THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,608 MLB PLAYERS | 16,397 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,608 MLB PLAYERS | 16,397 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Sign in Create Account
Sign in Create Account
General  | General | 2/23/2026

PG Salutes Chet Brewer, a Youth Baseball Pillar

Jim Salisbury
Photo: Chet Brewer (Center for Negro Leagues Baseball Research)
PG Salutes Chet Brewer, a Youth Baseball Pillar

A few weeks ago, Perfect Game and its Believe in Baseball foundation held a fundraising event in Los Angeles. The “In the Spirit of the Game” dinner and auction brought in thousands of dollars, all of which will go toward providing deserving youngsters an opportunity to play and grow in the game.



Chet Brewer was not at the event – the former Negro Leagues star died at age 83 in 1990 – but his spirit was.

Big time.

“That night was all about Chet,” PG commissioner Dennis Gilbert said. “He was all about giving kids chances to play the game, especially kids from underprivileged backgrounds.

“When you’re 15, 16, 17 years old – those years are the basis of your life. Chet helped put a lot of kids on the right path through the game of baseball.”

Brewer’s impactful life has been written about extensively by baseball historians. One of them is Bill Staples Jr., who co-authored a detail-rich biography of Brewer for SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research.

Staples is an expert in the area of Japanese baseball history and Negro League history, and he’s studied and written about how the two have sometimes overlapped. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a Negro League team called the Philadelphia Royal Giants made several tours of Japan, and these events helped popularize baseball in that country. In researching those trips, Staples learned of a tall, thin pitcher named Chet Brewer.

“I became fascinated with this multifaceted man who traveled the world pitching,” Staples said. “I was impressed with the scope of his career and it just pulled me in. I got hooked.”

As a historian with a passion for the game, Staples’ goal is to “elevate, celebrate and educate” through his work.

“And Chet’s a great story to elevate and celebrate,” he said.

The folks at Perfect Game couldn’t agree more.

“Chet was special,” Gilbert said. “Just special. I get a great feeling just thinking about him.”

Gilbert was a teenage outfielder in the Los Angeles area when he met Brewer in the mid-1960s. By this time, Brewer had completed a long and distinguished playing career in the Negro Leagues and become a scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Every weekend, Brewer would round up a group of promising young players from local high schools. They’d play together as a Pirates scout team. Brewer was the manager.

Over the years, the group of players included future big-leaguers Reggie Smith, Bob Watson, Bobby Tolan, Davey Nelson, Enos Cabell, Doc Ellis, Dave Cash, Ellis Valentine and Eddie Murray. Gilbert played for Brewer for three years before eventually signing with the Boston Red Sox. Later, he became one of the most prominent player agents in baseball. Today, in addition to his role as PG commissioner, Gilbert works with the Chicago White Sox as a special assistant to the chairman. None of this would have happened, he said, if Chet Brewer hadn’t been part of his life.

“It was a wonderful time for me,” Gilbert said. “Chet was the guy who brought everyone together. He was a real gentleman. Everyone called him Mr. Brewer. And when he spoke, everyone listened. He wasn’t a bully. He was everyone’s dad. Black kids. White kids. Everyone. He cared about all the guys.

“He was responsible for so many kids getting into pro ball. He’d call guys he knew, other scouts, and say, ‘Hey, come see this kid.’ He impacted so many young lives.”

During his playing days, Brewer had been a teammate and opponent of the great Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige. Brewer was also close to Biz Mackey, the Hall of Fame catcher who mentored another Hall of Fame catcher, three-time National League MVP Roy Campanella. Occasionally, Mackey would stop by practice to work with the catchers.

And ol’ Satchel …

“He was our pitching coach from time to time,” Gilbert said. “Imagine getting tutored by Satchel Paige!”

Gilbert laughed.

“One time, Satchel took me, Tolan and Watson to a Harlem Globetrotters game at the old L.A. Memorial Sports Arena,” he said. “It’s one of the highlights of my life.”

Even after he stopped playing and moved into the world of player representation, Gilbert remained close to Brewer, the two often coming together to help a young player better himself and get opportunities in the game.

Bill Staples Jr., never met Brewer, but his admiration for the man, like Gilbert’s, runs deep.

