DETROIT – Norman “Turkey” Stearnes played for the Detroit Stars in 11 of his 18 professional seasons in the Negro Leagues.
From 1923 to 1931, he was a one-man wrecking crew, hitting for power, average and stealing bases with a gallop that some thought resembled … a turkey. His granddaughter Vanessa Ivy Rose says the legend of the nickname also had something to do with Stearnes having a potbelly as a young man.
She likens his five-tool game to a combination of Riley Greene, Curtis Granderson and Miguel Cabrera. And yet, few have ever heard of this man who roamed center field at historic Hamtramck Stadium -- which is now named after him.
“People never heard of Grandad, so we call him the greatest hitter you never heard of,” Rose said.
For years, Rose and her family have tried to draw proper attention to Stearnes’ career, culminating in his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, and later in 2007, a plaque outside Comerica Park.
More recently it was Vanessa’s podcast about her Grandpa Turkey that gained national attention.
“The podcast is amazing. It’s called ‘Reclaimed: The Forgotten League,’ and that’s essentially what it was,” Rose said. “Their stories were forgotten. Their stats were forgotten. Their whole history was buried -- but it’s American history, and we need to know this.”
And now, thanks to Major League Baseball’s decision to include Negro League stats in the MLB record books, those memories have been reclaimed.
“These are superstars. They belong in the top 10,” Rose said. “Now you can see the leaderboards. You can see where Josh Gibson is, and you can see where Oscar Charleston is, and, of course, my granddad -- but there are so many other people who contributed to the game of baseball. We need to make sure we celebrate all of them.”
Now Turkey’s name appears with Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Tristram Speaker among several categories including No. 7 all-time in batting average at .348.
“It just blew my mind, because we’ve been talking about it for so long, and people didn’t know who he was,” Rose said. “But now people are really waking up and recognizing the history of the game.”
If you ever want to meet Vanessa, just hang around the Turkey Stearnes plaque outside of the center field entrance to Comerica Park in Downtown Detroit. She’s there quite often.
“I never met him, so this is really my memory of him: This plaque, and my grandmother’s stories, and anything baseball historians have shared with me,” Rose said as she looked at the plaque, which has a bronze picture and description of her grandad. “This is home away from home for me, and it’s his rightful home too, because this is where he should’ve been all along.”