Minneota a part of Donaldson’s legacy

Peter Gorton has always claimed John Donaldson is “the best pitcher you never heard of” and will give an insightful talk about what he has discovered over the past years about the hard-throwing pitcher.
Gorton, who heads up the Donaldson Network that has compiled all of John Donaldson’s statistics through tireless research, will speak at 3 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. in the historic Opera Hall. Admission is free, but free-will donations are accepted. Gorton will provide photos, a 39-second film of Donaldson pitching in Fergus Falls, and tell the story of how he became interested in giving Donaldson his due diligence.
Donaldson started out playing in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs but soon found out he could make more money barnstorming across the United States and Canada as he became increasingly popular due to his star quality.
Donaldson, whose brother James pitched and played shortstop for Minneota’s semi-pro team in 1925, donned a Minneota uniform himself on two different occasions. Towns across the country would try as hard as they could to get Donaldson to play in their town during his barnstorming days because he would always draw huge crowds, which brought in money to these towns.
Gorton, a freelance writer from the Twin Cities, has been instrumental in making Donaldson’s name more familiar to people. Donaldson now has a statue standing outside a ballfield named after him in his hometown of Glasgow, Missouri, because of Gorton’s efforts. Donaldson missed gaining entrance into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by just two votes. He is also included in MLB’s latest video game that features players from the pre-1950 era.
Major League scouts who watched the video of him pitching claimed he had major league mechanics.
“He never seemed to have arm trouble even though he pitched on little rest, sometimes throwing both games of a doubleheader and then coming back the next day and pitching again,” Gorton said. “Through the Donaldson Network, we are finding statistics on him all the time.”
As of now, they have compiled 426 wins and 5,242 strikeouts for Donaldson over his career.
Donaldson’s fastball earned him the nickname “Cannonball” because fans said his fastball looked like it was shot out of a cannon.
In the two games he pitched for Minneota on Aug. 6 and Sept. 9, Donaldson threw a total of 12 innings and struck out 22 batters and allowed just one earned run.