teams
Indianapolis Clowns
The undisputed star to play for the Indianapolis Clowns was a 16 year old shortstop by the name of Hank Aaron, who left the team in the summer of 1952 to join the Boston Braves in the [Minor] Northern League.
Near the wind down of the Negro Leagues and full integration with Major League Baseball, veteran and league legend Oscar Charleston took on duties as the active on-field manager, officially becoming a clown himself for the again for 1940 season.
Kansas City Monarches
"The Kansas City Monarchs dropped a hard fought game Sunday to the Garden City, Mo., team. The Score was 3-0. Pitched by Hezzie Connors the game was lost on a series of failed scoring chances by the Monarchs.
An interested incident that also occured was that a Klan meeting was being held in the park when the Monarchs got to Garden City, which delayed the game for an over an hour."
-Kansas City Call, August 1, 1924.
Pittsburgh Crawfords
'In the early 1930s, Gus Greenlee’s Pittsburgh Crawford’s had eclipsed Cum Posey’s Homestead Grays in both on field popularity and outright talent on the field.
This prompted Grays owner Cum Posey to quickly begin stripping the Grays of many of their key players. At the end of the 1932 season, Courier sportswriter Roll Wilson reported that Posey, whom he called “my boyfriend from the Monongahela Valley,” had just finished the most disastrous year of his baseball career as a baseball executive.
He had made enemies of men who had once been friends; seeing himself becoming the mighty somnambulist of a vanished dream when his personal league, the East-West League collapsed, resulting in the Negro Leagues losing its grip on many of it's most profitable territories.
Memphis Red Sox
The American Negro League (ANL) experienced a major set back in the 1955 season, losing all but four of its member teams.
After being replaced by the Dallas Stars, the Indianapolis Clowns were relegated strictly to a barnstorming franchise. The Stars now joined the remaining three teams that made up the entire league; the Kansas City Monarchs, Birmingham Black Barons, and the Memphis Red Sox.
Separately, a burgeoning Cuban team by the same name, the traveling Havana Red Sox, was established that year in 1920, and later purchased by the future majority owner of the Indianapolis Clowns, owner and businessman Syd Pollack.
New York Black Yankees
The New York Black Yankees were officially founded in Harlem as the Harlem Stars in 1931 by financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler and dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
By 1932, the club was renamed the New York Black Yankees.
The rare and unlikely opportunity for African American teams to rent stadiums had few exceptions. The Homestead Gray's regularly rented Forbes Field, and the Cuban Stars of the Negro National League frequently rented Redland Field in Cincinnati.
However, things began to change quickly after a successful turnout of an estimated 14,000-20,000 fans, each paying between $1-$1.50 to attend the game.
The incredible surge in popularity prompted businessman, Roy Lancaster (Brotherhood Secretary-Treasurer) to begin looking for a more lucrative and consistent stadium rental opportunity.
The continued support and popularity of the burgeoning Negro Leagues eventually lead to an outcry from fans to open Yankee Stadium permanently for the Lincoln Giants, who later officially became the New York Black Yankees.
Homestead Grays
The Homestead Grays were considered a powerhouse in the Negro Leagues throughout their existence. The Grays were more than just Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, who were akin to New York Yankees sluggers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
At various times, the team included superstars Cool Papa Bell, Ray Brown, Vic Harris, Sammy Bankhead, Roy Partlow, Luke Easter, Bob Thurman, Bud Wilson, and other quality ballplayers who helped complement the stars.
Lesser known, pitcher Ray Brown, who had married one of Cum Posey’s daughters in a ceremony at home plate in 1935, had a tremendous career on the mound for the Grays and was a major factor in the success of the pitching staff.
Brown not only pitched but also played the outfield for the team from 1932-1946. While splitting time between pitching and being a regular in the Grays lineup, Brown lead the league in wins in 1939, 1941 and 1942 and is ranked among the all-time pitching leaders in Negro Leagues history.
Atlanta Black Crackers
In 1904, Charles Islam Taylor along with his brothers - Ben, “Candy” Jim, and Johnny “Steel Arm” - organized the Birmingham Giants and in 1910, Taylor moved the club to West Baden, Indiana, and four years later transferred the cub to Indianapolis.
There the club was sponsored by the American Brewing Company and were called the ABCs.
