Leon Day

CTL-E-6953 · Person · other · 1916–1995

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07825 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6953.

Leon Day (October 30, 1916, Alexandria, Virginia – March 1995, Baltimore, Maryland) was a right-handed pitcher and versatile position player who anchored the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. Raised in Baltimore, he debuted with the Baltimore Black Sox in 1934 and joined the Brooklyn Eagles in 1935, following the franchise to Newark in 1936. In his best season, 1937, he went 13–0 in league play while batting .320. A seven-time East-West All-Star, he set a Negro League single-game record by striking out 18 Baltimore Elite Giants in 1942, and SABR records that he beat Satchel Paige in three of their four head-to-head pitching meetings. After Army service in World War II, he returned to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day 1946 and helped Newark win that year's Negro World Series. The Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee elected him on March 7, 1995; he died days later, in March 1995 — the Hall's account dates his death to March 13, while SABR's biography gives March 14 — and he was inducted posthumously that July.

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0252. Firsts disposition: NO first asserted; the 18-strikeout game is stated as a Negro League single-game record as the Hall of Fame and NPS state it, dated July 31, 1942. Death-date split shown, not blended: March 13, 1995 (Hall of Fame) vs. March 14, 1995 (SABR biography) — the description therefore dates the death only to March 1995. Hall of Fame election 1995 verified (Hall; SABR; NPS). NOTE on the cleared photo: Day's brief 1937/1942 Homestead Grays appearances are documented in the Hall of Fame's own played-for listing, and the Commons file is a Sporting News archive portrait naming Day with the Grays. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Day's career is the argument against fame as a measure — by the testimony of the men who faced him he was Paige's equal, and his election arrived with six days to spare. Photo: HELD — no photograph of Day could be verified on Wikimedia Commons (see visual_assets basis).

Sources

• National Baseball Hall of Fame. "National Leon Day brings back memories of one of the Negro Leagues' best pitchers." Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Thomas Kern. "Leon Day." SABR BioProject, Society for American Baseball Research. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• National Park Service. "Leon Day." Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6953 · Combined Graph record U-07825 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources.
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