John Donaldson - The Greatest Baseball Player You've Never Heard Of

This week’s Moonlighter is actually a two for one. Our story starts with baseball historian Pete Gorton has spent countless hours digging deeper into the annals of history and finding stories that most don’t even know exist. Gorton has unearthed more information about players, games, and records than most anyone else will ever know. However, there was one story he came across that grabbed his attention. In fact, Gorton is part of a network that has likely rediscovered the greatest baseball player you have never heard of: John Donaldson. Pete Gorton has basically committed himself to getting John Donaldson into the Hall of Fame. Much of Donaldson’s career was long before Major League Baseball was integrated and before Negro Leagues even existed. Donaldson was a pitcher and outfielder who was one of the most sought after town team talents in the upper midwest. Gorton first came across the story of John Donaldson when he was contributing to a book on the history of Black baseball in Minnesota. That brief introduction to John Donaldson in 2004 has taken over Gorton’s baseball mind for the last 16 years.