Jimmy Direaux

Jimmy Direaux was a pitcher and outfielder for the Washington Elite Giants and Baltiimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League, in 1937-38.

James Direaux (often spelled Direux) was born in Pasadena, California, in 1916; his parents were from Missouri. In the 1930 census he and his four younger siblings lived with their grandmother, 60-year-old Mary Minton, at 1572 51^st Street in Los Angeles. Jimmy was 14, Paul 12, Thomas 10, Mary 8, and Ruth 7. Grandmother Mary worked as a servant.

In 1932 16-year-old Jimmy played amateur baseball for the Newtons Elite Red Sox, an all-black team that played against both black and white teams, at second base and in the outfield. He attended Riis High School in Los Angeles, and in the spring of 1933 he joined the baseball team there. That summer he played amateur ball again, this time for the Los Angeles Colored Giants.

In the spring of 1934 Jimmy’s name started to appear in newspaper accounts of high school track meets; he competed in the 440 and the broad jump. In the fall of 1934 he was on the football team, and in the spring of 1935, pitching for the baseball team, he achieved the feat that would get him into “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” a year later: “Jimmy Direaux, Riis High School, Los Angeles, struck out 108 batters in 6 games (54 innings)—1935.”

After high school Jimmy pitched for the Phoenix Bronchos of the semi-pro Arizona State League, then in the winter of 1936-37 he pitched for the Elite Giants, one of the black teams in the integrated Southern California Winter League and an offshoot of the Negro National League team of the same name. On February 27, 1937, the Pittsburgh Courier reported that he was joining the NNL team:

Tom Wilson Signs Young Pitching Star

DIREUX, PITCHING ACE JOINS ELITES

MEMPHIS, Feb. 25.—Believe it or not, the storybook star of the California baseball world will wear a Nashville Elite Giants uniform for the 1937 baseball season.

His name is Jimmy Direux, the 20-year-old pitching sensation who first knocked on the door of the Hall of Fame, when he was mentioned by Ripley of “Believe-it-ot-Not” fame for the unusual feat of striking out 108 batters in 54 innings.

Direux came to town last week and since that time has been the cynosure of all eyes…

Direux will be one of the several stars going to spring training at either Jacksonville or New Orleans with the Giants, March 1. Despite his prowess as a high school player, he’ll have to prove that he’s ready to go in the Negro National League.

The Nashville team this year will be entered in the National League as the Washington Elite Giants, playing a few of its home games here but entertaining its foes at Griffith Stadium a greater part of the time…

Direux has his own ideas about modern day baseball. For instance, he’ll tell you that Bob Feller will be the greatest of all time before he finishes his major league career.

And he doesn’t like Dizzy Dean. “They’ll catch onto that guy one of these days,” he says. He saw Satchel Paige, ace pitcher of the colored ranks, pitched [sic] against and beat Dizzy in 1934. Paige is a member of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who has just returned from Porto Rico where he pitched for an all-star team.

“Paige is the greatest pitcher in baseball right now,” Direaux asserts. “Only thing that keeps him down is his color.”

The Elite Giants played 62 league games in 1937, plus many exhibition games. Of the 62, we have stats for 37 of them, and Jimmy played in 15 of those, pitching in nine. He was 3-3 with a 4.62 ERA in 62 1/3 innings; at the plate he hit .393/.452/.536 in 28 at-bats. His teammates included manager-catcher Biz Mackey and 15-year-old backup catcher Roy Campanella.

Jimmy returned to the Southern California Winter League for the off-season, playing for both the Detroit Stars and the Philadelphia Royal Giants. From the December 10 Los Angeles Daily News:

Gala Day Due Sunday in Ball Tilt

Biggest day of Winter League baseball season is scheduled for Sunday when the Royal Giants defend their league leadership against Detroit Stars. Kenny Washington and Woodrow Wilson Strode, U.C.L.A. grid stars, will be honor [sic] guests at the White Sox Park.

Kenny, who tossed a record pass of 62 yards for a touchdown against the Trojans last Saturday, will join with his teammate Strode in the football passing contest, one of the many events on the “field day” program.

Other events include a match race between “Cool-Papa” Bell and Jimmy Direaux, baseball throwing for accuracy and distance between the Giants, Stars and members of the girls softball champions of the Central League, Webb’s Nighthawks.

I found a reference to another race between Jimmy and Bell the following week, but did not find who won either one. In the spring of 1938 Jimmy returned to the Elite Giants, now operating out of Baltimore. On May 28 Wendell Smith’s “Smitty’s Sport Spurts” column in the Pittsburgh Courier included:

Jimmie Direux, the young Baltimore hurler, from Los Angeles, who recently [not so recently] was featured in Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not,” has a sore arm. So far this year he has been effective against rival teams in the league.

For 1938 we have stats for 37 of the Elite Giants’ 52 league games, and Jimmy pitched in nine, starting three, with a 5.28 ERA in 30 2/3 innings. He played five games at other positions and 16 games overall, hitting .240/.345/.280 in 25 at-bats.

The Atlanta Daily World of April 15, 1939, reported that Jimmy was expected to report to the Elite Giants’ spring training camp in Nashville later in the week, but in fact he was done with the Negro Leagues and he started playing in Mexico.

Jimmy signed with the Monterrey Industriales of the Mexican League. He played in 55 of the team’s 60 league games, hitting .302/.369/.486 in 179 at-bats. He pitched in 27 of those games, and had an 11-10 record with a 3.50 ERA in 187 2/3 innings—an impressive number of innings for a 60-game season.

At some point during the 1940 season Jimmy moved from Monterrey to the Tampico Alijadores. Although the season was longer than 1939, about 90 games per team, he only played in 37, pitching in eight, playing third and outfield in the others. He hit just .210/.338/.269, and had a 4.33 ERA.

In 1941 Jimmy returned to Tampico. The team played 101 games and he appeared in 88 of them, eight at pitcher and the rest at third base. He hit .236/.364/.337 in 276 at-bats, and had a 2.29 ERA with an unlikely ratio of 17 walks and one strikeout in 35 1/3 innings.

In 1942 Jimmy had his best offensive season in Mexico. He played in 88 of Tampico’s 91 games, 85 at third and just three pitching; he hit .271/.415/.416 and finished third in the league in doubles (24) and walks (73).

Jimmy went to the Veracruz Azules for 1943 but only played in 13 games; I could not find out why. He hit just .186/.327/.209 in 43 at-bats, playing left field.

For 1944 Jimmy returned to Tampico and played in all 91 of their games, mostly in right field. He hit .285/.364/.380 in 337 at-bats. In 1945 he pitched one inning for the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, and in 1948 he went 0-for-3 for them in four games, pitching one more inning.

I don’t know anything about Jimmy’s life after that. He may have remained in Mexico—I found a mention, which I couldn’t confirm, that he died in Villahermosa, Tabasco, on October 3, 1985.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/direaji01.shtml