The Turkey Stearnes Foundation

Hamtramck, MI -- July 15, 2025

For immediate release

For media inquiries please contact:

  • Joe Lapointe (joenytimes@yahoo.com)

  • Michael “Tiger” Price, MBA (Mike_Tiger_1739@Comcast.net; 313.404.5911)

On this July 23, 2025, we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of all-time great Norman Thomas “Turkey” Stearnes, wherever Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame Class of 2000 is appreciated.

To celebrate this anniversary, the Turkey Stearnes Foundation and the Southern Michigan Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research are hosting an event on Zoom on Wednesday, July 23, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM EDT.

The Zoom event is free and open to the public; here is the registration link:

Turkey Stearnes daughters Joyce Stearnes Thompson and Rosilyn Stearnes Brown and granddaughter Vanessa Ivy Rose headline the event, which will include a panel discussion about Stearnes’ career and about his belated, posthumous admission to Cooperstown.

Panel members scheduled to participate include:

  • Phil Dixon, Negro Leagues historian & Negro Leagues Baseball Museum co-founder;

  • Vanessa Ivy Rose, podcaster & author of Hall of Fame DNA;

  • Joe Lapointe, journalism professor & retired New York Times journalist;

  • Clem Hamilton, Negro Leagues analyst & author; and

  • Mike “Tiger” Price, Detroit sports historian & journalist.

The panel will be moderated by Gary Gillette, founder and chair of the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium, who is currently writing a book on the history of the Negro Leagues in Detroit and on Black Baseball in Michigan.

Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes was born in Nashville, TN, on May 8, 1901, and passed away in Detroit on September 4, 1979. He was a five-tool ballplayer and a superb athlete:an outstanding power hitter and a top-flight center fielder who played 18 seasons in the Major Negro Leagues from 1923 to 1940.

Negro Leagues legend Satchel Paige called Turkey Stearnes “one of the greatest hitters we ever had. He was as good as Josh Gibson. He was as good as anybody who ever played ball.” Long before Stearnes was elected by the Veterans Committee, Cool Papa Bell said that if Stearnes were not in the Hall, “then no one deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”

Turkey Stearnes led the Negro National league or Negro American League six times in home runs during his storied career. He won the National Negro League batting championship in 1929 with a .390 batting average. He repeated as batting champion in 1935 with a .386 average. Stearnes finished in the top 10 in batting 11 other times in addition to competing for the home run lead virtually every season. (Stats and rankings from MLB.com.)

After integration last year of Negro League statistics into the MLB record book, Stearnes now ranks in the all-time top ten in three important categories: Sixth, with a lofty .349 batting average, sixth in slugging at .617, and ninth in OPS at 1.035.

Quiet and unassuming, with a funky running style and a corkscrew batting stance all his own, Norman Stearnes’ play did all the talking that was needed. Stearnes routinely challenged for home run titles and stole plenty of bases, too. Fellow stars from the time said Stearnes could hit a ball as far as anyone while also tracking down fly balls to the outfield gaps.

Mr. Stearnes performed 10 years with the Detroit Stars (1923–1931 and 1937), played six seasons with the Chicago American Giants (1932–1935 and 1937–1938), and excelled for

four years with the legendary Kansas City Monarchs (1931 and 1938–1940). He also played for the 1936 Philadelphia Stars and for the 1930 New York Lincoln Giants.

After retiring from the Major Negro Leagues, Stearnes worked full-time at the Rouge Plant until 1964, logging 27 years at Ford’s. He had worked before 1938 in the offseason in auto body plants for Briggs Manufacturing. The Negro Leagues superstar who never got a chance to play for the Tigers was a loyal Detroit fan until the end of his life, attending many games at Tiger Stadium and following the team on radio and TV.

Stearnes was posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, being inducted with Sparky Anderson, Carlton Fisk, Tony Perez, and Bid McPhee.

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