Negro Leagues Baseball Player. A native of Middletown, Delaware, he played both semi-professional baseball and professional baseball for African-American teams in the pre-Negro Leagues. He played both the position of pitcher and outfielder for the Germantown, Pennsylvania, based Blue Ribbons team (later the Homestead Grays) between 1911 and 1913, the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League (ECL), in 1926, and the Cuban All-Stars (East Squad) of the Negro National League (NNL), in 1929. He also played on the same team with the likes of Hall of Famers Judy Johnson, Biz Mackey, and Pop Lloyd, before his retirement in 1929. Following his retirement he took a job as a porter, and later as an assistant manager at the Rosenbaum's Department Store in Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1971, he retired to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he lived with his second wife until her death in 1997. In the Autumn of 2005, Simmons was rediscovered by David Allen Lambert of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. A genealogist and baseball buff, Lambert told the baseball historians associated with the Negro Leagues of Simmons, and in turn they wanted to interview him as a link to his stories on the history of early baseball. In May of 2006, when Simmons was 110 years old he was interviewed by a Dr. Layton Revel, a founder and member of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research. Following the interview plans were made for Simmons 111th birthday party on October 14, 2006. At the celebration were 30 former Negro League baseball players. On October 29, 2006, two weeks after the celebration, Simmons passed away. At the time of his death he was the oldest living baseball player in history. The previous honour went to Chet Hoff, who died in 1998, at the age of 107.