The Seattle Steelheads were a

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

team from

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. 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

Abe Saperstein Abraham Michael Saperstein (; July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s, primarily bef ...

founded the Harlem Globetrotters baseball team in 1944 to complement his world-famous

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

of the same name. Also owned by Saperstein, the Cincinnati Crescents were an All-Star

barnstorming Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in ...

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 Alvin "Bubber" Gipson, Sr. (May 7, 1914 – March 25, 1987) was an American Negro league pitcher in the 1940s. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Gipson spent most of his career in Birmingham as a mainstay of the Black Barons' pitching staff. ...

Bill Jefferson William Jennings Jefferson (born March 14, 1947) is an American former politician from Louisiana whose career ended after his corruption scandal and conviction. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 ...

, 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. 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 Timothy Mike "Cannonball" Berry (August 23, 1911 – May 2, 1992), also nicknamed "Showboat Mike", was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. Early life Timothy Mike Berry was born on August 23, 1911, in Kansas City, Kansas. Pl ...

, Nap Gulley, Zell Miles, Rogers Pierre, Herb Simpson, and Fay Washington. The league folded after a month of play.

Controversy

Catcher and manager Paul Hardy joined the Steelheads while still under contract with 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" Fo ...

, causing the Negro American League to ban its teams from playing games in Seattle.

Home fields

Their primary home ballpark was

Sick's Stadium Sick's Stadium, also known as Sick's Seattle Stadium and later as Sicks' Stadium, was a baseball park in the northwest United States in Seattle, Washington. It was located in Rainier Valley, on the NE corner of S. McClellan Street and Rainier A ...

. They also planned home games in Tacoma, Bremerton,

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

, and Bellingham.

MLB throwback jerseys

The

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

honored the Steelheads when they wore 1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9, 1995, at home against the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expa ...

. The Royals wore

Kansas City Monarchs The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1 ...

uniforms. The Mariners beat the Royals 6–4 in front of 39,157 fans at the

Kingdome The Kingdome (officially the King County Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Industrial District (later SoDo) neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Owned and operated by King County, it was best known as the home s ...

. The game was attended by former Steelhead player Sherwood Brewer. 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 The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...

Safeco Field T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929. It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the weste ...

, and lost to the Red Sox 4–2. On June 19th, 2021, the Mariners again wore the 1946 uniforms as part of

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining "June" and "nineteenth", it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, ...

References

External links