Ciammachilli: How the Negro League’s Homestead Grays shaped D.C. baseball
From Esther Ciammachilli at WAMU on October 24, 2019, with mention of SABR members Rick Bush and Ray Doswell:
There have been several stories recently highlighting the last time a Washington baseball team won a World Series. The answer most given is the Senators in 1924. Now, it’s true that the Senators were Washington’s last major league baseball team to win a World Series. But there was another very successful team to come afterward.
The Homestead Grays won three Negro League World Series titles. Add 10 Negro National League pennants and you get the winningest baseball team in Washington history.
Now, there are plenty of reasons why baseball enthusiasts would disagree with this argument. They might say that the Grays were not exclusively a Washington team. They were founded in Pittsburgh in 1912 and didn’t start splitting time until 1940.
“Part of it was a matter of having a facility,” said Frederick C. Bush, a Negro League historian.
Read the full article here: https://wamu.org/story/19/10/24/how-the-negro-leagues-homestead-grays-shaped-d-c-baseball/
- Related link: Get your free e-book copy of SABR’s Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series
Originally published: October 24, 2019. Last Updated: October 24, 2019.