John Donaldson’s legend growing

John Donaldson’s legend as a hard-throwing pitcher continues to grow. And Minneota will forever be a part of that legend. Donaldson, a former pitching great who pitched twice in semi-professional games in Minneota, was featured recently on Boyd Huppert’s Land of 10,000 Stories on KARE11-TV.

Peter Gorton, who has been working for 18 years to restore Donaldson’s legacy, has built a Donaldson Network in which over 700 contributors have been researching documented information about Donaldson’s career in newspapers, museums, libraries and any other places across the country.

What Gorton and his network team have uncovered is remarkable, including many recent discoveries. Donaldson helped found the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues and played for them for two seasons.

But he soon found out that he could make much more money barnstorming across the country because of his domination on the mound. So he signed to play for Bertha, the first of 131 Minnesota towns he pitched in.

And Minneota was among them. He soon became known as “Cannonball Donaldson” for the way the ball exploded out of his hand when he pitched.

“Because he was so good and everyone heard about him and wanted to see him pitch back then, he would be lured by teams all across the country,” Gorton said.

“And because the city he pitched in would make a ton of money when he pitched, John Donaldson made more money than all the players on his team and the other team combined. I’m sure Minneota paid a lot of money to have him pitch in their town.”

Gorton discovered through articles in the Minneota Mascot from 1925 that Donaldson pitched two semi-professional games in Minneota.

The first came on Aug. 6, 1925 when he pitched four innings and struck out eight batters. The second mound appearance in Minneota was on Sept. 6, 1925. His brother, James, had been a pitcher and shortstop on the Minneota team, but fell ill and died on Aug. 25.

So in honor of his younger brother, John came back to Minneota to pitch in his place. Despite having pitched both games of a doubleheader the day before in another city, John struck out 14 batters in a 3-1 loss.

“We’re continuing to find information on John Donaldson,” Gorton said from his home in Minneapolis. “Or we’ll find a photo or an advertisement that he would be pitching in a certain town.” “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from Minneota had a photo of him, but don’t know who that black man in the picture next to their great-great grandpa is.”

To date, the network team has verified that Donaldson had 14 no-hitters, 405 wins and 5,044 strikeouts while playing in 550 North American cities. Gorton refers to Donaldson as the “Greatest baseball player you’ve never heard of.”

Ground was recently broken on a new John Donaldson Field that is being constructed in his hometown of Glasgow, MO.

Despite having major league stuff, Donaldson never was allowed to play in the major leagues and his legacy eventually faded away. “He was never a major leaguer because of the color of his skin,” Gorton insists. “And that’s the part of his legacy we need to restore.”

Recently, Gorton and his team wrapped up “Live Action” shooting for the documentary about Donaldson called “39 Seconds” and are continuing to raise money to get the film completed. The title was adapted from actual 16mm footage discovered of Donaldson pitching and hitting in a game in Fergus Falls in 1925. That short clip was 39 seconds long and is believed to be the only footage ever recorded of Donaldson.

“These projects continue to raise the awareness of John Donaldson and I am honored for each and every contributor who has accompanied us on this journey,” said Gorton, a freelance journalist who lives in the Twin Cities area.

“We need to identify ways to tell John Donaldson’s story.” Donaldson was often been considered as good of a pitcher as Satchel Paige by those who saw him play, according to newspaper clippings. When some Major League Baseball scouts watched the brief film clip of Donaldson pitching, they marveled at his mechanics and how hard he threw. Gorton and his network team are attempting to get Donaldson inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame based on his accomplishments.

All of the information they unearth will be sent to the Hall of Fame.

“John deserves his spot in the Hall of Fame,” said Gorton.

“If he would have been white, he would have had a profound major league career.” Donaldson died on April 12, 1970 at age 79.

And if Donaldson ever is inducted into the Hall of Fame, Minneota can boast that it helped played a small part in getting him enshrined.