Walter "Buck" Leonard

Position: First Baseman
Career: 1933 – 1950

orn in Rocky Mount, NC in 1907, Buck Leonard was a superb, “all business” first baseman who could dig throws out of the dirt, seize bunts, and had an accurate and powerful throwing arm. One of Negro baseball’s “richest” players behind Satchel Page and Josh Gibson, Leonard claimed that by 1948 he was earning about $10,000 annually, including two bucks a day for meal money. This was quite an improvement over his initial salary of $125 per month and 60 cents per day meal money.

Teaming with Negro League greats like Josh Gibson, Vic Harris, Howard Easterling and “Cool Papa Be Good” Jud Wilson on the Homestead Grays, Leonard helped to win nine straight league championships from 1937–1945. In 1948, at 40 years old, he tied with teammate Luke Easter for the NNL Home Run Crown with 42 and grabbed the batting title that year with a .395 average. Buck Leonard was the one batter that pitchers feared most. With a stocky build, powerful arms and a God-given talent, he had a great love for baseball and an appetite to hit “the white apple,” playing for the Brooklyn Royal Giants and the Harlem Stars.

*Players' biographies are excerpted from copyrighted materials and used with permission of the Negro League Baseball Players Association (www.NLBPA.com)

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