| Pittsburgh Crawfords | |
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| Location | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Established | 1931 |
| Disbanded | 1940 |
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ThePittsburgh Crawfords, popularly known as theCraws, were a professionalNegro league baseball team based inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants,[1] was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recreation center in the Crawford neighborhood ofPittsburgh's Hill District.[2]
In 1931Gus Greenlee, an African-American businessman in Pittsburgh, bought the Crawfords. In 1933 he founded what is known as the secondNegro National League, and builtGreenlee 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 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 ofCalhoun, Alabama) andTeenie Harris (no relation), who managed teams that emerged from local Hill schools. Bill Harris played with 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.[3]
Greenlee bought the team in 1931. It was a time of an organizational vacuum, as the major African-American leagues of the 1920s, theNegro National League and theEastern Colored League, had fallen apart under pressures of theGreat Depression. By late that year, Greenlee signed many of the top African-American stars to his team, most notablySatchel Paige. The next year, in 1932, Greenlee hired Hall of FamerOscar Charleston as playing manager, and added Hall of FamersJosh Gibson,Judy Johnson, andCool Papa Bell, along with other notable players such asWilliam Bell,Jimmie Crutchfield,Rap Dixon,Sam Bankhead, andTed Radcliffe. Playing as an independent club, the Crawfords immediately established themselves as perhaps the best black team in the United States.[3]
The Crawfords played in the newGreenlee Field, named after the owner and builder; this was one of the few parks to be built and owned by a Negro League team.[4] Paige and Gibson often unwound at theCrawford Grill, one of black Pittsburgh's favorite night spots, where the likes of singersLena Horne andBill "Bojangles" Robinson entertained.
In 1933, Greenlee founded a newNegro National League, acting as president; his Crawfords were charter members. The club narrowly lost the first-half title to theChicago 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, 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.[3]
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 a 26–6 record, then defeated theNew 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 pitcherLeroy Matlock, who won 18 games without a defeat.[3]After a mediocre first half (16–15) in 1936, the Crawfords rallied to win 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, theWashington 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.[3]
In 1937, Paige led several Crawfords players, including Gibson, Bell, and Bankhead to theDominican Republic to play for the dictatorRafael 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 the white members of the team's board forced Greenlee to shut out blacks from jobs at Greenlee Field (ushers, ticket-takers, etc.).[4] Greenlee sold the club, Greenlee Field was demolished and the Crawfords moved to Toledo and theNegro American League, becoming theToledo Crawfords, for the 1939 season. For the 1940 season, the team split their home games between Toledo and Indianapolis, becoming theToledo–Indianapolis Crawfords, before folding after season.[5]
In 1945, Greenlee formed a new, unrelated, Pittsburgh Crawfords inBranch Rickey's newUnited States League. The league and the new Crawfords lasted two seasons.
On June 28, 2008, in Pittsburgh, theTampa Bay Rays andPittsburgh Pirates honored the Negro leagues by wearing uniforms of theJacksonville Red Caps and the Crawfords, respectively, in aninterleague game. The Pirates won 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 theMilwaukee Bears.
On June 12, 2010, in Detroit, during aninterleague game between thePittsburgh Pirates and theDetroit Tigers, the Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms while the Tigers wore the respective Negro league uniforms of theDetroit 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 theNew York Cubans.
On July 18, 2015, during the Pittsburgh Pirates game at 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 the Pittsburgh PiratesPNC 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 theSt. Louis Stars while the Pirates wore their respective Pittsburgh Crawford uniforms.
Ruck, Rob (September 29, 2014). "Kings on the Hill: Rise of the Pittsburgh Crawfords". Carnegie Museum of Art: Storyboard.http://blog.cmoa.org/2014/09/kings-on-the-hill-rise-of-the-pittsburgh-crawfords/ (retrieved June 9, 2017).
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