“I look at Chet in four dimensions,” Staples said. “There’s his playing career as a whole, his international playing career, his work as a civil rights pioneer helping to integrate the game, and, finally, his intergenerational impact, the influence he had on young players.

“Those four aspects, I think, make him one of the most important people to ever put on a uniform. As a historian, I sit back and look at the careers of individuals I admire and Chet Brewer rises to the top. Even if you took away baseball, he’d be a great role model.”

Brewer’s playing career spanned three decades. A 6-foot-4 right-hander with an excellent curveball, he went 12-1 for the famous Kansas City Monarchs as a 19-year-old in 1926. Three years later, while still with the Monarchs, he led the Negro National League with a 1.93 ERA. In 1935, he joined Paige in pitching for an integrated Bismarck, N.D., team that won the title at the prestigious American Baseball Congress tournament.

“Satchel had four wins and Chet had three,” Staples said. “Later on, for some reason, Chet missed the team photo. They celebrated the moment and he missed it. But I know he was part of that team. He just doesn’t get the proper recognition.”

Staples believes that to be the case in a larger sense, as well. Both he and Gilbert believe Brewer is worthy of a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who died in 1982, felt the same way and said as much before his own induction in 1971. For his complete body of work in baseball and his community, Brewer would seem to be an ideal candidate for the Hall of Fame’s Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, which is bestowed on “an individual whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball’s positive impact on society.”

Over the span of his career, Brewer pitched in 44 states, Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Back in the days before integration, Black players found Latin America and other foreign lands to be more welcoming places than home. Many, including Brewer, became legends in those foreign lands.

As a teammate, Brewer was exceptional, as this quote from Hall of Famer James “Cool Papa” Bell attests: “There was no better teammate. He’ll do anything to win.” Always generous in passing along wisdom and guidance, Brewer is credited with helping teammate Sam “Toothpick” Jones improve his curveball. As a Chicago Cub in 1955, Jones became the first African American to pitch a no-hitter in Major League Baseball. Later, Doc Ellis, one of Brewer’s young proteges from Los Angeles, pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1970. It’s well-documented that Ellis had a bit of a wild side, but Brewer “always knew how to keep Doc in check,” Gilbert said with a laugh.
 
After his playing days, Brewer became the first Black man to manage a U.S.-based minor-league team when he skippered the Porterville (Calif.) club in the Southwest International League in 1952.

Eventually, he devoted himself to scouting and mentoring young players in the Los Angeles area.

“Helping kids was always very rewarding to him,” Staples said.

Elevate, celebrate, educate.

Today, Perfect Game salutes Chet Brewer, a man who was always devoted to baseball and the young people who play it. His spirit lives on.

“It sure does,” Dennis Gilbert said. “Youth baseball doesn’t become what it is today without people like Chet Brewer helping build that foundation.”
Give us your feedback
General | General | 8/13/2026

PG All-Star Game Heads to Philly
Jheremy Brown
Article Image
For the fourth time since its inception in 2023, two rosters comprised of the best rising juniors (and a handful of rising sophomores) will step out onto the field Friday afternoon, kicking off the All-American weekend. While the Perfect Game All-American Classic is slated for a 1:35 first pitch at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, 36 future hopefuls of the Classic will go up against one another in an American vs National clash at 11 AM Eastern, Friday morning.  With 36 players from across the country descending on Philadelphia, there will be plenty of familiar names in attendance as 24 of the 36 played in at least one PG Select Festival and all 36 attended either the he Sophomore National, Junior National, or the PG Underclass All-American Games this summer. Leading the charge are a pair of No. 1s in 2028 dynamic talent Dexter McCleon Jr and 2029 Macgraw VanWormer, a do-it-all...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 8/26/2026

Underclass Area Codes: Standout Arms

Joey Cohen
Article Image
Year in and year out when the best young talent from across the country is packed into one national-level event the arms tend to win the week. That feels especially true in today’s amateur game where velocity, pitch design and high-level training in general are being introduced earlier than ever, allowing young pitchers to develop impactful stuff at a faster rate than younger hitters can consistently catch up to it. The Underclass Area Code Games are no exception and this year there was no shortage of arms that made you stop and take notice. Narrowing it down to 10 was difficult, but I focused on the pitchers who either displayed starter-type traits, brought something genuinely different from a delivery standpoint whether it was slot, height, crossfire or deception or simply possessed an outlier element of stuff that separated them from the pack. These are the 10 arms that stood...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/23/2026

