Bonnie Serrell

[jalbright]

mtortolero asked in a post in the Musings file, which I am moving here:

Do you have any information of William C. “Bonnie” Serrell?
He played with KC Monarchs in the 40´s, being batting champion in 1942 (.376 avg).
He is one of the most beloved negro leaguers in Mexico, playing there in various seasons between 1942 and 1957 .

I'll see what I can dig up in the next few days.

[jalbright]

Bonnie Serrell

Main position: 2b
other positions played: 3b, 1b, of

Bats Left, Throws Right Born March 9, 1922 in Dallas, TX
5' 11" tall, 160 pounds

Played in the Negro Leagues (all but 4 AB for the KC Monarchs) 1942-44, 49-51, averaging .308 with an estimated (by plugging in same rate of 2B, 3B and HR per hit as in known data) slugging percentage of .428. Played in Cuba 1945-47, averaging .269 with an estimated slugging percentage of .383. Played in Puerto Rico the winter of 1949-50 and averaged .289 and slugged .395. Played in Mexico 1945-48 and 52-57, averaging .311 with an OBP of .367 and slugging .434. He also stole 90 bases, most of it in three seasons of 20, 19 and 15 despite the fact that at least one of the years was well in his 30s.

The source material for Mexico was The Mexican League by Pedro Treto Cisneros, the remaining source material for the biographical data is my edition of Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues, and the remaining information comes from Lester and Clark's The Negro Leagues Book.

To round it out, here's some of what Riley said about him:

This small, slender keystone man had a good, accurate arm and great range afield, earning him the nickname "The Vacuum Cleaner", and was one of the premier second basemen of black baseball during the 1940s. He had good speed on the bases, could bunt or execute the hit-and-run play, and was a good contact hitter with respectable power.

[Mischa]

Bonnie Serrell


Bats Left, Throws Right Born March 9, 1922 in Dallas, TX

The birthplace and year are incorrect. Due to the request here, I added a bio of Serrell at Baseball-Reference covering some of what Jim already posted and lots of additional information. Please see http://www.baseball-reference.com/bu...Barney_Serrell

[jalbright]

The birthplace and year are incorrect. Due to the request here, I added a bio of Serrell at Baseball-Reference covering some of what Jim already posted and lots of additional information. Please see http://www.baseball-reference.com/bu...Barney_Serrell

I assure you it is what's in my 1994 edition of Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia, but it would hardly be the first time a reference on the Negro Leagues (especially a now 14 year old one) would be in error on such details.

[Mischa]

I assure you it is what's in my 1994 edition of Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia, but it would hardly be the first time a reference on the Negro Leagues (especially a now 14 year old one) would be in error on such details.

The newer edition of Riley's encyclopedia lists the correction and the death date and place; it has about 10 pages of such updates in the back of the book. I wasn't accusing you of misentering the information, Jim.

[jalbright]

The newer edition of Riley's encyclopedia lists the correction and the death date and place; it has about 10 pages of such updates in the back of the book. I wasn't accusing you of misentering the information, Jim.

Not a big deal even if you were--Lord knows, I'm human. The only thing in that regard that might get my dander up is being accused of deliberately giving false information, and I didn't read anything close to that in your comment. Of course, why anyone on this board would intentionally falsify a date and location of birth of a player is beyond me.

[metrotheme]

I had a chance to correspond with Bonnie during the year that he passed by writing him through the mail. He was very gracious with his time.