Baseball’s Black History

Steve Chiotakis | April 14, 2008

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It was a time of separate and not-so equal… in society and baseball.Those days, the first half of the twentieth century, featured African-American baseball teams from around the country, including Birmingham. The Black Barons fought a few times for the World Series title; it’s been 60 years since they lost the last World Series played by the Negro League in 1948. To commemorate that event, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is honoring Negro League legends tonight (Monday 4/14) and there’s a special baseball game — a Negro League tribute — at Regions Park tomorrow (Tuesday, 4/15) featuring the modern-day Barons playing in Black Barons uniforms. WBHM’s Steve Chiotakis sat down with two former Black Barons -Shortstop Roger Brown and Outfielder James “Jake” Sanders, who says playing ball was their favorite past-time, despite the fact that money was very very tight.