2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: NL East

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
With the 2026 MLB Draft officially in the books, it’s time to evaluate how each team performed. Every draft class was graded using the standard 20-80 scouting scale with risk factor assigned. While these grades won’t be proven right or wrong for years, they reflect the overall talent, value, and upside each organization added to its system. NL East Atlanta Braves  Grade: 55 Risk: High Notable Selections: OF AJ Gracia (1st rd) | OF Carter Beck (PPI) | RHP Kaiden McCarthy (2nd rd) | RHP Jensen Hirschkorn (3rd rd)   OF AJ Gracia (@UVABaseball) is seeing the ball really well & picked up a couple of hits, including a 2B into RCF. Smooth LH stroke & easy impact. Showed + pwr in BP, 46 BB: 36 K. Jr./'26 elig. @PG_Draft pic.twitter.com/C4rSc0ZNIc — PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) May 30, 2026 Atlanta had $15,870,800 to spend in this year’s draft,...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/22/2026

2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: AL East

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
With the 2026 MLB Draft officially in the books, it’s time to evaluate how each team performed. Every draft class was graded using the standard 20-80 scouting scale with risk factor assigned. While these grades won’t be proven right or wrong for years, they reflect the overall talent, value, and upside each organization added to its system. AL East Baltimore Orioles Grade: 50 Risk: High Notable Selections: OF Eric Booth Jr. (1st rd) | OF Ty Head (2nd rd) | OF Kevin Roberts Jr (4th rd)  Eric Booth Jr. (26 MS) goes big fly 💣 that carried out oppo. Explosive athlete w/ huge LH juice & tools. Big time in several facets. #NatElite #Vandy commit. @PG_DeepSouth pic.twitter.com/kXl7ZVyD9G — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) July 12, 2025 Baltimore was about middle of the pack in terms of money available this year, having $13.1m to spend on their class. Booth Jr. is a...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/24/2026

Area Code Gams: Prospect Recap

Steve Fiorindo
Article Image
Pitchers George Ferguson, RHP, Abilene HS  Ferguson toed the slab for the Rangers squad in game one of the Codes, setting the tone early with some loud stuff.  Ferguson attacked hitters with a verty fastball up to 96 that played well up in the zone with up to 24 inches of induced vertical break.  He showed more than just a power arsenal, going to the changeup often, using the pitch to put away hitters.  Kills the spin to the 1600’s, regularly getting 13-15 inches of horizontal break.  The slider rounded out the arsenal, working 82/83.  Struck out four over his three innings of work, two on the fastball, two on the change.  2026 PG All American committed to Texas.  Quinn Fitzpatrick, RHP, Stratford HS  Another 2026 PG All American out of Texas, the LSU commit punched out three over his two innings of work, allowing just one hit. ...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/21/2026

2027 Draft Preview: Collegiate RHP

Ryan Miller
Article Image
2027 MLB Draft Profile Preview: College Right-Handed Pitchers  Throughout the 2027 draft cycle, I’ll be breaking down different demographics in the class. Today we begin with collegiate right-handed pitching, a strong group that is headlined by a legitimate 1-1 candidate in Dax Whitney. Most of the group is made up of high-quality power four arms, with a handful of mid-major arms mixed in. Below are the top college right-handers in the 2027 class:  Dax Whitney (@BeaverBaseball) showed LOUD stuff. FB up to 100, cruised at 95-98. Pair of plus secondaries. CB at 77-79 (2923) with sharp, 12-6 action. Firm SL at 89-91 (2714) with bite. Flashed fading CH at 87-88 (1425). Ranked No. 1 on the ‘27 board @PG_Draft So./‘27 elig. pic.twitter.com/9PNbjJ53Zo — PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) February 13, 2026 Dax Whitney, Oregon State  Whitney has maintained...
Read More
All American Game | Story | 8/21/2026

Brotherly Love Inspires Carter Hadnot

Jim Salisbury
Article Image
PHILADELPHIA – Perfect Game has been a big part of Carter Hadnot’s life since he was 12. He participated in more than a dozen tournaments and showcases, including prestigious Select Festivals as a 13U and 14U player, as well as last summer’s PG All-Star Game for underclassmen in San Diego.   The PG event that Hadnot always wanted to be part of was the DICK’s All-American Classic. Now, that’s on his resume, too. He played in the 24th annual Classic earlier this week at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. “This means a lot to me,” he said during the event. “I always wanted to make it to Select Fest when I was younger. So, every time I get invited to an event it’s an honor and it’s fun. I don’t take it for granted. “This is definitely the one I always wanted to make it to. A lot of big names have...
Read More
Press Release | Press Release | 8/18/2026

