This Negro Leagues alum had eye for talent

The Negro League Baseball Museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the start of the Negro Leagues, and MLB.com’s Bill Ladson has written a series of articles on some of the league’s legends. Today, the focus is on right-hander Chet Brewer and his eye for talent after his playing career ended.

When it comes to the Negro Leagues, right-hander Chet Brewer isn’t a household name like Satchel Paige or Leon Day, but don’t underestimate what Brewer could do on the mound. He was a finesse pitcher like Tommy John, but he was a perennial winner.

But in the bigger picture, that is not where Brewer made his mark. After his playing career ended, Brewer was devoted to providing young Black ballplayers -- especially those in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles -- with a chance to reach the big leagues, an opportunity he never received.

Brewer’s best season was in 1929 for the Kansas City Monarchs. According to Seamheads.com's Negro Leagues Database, Brewer won a career-high 15 games, had an ERA of 1.93 and was instrumental in helping the Monarchs win the Negro National League pennant.

The Monarchs weren’t the only team for which Brewer played. He was a veritable vagabond, becoming the first African American to play in the Mexican League in addition to seven Negro League teams. Brewer also played in China, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, Canada, Panama, Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, according to historian James Riley. There are no records for most of his games, but Seamheads.com listed him as winning 73 games with a respectable 3.45 ERA, mostly in the Negro Leagues.

“Brewer took his craft all over the globe and was highly effective everywhere he played,” said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League Baseball Museum. “A lot of people don’t know him. He was a road warrior. He played in so many different countries. He wasn’t just performing in the Negro Leagues.”

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After his playing career came to an end after the 1952 season, his life’s work began. Brewer didn’t express bitterness about never getting a chance to play Major League Baseball; instead, he focused on helping other Black players get to the big leagues. Brewer was a scout for the Pirates and discovered right-hander Dock Ellis, who helped the Pirates and Yankees get to the World Series. Brewer also worked for the Major League Scouting Bureau.

His lasting impact came in Los Angeles, where Brewer managed a team called the Watts Giants. Many players he coached there turned out to be Major Leaguers, from Reggie Smith to Enos Cabell, Roy White to Eddie Murray, to name just a few. Although he was never coached by Brewer, Ozzie Smith was one of Brewer’s bat boys, according to Cabell.

“If you were on his team, you were pretty good,” said Cabell, who had a 15-year career in the big leagues during the 1970s and early ‘80s. “You had a good chance to be signed in the Major Leagues. He didn’t just pick you. You had to try out. You sit there and hope he would choose you. It was a different time. We had more minority players in that 10-year period. The only way out of the hood -- you were either a boxer or you were a baseball player.”

White played only five games for Brewer, who saw something special in the switch hitter.

“He was a good guy to work with. He had a lot of passion for the game, and he tried to teach us a lot of the fundamentals, how to carry yourself on the field, how to compete and not be a sore loser,” said White, who played 15 years for Yankees and helped them win two World Series titles. “He was an inspirational guy to be around. He gave you that confidence to play in the Major Leagues. He could see the guys who really had talent.”

Brewer was adamant that the young players learned the fundamentals, like making contact on a consistent basis or hitting the cutoff man. If a player didn’t, then he didn’t play. Brewer emphasized the nuances of the game and threw batting practice, telling the hitters what was coming and peppering them with curveballs, according to Smith.

“He had this huge wealth of knowledge and information that he learned from his playing days in the Negro Leagues,” Smith said. “He was able to communicate things that helped us enhance and develop that much quicker.”

Smith, a seven-time All-Star, was a talented outfielder best known for his playing days with the Red Sox and Dodgers. For Smith, Brewer did more than teach him the game of baseball -- he introduced him to Major League and Negro League players.

“I was 15 1/2 years old. It was Chet Brewer who gave me the opportunity [to play baseball],” Smith said. “For a few games, I was on the bench until he said, ‘OK, I’m going to put you in a ballgame.’ He did, and he saw I was able to hold my own. … I had the opportunity of meeting Ernie Banks. I met Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.”

Brewer thankfully lived long enough to see most of those he coached have success in the Major Leagues. He died in 1990 at the age of 83.

“I’m not the only one. There were [a lot of] people who knew Chet,” Smith said.

“He worked tirelessly with those young men and helped them develop into future Major League players,” Kendrick said. “They all have an attachment to Chet. The players who are still with us have respect and admiration for the late, great Chet Brewer.”