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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
The Southeastern League was the name of four separate baseball leagues in minor league baseball which operated in the Southeastern and South Central United States in numerous seasons between 1897 and 2003. Two of these leagues were associated with organized baseball; the third and most recent incarnation was an independent league that operated for two seasons in 2002–03.
The first Negro National League (NNL) was one of the several Negro leagues that were established during the period in the United States when organized baseball was segregated. The league was formed in 1920 with former player Rube Foster as its president.
The Chattanooga Lookouts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League and the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and are named for nearby Lookout Mountain. The team plays its home games at AT&T Field which opened in 2000 and seats 6,340 fans. They previously played at Engel Stadium from 1930 through 1999, with a one-year break in Montgomery, Alabama's Cramton Bowl in 1943.
Cramton Bowl is a 25,000-seat stadium located in Montgomery, Alabama. Cramton Bowl opened in 1922 as a baseball stadium and has been home to Major League Baseball spring training and to minor league baseball. Today, however, its primary use is for American football.
The Atlanta Black Crackers were a professional Negro league baseball team which played during the early to mid-20th century. They were primarily a minor Negro league team; however in the brief period they played as a major Negro league team, they won the second half pennant of the Negro American League in 1938 but lost the play-off for the overall season title.
The Baltimore Elite Giants were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues from 1920 to 1950. The team was established by Thomas T. Wilson, in Nashville, Tennessee as the semi-pro Nashville Standard Giants on March 26, 1920. The team was renamed the Elite Giants in 1921, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1938, where the team remained for the duration of their existence. The team and its fans pronounced the word "Elite" as "ee-light".
The Negro Southern League (NSL) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The NSL was organized as a minor league in 1920 and lasted until 1936. It was considered a major league for the 1932 season and it was also the only organized league to finish its full schedule that season. Prior to the season, several established teams joined the NSL, mainly from the collapsed Negro National League.
The Montgomery Grey Sox were a Negro Southern League (NSL) baseball team based in Montgomery, Alabama. While the NSL was regarded as a minor league throughout most of its existence, with the collapse of the first Negro National League in 1931, the league is considered a major league for that one season.
The Montgomery Rebels was the name of several American minor league baseball franchises representing Montgomery, Alabama, playing in various leagues between 1912 and 1980. Rebels was the predominant nickname of the Montgomery teams, but it was not the original moniker, and it was one of several used by the city's 20th century professional baseball teams, which began play in organized baseball in 1903. Others included the Billikens, Bombers, Capitals, Climbers, Grays, Lambs, Lions and Senators.
The West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The WCNBA was organized as a minor league in 1946 by Abe Saperstein and Jesse Owens as a means to provide the west coast with a platform for African-American players. The league lasted about three months.
The Southern League of Colored Base Ballists was the first organized Negro baseball league. The league's only year of operation was 1886. Ten teams competed in the league which stretched from Jacksonville, Florida to Memphis, Tennessee with several other southern teams mentioned as possible members in newspaper articles from the period. The league appears to have collapsed in early July.
The Texas Colored League was a minor league Negro baseball league organized in 1919 and lasted until 1926. The league did not play a schedule in 1922.
The second Negro Southern League (NSL) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The NSL was organized as a minor league in 1945 and lasted until 1951.
The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the late 1920s the Martin brothers, all three Memphis doctors and businessmen, purchased the Red Sox. J. B. Martin, W. S. Martin, and B. B. Martin, would retain control of the club till its dissolution in 1959. The Red Sox played as members, at various times, of the Negro Southern League, Negro National League, and Negro American League. The team was never a titan of the Negro leagues like wealthier teams in northern cities of the United States, but sound management lead to a continuous thirty-nine years of operation, a span that was exceeded by very few other teams. Following integration the team had five players that would eventually make the rosters of Major League Baseball teams and two players that were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Negro American Association was the name of two different minor league Negro baseball leagues.
The Tri State League was a minor league organized in 1935 and was one of the several Negro leagues that operated during an era in which organized baseball was segregated. The Tri State League was organized as an eight-team league, with the league franchises based in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The Negro National Baseball Association was a minor league organized in 1954. The league was one of the several Negro leagues and operated near the end of the era in which organized baseball was segregated and after the integration of Major League Baseball. The Negro National Baseball Association was an eight-team league, with the league franchises based in North Carolina and Virginia. Spencer Davis was the league president.
References
- 1 2 3 "Negro Southeastern League (1921)" (PDF). Center for Negro League Baseball Research.
- ↑ "Negro Southern League is Formed" The Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, Sunday, April 18, 1920, Page 5, Column 5
- ↑ "Negro "Minor" League Teams" (PDF). Center for Negro League Baseball Research.
- ↑ "Center for Negro League Baseball Research > Home". www.cnlbr.org.