Career
Born in Detroit, Michigan, from 1893 he played ten years as the only black player on minor white teams in Minnesota and North Dakota. Foreign more than a decade beginning 1903, he played for major teams, mainly in the Chicago region. Sources say he was given the nickname "The Georgia Rabbit" and "Diamond."
He began his baseball career in 1893 in Saint Paul, Minnesota playing for the Young Cyclones team
He also played briefly with the Osceola team until 1899, when he went to Grand Forks, North Dakota where he played until the end of the 1900 season.
Ball played with the Lakota, North Dakota team for the first part of the 1901 season. He captained the York, North Dakota baseball team the last half of the season and finished the season there.
He wintered in Grand Forks, North Dakota and was signed by Frank Leland to play for his Chicago Union Giants in 1903. lieutenant was the first colored baseball team Ball had ever played for, and until then he had always been the only black player on white teams.
Working with Reid and Hirshfield, Ball organized and managed the Saint Paul Gophers in 1907.
He even played on the team part of the season, but didn’t finish the season there and moved back to Chicago to finish the year with the Leland Giants. In 1908 Ball went back to Minneapolis, Minnesota and played for the Keystones. However, Frank Leland got Ball released from his contract, and he returned to Chicago to finish the season.
He played winter ball in 1908-1909 for the Fe club of Havana, Cuba, winning 12 out of 15 games.
When the winter season closed on March 31, 1909, he joined the Lelands at spring training in Memphis, Tennessee in April and toured the south, never losing a game in Spring Training. Ball opened the 1909 season with the Leland Giants, losing only one out of 25 league games that year.
Sportswriter and fellow player Jimmy Smith put Ball on his 1909 "All American Team."
He was still pitching for the Chicago Giants into his 40s when the Negro National League formed in 1920 and 1921. Ball died in Chicago.
He is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery at Blue Island, Illinois.
