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28-564: While the NSL was regarded as a minor league throughout most of its existence, with the collapse of the first Negro National League in 1932, the league is considered a major league for that one season. The team played opposite days from the white New Orleans Pelicans team at Pelican Stadium . This article about a baseball team in Louisiana is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Negro league baseball team article

56-547: A 26–6 record, then defeated the New York Cubans in a close seven-game series for their only undisputed NNL pennant. In retrospect, many historians consider this edition of the Crawfords to be the greatest Negro league team of all time, featuring the four Hall of Famers, plus left-handed pitcher Leroy Matlock , who won 18 games without a defeat. After a mediocre first half (16–15) in 1936, the Crawfords rallied to win

84-495: A new Negro National League , acting as president; his Crawfords were charter members. The club narrowly lost the first-half title to the Chicago American Giants ; both teams claimed the second-half title, and Greenlee as league president awarded it to his Crawfords. The matter of the overall pennant was apparently never decided. The next season, as Gibson led the league with 16 home runs and Paige won 20 games,

112-467: A team, which he later managed, from McKelvey High School, while Teenie's team formed from the Watt School. Twice the teams faced off resulting in a marginal win for Teenie's team in both games, prompting the two managers to join forces and create a predominantly black team. Greenlee bought the team in 1931. It was a time of an organizational vacuum, as the major African-American leagues of the 1920s,

140-480: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Negro National League (1920%E2%80%931931) The first Negro National League (NNL I) 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 formed in 1920 with former player Rube Foster as its president. Led by Rube Foster , owner and manager of

168-450: Is known as the second Negro National League , and built Greenlee Field as a ball park for his team. During the mid-1930s, the Crawfords were one of the strongest Negro league teams ever assembled. As Richard L. Gilmore recounts in a 1996 article on the history of the team, the Crawfords began as an interracial team of local Hill District youth who played ball together in neighborhood sandlots. Resident families included black migrants from

196-735: The Chicago American Giants , the NNL was established on February 13, 1920, by a coalition of team owners at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA . The formation included the creation of the NLL constitution, written by journalist Cary B. Lewis , David Wyatt from the Indianapolis Ledger , Elwood C. Knox from the Indianapolis Freeman , and attorney Elisha Scott. The new league was the first African-American baseball circuit to achieve stability and last more than one season. At first

224-519: The Colored World Series between their champions. The NNL survived controversies over umpiring, scheduling, and what some perceived as league president Rube Foster's disproportionate influence and favoritism toward his own team. It also outlasted Foster's decline into mental illness in 1926, and its eastern rival, the ECL, which folded in early 1928. The NNL finally fell apart in 1931 under

252-772: The Craws , were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recreation center in the Crawford neighborhood of Pittsburgh's Hill District . In 1931 Gus Greenlee , an African-American businessman in Pittsburgh, bought the Crawfords. In 1933 he founded what

280-562: The Dominican Republic to play for the dictator Rafael Trujillo 's team. The Crawfords plunged to fifth place out of six teams with a 12–16 record. They partly recovered the next season, finishing third with a 24–16 record, but, with the exception of the 41-year-old Charleston, whose playing career was nearly over, the heart of the old Crawfords' team—Paige, Gibson, Bell—had all moved on to other teams. The Craws might have survived these losses, but their attendance flatlined after

308-782: The Negro National League and the Eastern Colored League , had fallen apart under pressures of the Great Depression . By late that year, Greenlee signed many of the top African-American stars to his team, most notably Satchel Paige . The next year, in 1932, Greenlee hired Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston as playing manager, and added Hall of Famers Josh Gibson , Judy Johnson , and Cool Papa Bell , along with other notable players such as William Bell , Jimmie Crutchfield , Rap Dixon , Sam Bankhead , and Ted Radcliffe . Playing as an independent club,

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336-788: The Toledo–Indianapolis Crawfords , before folding after season. In 1945, Greenlee formed a new, unrelated, Pittsburgh Crawfords in Branch Rickey 's new United States League . The league and the new Crawfords lasted two seasons. On June 28, 2008, in Pittsburgh, the Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates honored the Negro leagues by wearing uniforms of the Jacksonville Red Caps and the Crawfords, respectively, in an interleague game. The Pirates won

364-546: The Crawfords immediately established themselves as perhaps the best black team in the United States. The Crawfords played in the new Greenlee Field , named after the owner and builder; this was one of the few parks to be built and owned by a Negro League team. Paige and Gibson often unwound at the Crawford Grill , one of black Pittsburgh's favorite night spots, where the likes of singers Lena Horne and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson entertained. In 1933, Greenlee founded

392-460: The Crawfords were near the top of the overall standings, but won neither half. Records of all games against league opponents, not just those considered official league games, show the Crawfords with far and away the best record for 1934. In 1935, Paige skipped most of the NNL season to play for a semipro team in North Dakota. Despite his absence, the Crawfords took the first-half title with

