Willie Wells

Willie James Wells stood five feet eight, played shortstop with a ferocity that Mexican fans named "El Diablo," and wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Courier in 1944 that explained why he played in Mexico instead of the Negro Leagues in terms that left no room for misunderstanding. "I am not faced with the racial problem in Mexico," Wells wrote. "Well, here in Mexico, I am a man. I can go as far in baseball as I am capable of going." Wells batted .330 across the Negro Leagues with 140 home runs, won the 1930 Negro National League Triple Crown with a .411 average, set the league's single-season home run record with 27 in 1929, anchored the "Million Dollar Infield" alongside Ray Dandridge at third base for the Newark Eagles, pioneered the batting helmet after a beaning left him unconscious, and mentored a generation of players who would integrate organized baseball, including Monte Irvin, Larry Doby, and Don Newcombe. Effa Manley, the Eagles owner, called him "the finest shortstop, black or white." Cool Papa Bell said, "Willie Wells was the greatest shortstop in the world." The Veterans Committee elected Wells posthumously to the Hall of Fame in 1997.

Austin

Wells was born on August 10, 1906, in Austin, Texas. His father Lonnie was a Pullman porter, and his mother Cisco White took in laundry. Wells was the youngest of five children and grew up near Dobbs Field, where catcher Biz Mackey mentored him as a teenager. He attended Anderson High School, briefly enrolled at Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University), and signed with the St. Louis Stars of the Negro National League at $300 a month.

Wells broke through immediately. In 1929 he hit 27 home runs in 88 league games, among the highest single-season totals in Negro National League history, and the following year he won the Triple Crown with a .411 average, 17 home runs, and 114 RBI, batting .419 in the championship series as the Stars won the title. He stole home on consecutive days in 1929 exhibition games against a major league All-Star team, and over 40 recorded exhibitions against white major leaguers he batted .392.

El Diablo

In 1942, Baltimore Elite Giants pitcher Bill Byrd hit Wells in the head during a game and knocked him unconscious. For his next appearance at the plate, Wells wore a modified construction hard hat, the first time a professional baseball player wore protective headgear in a game. The innovation received little attention at the time and is rarely credited in mainstream accounts of the batting helmet's history, but Wells wore it first.

Wells played for the St. Louis Stars, Chicago American Giants, Homestead Grays, and Newark Eagles across the Negro Leagues, and for four summers (1940-41, 1943-44) he pitched his talents to the Veracruz Blues in Mexico's professional league, where fans gave him the nickname "El Diablo" for his aggressive style. He hit .323 across his Mexican career. His letter to the Pittsburgh Courier explained why he preferred playing south of the border. "I was branded a Negro in the States and had to act accordingly," Wells wrote. "Everything I did, including playing ball, was regulated by my color. They wouldn't even give me a chance in the big leagues because I was a Negro, yet they accepted every other nationality under the sun."

At Newark, Wells formed the Million Dollar Infield alongside Dandridge, Dick Seay at second, and Mule Suttles at first, three of the four now in the Hall of Fame. Wells also played alongside his son Willie Jr. on the 1948 Memphis Red Sox, one of the rare father-son pairings in professional baseball history.

Newton Street

Wells played in Cuba for seven winter seasons and won two Cuban MVP awards. He cut a hole in the palm of his glove to improve feel after an arm injury compromised his throwing, and he owned two sets of shoes, regular and spiked, using the latter to intimidate infielders when he ran the bases. He mentored Irvin, Doby, and Newcombe, and the Hall of Fame credits him with teaching Jackie Robinson how to execute a double play.

Wells retired around 1954, worked for years at a delicatessen in New York City, and in 1973 returned to Austin to care for his ailing mother, moving back into the family home at 1705 Newton Street in South Austin. His later years were spent watching baseball on television and playing dominoes at a corner barbershop. He developed diabetes that eventually caused legal blindness. Wells died of congestive heart failure on January 22, 1989, at his childhood home, at 82. He was originally buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Austin and later re-interred at the Texas State Cemetery. A field at Anderson High School was named Willie Wells Field in 2022.