Negro Leagues and Other Players
During the first half of the 20th Century, Labatt Park (Tecumseh Park until December 31, 1936) was regularly visited by numerous barnstorming Negro teams from the U.S., plus a much-celebrated visit by legendary African-American pitcher Satchel Paige on June 30, 1954, when Paige was barnstorming with a baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters. Paige pitched the last three innings of an exhibition game against another legendary barnstorming ream—The House of David baseball team, who all sported beards and long hair and travelled with their own generator-powered lights (before Labatt Park installed lights in the 1940s), which featured noted baseball clown, Frank (Bobo) Nickerson.
As of October 1, 1923, The London Colored Stars, a Negro baseball team, had won 15 of 19 games and announced they "are looking for more engagements."
Additionally, numerous former players with the Negro Leagues played in the Senior Intercounty Baseball League after the Negro Leagues gradually folded after Jackie Robinson broke the "colour barrier" in 1947, including pitcher Ted Alexander of the Kansas City Monarchs and the Homestead Grays (1950-51 London Majors); Wilmer Fields (Brantford Red Sox); Jimmy Wilkes (retired jersey #5 for the Brantford Red Sox, later became a City league umpire after a decade with Brantford); Gentry (Geep) Jessup (Galt Terriers); Larry Cunningham (Galt Terriers, Hamilton Cardinals); Ed Steele (Galt) and Shanty Clifford (Galt and Brantford); Luther Clifford; Max Manning; Lester Lockett; Bob Thurman and Stanley Glenn (St. Thomas Elgins); all made numerous appearances at Labatt Park in the 1950s.
The late Wilmer (The Great) Fields is a former president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Association (NLBPA), while Stanley (Doc) Glenn is currently the president of the NLBPA.
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Famous quotes containing the words negro, leagues and/or players:
“Had she been worth the blood, the cramped cries, the little stuttering bravado,
The gradual dulling of those Negro eyes,
The sudden, overwhelming little-boyness in that barn?”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“Good news about someone never gets past the door, but bad news will travel a thousand leagues away.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)