The Florida State Negro Baseball League was the top tier of negro baseball in Florida in terms of play and producing talent for higher level teams, particularly the Negro major leagues. It was founded, disintegrated and reformed over the time period from 1932 until around 1953 after which while the league still existed it lost top talent to the white minor leagues on a regular basis. E. H. McLin writing in the St. Petersburg Times in 1953 and again twice in 1955, recollects the details of the beginning, which he claims to have been at.
The last full season appears to be 1953 although a ’54 schedule was put out, a first half champion was announced (Daytona Beach Red Wings) and an all-star game with Daytona playing the rest of the leagues all-stars was announced. There is no evidence of league play afterward. Loss of attendance and increased travel expenses appear to have led to the demise. The teams continued to play for more years through more regionalized leagues with shorter league schedules.
March 1932 – David “Fats” Waitman, relatively new to Tampa but with experience in professional negro baseball called a meeting of interested parties in Jacksonville. The attendees (potential owners) and the teams represented were:
Tampa Pepsi Cola Giants David “Fats” Waitman
St. Petersburg Florida Stars Jack Peters & E. H. McLin
Orlando All-S tars Felix Crosby
Jacksonville Red Caps Carl “Bubber” Ford
West Palm Beach Black Yankees Bill Elam
Bradenton Nine Devils Bish Christopher
Lakeland Tigers Jesse Richardson
Daytona Beach Black Cats James Keys
(Bartow) Polk County All-Stars Ben Williams
Keys is named league President and McLin is Executive Secretary
It appears from “32 to ’45 the “league” was more of a confederation, an agreement to play each other yearly, with one exception – 1934. Found in newspaper archives from ’34 was this from June 24:
Later it was reported that the Florida (St. Petersburg) Stars was the league champion in 1934. Otherwise in the years preceding ’45 there were claims of teams being state champion or playing for the mythical state championship. The state championship seemed to be an open affair as teams like the Clowns or the Jacksonville Red Caps after they departed for the Negro major leagues were at times called the state champions.
The league was officially named the Florida State Negro Baseball League in 1945. It was registered and incorporated with the state by that name in 1947. 1945 marks E. H. McLin’s stint with the St. Petersburg Times while also keeping league records, so we have much more from then on.
1946 marks the Florida Sentinel newspaper opening shop in Tampa after having been started in Jacksonville. C. Blythe Andrews is the owner and publisher as well as gaining ownership in the Tampa franchise. His son, C. Blythe Andrews Jr. began to write articles, and the paper also carries some of McLin’s work. That is the major reason we know so much more about the league. There were now more in-depth articles instead of ½ inch, 1 inch or occasionally 2-inch articles mostly announcing upcoming games or providing scores of completed games. These read most of the time like paid advertising in white newspapers as white fans were always accommodated with a separate section in the grandstands.
Through the years since ’32, the teams in the “league” stay remarkably consistent. Some may drop at times and then come back. Often there are name changes for a town’s team. Ownership is relatively stable across time also. These teams commonly played three game weekend series with one another which gives it another league feel.
E. H. McLin who was with the league beginning to end, published stories on the origin of the league a day apart in 1955. He lists two different years although it was not impossible that a reorganization took place in “35.
Tampa Bay Times Wed, Sep 16, 1953 ·Page 12
All three of these stories could be valid if they tried to form and reform the league over time. The four years would have covered ’42 – ’45 when the league formally named itself.
I will work to publish and continuously update information across the season’s.