The Birmingham Black Barons: More Than Just Baseball

By Scott Adamson

 The Birmingham Black Barons left an indelible mark on baseball history, winning pennants across three different leagues and showcasing such legends of the diamond as Willie Mays and Satchel Paige. In 2021, they – along with all the teams in the seven professional Negro Leagues – were granted major league status by Major League Baseball. 

That, you probably know. 

What you might not realize, however, is that the famous franchise – which lasted from 1920 through 1960 – has a major part in basketball history as well. 

The Harlem Globetrotters, arguably the most well-known roundball team in the world, once had a strong connection to the Black Barons. Not only did the clubs share ownership, but several players who made their names playing baseball at Rickwood Field went on to suit up for the popular traveling hardwood team. 

The story begins in 1927. 

“I got a job coaching a Negro basketball team,” Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein told the Nashville Banner for a 1954 story. “Nobody had any plans; we just had a team. Then the Savoy Ball Room opened in Harlem and became famous, and a fellow in Chicago thought it would be a good idea to copy the name and open a place called the Savoy.” 

To help draw in customers, Saperstein’s team began playing games at the venue. 

“We took the name of the ‘Savoy Big Five,’” Saperstein said. “We didn’t do so well, either. The players saved me – they urged that I break away and book them myself. It sounded like a good idea, so I did it. 

“Naturally I had to have a new name for the team, so I called them the Harlem Globetrotters. I don’t know exactly why I picked that name. I just figured that people would think they were from New York and had been around a lot.” 

Jump to the 1940s, when Saperstein joined forces with Tom Hayes as co-owner of the Black Barons. 

“Abe loved basketball, but his second love – and maybe on some days his first love – was baseball,” Mannie Jackson, owner and chairman of the Globetrotters, told the Birmingham Post-Herald in 2003. 

The team was already having success under Haye’s ownership, but it was Saperstein who was able to help the club grow its brand nationally according to John Holway’s book, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues. 

“He’d book us where Tom Hayes couldn’t get us booked,” said Theodore “Double Duty” Radcliffe, who had stints as a player and manager with the Black Barons. “He’d book us in those big four-team doubleheaders in Yankee Stadium. Every time the Yankees would leave, Birmingham would be in Yankee Stadium with 25 to 30,000 people.” 

Soon, however, Saperstein discovered basketball talent between the white lines. 

One of the most famous Globetrotters of them all was Reese “Goose” Tatum, who spent two seasons in Birmingham (1941 and 1942) but soon became best known as the “Clown Prince of Basketball.” During his 12 seasons playing hoops, the 6-6 athlete was known for his deadly hook shot and ball-handling skills. In 1948, he led the Globetrotters to a victory over the Minneapolis Lakers – a team led by George Mikan and one that went on to win the National Basketball League championship as well as the World’s Professional Basketball Tournament. 

The future Basketball Hall of Famer played first base and outfield for the Black Barons until Saperstein witnessed his roundball skills. 

According to prominent York Daily News sports editor Jimmy Powers, W.S. Welch was the manager of the Black Barons and business manager for the Globetrotters in 1941. When a Birmingham game in Fort Benning, Georgia, was rained out, Tatum decided to kill time by playing basketball in a nearby gym. Welch was so impressed by his skills he arranged a tryout in front of Saperstein, who marveled at the player’s “84-inch wingspread” and lured him to the hardwood. 

When he was enshrined in the basketball hall in 2011, Tatum was credited with choreographing several of the Globetrotter routines, including “hiding in the crowd, spying on the opposition’s huddle, and fainting only to be revived by the foul smell of his own shoe.” 

In 2002, Tatum was honored as a Globetrotter Legend. 

Although he was the most famous Black Baron-turned-Globetrotter, Tatum wasn’t the only one who made an impact in both sports. 

Piper Davis was an infielder for the Black Barons from 1942 through 1950, and also served as the player/manager for the club later in his tenure. He helped Birmingham win three Negro American League pennants and would earn the nickname “the Baron of Baseball.” He was also the first black player signed by the Boston Red Sox. 

Yet while Davis is most famous for his baseball prowess (he had a .309 career batting average and logged a 51-27-1 record as manager), he also found his way to the Globetrotters. He signed with the team in 1943. 

“There’s a story behind that,” Davis told the Atlanta Journal Constitution in a 1989 interview. “The business manager of the Black Barons was also the manager of the Globetrotters (Saperstein). One day I was in the biggest black café in Birmingham, Bob’s Savoy Café. The owner, Bob Williams, told Saperstein, ‘This boy Davis can play basketball, too.’” 

By 1945 Davis was playing baseball for the Black Barons while spending his offseason as a player, coach and traveling secretary for the Globetrotters. 

Joe Bankhead was on the Black Barons’ 1948 squad, and like Tatum and Davis before him, caught the attention of Saperstein. But his double-duty has a bit of a twist. 

Bankhead was a guard for the Globetrotters during their 1947-48 campaign, pitched for the Black Barons in 1948, and a year later was on the roster of the Harlem Globetrotters baseball team. (The Trotter baseballers began play as a traveling team in 1946 and lasted until the mid-1950s). 

Certainly, the Birmingham Black Barons and Harlem Globetrotters each stand alone in the annals of professional sports. But the fact that these proud franchises once shared the spotlight is a testament to how popular they both were – and how important their legacies remain.