Bugle Field was a

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

based, predominantly wooden

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

utilized by the two primary

Negro league The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

teams of the 1916 to 1950 era, the

Baltimore Black Sox The Baltimore Black Sox were a professional Negro league baseball team active between 1913 and 1936, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Founding The Black Sox started as an independent team in 1913 by Howard Young. They were one of the original s ...

, (1916-1933), and the

Baltimore Elite Giants The Baltimore Elite Giants were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues from to . The team was established by Thomas T. Wilson, in Nashville, Tennessee as the semi-pro Nashville Standard Giants on March 26, 1920. The team ...

, (1938-1950). The Black Sox had a short tenure at the park, moving into the park permanently in 1932 before folding during the 1934 season. The Elite Giants were the park's primary tenants until its dismantlement during the 1949 Negro National League Championship Series. It was located on the northeast corner of Federal Street and Edison Highway, address 1601 Edison Highway. The site is in use today as the headquarters and local manufacturing plant of

Rockland Industries Rockland Industries, Inc. was a textile manufacturing company in the United States. The company was headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, and had manufacturing facilities in Bamberg, South Carolina. Rockland Industries had sales in more than 90 ...

, the first major corporation on record in

Baltimore County, Maryland Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent cit ...

. An earlier Negro league baseball field was the "Maryland Baseball Park", 1923–1929. Games were also played at the old Westport Stadium, near Old Annapolis Road (

Maryland Route 648 Maryland Route 648 (MD 648) is a collection of state highways in the U.S. state of Maryland. These nine highways are current or former sections of the Baltimore–Annapolis Boulevard between Annapolis, Maryland, Annapolis and Baltimore via ...

) and Waterview Avenue, in the Westport neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. The site location was impacted by the routing and construction, in the early 1950s, of the

Baltimore–Washington Parkway The Baltimore–Washington Parkway (also referred to as the B–W Parkway) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The road begins at an interchange with U.S. Route&n ...

(Interstate 295) going north into downtown on Russell Street. Players that the field served include

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

and

players

Roy Campanella Roy Campanella (November 19, 1921 – June 26, 1993), nicknamed "Campy", was an American professional baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for nine years before entering ...

Leon Day Leon Day (October 30, 1916 – March 13, 1995) was an American professional baseball pitcher who spent the majority of his career in the Negro leagues. Recognized as one of the most versatile athletes in the league during his prime, Day could ...

Joe Black Joseph Black (February 8, 1924 – May 17, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league and Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, and Washington Senators who became the first black pitcher to win a W ...

, Junior Gilliam,

Jud Wilson Ernest Judson Wilson (February 28, 1894 – June 24, 1963), nicknamed "Boojum", was an American third baseman, first baseman, and manager in Negro league baseball. He played for the Baltimore Black Sox, the Homestead Grays, and the Philadelphia ...

, "The Ghost" Oliver Marcelle, and Dick Lundy. Short time Washington Senators player Lou Thuman was said to have been discovered by Senators scouts while playing at Bugle Field, which was owned by the owners of the Senators ball club, also operators of a local laundry. Mr. Thuman played a total of five games in 1939 and 1940 with the Senators before being drafted into

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and enduring a career-ending injury. Bugle Field had opened in 1910,(''Baltimore Sun'', September 19, 1949, p. 28) and its 40th season would be its last. The final game was played on September 18, 1949. The Elites defeated the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" F ...

5–4 to take a two games to none lead in the playoff series.(''Baltimore Sun'', September 19, 1949, p. 18) Despite being compelled to stage their next game at a neutral site in Virginia and finish the series in Chicago, the Elites would go on to sweep the Giants four games to none.(''Baltimore Sun'', September 23, 1949, p. 42)

Sources

* ''Baseball in Baltimore, The First 100 Years'', by James H. Bready. * ''Baltimore News-American'' Newspaper, September 1949. * ''Baltimore Afro-American'' Newspaper, September 1949.

References

External links

Photo showing demolition of Bugle Field - note left field distance 332 feetSanborn map showing Bugle Field, 1936
Defunct Negro league baseball venues Sports venues in Baltimore Defunct sports venues in Maryland {{Maryland-baseball-venue-stub