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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin 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 Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J. L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team. In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any major league team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record. The team produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
The Newark Eagles were a professional Negro league baseball team which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948. They were owned by Abe and Effa Manley.
The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947. Racial segregation in professional baseball was sometimes called a gentlemen's agreement, meaning a tacit understanding, as there was no written policy at the highest level of organized baseball, the major leagues. A high minor league's vote in 1887 against allowing new contracts with black players within its league sent a powerful signal that eventually led to the disappearance of blacks from the sport's other minor leagues later that century, including the low minors.
Kansas City Municipal Stadium was an American baseball and football stadium in the central United States, located in Kansas City, Missouri. It was located at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and E. 22nd Street.
Samuel Jethroe, nicknamed "The Jet", was an American center fielder in Negro league and Major League Baseball. With the Cincinnati & Cleveland Buckeyes he won a pair of batting titles, hit .340 over seven seasons from 1942 to 1948, and helped the team to two pennants and the 1945 Negro World Series title. He was named the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1950 with the Boston Braves, and led the NL in stolen bases in his first two seasons.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1948 throughout the world.
The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification leagues.
The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns, joined the Negro American League as the Cincinnati Clowns and, after a couple of years, relocated to Indianapolis. Hank Aaron was a Clown for a short period, and the Clowns were also one of the first professional baseball teams to hire a female player.
The 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers finished the season tied for first place with the St. Louis Cardinals. The two teams played in the first ever playoff series to decide the pennant, and the Cardinals took two straight to win the title.
The Seattle Steelheads were a Negro league baseball team from Seattle, Washington. Owned by Abe Saperstein, they were also known as the Harlem Globetrotters and Cincinnati Crescents, though occasionally the teams split and played each other.
Francis Oliver Matthews was a baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. Matthews, whose father was from Barbados, was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended the prestigious Rindge Technical School. By the time he graduated in 1935, Matthews ability as one of the best baseball players in the Greater Boston area led to him being recognized as the first black captain of the Rindge Baseball team.
Leonard Curtis Pearson, nicknamed "Hoss", was an American baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. He played from 1937 to 1949, playing mostly with the Newark Eagles.
The United States League (USL), alternately called the United States Baseball League, was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The USL was organized as a minor league in 1945 by Branch Rickey to serve as a platform to scout black players.
The Memphis Chicks were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Southern Association from 1901 to 1960. They were located in Memphis, Tennessee, and played their home games at Russwood Park. Known originally as the Memphis Egyptians and Memphis Turtles before becoming the Memphis Chickasaws, often shortened to Chicks, they were charter members of the Southern Association.
Bradford Bennett, was an American Negro league outfielder, first baseman and second baseman active in the 1940s.
Ervin Fowlkes was an American professional baseball shortstop in the Negro leagues. He played with the Homestead Grays in 1948.
The Cleveland Clippers were a Negro league baseball team in the minor United States League, based in Cleveland, Ohio in 1946. Composed mostly of former players on from the Great Lakes Naval Varsity team and local sandlot stars, the Clippers are credited with a 2–16 record in 18 league games. By July, the Clippers had folded and the remnants of the organization merged with the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers.
Minor league baseball teams were based in Boston, Massachusetts between 1884 and 1893. The Boston Blues (1886–1887) and Boston Reds (1893) played as members of the New England League. Earlier, the Boston Reserves played as members of the Massachusetts State Association in 1884 and may have been the first true farm team. The Boston minor league teams shared the city with the Boston major league teams. The 1893 Boston Reds were the final minor league team hosted in Boston.
References
- ↑ "1946 Boston Blues". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
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