Category: St. Petersburg
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1930 Negro Florida Stars Bus Accident
15 players, 1 vehicle mentioned 1930 – Florida Stars (Sunshine Babies) –St. Petersburg based -Florida Champs Barnstormed through Florida opposing the Clowns Also barnstormed further away – car fell into the Susquehanna River travelling between Philly (DC?) and Baltimore injuring a few and sending the others into shock – only mentioned 1 vehicle, 15…
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Whites Only
A man’s memories of when baseball integrated but towns didn’t Paul Stewart was born in 1948 one year after Jackie Robinson integrated into the major leagues. He was three when spring training integrated in St. Petersburg Florida. These are his recollections from living around and in a home that boarded African-American (“negro” at the time)…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Epilogue Moorefield is done with baseball in St. Pete but not yet done with baseball. In 1921 he tries promoting a barnstorming team of Cubans he had brought over in 1920. He writes to a Fort Scott, Kan., franchise looking to schedule games for his “Cuban…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Part 5 When speaking about the winter league team for the coming season, Moorefield drops a bombshell. He says he recently received a letter on behalf of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Jackson wishes to become manager of the St. Pete winter league club and he will bring…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Part 4 1920 Indianapolis Indians at Moorefield Ballpark, St. Petersburg, Fl. On the field the Indians had a pretty good spring. They split two games with the Southern College nine, the first being prior to their full squad arriving and so early in camp that they…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Part 3 The Nationals were set to visit on March 17. Moorefield somehow extracted a promise from Clark Griffith, the Nationals owner and manager, that Walter Johnson would pitch here. Not only was it St. Patrick’s Day, now it was Walter Johnson Day in St. Pete.…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Part 2 Around the same time, Moorefield gets word from his winter league counterpart in Tampa that the Yankees are looking to relocate from Jacksonville for spring training. Moorefield immediately wires the Yankees business manager, W. H. Sparrow, about coming to St. Pete. Sparrow telegrams back…
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March Madness
Cardinal Style I got this anecdote from Bob Gibson in a book titled Baseball Under Siege: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor’s Battle to Integrate Spring Training by Adam Henig, 2016. This occurred in spring training in St. Petersburg, Fl., either in 1959 or ’60. The negro players were segregated from their white Cardinal teammates…
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Dr. J. L. Moorefield and Moorefield Ballpark, 1920
Doc Moorefield became St. Pete’s Mr. Baseball for 1920 Part 1 Who is Dr. J. L. Moorefield? Is he a scoundrel? A philanthropist? A businessman trying to make it anyway he can? The man who perhaps saved St. Petersburg, Fla’s., aspirations to be a home for spring training baseball? I’ll leave those judgements up to…
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Did You Know?
During the 1916 – 17 training camp at Coffee Pot park, the Phillies had a young outfielder named Bud Weiser. * * * When the Braves came to play the Cardinals at Al Lang Field in 1952, their leadoff man was named Jack Daniels. * * * Also in 1952, March 9, combative…