420-737: The Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms while the Brewers wore the respective Negro league uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears. On July 13, 2018, during the Milwaukee Brewers game at the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Brewers wore the Negro league uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears while the Pirates wore their respective Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms. On June 1, 2019, during the Milwaukee Brewers game at

448-578: The NNL's second half with a 20–9 record. Paige had returned, and contributed an 11–3 record. The playoff with the first-half winners, the Washington Elite Giants , apparently only lasted one game (the Elite Giants winning, 2–0) before it was called off for unknown reasons. Greenlee awarded the pennant to the Crawfords, over Washington's protests. In 1937, Paige led several Crawfords players, including Gibson, Bell, and Bankhead to

476-674: The Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park , the Brewers wore the Negro league uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears while the Pirates wore their respective Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms. On September 9, 2022, during the St. Louis Cardinals game at the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cardinals wore the Negro league uniforms of the St. Louis Stars while the Pirates wore their respective Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms. Ruck, Rob (September 29, 2014). "Kings on

504-533: The South and European immigrants, all of whom were attracted to industrial jobs in the city. As the Hill District teams became more competitive and professionalized, lines of color were drawn. The teams became formalized initially through the efforts of Bill Harris (originally of Calhoun, Alabama ) and Teenie Harris (no relation), who managed teams that emerged from local Hill schools. Bill Harris played with

532-635: The Tigers wore the respective Negro league uniforms of the Detroit Stars . They wore their respective uniforms again on May 19, 2012. On August 21, 2010, during the Pittsburgh Pirates game against the New York Mets, the Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms while the Mets wore the respective Negro league uniforms of the New York Cubans . On July 18, 2015, during the Pittsburgh Pirates game at

560-429: The championship. In 1923 they and four other eastern teams formed the Eastern Colored League (ECL) and raided the NNL for many of its top players, including John Henry Lloyd , Biz Mackey , George Scales , George Carr , and Clint Thomas , and signing Oscar Charleston , and Rube Curry in 1924. The war between the two leagues came to an end in 1924, when they agreed to respect each other's contracts and arranged for

588-450: The economic stress of the Great Depression . The Negro American League , founded in 1937 and including several of the same teams that played in the original Negro National League, would eventually carry on as the western circuit of black baseball. A second Negro National League was organized in 1933, but eventually became concentrated on the east coast . To distinguish between the two unrelated leagues, they are usually referred to as

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616-478: The first Negro National League (NNL I) and the second Negro National League (NNL II). From 1920 through 1924, the team in first place at the end of the season was declared the Pennant winner. Due to the unorthodox nature of the schedule (and little incentive to enforce it), some teams frequently played many more games than others did in any given season. This led to some disputed championships and two teams claiming

644-667: The game, 4–3 in 13 innings. On July 5, 2008, during the Pittsburgh Pirates game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms while the Brewers wore the respective Negro league uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears . On June 12, 2010, in Detroit, during an interleague game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers , the Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms while

672-635: The league operated mainly in midwestern cities, ranging from Kansas City in the west to Pittsburgh in the east; in 1924 it expanded into the south , adding franchises in Birmingham, Alabama , and Memphis, Tennessee . The two most important east coast clubs, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania , and the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, were affiliated with the NNL as associate clubs from 1920 to 1922, but did not compete for

700-470: The title. The 1931 season did not finish all games, which meant that while St. Louis was awarded the title, non-member Pittsburgh Crawfords disputed their status as champion. From 1924 to 1927, the pennant champion went to play in the Negro World Series . Generally, the team with the best winning percentage (with some minimum number of games played) was awarded the Pennant, but other times it

728-541: The white members of the team's board forced Greenlee to shut out blacks from jobs at Greenlee Field (ushers, ticket-takers, etc.). Greenlee sold the club, Greenlee Field was demolished and the Crawfords moved to Toledo and the Negro American League , becoming the Toledo Crawfords , for the 1939 season. For the 1940 season, the team split their home games between Toledo and Indianapolis, becoming

756-593: The winner of the second half for the league Pennant. As mentioned above, disputes also occurred in the split season finishes. 1929 and 1931 saw Kansas City win both halves. For the duration of the league, a Colored World Series took place four times, from 1924 through 1927. The NNL Pennant winner met the champion of the rival Eastern Colored League . Three out of the four years, the Negro National League team (below in bold ) won. Pittsburgh Crawfords The Pittsburgh Crawfords , popularly known as

784-418: Was the team with the most victories. The " games behind " method of recording standings was uncommon in most black leagues. † – Pennant was decided via a split-season schedule with the winner of the first half of the season playing the winner of the second half of the season, unless one team won both halves. From 1925 through 1931, the NNL split the season into two halves. The winner of the first half played

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