Negro Leagues Popularity
The Negro Leagues popularity brought more than great entertainment to the communities in which they played. Overall, during the flush years from the late twenties to late forties, the Negro Leagues were economic all-stars, with the knock-on effect of helping nearby Black businesses such as hotels and restaurants. However by, 1930 the Negro National League was struggling. The Great Depression, triggered by the stock market crash in late October 1929 culminated in a $30 billion loss on October 28-29. People everywhere were feeling the impact of the economic times and the Negro National League was no different.
The highly successful Kansas City Monarchs withdrew from the NNL believing playing the independent circuit would prove more profitable. By 1931 the NNL was down to five teams and the financial pressures finally proved to much as the league shuttered at the conclusion of the season. Just two short years after the Negro National League folded, when Negro league baseball seemed to be at its lowest point and was about to fade into history, a second incarnation of the league was launched. The man behind the rebirth of the National Negro League was a man from Pittsburgh, W.A Gus Greenlee.
The new Negro National League had teams in both the East and the Midwest. Cities in the new league were Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Birmingham (Alabama) and from Nashville in 1933-34. By the 1936 season the League consisted solely of Eastern teams. The game saw a resurgence in the 1930s and ‘40s. In 1932 another Black circuit, called the East-West League, was started for eastern teams by Cumberland W. Posey, veteran manager of the Homestead Grays.
Eight cities were included in the new league: "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and Washington, D.C.". The East-West League folded in the season it was founded, 1932. That year, the Negro Southern League was the only major circuit to complete its schedule. The NSL was a minor league before and after the 1932 season. From 1933 through 1936, the second Negro National League ran unchallenged as a Black major league. Although the new leagues had fairly frequent franchise shifts, they were somewhat more stable than the circuits of the 1920s.
When Greenlee organized the new Negro National League in 1933 it was his firm intention to field the most powerful baseball team in America. He may well have achieved his goal. In 1935 his Pittsburgh Crawfords lineup showcased the talents of no fewer than five future Hall-Of-Famers – Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, and Oscar Charleston. On August 6, 1931, Satchel Paige made his first appearance as a Crawford. With Paige on his team, Greenlee took a huge risk by investing $100,000 in a new ballpark to be called Greenlee Field.
On opening day, April 30, 1932, the pitcher-catcher battery was made up of the two most marketable icons in all of Black baseball: Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. While the Pittsburg Crawfords were, undoubtedly, Black baseball’s premier team during the mid-1930s, by the end of the decade Cumberland Posey’s Homestead Grays had wrested the title from the Crawfords. They won 9 consecutive Negro National League titles from the late 1930s through the mid-1940s. Featuring former Crawfords stars Gibson and Bell, the Grays augmented their lineup with Hall-Of-Fame talent such as that of power-hitting first baseman Buck Leonard.
By the 1930's White reporters started to come out to the games and they got excited by what they were seeing. And that's when the discussions really started to escalate about Black players integrating into the major leagues. Now the one person that really put the halt on that was Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who had become the baseball commissioner after the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. He was completely opposed to Blacks playing the White players. And he even stopped some of the barnstorming that was happening between Satchel Paige teams and Dizzy Deans teams. It was exciting to see two of the greatest pitchers, one White, one Black, play against each other.
The Negro Leagues enjoyed a resurgence of success thanks to the backing of owners who became rich through gambling and other illegal operations, as well as the dazzling performances of top players. Its most famous player, pitcher Satchel Paige, might guarantee to strike out the first six batters he faced, or order his outfielders to the dugout in the middle of an inning. Still, its stars knew to buckle down during exhibitions against White All-Star teams, and enjoyed a strong record in those matchups.
The most anticipated game each year was the East-West All-Star Game (1933-1948), held at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Originally conceived as a promotional tool by Gus Greenlee in 1933, the game quickly became Black baseball’s most popular attraction and biggest money maker. From the first game forward the East-West classic regularly packed Comiskey Park while showcasing the Negro League’s finest talent. The game was constructed similarly to that of Major League Baseball's All-Star Game with fans voting for the starting line-ups.
Due to the set-up of leagues and the fact that the Negro League teams often played independently, the All-Star teams were constructed by the geographic region designations of East and West. Additionally, the game was played near the conclusion of baseball season rather than in the middle like MLB's game. It annually attracted as many as 50,000 spectators. Only heavyweight boxing matches featuring the Black champion Joe Louis held the attention of more Black Americans. Behind all the pageantry, life in Negro baseball was tough. When the team bus stopped at a restaurant, the players weren’t allowed in the dining room.
And they often slept on the buses because white hotels wouldn’t rent them rooms. “We didn’t get a chance sometimes to take a bath for 3 or 4 days because they wouldn’t let us,” recalled Ted Radcliffe. By the 1940s, the ballpark became a place for community gatherings. Negro Leagues baseball was the largest Black-owned organization in America, and the league did its part to aid a community living with segregation. Owners raised money to support anti-lynching campaigns, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
In 1937 midwestern and southern franchises formed the Negro American League (not to be confused with the American Negro League, which was formulated when the Eastern Colored League folded in 1928). With the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States was thrust into World War II. Just like the major leagues, the Negro leagues saw many stars miss one or more seasons while fighting overseas. Millions of Black Americans were working in war industries and were making good money, and they packed league games in every city.
During World War II, which brought prosperity to most Blacks as well as Whites, Negro baseball became a $2 million-a-year business, probably the most lucrative Black-dominated enterprise in the United States at that time. Salaries for journeymen players, which had been about $150 a month during the 1920s, soared to $400 or more during the war. Stars could earn $1,000 a month. Satchel Paige, the most famous player, pitcher, and showman of the Negro leagues, earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year through special deals calling for him to pitch one to three innings for scores of independent teams, both Black and White, each season.
As in the White major leagues, the Negro leagues had their own World Series. The Negro World Series was resumed in 1942 between champions of the Negro National and Negro American leagues. Over the years, eleven inter-league Black World Series were held. The NNL and ECL played from 1924 through 1927. Champions from the second NNL and the NAL competed from 1942 through 1948 until the NNL disbanded in 1948. The sport’s health seemingly stronger than ever, an estimated 3 million fans turned out to watch Negro League teams play in 1942, with its World Series revived that September.
The NNL created a forum where many star players could make a bigger name for themselves – especially to White audiences. Future Hall of Famers Cool Papa Bell, Martín Dihigo, Bill Foster, Judy Johnson, Satchel Paige and Turkey Stearnes all flourished in the NNL, along with many others. Stars could earn $1,000 a month. Satchel Paige, the most famous player, pitcher, and showman of the Negro leagues, earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year. To earn such wages, Black players competed in up to 150 games a season—half to two-thirds of them against Black as well as White nonleague teams.
The Black baseball leagues were home to incredibly talented players, such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, “Cool Papa” Bell, Buck Leonard, Martín Dihigo, “Turkey” Stearnes, and Oscar Charleston–among many others. Although the leagues were primarily composed of Black American men, there were some Latin Americans as well as a few women (such as second baseman Toni Stone, who reportedly earned $12,000 a year).