It’s been almost 70 years since the color line in Major League Baseball was “broken” by Jackie Robinson. Pittsburgh was home to two of the most famous Negro League teams…the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, who at one time or another had many of the league’s top stars playing for them.
While it was a shame that many of them never got to play in the major leagues, it’s nice to see them get recognition in various ways throughout the Pittsburgh area…banners at PNC Park
The Western Pa Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center has an excellent Negro League baseball exhibit.
I’ve always enjoyed reading about the players and teams of the Negro Leagues…one of my favorites is James “Cool Papa” Bell who was said to be the fastest to ever play the game. There are many stories about his blazing speed. The most popular yarn is that “Cool Papa” was so fast he could turn off the light switch in his bedroom and get into bed before the room got dark. Another one is once he hit a hard ground ball up the middle and it hit him in the butt as he was sliding into second base! Love it…would have been fun to see some of their games. (8of12ts…getting closer) 🙂
To see more takes on this week’s photo challenge, click here.
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I am so proud of you on this one Andy. I thought, well, he’ll go “broken bat” or “Broken hearted” over some lost game, but Nooooo, you outsmarted me and made a really wonderful choice on this one. Terrific post – loved it and am pleased that my challenge is driving you to new heights 😄. LOL.
Funny, those were the first two ideas that came to me too and if I would have had a picture of Sid Bream sliding into home beating the candy arm throw by Barry Bonds in 1992 that beat us out of a pennant, I might have gone with broken hearted…lol. But down the stretch here Tina you do have me trying to raise the bar a bit…glad you liked it.
Great post about some of some very talented athletes who didn’t get the appropriate recognition at the time. 🙂
Thanks Judy…