Taylor had become part owner with Ted Bowser, who owned the lease on the Washington Park, the ABC’s home facility and by 1915 had split paths with Bowser, gaining full control of the club and the lease on the park.
The most prominent player owner of the Taylor brothers was Ben. A slick-fielding first baseman, especially adept at digging out low throws.
He was also the anchor of the ABC’s lineup batting .323, .407 and .358 during the 1920-1922 seasons. Baseball historian James Riley said of him:
“Modest, easygoing and soft-spoken, Taylor was a true gentleman who maintained a fair and professional demeanor, and he was an excellent teacher to the younger players.”
Birmingham Black Barons
The Birmingham Black Barons of the Southern Association ended the 1950 season with a record of 87 wins and 62 losses, finishing second in the SA with total attendance at 372,089, averaging nearly 4,994 fans per game.
The Barons plated 838 runs, tops in the circuit, while conceding 637 runs, the lowest total in the circuit (201 run differential). Karl Olson led all regular hitters by connecting at a .321 clip. Leo Kiely topped the team with 18 wins, while Ray Yochim added 15 or more wins, too Dick Littlefield registered a 2.9 earned run average, leading qualifying pitchers.
James Atkins, Milt Bolling, Earl Caldwell, Dave Ferriss, Bob DiPietro, Clem Dreisewerd, Joe DeMaestri, Homer Spragins, Fred Hatfield, Leo Kiely, Lefty Wallace, Norm Zauchin, Ray Yochim, Frank Sullivan, Charlie Maxwell, Dick Littlefield, Mike Palm and Karl Olson were all players for the 1950 Birmingham Barons who played in the Majors during their careers with Pinky Higgins serving as manager.
Oakland Larks
At the turn of the century winter league baseball was beginning to flourish and African American teams began to steadily integrate. Respect for African American players was on the rise (especially in the California Winter League) and in 1946 the West Coast Baseball Association was formed.
Berkeley fireman Ed Harris was one of the main inspiration behind the WCBA, becoming the Business Manager for the Oakland Larks at league inception. Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein served as the WCBA President with Jessie Owens serving as the league Vice President.
The league was compiled of just six teams: Seattle Steelheads, San Diego Tigers, Oakland Larks, Los Angeles White Sox and Owen’s own Portland Rosebuds.
Former Oakland City Mayor Lionel “Lefty” Wilson also went on to pitch for the Oakland Larks alongside teammate Marion “Sugar” Cain. Cain would later go on to play professional baseball in Canada from 1950-1957.
Cuban X Giants
The Page Fence Giants began the 1896 season without their founder and innovator, Bill Fowler. Fowler formed a club in Muncie, Indiana, with the intent of “wrestling the laurels from the Page Fence Giants.” In his absence, Gus Parsons and Grant Johnson ran the and barnstormed the Midwest for gate receipts.
At the outset of the season, the Giants embarked on a tour spanning from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana. According to the Free Press, the Page Giants at one point won 35 straight games. Unlike the previous season, Parsons scheduled more games in the club’s home of Adrian, Michigan.
During July, rumors began about a potential meeting between the Giants and the Cuban X Giants for the “Colored Championship of the United States.” The series was more than a rumor and the two clubs would face-off across Michigan, playing a 17 game series.
For the X Giants it elevated their status as a strictly barnstorming franchise.
Washington Black Senators
The Washington Black Senators owner Clark Griffith began renting his ballpark to the Homestead Grays from 1940 until the 1948 season.
During this time Griffith began to realize just how good the talent in the Negro Leagues had become. The Homestead Grays eventually began regularly playing games at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., where they began to draw increasingly larger crowds.
During World War II, when spending for the war effort soared, the take-home pay for the players in the Negro Leagues soared with it. This benefited the players for all organizations, especially for the stand out Homestead Grays and other black baseball organizations.
Taking a more serious interest in 1943, Clark Griffith called a private meeting with Homestead Grays stars Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard to ask them their thoughts on integrated play.
Both players responded that they would like the opportunity to do so and would fair well against most of the pitchers in the league.
In response Griffith asked, “Do you think you can play Major League Baseball?”, with both players responding, “We will try.” At that point Griffith replied, “The reason why we haven’t got you colored baseball players on the team… the time hasn’t come for you fellas to get on a team. The time hasn’t come for you to be integrated.”
