Greatest Team That Almost Was: Homestead Grays

Pirates Remember Negro League Homestead Grays

The Pirates kicked of African-American Heritage Weekend by donning the uniforms of the Homestead Grays, one of the greatest teams to ever take the field in the 1930s.

The Pirates and the Kansas City Royals will wear the throwback uniforms again for tomorrow's game.  The Royals wore the uniforms of the Kansas City Monarchs.

The Grays were one of the more storied teams to play in the Negro Leagues of the first half of the 20th century. After years of independent play, the team formed by Cumberland "Cum" Posey, joined the Negro National League and after a two-year rough start, would dominate the league for a decade.

Posey, part of the group that formed the team in 1910 from a group of steel workers, started as a player for the Grays in 1911. Eventually he became manager and later owner. The original team, Blue Ribbons, an industrial league team, had been formed in 1900. 10 years later they became the Murdock Grays, and two years later the Homestead Grays.

His team would win nine consecutive Negro National League pennants between 1937-45, as well as three Negro World Series. The Grays played most of their games at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and at their home away from home, Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C.

The Grays were real "barnstormers" as they traveled around playing against teams in hundreds of small towns across the Eastern United States.

The team was led by such players as catcher Josh Gibson who was known as the "black Babe Ruth." Some who saw him conversely descried Babe Ruth at the "white Josh Gibson." 

In 1934, he hit 69 home runs including barnstorming (non-league) games, including 11 in 53 league games. In 1933 he batted .467 with 55 home runs in 137 league and non-league games. His lifetime batting average is .359.

He was voted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. The plaque reads, "Almost 800" homers hit in his 17-year career.

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