To this day, people debate over who was the best pitcher in the Negro Leagues, Satchel Paige or Smokey Joe Williams. Unfortunately, Williams died before Major League Baseball integrated. However,  he pitched against Major League teams in a couple exhibition matches, and made it clear that he was a contender.

Smokey Joe, also nicknamed Cyclone, had a beast of a fastball that he wielded to mow down Negro League hitters. He’s remembered as one of greatest pitchers of all time who unfortunately never got the chance to show his skills against Major League talent on a regular basis.

Early Life of Smokey Joe Williams

Williams said that someone gave him a baseball at a young age, and it changed his life forever. “I carried it in my pocket and slept with it under my pillow,” he said. “I always wanted to pitch.”

He was born in Seguin, Texas, in 1885, and started out playing a couple years for the San Antonio Black Bronchos. However, he spent most of his career with the New York Lincoln Giants (from 1911 to 1923) and the Homestead Grays (from 1925 to 1932).

The latter played as an independent team, not affiliated with any league (they were originally part of the Negro American League, but it folded after just one season). Many believe the Grays rank among the greatest teams of all time, filled with amazing talent including Williams and other future Hall of Famers Josh Gibson and Jud Wilson.

Williams Commanded a Blazing Fastball

No one knows exactly how fast Williams’s fastball was since he lived in the era before radar guns. But according to fellow Negro Leagues pitcher Sam Streeter, Williams’s ball had such a high velocity that they would need to bring in a second catcher partway through the game because the first catcher’s hand would be swollen.

Sources differ as to where exactly the nickname “Smokey” came from, but it was probably in reference to the speed of his pitches. His finest moment was in 1930, when the Homestead Grays played against the Kansas City Monarchs. The game—played at night under dim portable lights—lasted 12 innings. Williams struck out 27 batters and only allowed a single hit. The Grays would win 1-0.

Pitching Against Major League Teams

Despite never getting a chance to play in the Major League, Williams did get the chance to play against several Major League teams. On three occasions, he played against that year’s National League champion, and he took names each time. In 1912, he shut out the New York Giants, who had won the World Series that year, 6-0. Then in 1915 he threw a three-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies, again winning 1-0. In 1917, he no-hit the Giants but still lost the game, 0-1, on an error.

Records of Negro League statistics are incomplete, but Williams likely had a career ERA of 2.43. He died in 1946, and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Nowadays, he is remembered as an amazing pitcher who was as good as Satchel Paige, and possibly even better. Frank Leland, owner of the Negro Leagues, put it best. He is quoted on the Hall of Fame site: “If you have ever witnessed the speed of a pebble in a storm, you have not even then seen the equal of the speed possessed by this wonderful Texan giant. He is the King of all pitchers hailing from the Lone Star State and you have but to see him once to exclaim, ‘That’s a Plenty!’”