"Word-of-mouth reputation preceded this talented young man wherever he went and that he was a hero to a multitude of young black men, who lived with little hope or promise in their future." - Gary Lucht 6/1/2005

    Headlines, box scores, advertisements and even memorabilia have been passed our way, and a few more people have joined the search. There is no better feeling than finding out people want to help. The story was that this famous player was almost forgotten and found in an unmarked grave in Chicago. But thanks to all of you, John Donaldson is well on his way to becoming recognized as one of the best baseball players who ever lived.

Click here for the: July 2009 Newsletter
    We have uncovered Jerseys, pictures and a few other odd things in the hunt to uncover Donaldson's history. But quite possibly the most exciting thing to surface in 2006 is about 38-seconds of hand-cranked film, we call "The W.T.Oxley Film" now available on the video page. Much like the Zapruder Film, or the Lumiere Brothers Film, it is simply amazing footage we never dreamed could have ever existed. And we have Walter Thomas Oxley of Fergus Falls, Minnesota to thank for his keen interest in capturing life all around him. (We sit nervously waiting any more of his footage that might appear for the world to see.)
    Storing film like this for so many years is just plain dangerous. Old film canisters have been known to explode, start fires, or just deteriorate. So imagine our shock when the entire reel only broke once! Something this beautiful had to be shared with the world.
    There is a controversy among a few baseball fans and researchers. And we aren't going to get in the middle of the controversy that's brewing right now, just hope that history will work itself out. In the film, some researchers believe you can see Shoeless Joe Jackson in the crowd. We aren't saying it's him. But none of us are willing to say it's not him either. If you are sure it isn't him, we'd love to be proven wrong.

    We are constantly refining our research methods, and discovering that today is a new day and a new era of research. It is less about the one, lonely researcher, sitting in damp basements and old historical buildings, and has turned into a network of good Samaritans, who do random acts of kindness of helping to find one, two, dozens, even hundreds of articles, box scores, write-ups, faded images and anything they can get their hands on to help in the cause.
    Part of what we have in our collections include games played by Japanese teams touring the U.S. after the turn of the century. We have House of David games, All Star games, and games where crowds matched or even beat the numbers counted at major league games. Some of the games need to find a good home. But more importantly, if you believe your Great-Grandfather, or Great-Great-Grandfather played in a Semi-Pro Team or a Professional League, we might have some of his (or her in some rare cases) games. Geneologists have been our greatest asset at the Donaldson network, and we hope that eventually you will be able to find your baseball-playing ancestors from a site like ours.
    Click on the links below to read more about our research efforts, the researchers, some of the box and line scores coming in every day. And we will soon have some selected stories and essays of what exactly was happening at that time of the 19-teens, when men (and some women) traveled the rails to bring baseball to every little town and city across the country:

    If you're a seasoned researcher, or you're new to the game, we welcome any and all of you who want to help us find more games and articles featuring John Donaldson. We hope that the effort will encourage others to find a "barnstormer" of their own so we can share what we know about farm-league baseball, minor leagues, and the many teams and players who were truly fantastic and awe-inspiring. In so many ways, because of players like this, baseball made its way into every little place in the U.S.A. and the world. And at the very least we owe them our thanks and recognition.

CONTACT US!
Pete Gorton's Email: pwgortonmb@hotmail.com
* Be sure to mention John Donaldson in the Subject line!

Website created by Sam Sinke.
Sam Sinke's Email: SamSinke@hotmail.com