Josh and Buck remained in the Negro Leagues and the Grays continued to rent Griffith Stadium winning a pennant every year consecutively from 1937-1945, largely behind the talents of Gibson and Leonard.
Hilldale Athletic Club
Ed Bolden founded the team in 1910 as an amateur athletic club for local young men.
Devere Thompson was the first manager but Bolden took over as manager himself before the end of the first season. [1]
The club incorporated November 1916, as Hilldale Baseball and Exhibition Company, and began to hire some established players. [2]
Spot Poles and Bill Pettus led the 1917 team to a 23-15-1 record.
Hilldale and the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants played as eastern "Associates" of the western Negro National League (NNLI) in 1920 and 1921.
In the latter season they held a four game series in September with the winner to face the NNL champion Chicago American Giants.
After both teams won two games, the American Giants traveled east to play one series each. Chicago defeated the Bacharach Giants 2-1-1 but Hilldale beat Chicago 3-2-1. [4]
Chicago American Giants
The Chicago American Giants were founded conceived by Negro League pioneer and player, Andrew Rube Foster. The Chicago-based Chicago American Giants played from 1910 until the mid-1930s.
For the first decade of black baseball, the American Giants were considered to be the most dominant team in the Negro Leagues.
From 1911 to 1926 founder and player Rube Foster, owned, managed, and played for the team.
As associate members of Foster's Negro National League I, the American Giants won five pennants, along with additional pennant achieved in the 1932 Negro Southern League.
They also had a second-half championship in Gus Greenlee's Negro National League II in 1934.
Dayton Marcos
The Dayton Marcos came to fruition on on June 12, 1920 as the first members of the Negro National League I (NNLI) in 1920 managed by Jim” Taylor as a player coach. As a third baseman, Taylor played for two decades in the NNL as a player coach, with his rookie season occurring at the age of 36 in 1920.
Taylor retired with the Chicago American Giants at the age of 58 in 1942, still going on to manage for the Homestead Grays.
Taylor would win the NNL World Championship for the Grays in back to back years in 1943-1944, continue to manager for another three seasons with the Chicago American Giants at the age of 63 in 1947.
The league's winter meetings kicked off on December 4 with owner John Matthews present as representative of the Marcos. Early accounts announced the sale of the Marcos to businessmen in Columbus, Ohio, where it was rechristened as the Columbus Buckeyes.
However, a 1943 column written in The Pittsburgh Courier by Hall of Fame player, manager, and executive Cum Posey detailed the true story
"Mathews[sic] of the Dayton Marcos went to sleep in the league meeting. When he awoke "Rube" had taken his franchise and divided his players among the other clubs."
While the press billed the move as a transfer and several former Marcos joined the Buckeyes, Matthews continued to operate the Marcos as an independent team.
In April, the club hosted the Buckeyes in a 10-5 loss at Westwood Field.
Newark Eagles
At the conclusion of World War II, the Negro Leagues launched the careers of several young stars; Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Monte Irvin, Ernie Banks, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays, players who would break baseball color Barries once and for all.
Yet the Negro League rosters were also filed out with stars like Ray Danridge, Leon Day, and Raymond Brown, who played out their best baseball days only to be forgotten over the decades, with only one living long enough to smell the roses of Cooperstown.
The Player who appear in these pages came to the game. Clarence “Pint” Isreal, third baseman for the Newark Eagles in their 1946 championship season, expressed it well:
“If you were determined to play, you played baseball and all the guys were good ballplayers. I guess the only reason I really wanted to play is because I wanted to be good like the rest of the ballplayers. It’s something that gets in your craw. It sticks with you.”
Denver White Elephants
The Denver White Elephants were at one time the creme of the crop of Negro Leagues baseball. Purchased by businessman by A.H.W. Ross created the club in 1915 and held control until of the team until the 1930s. During this time, the White Elephants were regarded as one of the best teams in black baseball in Colorado.
Ross primarily ran a Hotel business (The Rossonian Hotel) in Denver's Historically African American Five Points Neighborhood, known as the center of black baseball in the state. It is a celebration of music, baseball and African American culture.
