Clinton Cyrus Thomas (November 25, 1896 – December 2, 1990), nicknamed "Hawk", was a professional baseball player born in Greenup, Kentucky. He was an outfielder and second baseman in the Negro leagues from 1920 to 1938, where he earned the nickname "Hawk" for his sharp-eyed hitting and center field skills.
Thomas was a member of the Philadelphia Hilldale teams that won three consecutive Eastern Colored League championships from 1923 to 1925 and the Negro World Series in 1925.[2] He joined the New York Black Yankees in 1931 and, the following year, "ruined" the opening of Greenlee Field by scoring the only run and making a game-saving catch in the Black Yankees defeat of Satchel Paige's Pittsburgh Crawfords. Nicknamed "The Black DiMaggio", he once hit a home run off Fidel Castro in an exhibition game in Cuba.[3]
After his baseball career ended, Thomas worked as a custodian and staff supervisor for the West Virginia Department of Mines and as a messenger for the State Senate. He died on December 2, 1990, in Charleston, West Virginia.[2][4]
