The Negro Leagues' Best Baseball Clubs: #5: Birmingham Black Barons

Top 15 Negro League Teams

#5: Birmingham Black Barons

League Affiliation: Negro Southern League

Negro National League

Negro American League

Established: 1920

Folded: 1960

Based in: Birmingham, Alabama

1946 Birmingham Black Barons

                 Formed in 1920, the Birmingham Black Barons began play in the Negro Southern League, which basically operated as a minor league. After three seasons, they made the transition to the Negro National League. The Black Barons were constantly flipping back and forth between the two leagues until the end of the 1938 season. They would switch five times during those years.

                After not playing during the 1939 season, they were sold to Tom Haynes, a funeral home director in 1940 and they joined the Negro American League. Early in the 40s, Haynes turned around and sold the team to Abraham Saperstein who also owned the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

                Under Saperstein’s ownership, the Black Barons won three pennants (1943, 1944 and 1948). They played in the Negro World Series in 1948, but lost to the Homestead Grays.

After Jackie Robinson joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1947, more Big League teams raided the rosters of teams in the Negro Leagues and the talent pool dwindled. But while most teams folded within several years of integration, the Birmingham franchise remained until the NAL folded in 1960.

Notable players for the Black Barons included Satchel Paige and Willie Mays.

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