Years later when Tugerson was a shift lieutenant with the Winter Haven Police Department, in an article titled “Former Pitcher In A League By Himself,” in The Lakeland Ledger, Tugerson reminisced about his baseball career. He talked about pitching for the Bartow All-Stars and beating both the Kansas City Monarchs and the Clowns. Both these teams asked him to join them, but he was hesitant to go on the road, pointing out he could stay home and cook at the Sundown Restaurant and get $50 a game for playing once a week. The Homestead Grays, the dominant Negro League team, offered him a contract, but he opted instead to sign with the Monarchs. His stay with the Monarchs was short-lived as he got a sore arm overthrowing in an effort to impress Buck O’Neil, the Monarch’s manager. He then signed with the Clowns, joining his brother, Leander, and played the 1951 and 1952 seasons there.
Tugerson also spoke of his time with the Clowns and his rooming with future Hall of Famer Hank Aaron. “He was my roommate when we were with the Clowns. He left the Clowns and went to Indianapolis in the Braves farm system. When he came to camp, all he had was a li’l bitty handbag with his glove and shoes and clothes and everything. Both of us being rookies, and neither of us drink and both of us spend most of the time in our rooms, so they put us together. We had fun. It was wholesome and clean fun, we just didn’t drink. And we didn’t believe in staying out late. We rapped the ball, and then we’d go home.”
Tugerson talked about the pressure he felt from both the Cotton States League following the forfeited game at Hot Springs and from the owner of the Clowns (Syd Pollock) to rejoin the Clowns rather than return to Knoxville. He also addressed the reason he returned to Knoxville rather than rejoining the Clowns. Tugerson said, “It would have defeated the purpose. See, if I had a contract there and broke it, I would have denied the right of Negro players to play in the league at any time. That wouldn’t have helped the black people, baseball or nothin’.”
Tugerson confirmed during this interview with The Ledger late in his life what the newspapers had reported in 1953—his promise the night of the forfeiture to sue the Cotton States League. Following his return to Knoxville after filing the lawsuit, there was little talk of the lawsuit among his teammates, and Tugerson only voluntarily spoke of it once. Shortly after returning to the team, a few members of the pitching staff, including Koehnke, Buckles, and Diehl, heard Tugerson’s own words about it. These pitchers, as well as their other Smokies teammates, were awed by Tugerson. He was such a private man, and they had such respect for him that they were always reluctant to tread on his private turf—his inner sanctum. This one occasion was an exception.
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