Perfect Game & Delano Partner Up

Article Image
  667 Progress Way | Sanford, FL 32771 | 319-298-2923 www.perfectgame.org | facebook.com/perfectgameusa | @PerfectGameUSA     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   PERFECT GAME NAMES DELANO BAT COMPANY OFFICIAL WOOD COMPOSITE BAT PARTNER, LAUNCHES LIMITED-EDITION BAT SERIES   Delano Bats will serve as the Official Game Bat of the 13U Select Festival, taking place this coming weekend in East Cobb, Georgia   Sanford, Florida (Tuesday, August 18, 2026) - Perfect Game, the world’s largest youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, today announced a new partnership with Delano Bat Company, LLC, naming the company an Official Wood Composite Bat Partner of Perfect Game. The partnership will feature three exclusive limited-edition bat releases, which began with the Original Glory American Flag Bat in celebration of the United States' 250th birthday, that...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/17/2026

2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: NL Central

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: AL West | NL West | AL Central With the 2026 MLB Draft officially in the books, it’s time to evaluate how each team performed. Every draft class was graded using the standard 20-80 scouting scale with risk factor assigned. While these grades won’t be proven right or wrong for years, they reflect the overall talent, value, and upside each organization added to its system. NL Central Chicago Cubs  Grade: 40 Risk: Medium Notable Selections: RHP Cade Townsend (1st rd) | OF Caden Sorrell (2nd rd) | 1B Myles Bailey (2C)   RHP Cade Townsend (@OleMissBSB) sat 95-96 T97 w/ riding FB from fast arm. Nasty cutter at 88-91 is the go-to, showed biting 2 pln SL. Low-80s top to bottom CB & CH ~ 1300 RPM to round out mix. Has had a great spring & risen up boards. Soph./'26 elig. @PG_Draft pic.twitter.com/TAFbM37f5j — PG College...
Read More
Draft | Story | 8/17/2026

2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: AL Central

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
2026 MLB Draft Report Cards: AL West | NL West With the 2026 MLB Draft officially in the books, it’s time to evaluate how each team performed. Every draft class was graded using the standard 20-80 scouting scale with risk factor assigned. While these grades won’t be proven right or wrong for years, they reflect the overall talent, value, and upside each organization added to its system. AL Central Cleveland Guardians  Grade: 45 Risk: Moderate  Notable Selections: RHP Liam Peterson (1st rd) | Tre Broussard OF (3rd rd) | RHP Savion Sims (7th rd)  Liam Peterson (@GatorsBB) has been pure power stuff through the first 3.0 IP in his start vs Bama…imposing his will on hitters with a fastball that has grabbed 100 mph a few times, backed up by his power slider and curveball @PG_Draft pic.twitter.com/RVThNrdMTn — PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) May 21,...
Read More
High School | General | 8/17/2026

Scott Wins MVP Two Ways

Jim Salisbury
Article Image
PHILADELPHIA – When the folks at Perfect Game reached out to invite him to pitch in the 2026 PG All-Star Game for rising sophomores and juniors, Cullen Scott had one request. “You mind if I get a couple of at-bats, too?” Along with his dad, Scott traveled from the family’s home in Texas to Citizens Bank Park. The trip proved to be a huge success as he starred on the mound and at the plate and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Scott, 16, pitched a scoreless first inning and struck out two. In the fourth inning, he belted a grand slam six rows up into the left-field seats to lead the National team’s 6-1 win over the American team. “He showed us why he’s here as a pitcher and a hitter,” said Greg Sabers, PG’s vice president of scouting and showcases. "He’s one of the top pitchers here, but he’s too good a...
Read More
Loading more articles...
About Perfect Game :: Contact us :: Terms of Use :: Privacy Policy :: Testimonials :: Job Opportunities
Copyright 1994-2026 by Perfect Game. All rights reserved. No portion of this information may be reprinted or reproduced without the written consent of Perfect Game.