Ross showed a strong passion for jazz and after purchasing the Baxter Hotel in the 1920's featured some of the most famous names in the genre, including Jazz legends Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
Despite their talent and fame most musicians were promptly ask to leave after completing their set simply because of their skin color.
Before the 1890's, the area surrounding Denver had a thriving league of amateur baseball teams, who were oddly enough, integrated.
During the 1860's, nearly 200 teams were playing in and around the Denver Metropolitan area with many semi-pro and Independent League teams formed, such as the Elephants.
After the 1890's Jim Crow laws adopted across the country put a ban on integrated play and paved the way for segregated baseball.
Notable teams to emerge from the forced segregation were the Champions, the Black Diamonds and the Denver White Elephants.
The Elephants franchise survived to play mostly against white teams, something rarely seen in the Negro Leagues until the mid 1940's.
In the Colorado area specifically, black teams and white teams regularly played against each other and were generally not forced to segregate, allowing integrated play to continue.
Louisville Black Caps
The Louisville Black Caps played in the Negro Southern League (NSL) the period during the period of time sports were segregated.
The Black Caps also played in the Negro National League I (NNLI) for one year in 1930 before becoming the Louisville White Sox in 1931. However, the next year they renamed themselves the Black Caps before joining the Negro Southern League (NSL).
Just five months into the Negro Southern League’s 1932 season, the team relocated to Ohio, becoming the Columbus Turfs for the remaining month of the 1932 season before complete dissolution of the team.
The Negro Southern League was considered a Major League in the Negro Leagues circuit and featured many of the well know talent seen in the Major Leagues. However, in practice it acted as a minor league for the Negro National League I.
It featured: the Nashville Elite Giants, Memphis Red Sox, Birmingham Black Barons, New Orleans Caulfields, Knoxville Giants, Jacksonville Stars, Atlanta Black Crackers, Cleveland Cubs, Chattanooga Black Lookouts and a host of other teams.
The Negro Southern League went on an indefinite hiatus, not scheduling games for the 1924-1925, failing again to organize a season in 1928.
The leagues reasoning included poor attendance and lack of ability to actually complete games the league had scheduled.
Before the start of integration in 1945, a new Negro League was organized assuming the name of the old league (NSL-II) lasting until 1951.
Detroit Stars
Founded in 1919 by tenacious businessman Tenny Blount, the Detroit Stars became charter members of the Negro National League I (NNLI) in 1920. With the help of Chicago American Giants owner and manager Rube Foster, the Stars quickly became a perennial contender in the Nergo League of the West.
Notable Detroit Stars include Turkey Stearnes, who joined the MLB Hall of Fame in 2000, 21 years after his passing. The Detroit Tigers (MLB) honor Stearnes in a display at the centerfield gate in their home stadium, Comerica Park.
The team had several future Hall of Fame players including Andy “Lefty” Cooper elected to the Hall in 2006, after playing nine seasons for Detroit and ten seasons for Kansas City.
Other notable Stars alumni include outfielder and first baseman Pete Hill (HOF), pitcher and outfielder Cristobal Torriente (HOF), as well as Sam Crawford, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, Clint Thomas, Bruce Petway, Joe “Prince” Henry, and John Donaldson.
Detroit played its home games at Mack Park, constructed in 1914 and sponsored by Joe Roesink, a Dutchman of Jewish descent born in the Grand Rapids area. Roesink sponsored the Stars through his chain of profitable haberdasheries.
The Stars franchise also spent time playing in Hamtramck Stadium, also know as Roesink Stadium and Stearnes Field.
However, the collapse of the Negro National League I caused the original Detroit Stars to dissolve, reforming one year later, becoming the Detroit Wolves in 1932.
The formation of the Wolves from the Stars coincided with the franchise moving to the East-West Negro League.
Jacksonville Red Caps
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, the Red Caps played in the Negro American League (ANL) from 1936-1942, playing at Durkee Field starting in 1938, before relocating to Cleveland, becoming the Cleveland Bears and assuming a new home at Hardware Field. In 1939, the Bears finished the season 22-4 in NAL league play but were not awarded the pennant.
The had a spectacular season finishing with a 25-13 record and were thus awarded the pennant for the league. Further research on the 1939 season shows the Bears had actually finished 20-21, finishing third in the Negro American League that year.
