New Orleans Creoles | |
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Information | |
League |
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Location | New Orleans, Louisiana |
Ballpark | Pelican Stadium |
Established | 1945 |
Disbanded | 1952 |
The New Orleans Creoles were a Negro league baseball team based in New Orleans, Louisiana, from at least 1945 until at least 1952. The team was a member of the second Negro Southern League from 1947 to 1948 and 1950 to 1951, and a member of the Negro Texas League for the 1949 season. [1] [2] They played at Pelican Stadium and were known for hiring women players and coaches. [1] [2] Second baseman Toni Stone—the first of three women to play professional baseball full-time in the previously all-male Negro leagues—played for the Creoles from 1949 to 1952, prior to her time on the Kansas City Monarchs. [1] [2]
The New Orleans Creoles were owned and promoted by Allan Page (or Allen Page). [1] [3] [4] The team was managed by Wesley Barrow during the 1949 and 1950 seasons. [1] Baseball historian Larry Lester has referred to the New Orleans Creoles as "a very good semi-pro team." [1] It played exhibition games against teams from the Negro American League, including the Kansas City Monarchs. [1]
The Creoles were known for hiring women players and coaches. [3] Georgia Williams pitched for the team in 1945. [3] Lucille Bland of Dillard University served as the team's third base coach in 1947. [2] [3] Toni Stone was hired as a second baseman in 1949. [1] [3] Fabiola Wilson of Xavier University of Louisiana and Gloria Dymond (also known as Lucille Gloria Dymond) of Southern University are listed as outfielders on the team's 1948–1949 roster. [2] [3]
Notable male Creoles players include Milt Smith and Gene Bremer, who played on the team for the 1948 and 1949 seasons, respectively. [5] [6]
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".
Henry Curtis Thompson was an American player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball who played primarily as a third baseman. A left-handed batter, he played with the Dallas Green Monarchs (1941), Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Browns (1947) and New York Giants (1949–56).
The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season.
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Toni Stone, born as Marcenia Lyle Stone, was an American female professional baseball player who played in predominantly male leagues. In 1953, she became the first woman to play as a regular on an American major-level professional baseball team when she joined the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro leagues. A baseball player from her early childhood, she also played for the San Francisco Sea Lions, the New Orleans Creoles, the Indianapolis Clowns, and the Kansas City Monarchs before retiring from baseball in 1954. Stone was taunted at times by teammates, once being told, "Go home and fix your husband some biscuits", but she was undeterred. It has been widely reported that during an exhibition game in 1953, she hit a single off a fastball pitch delivered by legendary player Satchel Paige, although the claim has failed verification.
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Lloyd Benjamon Davenport was an American baseball outfielder who played for several clubs of the Negro and Minor leagues during 17 seasons spanning 1934–1953. Listed at 5' 4" (1.65 m), 150 lb. (68 kg), Davenport batted and threw left-handed. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was nicknamed "Ducky".
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