The United States League (USL), alternately called the United States Baseball League, was one of the several professional Negro Leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated.
The United States Baseball League was organized as an experimental league of sorts by Major League Baseball executive Branch Rickey in 1945.
The USL was created with the sole purpose of serving as a platform for talented African-American baseball players to be scouted for impending integration with Major League Baseball.
It was in 1945 that Branch Rickey rallied several prominent Major League Baseball executives in anticipating of full integration.
Branch Rickey teamed up Negro Leagues veteran, and Pittsburg area businessman, Gus Greenlee, who was the creator of the Negro National League II and owner of the original Pittsburgh Crawfords.
Together they created the United States League as a method for scouting specifically black players that would soon break segregation in MLB.
It is unclear if the league actually played a season in 1945 or if it was only used as a method to put pressure on the Major Leagues for integration.
However, when Rickey signed Jackie Robinson, he completely skipped playing in the USL, in October of that 1945.
The 1946 season for the USL lasted only a few weeks before the league folded. Robinson went on the break Major League Baseball's color line in 1947 with Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers.
Conflicting sources list the Boston Blues as fielding a team in 1945, others list only 1946.
No standings or accounts have been found for the 1945 season.
The Pittsburgh Crawfords, Philadelphia Hilldales and St. Louis Stars assumed the nicknames of successful defunct teams and have no relation to those teams.
The Brooklyn Brown Dodgers merged with the Clippers mid-season, just before the league reportedly folded. [2]
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