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Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada. It comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional baseball league in the world. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.
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".
Joshua Gibson was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. In 1972, he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
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. Wilkinson was the first white 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 Baseball team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record and produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
Jay Stuart Bell is an American former Major League Baseball shortstop and former manager of the Rocket City Trash Pandas of the Southern League. He played for the Cleveland Indians (1986–1988), Pittsburgh Pirates (1989–1996), Kansas City Royals (1997), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2002) and New York Mets (2003). He was the bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds, and was the bench coach for the New Zealand national baseball team that competed in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
John Michael Gibbons is an American professional baseball coach, manager and former player. Gibbons played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher with the New York Mets in 1984 and 1986.
John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil Jr. was an American first baseman and manager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball. In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 as an executive.
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".
Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2006 proceeded in keeping with rules enacted in 2001, augmented by a special election; the result was the largest class of inductees (18) in the Hall's history, including the first woman elected, Effa Manley.
The Philadelphia Stars were a Negro league baseball team from Philadelphia. The Stars were founded in 1933 when Ed Bolden returned to professional black baseball after being idle since early 1930. The Stars were an independent ball club in 1933, a member of the Negro National League from 1934 until the League's collapse following the 1948 season, and affiliated with the Negro American League from 1949 to 1952.
José de la Caridad Méndez Báez was a Cuban professional baseball right-handed pitcher, shortstop, third baseman and manager in the Negro leagues. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, he died at age 43 in Havana. Known in Cuba as "The Black Diamond", he became a legend in his homeland. He was one of the first group of players elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2006.
Baseball in the Tampa Bay area, both amateur and professional, has had a long and storied history, even though the Tampa Bay Rays are one of the two youngest franchises in Major League Baseball, the other being the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Jacksonville Red Caps were a Negro league baseball team based primarily in Jacksonville, Florida. They played the Negro American League from 1938 until 1942.
Bernardo Fernandez was a baseball pitcher who played in the Negro leagues. He played for the Atlanta Black Crackers, Jacksonville Red Caps, Philadelphia Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Pittsburgh Crawfords and New York Black Yankees, among other independent and minor Negro league teams.
Hipolito Kanterra Arenas, Sr., nicknamed "Torrento", was a Negro league baseball player. Arenas grew up in Tampa, Florida, but also spent time in Ybor City, Florida. He would climb from local teams to the Negro leagues. Arenas played for the Atlanta Black Crackers from 1928 to 1929, and for the New York Cubans in 1930.
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.
Walter Lee Gibbons was an American pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and the Minor Leagues. Listed at 5' 7" ft (1.70 m), 185 lb (84 kg), Gibbons batted left handed and threw right handed. He was born in Tampa, Florida.
John Eddie Gibbons was an American Negro league pitcher for the 1941 Philadelphia Stars.
William Benjamin Felder was an American Negro league shortstop who played for the 1946 Negro World Series champion Newark Eagles.
References
- ↑ Kite-Powell, Rodney (27 March 2011). "Tampa's long baseball history included segregated teams". TBO.com. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ↑ "Walter Gibbons". Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ↑ "Raydell Maddix". Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
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