Max ”Dr. Cyclopse” Manning - A Man of Honor Above All Else

Max “Dr. Cyclopse” Manning was given the nickname by a teammate on the Newark Eagles because of the thick eyeglasses he wore while pitching the Negro Leagues.

The 6’4” right-hander with the sidearm delivery was a standout even while in High School in Pleasantville, NJ. This prompted a scout from the Detroit Tigers to offer Manning a tryout in 1938 based on the newspaper articles they had seen. The ball club later rescinded the offer when it was discovered he was black.

Manning went on play semi-pro with the Johnson Stars in Atlantic City before signing with the Newark Eagles of the Negro League.

Max Manning on the far right end.

His career was interrupted by the draft during World War II but in 1946 he returned to the Eagles and pitched in the Negro League’s World Series as Newark defeated the Kansas City Monarchs 3-2. Manning went 9-1 in 1946 and 15-6 for Newark in 1947

In the spring of 1948, a scout for the New York Giants would again come calling with an offer to join the Major Leagues but Manning was unwilling to break the contract he had signed with Newark Eagles ownership due to ongoing battles with Effa Manley prompting Manning to turn down the scout’s offer. Stating “he could at least wake up every morning and look at himself in the mirror to shave with his honor intact.”

Taken aback, the scout asked again if he wanted to pitch in the major leagues, to which Manning replied, "More than you could ever know, but if you don't have honor, what do you have?"  

Manning suggested to the scout to try to negotiate with the Manley but as anyone would tell you they weren’t the easiest to do so with, so the scout knew better than to try.  

Later that summer Manning began to be plagued by arm troubles which would hamper his chances of reaching the major leagues.

A few years later,  he agreed to a $1,200 two-month advance to pitch for the Sherbrooke Athletics of the Quebec league where he later remarked

“I can remember sitting on the bench up there in Sherbrooke and at that time they didn’t have Tylenol and Excedrin and all these pain relievers. The only thing they had at that time was aspirin. I remember sitting on that bench, inning after inning, popping aspirin, trying to reduce the pain.” Manning confessed that he put himself through such agony because “I didn’t know how to do anything else but play ball.”

He pitched for the Athletics for two months in 1951 before joining the Brantford Red Sox to close out their season.    

Determined to change that “the only thing he knew was baseball”,  at his wife Dorothy’s urging,  he used the GI Bill funding to enroll in teachers' college in the New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro where he started 14 years earlier before joining the Negro Leagues. (Now Rowan University)  

Baseball was still in his blood and he returned to Brantford in the summer of 1954 helping the Red Sox in their pennant drive including a four-hit shutout of the Guelph-Waterloo Royals in game one of a doubleheader in a tidy one hour and six minutes on August 13th.  The Red Sox also won the nightcap to move into first place.

After his last hurrah in the Intercounty, Manning finished his studies and graduated in the spring of 1955 before teaching the 6th grade for 28 years in Pleasantville New Jersey.