Exhibition Tour With Clowns Continues With Win In Houston

Buffalo Stadium, Houston, Texas

Sunday, April 29 found the Monarchs back in Houston, continuing a long exhibition series with the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns. Here's the game summary that appeared in the May 4th Kansas City Call:

"HOUSTON--With two outs in their half of the third inning the Kansas City Monarchs, minus the help of Barney Serrell, who skipped the Monarchs and went to Mexico to play, bunched hits by (Frank) Duncan, (Jesse) Williams, (John) Scott and (Jackie) Robinson, with a hit batsman sandwiched in between for four runs which was good enough for a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Clowns here Sunday night.

The Monarchs have lost two games to the Clowns at San Antonio, but hold a one game edge in the series."

The game was played at Buffalo Stadium, seen above. Houston served as a sort of home base for the mostly itinerant squad during spring training. Sometime in April, the Monarchs visited a couple of Houston-area high schools. Here's a report on that from the April 21st New York Amsterdam News:


As mentioned in the game summary above, Monarchs first sacker Barney Serrell jumped the team to play in Mexico. Serrell had played for Kansas City in 1942, '43 and '44. According to Baseball Reference, Serrell hit .406, .267 and .410 in those three seasons. He went 10-for-18 in the '42 Negro World Series. Serrell would return to the Monarchs between '49 and '51. According to Willie Bea Harmon in the May 4, 1945 Kansas City Call, "The Monarchs were said to have had one of the best line-ups in many seasons, but a hole was knocked into the sharp infield when Barney Serrell skipped to Mexico...(Lee) Moody, an outfielder, has been shifted over to first. He has held down the first sack before, but briefly during the last season."

The Monarchs and Clowns met again in Houston on April 30th, then in Waco on May 1st and Fort Worth on May 2nd. I haven't found results for those three games. We'll pick up with the Monarchs on May 3 in Dallas.