1920 Birmingham Black Barons

A Calendar, Including Newspaper Clippings, of the 1920 Birmingham Black Barons (*Also Known as the Birmingham All Stars)

1920 Birmingham Black Barons

Stories are placed in order of the date they appeared.

January 17,1920

Pensacola, FL
"Would Like to Hear From All Managers. - Pensacola, Florida, December 29. - Mr. Sporting Editor of The Freeman: We would like to hear from all Southern baseball managers, we are trying to form a colored circuit. The 1920 baseball season is approaching, so let us get together at once and push the Southern baseball cities over the top. All baseball managers answer this letter at once. Don't be a slacker. Give us assistance, and we will go over the top. Hoping to get a bunch of replies at once, I remain, Dan Brown, Manager of the Pensacola Baseball Association. Address, 427 West Belmont Street, Pensacola, Florida.

April 12, 1920

Montgomery, AL
"Southern League Formed - Montgomery, Alabama, April 12. - Final plans for the completion of the proposed Negro Southern Baseball League resulted in the formation of an eight club circuit, with a bright prospect of 10 cities composing the final arrangement of the organization. A bird's eye view of the league reveals excellent grounds for the success of the venture; the cities selected appeal to be about evenly balanced in population, have good transportation facilities and are not too long a distance removed from each other for a heavy mileage to cut serious inroads and thus weigh heavily against the proper financial progress of the promoters. C.I. Taylor who was cited for Conspicuous service through putting into being a like organization in the northwest, was a deeply interested participant in the final arrangements, and his words of wisdom went a long ways towards encouraging options on franchises. The following cities qualified for franchises in the new league: Birmingham, Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta, Pensacola, Montgomery, New Orleans, Jacksonville. A committee on the arrangement of a schedule hopes by the end of the week to have their dates alloted, as the opening day is set for April 29."

April 30, 1920

Montgomery, AL
"Colored Southern League Will Open - Montgomery Grey Sox Will Play Birmingham All-Stars Here Today - Baseball for the colored Southern League, recently organized, will be ushered in this afternoon when the Montgomery Grey Sox clash with the Birmingham All-Stars. The game is slated to start at 3:30 o'clock, and will be played on South Holt street, the block South of Mill street. The Montgomery team last year played senstational ball, and have one of the best colored teams in the South. Those interested in the league have made elaborate preparations for the opening game. A.J. Stokes and W.W. Matthews, local negro religious leaders, will appear on the grounds and will be the battery for the first ball thrown. The local organization is in charge of Manager Hannon, and who will probably play first base for his team. A grand stand has been erected at the park to accommodate the white patrons."

Montgomery, AL
"Montgomery's Grey Sox Are Victorious - The Montgomery Grey Sox team won their opening game over the Birmingham All-Star team Friday afternoon by the score of 1 to 2, before a crowd estimated at 1,200. The game marked the opening of the colored Southern League, which recently organized, with Birmingham, Mobile, and Pensacola Having teams in the League. The local team bunched their hits in the second and seventh inning and aided by errors the visiting team had little trouble in winning the initial contest. Streeter for the Grey Sox team, pitched air-tight ball, and had the Birmingham team at his mercy allowing only five hits, the only extra base hit off him came in the ninth when a visiting player sent a fast double to left field. Zigler for the Magic City crew weakened in the seventh inning and allowed three successive safe hits, and two errors by his teammates permitted four runs to be scored. Cunningham on first base played sensational ball, and it was his brilliant fielding that prevented the visiting players from scoring on several occasions. Cunningham pulled in several wide ones, and on one occasion made one stab of a wild throw that brought him considerable applause. Cunningham secured two safe drives, one being a double. The two teams will clash again today and tomorrow. Those interested in the league have erected a park at South Holt street, and have erected a grand stand for white patrons."

May 1, 1920

Montgomery, AL
"Montgomery Grey Sox Lose Saturday - Cotton Is Driven From the Box by Heavy Birmingham Batters - By driving Cotton from the mound, the Birmingham All Star colored baseball team defeated the Montgomery Grey Sox Saturday afternoon by the score of 15 to 8. The All Stars had little trouble in connecting with offerings of Cotton, and after the fifth inning, the final outcome of the game was never in doubt. Extra base hitting by both clubs featured. Both teams have won a game and a third game of the three game series will be played this afternoon. The game will be called at 3:30 o'clock. Official umpires have been selected by the league officials, and will officiate in all the games. After the game today, Pensacola will play the local team. The park is located on South Holt Street, and a large grandstand has been erected to accommodate white persons."

