All across the MLB today teams will be wearing special patches on their jerseys to celebrate 100 years of Negro League baseball. A lot of baseball greats that played in the majors began their careers in the Negro Leagues. Players like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Larry Do by, and of course Jackie Robinson all began their professional baseball careers playing first in the Negro Leagues.
There are also countless numbers of players who never got to play in the majors but were all time greats. Players like Judy Johnson, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell are just a few.
Over the years Topps has produced jersey relic cards of a throwback pinstripe Pittsburgh Crawfords jersey of Andrew McCutchen. I've talked about it a few times while also discussing the Negro Leagues powerhouse Pittsburgh Crawfords here.
Above is a sample of a pinstripe jersey swatch on a card I have rarely shown off. It is a jersey relic from 2016 Topps Laser booklet.
Panini has used old Negro League uniform swatches too though. And it never crossed my mind until I came across this old game used jersey of James McDonald on eBay.
I was always a big fan of JMac when he was pitching for those horrendous Pirates teams of 2010 and 2011. He had a nasty curveball and looked like an early season All-Star in 2012. Prior to pitchers like AJ Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole, and Charlie Morton becoming part of a top 5 MLB pitching staff, the fans of the Steel City had James McDonald to cheer for and call their ace.
I wanted to get a jersey of his to wear around if I could find one cheap enough, then I stumbled on this.
I recognize that laundry tag.
I've seen that before on my McCutchen cards from Panini, but could never figure out what it's from.
With the knowledge of knowing that this is from a throwback jersey, I also was able to determine this cream colored jersey swatch with a blue patch is in fact from a 2012 Grays jersey worn by Cutch against the KC Royals.
I always wondered what this odd blue patch and cream jersey was from.
Now I know.
And Panini has used it on many of their products over the years.
Over the past 3 Thursdays I have shown off some of the biggest and most popular names in the former Negro Leagues. Those names include Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Cool Papa Bell.
As we celebrate Black History Month on this final day of February I want to take a look at a few more of the former stars of the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
I have shown a bunch of cards on this blog featuring the purplish pinstripe worn by the Crawfords and tributed by the Pirates over the past few seasons.
Topps purchased these pinstripe Crawfords Jerseys the Pirates wore and used them for multiple product releases over the past few years, most notably in Triple Threads.
We have seen it in Triple Threads by both Cutch and Gerrit Cole.
We have seen it used for the 2016 Scouting Report
The pinstripe even showed up for Cutch's Laser booklet relic. You can see the purple pinstripe to the far left of the window.
The pinstripe also appeared for the Sy Berger tribute for Berger's Best
And here is one more I have celebrating Cutch's MLB debut featuring a relic not from the game mentioned on the card.
The Pittsburgh Crawfords had a really cool design with their uniforms. It featured a red hat and piping with purple pinstripes. I am not sure where the idea came to use that combination, but it worked.
In addition to Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell playing for the Crawfords they had a rock of a third baseman in the name of William "Judy" Johnson.
I only have two cards of Judy Johnson and they both feature the same image of Johnson in a Crawfords uniform playing the hot corner.
Hopefully you will enjoy these Black History Month segments this month as there seemed to be some modest responses to the idea.
In addition to the Homestead Grays, the Pirates have paid tribute to another Negro League team throughout the years, the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
The Pirates have worn this uniform once each year since 2012.
It features a gray uniform with purplish pinstripes and red piping along the edges in addition to the numbering and lettering.
While I am not aware of any cards of Cutch being produced wearing this uniform, there have been a few relics produced where the uniform is clearly from an old Crawfords jersey.
This 2016 Gypsy Queen is my favorite as it has the purple like pin stripes and the red Majestic logo worn along the sleeve. I will show more swatches of this jersey in future posts along with other Pittsburgh Crawfords legends.
One of the first stars that the Pittsburgh Crawfords saw rise to prominence was Hall of Fame pitcher, Satchel Paige.
I don't have nearly enough cards of the former Negro players.
Satchel had a rough childhood even landing himself in reform school before gaining the attention as a teenager and signing a contract to play for $250 a month.
Soon after that initial contract, Satchell began to sign on and play for anyone who would be willing to pay for his electric arm.
Satchel is still the oldest player to make his MLB debut at the age of 42 years old when he began his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1947.
There are many urban myths about Satchell including my personal favorite where he had his team sit down on the field with bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th and clinging to a one run game. Naturally as the story goes, Paige struck the batter out.
He is to this day considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time.
He was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
If you have 30 minutes to spare, I strongly suggest you listen to this video called Black Diamonds: The Satchell Paige Story.
The YouTube video is below.
It is essentially an interview with Satchell. Truly worth the listen if you love baseball and the history of the game. There is an interesting segment where Satchell talks about how Jackie Robinson wasn't even on the starting roster for the Kansas City Monarchs. He would go on to say that any Negro League team could have beaten a team in the majors because those players in the Negro Leagues were tops in the country.
