Birmingham Black Barons

The Black Barons won the Negro American League pennant in 1943, 1944 and 1948, losing the Negro World Series to the Homestead Grays each time. The recorded record across 19 seasons is 609-633, resting on the box scores that survive rather than a complete count of games played.

Willie Mays played for the club in 1948 at seventeen, while still at school, and the 1948 pennant is the last thing the Negro American League produced before the major leagues emptied it. Four Hall of Famers played here: Mays, Satchel Paige, Mule Suttles and Bill Foster.

Home was Rickwood Field, which opened in 1910 and is the oldest professional ballpark still standing in the United States. The Black Barons shared it with the white Birmingham Barons, playing when the other club was away, which was the arrangement most Negro Leagues teams had with the parks they used.