Wilson Daily Times, 30 August 1939.
Two Negro League powerhouses, the Newark Eagles and the Homestead Grays, clashed in a baseball game at Wilson’s Municipal [later, Fleming] Stadium in the summer of 1939. The Grays held spring camp in Wilson and regularly scheduled a game in town before rapt fans.
On 4 August 1942, the Daily Times printed two short pieces on the extraordinary match-up at Wilson’s Municipal (now Fleming) Stadium — the Homestead Grays vs. the New York Black Yankees!
Grays’ catcher and power hitter Josh Gibson in an undated photograph. AP.
Wilson Daily Times, 4 August 1942.
Buck Leonard at bat, 1945. He and Gibson were known as the Thunder Twins. Now regarded as among the best ever to play the game, neither played Major League baseball. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Homestead Grays in 1942, the year they visited Wilson. Getty Images.
Black Yankees Leslie “Chin” Green and Jimmy Ford, 1942. Detail, Getty Images.
The Wilson Braves had a much better May than April 1932. The nine played the Bull City Aces (of Durham), the Harlem (N.Y.) Black Sox, the Hamlet Airliners, the Camel City Aces (of Winston-Salem), and teams from Leaksville and Greenville and went 9-2.
Wilson Daily Times, 2 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 16 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 17 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 24 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 26 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 28 May 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 30 May 1932.
I was delighted to find that the Daily Times regularly covered the 1932 season of the city’s semi-pro African-American baseball team, the Wilson Braves.
I’ve been able to discover very little about the team. They played home games in the “Vance Street ballpark,” a forerunner to Fleming Stadium that stood in the vicinity of modern-day Wells Elementary School. The articles highlight players generally by first or last name only, but I am working to identify them further. They included second baseman George Leach, centerfielder Monk Johnson, pitchers Joe Haskins and Jarvis Bank, Joe Harris, catcher Leroy, Wynn, Holden, Taylor, Hargroves, Fisher, Tate, Locus, pitcher Henry, and “Dummy.”
Here are the April games, in which the Braves played the Capital City Blue Aces (of Raleigh), the Kinston Royal Giants, the Rocky Mount Aces, the Statesville All-Stars, and a team from Suffolk, Virginia, and went 2-3-1.
Wilson Daily Times, 7 April 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 14 April 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 April 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 April 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 22 April 1932.
Wilson Daily Times, 28 April 1932.
Statesville Landmark, 26 August 1946.
The Colored Owls played in the Western North Carolina Semi-Pro League.