Dave Wyatt
Biography
Wyatt began playing professional Negro League baseball in the 1890s with the Union Giants and the Acme Colored Giants. By 1901, he was living and working in Hot Springs, AR at the Arlington Hotel as a masseur. He also played baseball for the negro hotel team, the Hot Springs Arlingtons. During his time in Hot Springs, Wyatt conspired with John McGraw to sneak Negro League baseball player Charlie Grant into the major leagues under the alias 'Tokohama'. The scheme failed when Grant's African-American heritage was discovered, and Wyatt's involvement has largely been forgotten by history. See the Charlie "Tokohama" Grant Conspiracy.
In 1902, Wyatt joined a racially mixed baseball team in Otsego, MI. The next year, he joined the Cuban x-Giants, and in 1905, the Leland Giants. By 1910, Wyatt was again living in Hot Springs. However, he moved to Chicago that year to join the Indianapolis Freeman as a sports writer. Wyatt's columns influenced Negro League baseball greatly. In fact, they were so influential that Wyatt was given the task of writing the Negro National League constitution in 1920. In doing so, Wyatt became a founding member of the Negro National League along with C.I. Taylor and Rube Foster.
Wyatt lived in Chicago most of the rest of his life. He died there on December 10th, 1950.
Stats
Statistics at Seamheads.com.
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