May 22, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"'Black Barons' Defeat Caulfields in First - The Caulfield Ads, New Orleans representatives in the Negro Southern League, went down to defeat Saturday afternoon before Birmingham in the opening game of the league at Heinemann Park, but not until the visitors were forced to go ten innings. The score ended 6 to 5 and the contest was hotly fought from the opening to the closing session, with the teams alternating in the lead. The locals forged an uphill battle, due to the visitors scoring three runs in the opening inning. They took the lead at the close of the fifth, however, but were twice tied thereafter. From the eighth the deadlock continued until the extra inning, when an error with two men on bases resulted in New Orleans' defeat. Pickens worked for Birmingham on the mound and Robertson for the locals. Both are southpaws. The hitting star of the day was Marques of the locals, who made four hits in four trials."

May 23, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"Black Barons Win Second From Caulfields"

May 24, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"Black Barons Wind Up Series At Heiney Park - The local negroes strengthened up for their third game with the Birmingham "Black Barons" and got away with the big end of a 5 to 3 score. The fourth and last game of this series will be played at Heinemann Park Tuesday Afternoon."

May 25, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"Caulfields Win Final From Black Barons - Showing a good punch with the bat the Caulfields again defeated the Birmingham negro team at Heinemann Park yesterday. This was the last of the series, which ended in a draw. Yesterday's score was 6 to 5 and the game was not decided until the ninth. Montgomery's negroes of the black southern league, will come here next opening a four-game series at Heinemann Park Saturday."

July 8, 1920

Knoxville, TN
"Steel Arm Dickey Puts Over 20th Winning Game - (By the Associated Press.) - Knoxville, Tennessee, July 8. - In a recent series here between the Knoxville and Birmingham teams of the Negro Southern League, "Steel Arm" Dickey, of the Knoxville team, pitched his twentieth consecutive winning game. The huge "Cicotte," as he is known, has not lost a league game this season."

July 9, 1920

Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox Will Play Birmingham Stars - The Montgomery Grey Sox and the Birmingham All Stars will clash this afternoon at 4 o'clock in the first game of a three game series. The Grey Sox are in fine shape having had a two days rest after taking four straight games from the Atlanta team and they state that they are ready to hand the Birmingham aggregation the same dose. The Grey Sox have in the last few weeks showed some great improvement and have showed several times their ability to come out of a tight place, and the team in general has been improving with the stick. Since the signing of Mason the team now has four strong pitchers in Myles, Mason, Streeter and Young. There will be games today, Saturday and Sunday and these games should prove very interesting for the fans. All three of these games will start at 4 o'clock."

July 11, 1920

Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox to Meet Birmingham Stars - The Montgomery Grey Sox and the Birmingham All-Stars will clas for the second time this afternoon at 4 o'clock. Streeter will do the box work for the locals and Zeigler for the visitors. This will be the second game of the series and as the locals won the first game this one should prove very interesting. The locals will play Pensacola here Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday."

July 22, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"Black Barons to Open Series With Caulfields - The Birmingham negro team, with an almost completely new lineup, will open a four-game series with the Caulfield Ads at Heinemann Park this afternoon, the negro teams taking advantage of the dates that the Pelicans are at Mobile. The Black Barons are in reality the old 'Cuban Giants' team which has been famous in this country for a number of years. In Juanelo, a Cuban negro, they have on of the star pitchers of the negro Southern Leauge. The Caulfields lost a little ground on their last road trip and are now in third place, but only a few points behind Montgomery and Knoxville, the two leaders. Birmingham is fourth. Nearly every game the New Orleans negroes lost on the road was ended by one or two runs. This afternoon's game stars at 3:30 and the negroes say they'll play 'rain or shine'"

New Orleans, LA
"Black Barons Once Famous Cuban Giants - When the Birmingham Negro team opens at Heinemann Park Thursday with the Caulfields, those who attend these games will see what was actually the Cuban Giants in action. Some of the Black Barons were here but they have (illegible) the team and signed a number of the former Giants. The Caulfields return from the road trip Wednesday a peg lower than they were when they left. They are now in third place with Birmingham only a few points below. Knoxville is still leading and Montgomery is in second place. Caulfield says his team is playing just as good ball as when they were at home last but hard luck and one or two last inning letdowns by his pitchers resulted in his losing several games by one or two runs. When they were here before the Caulfields played a good article of ball and poised to be better than any of the teams brought here. There are to be four games in the Birmingham series, starting Thursday."

July 25, 1920

New Orleans, LA
"'Black Barons' Outhit, But Win Both Games - 'Black Barons' from Birmingham took both ends of the double-header from the Caulfield Ads Sunday at Heinemann Park. Each game ended 4 to 3. The local negroes outhit the visitors."