Troubles continued for the Bears, taking a major step back the following season in 1940, finishing last in the NAL with a record of 6-16. This prompted the move back to Jacksonville with the team reassuming the Red Caps moniker.
This did little for the franchises success, with the Red Caps finishing 8-10 in 1941. The team continued to play poorly going 2-6 in 1942 before dropping out of the NAL permanently mid-season in July.
The Red Caps would continue on as a franchise, playing their games at Durkee Field but only on an unaffiliated basis, never officially returning to the Negro Leagues.
The Red Caps would go unrecognized until a June 28, 2008 game in Pittsburgh in which the Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates honored the Negro leagues by wearing uniforms of the Jacksonville Red Caps and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in an inter-league game that lasted 13 innings with the Pirates defeating the Rays 4-3.
Brooklyn Royal Giants
The Brooklyn Royal Giants were formed by businessman John Wilson Connor, owner of the Brooklyn Royal Cafe who named the team after his business in 1905.
Two years later the Royal Giants joined the “National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba.” Lasting a mere three years, the league was able to create several influential teams: Philadelphia Giants, Cuban X-Giants, Cuban Stars of Havana and the Cuban Giants of New York.
The team began to noticeably decline after white New York City booking agent, league veteran Nat Strong took ownership of the franchise in 1920. Their poor play continued under Strong’s ownership.
As part of the Eastern Colored League (ECL), the Royal Giants played home games at Dexter Park in Queens, New York. Interestingly, on the 11th of October, 1926, the Giants played a squad that featured Yankees slugger Babe Ruth in an exhibition game at Bradley Beach in New Jersey.
The Giants would win the game 3-1. This would spark the team to go on a barnstorming tour until officially joining independent league play in 1928 with a revamped roster.
However, the team continued its steady decline and was eventually disbanded in 1942.
Baltimore Black Sox
A meeting in the Y.M.C.A in Philadelphia on December 16, 1922 became an important part of African American history that decade.
In the phrasing of the reporter covering the event, these men;
“knocked into a cocked hat the theory that leading lights of colored baseball would not coincide along materially constructive lines of organization.”
What had proven good for Midwestern teams - would now be tested in the East as well, with the founding of the Baltimore Black Sox, the founding members to join the newly formed Eastern Colored League.
The league was created to directly compete with the Westered Colored League and its inaugural season the Eastern League featured several teams:
Brooklyn Royal Giants, the New York Lincoln Stars, the Atlantic Bacharach Giants, Washington Potomacs and the Baltimore Black Sox. Independent prosperous teams had existed for several years in major eastern cities.
These clubs had regular access to their own facilities. Patronage had been built up through transportation by train over relatively short distances making travel an affordable operation.
“Men of long experience and good repute” now desired to advance the status of their baseball franchises, and the fans gate showed they agreed...
Tired of irregular scheduling, with some crack teams hardly ever playing against natural rivals, fan in the East were ready for regular scheduling “soothes could see all Eastern teams mix it so they can tell who’s who in the East.”
The Eastern Colored League (ECL) hade made baseball history.
The success of the Western league venture, the existence of several major independent teams geographically convenient to each other, and the 20-year-old structure of the National and American Major League made forming a second Negro major league attractive.
Portland Rosebuds
The Portland Rosebuds, were a baseball team owned by Jesse Owens. The Rosebuds were part of the West Coast Baseball Association, a Negro League headed by Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters.
The Rosebuds played the Seattle Steelheads on their opening day, May 12, 1946 at Dudley Field in El Paso, Texas. They followed opening day with two more days of games in El Paso and one in nearby Ciudad Juárez.
The Portland Rosebuds were a part of an all black baseball league, the West Coast Baseball Association. Previously in 1936, Jesse Owens had made an attempt at promoting another negro league team, but was unsuccessful.
When Owens helped start the West Coast Baseball League in 1946, his team, the Portland Rosebuds, was one of six teams in the league. Other teams in the league included the Oakland Larks, San Francisco Sea Lions, San Diego Tigers, and the Los Angeles White Sox.
The West Coast Baseball League was created as result of black players being banned from other organized Negro Leagues. It was one of the last negro leagues to exist and the only one on the West Coast.
Abe Saperstein, who famously founded the Harlem Globetrotters, served as the president of the league. Jesse Owens was named vice president of the league.
The league was disbanded after only two months of existence.