “Every time [New Orleans old timers] talked about him, the consensus was that among pitchers, he was the man. He was the guy they talked about glowingly.”

Wright is starting to finally get his historical due, a huge step forward which will take place on July 30, when he will be posthumously inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Wright will be among 26 individuals and four teams included in the Hall’s 2022 class. The GNOSHOF is sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, whose Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee will hold its annual banquet and awards ceremony at the Superdome. In addition to the Hall of Fame induction, the ceremony will include several annual awards to local athletes, as well as the Corbett Awards and the Eddie Robinson Award.

Joining Wright in the induction will be several New Orleans sports luminaries, including Saints wide receiver Marques Colston; quarterback Shaun King, who led Tulane to an undefeated season in 1998 before embarking on a successful NFL career; Ashley Brignac, who enjoyed one of the state’s most celebrated high school and college careers (for John Curtis and UL-Lafayette, respectively) as a softball pitcher; and hoopster Billy Ray Hobley, who starred on the hardwood at Dillard University before he became a key player for the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters.

The news of Wright’s selection for the Hall of Fame was music to the ears of Carlis Robinson, Wright’s daughter, who said that she and Wright’s other surviving relatives were ecstatic.

“I guess you can say that we are super pumped,” Robinson said with some understatement.

“My family and I are so excited,” she added. “Several are traveling to attend [the induction]. I feel that this honor is long overdue.”

While there are other local Negro Leagues figures – such as Walter Wright, Herman Roth and Milfred Laurent – Wright might be the one that had made the biggest splash on the major-league level.

As the ace of the Grays pitching staff in the 1940s, Wright had his best season in 1943, when he went 18-3, with his win total leading the NNL. His 2.54 ERA also led the league. That year, the Grays had arguably the best pitching rotation in Black baseball, including future National Baseball Hall of Famer Roy Brown. Also on the Grays roster were four more men who were eventually enshrined in Coop-erstown – Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell and Jud Wilson – altogether forming what Ro Brown argued was one of the greatest baseball teams in history, regardless of race or era.

As a result, Ro Brown said Wright absolutely belongs in the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s certainly deserving,” said Brown, who’s a member of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee. “I’m just really glad he’s going in.”

(Coincidentally, that Grays squad featured another New Orleans area standout – Gretna’s J.B. Spencer at second base. Spencer has yet to receive his proper due, but the City of Gretna has named a park and ball field after him.)

But Wright’s career included several other achievements besides his record with the Grays, including anchoring his Navy baseball team’s roster in World War II, plus stints with other major league teams, including the Newark Eagles and the Toledo Crawfords.

Wright holds another singular distinction – he was the second Black player in the modern era to sign a professional contract in so-called Organized Baseball. Wright inked a deal with the Brooklyn Dodgers and their general manager, Branch Rickey just weeks after Jackie Robinson signed on with Brooklyn.

Wright then joined Robinson at the Dodger organization’s spring training and was assigned to the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ top farm team, for the 1946 season. However, while Robinson managed to star for the Dodgers in the Majors, Wright was unable to advance to “The Show” and spent roughly two years in the lower minor leagues before returning to the Grays in late 1947.

Leslie Heaphy, co-chair of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee, said that Wright received somewhat of a raw deal from the Dodgers and never had the type of encouragement and patience that the Dodgers extended to Robinson.

“Johnny Wright never really got a fair shot with the Dodgers organization,” Heaphy said. “They gave up on him too quickly. Wright had excellent control and was a star pitcher for the Homestead Grays. It is too bad his story has been mostly lost in history.”

Will Peneguy, chair of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, said Wright provides an extremely compelling case for induction, making his selection a no-brainer.

“The Sugar Bowl is certainly honored to include him in our group [of inductees],” Peneguy said.

Peneguy said that bestowing such honors on legendary local Negro Leagues players like Wright makes even more sense now that the Negro circuits have achieved major-league status and have received much overdue adulation and respect over the last couple years. Peneguy said those at the Hall of Fame committee and the Sugar Bowl are grateful for the newfound attention to the Negro Leagues, including John Wright.

This article originally published in the July 25, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.