Winters excelled in the spotlight, tossing a complete-game shutout while surrendering just four hits on the afternoon in an 11-0 victory over Kansas City in Game 2 of the series at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl.
Judy Johnson led the bats for the Daisies, finishing 3-for-5 with a double. George Johnson chipped in with three hits, and Biz Mackey scored three runs in the winning effort.
Monarchs starter Bill McCall, who was acquired by the club late in the 1924 season via Birmingham, was chased after surrendering five runs in the opening frame.
The 1924 World Series would be a coming-out party of sorts for Winters. He started four contests in the series and went the distance in each, finishing 3-1 with a 1.63 ERA. He'd go on to spend seven more seasons in the Negro Leagues and ultimately became arguably the greatest pitcher in Philadelphia Negro League history.
"He was one of the great pitchers of early black baseball. In the early '20s, there was not a more dominant pitcher in baseball," Dr. Layton Revel told Delaware Online in 2016. Revel manages the nonprofit Center for Negro League Baseball Research.
Winters, unfortunately, developed a drinking problem and it derailed his abilities, particularly near the end of his career when he spent a short stint with the Philadelphia Stars in 1931. He was out of organized baseball by 1933 and went on to work as a handyman in the Philadelphia area.
Bill James, in his celebrated Baseball Abstract, lists Winters as the best pitcher in Negro League Baseball in 1924 and 1926. He also was named to the Philadelphia Baseball Review's All-Philadelphia Negro League Team.
To celebrate the 95th anniversary of the inaugural Negro World Series, the Philadelphia Baseball Review will run a series of articles highlighting each game on the actual day they were played.
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