Jim Zapp

James Stephen Zapp (April 18, 1924 – September 30, 2016), nicknamed "Zipper", was an American professional baseball outfielder who played baseball in the Negro leagues and minor leagues from 1945 to 1955. Spending the majority of his career with the Baltimore Elite Giants, Zapp is described as an above-average power and contact hitter. When Zapp began playing in integrated baseball with the Paris Lakers of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, he broke the league's RBI record total for a single-season, which still stands today.

Early life and military service

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Zapp, as an adolescent, attended a Catholic school which did not provide a baseball program. Although he occasionally played softball as a teenager, his relationship with baseball began by an unusual approach—after he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942, Zapp joined a segregated military team while stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Impressed with his performance on the field, coach Edgar "Special Delivery" Jones—a former running-back in the NFL—transferred Zapp to his white team, making him and first baseman Andy Ashford the only two black players to join the integrated line-up. During his stint, Zapp contributed to back-to-back titles in the 1943 and 1944 seasons. Zapp remained active in navy baseball until 1945, when the Second World War came to a close and he was honorably discharged.

Baseball career

While stationed at Staten Island, New York, Zapp was signed by the Baltimore Elite Giants as a backup corner outfielder, initially on a weekend basis, then full-time for the winter season. In 1946, he returned home and joined the Nashville Cubs. The following year, Zapp played for the Atlanta Black Crackers, showing a hint of his power hitting by knocking 11 home runs in half a season. Frustrated by the team's inability to pay its players, Zapp abandoned the Black Crackers, jumping off the team bus in New York City to share housing with family. As he stood in front of a nightclub in New York City, Zapp was recognized by a talent scout, and signed to join the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948. When Norm Robinson, the center-outfielder before Mays, returned to the Black Barons after recovering from a leg injury, he was inserted into left field to utilize his defensive prowess, briefly displacing Zapp from the everyday line-up. Despite his diminished role, he played a crucial part in leading the team to winning Negro American League pennant in seven games against the Kansas City Monarchs. Zapp, in what he considers the highlight moment of his career, hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 3. The Black Barons, however, were overpowered by the Homestead Grays, who won the Negro World Series in five games. In the Black Barons' only victory of the series, Zapp knocked a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth on the way to an extra-innings victory.

During the next two seasons, he played with semi-professional organizations, the Morocco Stars in 1949 and the Nashville Stars in 1950. He returned to the Elite Giants for the 1950 and 1951 seasons. As the mid-season of 1951 approached and the Negro league all-stars were selected, Zapp was left off the list, even though he was arguably playing the best baseball of his career thus far. Disgruntled, Zapp departed the team. He attributed his high RBI total to teammate McCords, who batted in front of Zapp with a lofty .390 batting average. He still was actively umpiring high school baseball games and lived in Harkers Heights, Texas.