5. Pete Hill

One of the reasons I started this project is that I always thought it unfair that so many great players never got their own baseball card during their careers. The negro league players are the perfect example of this. Take Pete Hill. Probably one of the greatest outfielders of the dead ball era before the first world war and he has no American cards showing him in his prime.

Pete Hill was the complete ballplayer, an excellent fielder and a hard hitter who rarely struck out. He was most compared to Ty Cobb for his natural ability and fiery play. Hill played for some of the greatest early negro teams including the Philadelphia Giants from 1904 to 1907 and the Leland Giants from 1907 to 1910. He also played six winters in Cuba. With Rube Foster’s American Giants in 1911 Pete hit safely in 115 of 116 games and he won the Cuban batting title that same year with a .365 batting average. Hill was named captain of the American Giants and Rube Foster considered him his "field general" and a second manager. He left Chicago in 1919 and took over as manager of the Detroit Stars, where he was credited with a .391 average in 1921. He finished up his career in 1925 as the player-manager of the powerful Baltimore Black Sox. Pete Hill died in Buffalo in 1953.