Pittsburgh Keystones (baseball)

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Pittsburgh Keystones
Information
League
Location Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ballpark
Established 1887
Disbanded 1922

The Pittsburgh Keystones was the name of two historic professional Negro league baseball teams that operated in 1887 and again in 1921 and 1922.

Contents

The first team was a member of the first black baseball league in 1887, the National Colored Base Ball League. The league was short-lived and the Keystones won four games but lost seven. [a] The team's roster included Weldy Walker, the second African-American to play in the major leagues and future hall of famer, Sol White. [1] The team folded during the season, along with the remaining teams in the league, on May 23, 1887. [2] : 408 

The second club was founded by Alexander McDonald Williams, a Barbadian immigrant and pool hall operator. [3] The Keystones' home field was Central Park, located in the Hill District at the corner of Chauncey Street and Humber Way. [4] The park was built by the prominent African American architect Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, who would later design Greenlee Field for the Pittsburgh Crawfords. [5] [6]

In their first season the Pittsburgh Keystones played as an independent club. They compiled a 9-20-2 record against Negro National League and other associate clubs. [7] The Keystones joined the Negro National League in 1922, finishing with a 14-29-3 record in league play under managers Dizzy Dismukes and Dicta Johnson. [7] The team disbanded after the season.

Year-by-year record

YearRecordFinishManagerNotes
18874-7 [1] [b] --Walter BrownLeague folded during season [8]
19219-20-2 [7] -- Dizzy Dismukes & A. M. Williams
192214-29-3 [7] --Dizzy Dismukes & Dicta Johnson

Significant Players

Notes

  1. ↑ Seamheads lists a 4-7 record; [1] Sumner lists a 3-4 record. [2]
  2. ↑ Different sources give different records for these teams; it is not always clear whether a game was official or an exhibition in the early years of baseball, and records of games are sparse. Some of these difficulties in obtaining accurate team history are discussed at Seamheads' introduction to their database.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Seamheads. "Pittsburgh Keystones I Team History - Seamheads Negro Leagues Database". www.seamheads.com. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Sumner, Benjamin Barrett (2000). Minor league baseball standings : all North American leagues, through 1999. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN   978-0-7864-0781-1 . Retrieved June 2, 2025.
  3. ↑ Ashwill, Gary (September 9, 2009). "Central Park, Pittsburgh 1920-1925" . Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  4. ↑ Ashwill, Gary (May 7, 2006). "Pittsburgh's Central Park" . Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ Tannler, Albert M. (May 7, 2006). "Pittsburgh's African-American Architect Louis Bellinger and the New Granada Theater" . Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  6. ↑ Strecker, Geri, "The Rise of Greenlee Field: Biography of a Ballpark," Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal 2:2 (Fall 2009): 39-40.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Seamheads. "Pittsburgh Keystones II Team History - Seamheads Negro Leagues Database". www.seamheads.com. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  8. ↑ "The Colored League Dies". The Sporting Life. Vol. 9, no. 8. Philadelphia, PA. June 1, 1887. p. 9. Retrieved May 31, 2025. Lock-green.svg
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