Seattle Steelheads

American 1940's Negro league baseball team

Seattle Steelheads

Information
League|

* West Coast Negro Baseball League

Location| Seattle
Ballpark|

* Sick's Stadium

Established| 1944
Disbanded| 1946
Nickname(s)|

* Harlem Globetrotters
* Seattle Steelheads
* Cincinnati Crescents

The Seattle Steelheads were a Negro league baseball team from Seattle, Washington. Owned by Abe Saperstein, they were also known as the Harlem Globetrotters and Cincinnati Crescents, though occasionally the teams split and played each other.

## Founding

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Abe Saperstein founded the Harlem Globetrotters baseball team in 1944 to complement his world-famous basketball team of the same name.[1]

Also owned by Saperstein,[2] the Cincinnati Crescents were an All-Star barnstorming baseball team that played in the mid-1940s. The team was managed by Winfield Welch, and featured players such as Bill Blair, Sherwood Brewer, Luke Easter, Alvin Gipson, Bill Jefferson, Leaman Johnson, and Johnny Markham. The Globetrotters and Crescents combined operations and were charter members of the West Coast Negro Baseball League, changing their name to the Seattle Steelheads.[1]

The Steelheads played in the West Coast Negro Baseball League and played their first game on June 1, 1946, against the San Diego Tigers, in front of 2,500 fans at Sick's Stadium. Its players included Cannonball Berry, Nap Gulley, Zell Miles, Rogers Pierre, Herb Simpson, and Fay Washington. The league folded after a month of play.

## Controversy

[edit]

Catcher and manager Paul Hardy joined the Steelheads while still under contract with the Chicago American Giants, causing the Negro American League to ban its teams from playing games in Seattle.[3]

## Home fields

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Their primary home ballpark was Sick's Stadium. They also planned home games in Tacoma, Bremerton, Spokane, and Bellingham.[4]

## MLB throwback jerseys

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The Seattle Mariners honored the Steelheads when they wore 1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9, 1995, at home against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals wore Kansas City Monarchs uniforms.[5] The Mariners beat the Royals 6–4 in front of 39,157 fans at the Kingdome.[6] The game was attended by former Steelhead player Sherwood Brewer.[7] The Mariners wore a different variety of the Steelheads uniform on May 16, 2015, on "Turn Back the Clock Night" against the Boston Red Sox at Safeco Field,[8] and lost to the Red Sox 4–2. On June 19th, 2021 and June 19, 2022 the Mariners again wore the 1946 uniforms as part of Juneteenth. They also wore them on June 17, 2023 due to not having a game on Juneteenth.[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Wayback Machine: Seattle Steelheads' short life – Sportspress Northwest". www.sportspressnw.com. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
2. ^ "Negro Stars In 9th Appearance". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Hawaii, Honolulu. October 8, 1946. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
3. ^ "nlbpa.com - Seattle Steelheads". www.nlbpa.com. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
4. ^ Gastineau, Mike; Art Thiel; Steve Rudman (2009). The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists. Basic Civitas Books. p. 170\. ISBN 978-0-7624-3522-7. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
5. ^ Anderson, Lenny (April 14, 1995). "Negro League Seattle Steelheads Gone, But Not Forgotten". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
6. ^ "September 9, 1995 Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
7. ^ "Negro Leagues Salute". Jet. October 2, 1995. p. 45. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
8. ^ Seattle Mariners [@Mariners] (April 23, 2015). "The 1946 Seattle Steelheads will take the field on Turn Back the Clock Night, May 16. Tix: http://atmlb.com/1Dntk4O" (Tweet). Retrieved April 23, 2015 – via Twitter.
9. ^ Jorstad, Anders (March 24, 2021). "Mariners Moose Tracks, 3/24/21: Mariners Uniforms, George Springer, and Alex Kirilloff". Lookout Landing. Retrieved June 20, 2021.

## External links

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* Negro League Baseball Players Association: Seattle Steelheads

## Further reading

[edit]

* v
* t
* e

Negro league baseball

Players|

* List of players
* A–D
* E–L
* M–R
* S–Z
* First black players in MLB
* Negro leaguers who played in MLB

Post-season|

* List of Negro league baseball postseason games
* List of league champions
* Negro World Series

International competitions|

* American Series
* Serie Monumental

Teams|

* List of teams by state
* major league teams
* minor league teams
* Timeline of teams

Leagues|

| Major leagues|

* Negro National League (I)
* Eastern Colored League
* American Negro League
* East–West League
* Negro Southern League (I)
* Negro National League (II)
* Negro American League

|

Proto-leagues|

* Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (1886)
* National Colored Base Ball League (1887)
* International League of Independent Professional Base Ball Clubs (1906)
* National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba (1907–1909)

Minor leagues|

* Negro Southern League (1920–1936)
* Texas Colored League (1919–1931)
* Negro American Association (1939)
* Negro Major League (1942)
* United States League (1945–1946)

Post-integration|

* Negro Southern League (1945–1951)
* West Coast Negro Baseball Association (1946)
* Negro American Association (1948–1949)
* Negro American League (1951–1960)

Related|

* No-hitters
* East–West All-Star Game
* Color line
* Museum

* Category

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