Negro League World Series celebrates 75th anniversary
30th October 2023 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
As the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks battle for a championship in the Major League Baseball World Series, New Orleans baseball fans can celebrate the 75th anniversary of another World Series that was partially held here right in the Crescent City.
On Oct. 3, 1948, New Orleans’ Pelican Stadium hosted Game 4 of that year’s Negro League World Series – in fact, the final NLWS to ever be held, and, after recent developments on a national scale, one that now holds official major league baseball.
In 1948, the once-proud Negro Leagues began a slow, bittersweet decline after Jackie Robinson and others – including New Orleans’ own Johnny Wright, a pitcher – integrated so-called Organized Baseball.
That initial desegregation led to a quick drain of Blackball’s talent, as Major League teams were now able to sign players of color. As MLB teams poached the best the Negro Leagues had to offer – such as Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roy Campanella, Ernie Banks and Don Newcombe – the quality of play in the Negro Leagues soon decreased, making them less appealing to fans. Moreover, those African-American fans who had previously cheered their heroes of segregated baseball could now, and very much wanted to, see those Black greats in the Major Leagues.
It was against this backdrop that the Negro National League champion Homestead Grays and the Negro American League champion Birmingham Black Barons collided in the 1948 NLWS.
The match up was an intriguing one, because these two same clubs had actually also squared off in the 1943 and ’44 World Series, both won by the Grays. In addition, the Grays were one of baseball’s great dynasties, regardless of era or color; since 1937, Homestead had won an unbelievable nine NNL pennants.
As was common in the Negro Leagues, the ’48 World Series took place at several different ballparks, including in cities in which neither of the teams resided.
Thus on Sept. 26, 1948, the Grays beat the Black Barons, 3-2, at Blues Stadium in Kansas City, then won, 5-3, three days later in Game 2 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham. However, the Black Barons got some of their mojo back in Game 3 at Rickwood, winning, 4-3. It would be their last victory in the series.
The traveling series then came to New Orleans for a Game 4 contest arranged and hosted by Allen Page, who owned the famed Page Hotel on Dryades Street and who was Black New Orleans’ most important and influential baseball owner and promoter.
Unfortunately for local baseball fans, the contest was a laugher, with the Grays pummeling the Barons, 14-1. The series then shifted back to Birmingham for Game 5, where Homestead clinched the World Series with a 10-6 victory, allowing them to win the best-of-seven series, four games to one.
The series took on added significance because the Birmingham club’s roster included all-time great Willie, in his first season of professional baseball. He was just 17 years old at the time, but he was quickly scooped up by the New York Giants, and after a little time in the minors, he cracked the Giants in 1951.
With the decline of the Negro Leagues, that 1948 World Series ended up being the final one – the Negro National League folded after the season, and the Negro American League was decimated of its talent by MLB teams. New Orleans had been a big part of baseball history.
However, that’s not quite the end of the story.
In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that the Negro League seasons from 1920-48 are now officially major leagues, meaning that 75 years ago, New Orleans hosted a major league World Series game.
Rodney Page, Allen Page’s son and an advocate for Negro Leagues history and recognition, told The Louisiana Weekly that he is proud of his father’s accomplishments and influence, including hosting the 1948 World Series game.
“This is a testament to his significant contributions to the entire Negro Leagues baseball experience,” Rodney said. “His contributions were not just local in NOLA, but included regional and national affiliations, promotions, and endeavors. The 1948 World Series is an example of that. Consider the risks and the connections necessary in bringing this showcase to NOLA.
“The hero’s journey does not always end in resounding victory,” he added. “Sometimes the reward, the victory, is in the process. The process of overcoming and transcending enormous challenges and obstacles. The societal changes from segregation to integration and all of the gains, and losses, of this shift in the social landscape of America. From my perspective, this is part of the deeper story of the Negro Leagues, and Allen Page.”
This article originally published in the October 30, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
