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Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest existing professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
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 Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960, including 18 seasons recognized as Major League by Major League Baseball. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal press.
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 following is a timeline of franchise evolution in Major League Baseball.
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.
Samuel Streeter was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played professionally from 1920 to 1936 with several teams, mostly with the Birmingham Black Barons and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Streeter started for the East in the inaugural East-West All-Star Game in 1933.
The New Orleans Ads were a Negro Southern League (NSL) baseball team in 1920 based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The team was started by Fred Caulfield, a local backer, and the team is often referred to in newspapers as the Caulfield Ads.
Henry H. Hannon Jr. was a Negro leagues outfielder and manager who played from 1908 to 1914 and later managed the Montgomery Grey Sox.
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 led 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 following is a timeline of the evolution of major-league-caliber franchises in Negro league baseball. The franchises included are those of high-caliber independent teams prior to the organization of formal league play in 1920 and concludes with the dissolution of the remnant of the last major Negro league team, the Kansas City Monarchs then based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in about 1966. All teams who played a season while a member of a major Negro league are included. The major leagues are the original Negro National League, the Eastern Colored League, the American Negro League, the East–West League, the second Negro National League and the Negro American League. Teams from the 1932 original Negro Southern League are also included which allows for the inclusion of the few high caliber minor Negro league teams.
The Atlanta Black Crackers were a professional Negro league baseball team which played during the mid-20th century. They were a minor Negro league team and were named after the original Atlanta Black Crackers.
Raymond "Tank" Austin was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played with the Nashville Elite Giants and Birmingham Black Barons in 1930 and the Atlanta Black Crackers in 1932.
Joseph "Lefty" Bell was an American baseball pitcher and outfielder in the Negro leagues. He played with the Montgomery Grey Sox in 1932.
The Bessemer Stars was the initial nickname of Negro leagues baseball team based in Bessemer, Alabama in the 1921 and 1927 seasons. The Bessemer Stars played as members of the 1921 Negro Southern League, while the Bessemer Grey Sox joined the league in 1927.
Nashville, Tennessee, has hosted Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams since the late 19th century but has never been home to a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. The city's professional baseball history dates back to 1884 with the formation of the Nashville Americans, who were charter members of the original Southern League in 1885 and played their home games at Sulphur Spring Park, later renamed Athletic Park and Sulphur Dell. This ballpark was the home of Nashville's minor league teams through 1963. Of the numerous clubs to play there, the best-known and longest-operating was the Nashville Vols, who competed from 1901 to 1963, primarily in the Southern Association.
The Negro Southeastern League was a minor league formed in 1921 and was one of the several Negro leagues that operated during the era of segregated organized baseball. The league was organized as a seven-team league, with one league franchise based in Alabama and six in Georgia.
References
- The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues by John Holway
- The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues by James Riley