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".
James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell was an American center fielder in Negro league baseball from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999.
Joshua Gibson was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. Baseball historians consider Gibson among the best power hitters and catchers in baseball history. In 1972,he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Clubs,more commonly known as the Eastern Colored League (ECL),was one of the several Negro leagues,which operated during the time organized baseball was segregated.
The second Negro National League was one of the several Negro leagues that were established during the period in the United States when organized baseball was segregated. The league was founded in 1933 by businessman Gus Greenlee of Pittsburgh.
The Negro World Series was a post-season baseball tournament that was held from 1924 to 1927 and from 1942 to 1948 between the champions of the Negro leagues,matching the mid-western winners against their east-coast counterparts. The series was also known as the Colored World Series,especially during the 1920s,and as the Negro League World Series,in more recent books,though contemporary black newspapers usually called it simply,the "World Series",without any modification. A total of eleven Series were contested in its prime,which ultimately saw nine teams compete for a championship and seven who won at least one. The Homestead Grays were the winningest and most present team in the tournament,winning three times in five appearances,while Dave Malarcher and Candy Jim Taylor won the most titles as manager with two each.
The Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues in the United States.
William Julius "Judy" Johnson was an American professional third baseman and manager whose career in Negro league baseball spanned 17 seasons,from 1921 to 1937. Slight of build,Johnson never developed as a power threat but achieved his greatest success as a contact hitter and an intuitive defenseman. Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of the Negro leagues. In 1975,he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being nominated by the Negro Leagues Committee.
Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball and in the Mexican League. After growing up in North Carolina,he played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950,batting fourth behind Josh Gibson for many years. The Grays teams of the 1930s and 1940s were considered some of the best teams in Negro league history. Leonard and Gibson are two of only nine players in league history to win multiple batting titles.
Griffith Stadium stood in Washington,D.C.,from 1911 to 1965,between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street,and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW.
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.
Ernest Judson Wilson,nicknamed "Boojum",was an American third baseman,first baseman,and manager in Negro league baseball. He played for the Baltimore Black Sox,the Homestead Grays,and the Philadelphia Stars between 1922 and 1945. Wilson was known for possessing a unique physique,a quick temper,and outstanding hitting skills. One of the Negro leagues' most powerful hitters,his career batting average of .351 ranks him among the top five players.
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".
Cumberland Willis "Cum" Posey Jr. was an American baseball player,manager,and team owner in the Negro leagues,as well as a professional basketball player and team owner.
Raymond Brown was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball,almost exclusively for the Homestead Grays.
Effa Louise Manley was an American sports executive. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues with her husband Abe Manley from 1935 to 1948. Throughout that time,she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League. In 2006,she posthumously became the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame,chosen by the Special Committee on Negro Leagues for her work as an executive.
The Harvard-Navy lacrosse game of 1941 was an intercollegiate lacrosse game played in Annapolis,Maryland,between the Harvard University Crimson and the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen on April 4,1941. Before the game,the Naval Academy's superintendent told Harvard that the Navy team would not play against a racially integrated team. Harvard's one black player,Lucien Alexis Jr. of New Orleans,left of his own accord after Harvard's athletic director told Harvard's coach to send him home. Harvard's players,supported by their coach,had voted to forfeit the game rather than play without him. The game went on as scheduled. Both Harvard's and the Naval Academy's administrations were criticized for their actions.
Samuel Harold Lacy was an African-American and Native American sportswriter,reporter,columnist,editor,and television/radio commentator who worked in the sports journalism field for parts of nine decades. Credited as a persuasive figure in the movement to racially integrate sports,Lacy in 1948 became one of the first black members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). In 1997,he received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing from the BBWAA.
The Philadelphia Pythians was one of the earliest Negro league baseball clubs,founded in 1865. African-American leaders Jacob C. White Jr. and Octavius V. Catto established the team. The Pythians were composed of primarily business and middle class professionals from the surrounding areas of Washington,D.C.,Philadelphia,and New York City. Just two years after the Civil War ended,in 1867,the Pennsylvania State Convention of Baseball,located in Harrisburg,denied the "Pythian Base Ball Club" out of Philadelphia. The team dissolved after Catto's death in 1871 and a new team formed under the Pythian name in the National Colored Base Ball League in 1887. The new team's first season went 4–1. However,due to financial troubles,the team folded after only one season.
James Pinckney Tillman Sr. was an American catcher who played in Negro league baseball. He batted and threw right handed.
