American Negro League player celebrated in Canadian ceremony
Sherman Cottingham was just a boy in rural Louisiana when a baseball flew out of a nearby park and rolled toward him. In exchange for the ball, he was granted admission to watch the game. What he saw changed the course of his life. A pitcher’s curveball, dipping as if it dropped off a table, left young Cottingham in awe. After the game, that pitcher showed him how it was done. That moment, seemingly ordinary, became the spark that lit a life devoted to the sport.
Cottingham’s natural throwing ability revealed itself even earlier. He recalls standing barefoot in the backwoods as a boy, skipping stones across a pond. Finding the right rock, perfecting the flick of the wrist, and watching it dance across the water planted the seed that would one day grow into a pitcher’s career.
He would go on to become an educator by profession, but baseball always called him in the summers. He pitched locally and was eventually recruited by the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the final teams in the Negro American League. In 1963, the legendary Satchel Paige invited Cottingham to join his All-Star team. The two became close, and media often referred to him as Satchel Paige Jr. for their striking chemistry and mentorship. Paige even taught him to throw a slider with the subtle movement that puzzled batters.
That barnstorming tour brought Cottingham to Saskatchewan. After a game in North Battleford, Beavers team owner Ken Nelson approached him with an offer to stay. Cottingham, coming off a one-year contract with Paige’s All-Stars, accepted, thereby becoming a cornerstone of the Beavers from 1964 to 1965.
It was his first experience playing on an integrated team. Raised during the Jim Crow era, Cottingham understood the barriers he had crossed. At a party in North Battleford, he told a white woman, “If we were in Louisiana, I wouldn’t be allowed to talk to you.” She was shocked, and he explained the realities of segregation. It was one of many moments that defined his Canadian experience; not just as a ballplayer, but as a bridge between communities.
Cottingham’s years with the Beavers were filled with both athletic and social highlights. He pitched a no-hitter, was named MVP in 1965, and formed lasting friendships with teammates. He worked with fellow teacher and teammate John Ford to run a basketball clinic for local students. Off the field, he was invited to barbecues, beaches, pool halls where was always treated as part of the community.
Still, racism was never completely absent. While eating breakfast one morning, a man approached him and used a racial slur. The restaurant owner, a friend of Cottingham’s, immediately removed the man and apologized. Cottingham was unshaken.
“As long as he didn’t touch me, I could deal with that kind of negative behaviour,” he said. His time in Saskatchewan, he believes, showed him that people cannot be judged as a whole. “There are good-quality people who can be trusted.”
Now living in Michigan, Cottingham returned to Battleford as guest speaker at the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame induction dinner on August 16. Reflecting on his legacy, he spoke about what baseball had taught him: greatness is never achieved alone, and that the game is never truly over until the final out.
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