NSLM a must-visit in Birmingham

Editor’s note: This column was written two years ago while I was living in Greenville, South Carolina. Now I’m once again a resident of Birmingham and am re-posting as part of Black History Month.

Before last Friday, I didn’t realize that back in 1897 my hometown had a baseball team called the Birmingham Unions.

I knew the great Satchel Paige’s stint with the Birmingham Black Barons lasted from 1927-1930, but was unaware of many of the details.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

And I had no idea that more Negro League players got their start in the Birmingham Industrial League than any other semi-pro or textile league circuit in the United States.

Then again, I moved away 14 years ago and before last Friday hadn’t visited the Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham. Now that I have, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

I’ve long been fascinated by the history of African-American baseball. As a kid growing up in the Magic City my father told me stories of Paige, saying he was “probably the greatest pitcher who ever lived.” That led me to spend plenty of time at the library chasing facts about the Mobile native, who was a five-time Negro League All-Star before becoming the oldest Major League Baseball rookie when he signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1948 at age 42.

My deepest dive, though, came thanks to my friendship with the late Clarence Marble.

A member of the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame due to his success as a prep basketball coach, he was also a skilled athlete who played with the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League in the 1950s.

I covered his basketball teams during my newspaper sports writing days but enjoyed bending his ear about baseball more – conversations that would sometimes last for hours.

Born of segregation and the Jim Crow era, the Negro leagues were case studies in triumph rising from racism.

To that end the NSLM is part classroom, part exhibit – and I could’ve spent all day there.

It has an on-site research center, so any questions you have about the history of virtually everything related to the various leagues is readily available. For me, though, there’s nothing like “seeing” the past, and the memorabilia at the museum turns a stroll down its halls into a trip through a time tunnel.

I’ve spent many summer nights at Rickwood Field, but never saw teams like the Atlanta Black Crackers, New Orleans Crescent Stars or Nashville Elite Giants.

The Black Barons exhibits provide a glimpse of what it was like during the era of greats such as Paige, Willie Mays, Bill Foster and Mule Suttles. These members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, began perfecting their craft in Birmingham, Alabama.

And while it’s cool to see how baseball equipment and uniforms have evolved over the years, studying the actual game-used uniforms worn by legends was a thrill for me.

Paige’s wool uni and cleats as well as a hologram of him pitching? Yeah, that pic will forever remain on my camera roll.

So will the giant photo of Paige featuring actual baseballs he used to throw self-named pitches such as the “Bat Dodger,” “Midnight Rider,” “Wobbly Ball,” and “Trouble Ball.”

There is a display commemorating Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier; a literal wall of 1,500 baseballs; a Cuban Stars baseball contract from 1907 (the oldest known Negro league contract in existence); the McCallister Trophy, the oldest known Negro league trophy … the NSLM has too many treasures to name.

It’s like a part of Cooperstown is located in my hometown, and I look forward to experiencing it again.

For more information on the Negro Southern League Museum, go to birminghamnslm.org.

Inside baseball

Indoor football found its niche in the late 1980s thanks to the Arena Football League, and six such circuits are still in operation today.

But indoor baseball?

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Well, it was first played on Christmas Day, 1888, when the Down Towns defeated the Up Towns, 6-1, at the Philadelphia State Fairgrounds. But that was just a one-off contested by pro players “wintering” in the city.

An actual indoor league wasn’t realized until more than than a half century later, opening on November 17, 1939, and closing on December 22, 1939, when the league dissolved. And it wasn’t even baseball.

The very, very brief history of the National Professional Indoor Baseball League begins when it was formed in the summer of 1939.

Major League legend Tris Speaker – who had been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame two years earlier – began promoting the concept in July of 1939, suggesting it was a fall/winter indoor sport that could challenge hockey and basketball for popularity. The NPIBL hoped to begin with franchises in Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Toronto. The championship series would be played in March.

Clubs were managed by famous players from baseball’s past. Lined up to lead the charge were big names that included Moose McCormick (New York); Otto Miller (Brooklyn); Harry Davis (Philadelphia); Freddy MacGuire (Boston); the only man to pull an unassisted triple play in the World Series, Bill Wambsganss (Cleveland); Brick Owens (Chicago); Bubbles Hargreaves (Cincinnati); and Gabby Street (St. Louis).

The league constitution included club territorial rights, giving them “exclusive control in each city in its circuit and of the surrounding territory to the extent of five miles in every direction from its corporate limits.”

As for player salaries, they were not to exceed $75 per man, per week.

“We’d run it just like the big leagues,” Speaker told the Cincinnati Enquirer for a September 1, 1939 story. “Two umpires, contracts, a regular schedule, a world series each March between the Eastern and Western sections, and divide up the service money as they do in the big show. We’d limit the teams to 13 players, and I believe that after those nonbelievers among the baseball fans got a load of one of those softball pitchers who strike out 20 and 25 men a game, or look at one of those .500 hitters, they’d really like the game.

“It’ll keep the game alive during the winter. If it stirs up a lot of new kids it will develop some big league stars. Tommy Henrich got his start with a softball team, and so did Ken Keltner. And I think (Joe) DiMaggio did, too.”

To accommodate the enclosed space bases were located 60 feet apart, the pitching distance was 40 feet from mound to plate, and a 12-inch “deadened” ball was used. Players – nine to a side on defense – used ribbed gloves and sneakers.

Miller told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that fans would be impressed by the underhanded pitching skills of the league’s hurlers.

“In this game, the pitcher works the inside of the plate and with good stuff he can have the boys popping up all night,” Miller said. “The topnotch indoor pitcher can put plenty of stuff on the ball and can throw the same curves that you see in the major leagues. It’s real baseball and don’t let any one kid you that it’s an old man’s game. The way these fellows play the game is just as tough as big league baseball.”

Rosters were dotted with some former Major Leaguers, but most were pulled from the amateur softball ranks.  That prompted Wilbur E. Landis, president of the Amateur Softball Association, to warn softball players they’d lose their amateur status if they signed with the NPIBL.

But the idea was that indoor “baseball” could serve as a feeder league to the bigs, so many jumped at the chance to play indoors for pay.

Speaker threw out the first pitch at the November 17 opener at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, a contest that saw Philly beat Boston, 16-3, in front of 1,000 fans. (Admission fees throughout the league were set at 25 cents, 50 cents and 75 cents).

A few days later 2,500 showed up in the Bronx to see Brooklyn split with New York, 6-5, 7-14, and Boston and Brooklyn played at the Boston Garden before 5,000 fans on November 27 with Brooklyn winning, 4-3 and 8-0.

However, the novelty quickly wore off.

Paying customers lost interest, and by early December most St. Louis players left the team to seek readmission to ASA leagues. On December 5 International News Service reported that the league was close to folding as organizers scrambled to alter the schedule to feature series instead of single games and doubleheaders.

On December 19 Boston withdrew from the NPIBL, and three days later the entire league was done.

“After several meetings to work out a revised schedule which would permit games to be played between eastern and Western teams, it became apparent that this was not practical at this time because suitable buildings were not available on dates which would not conflict,” Speaker said in a statement. “Therefore the clubs will discontinue play for the present. It is hoped that in the future a change in conditions will make it possible to resume.”

As of Christmas Day, 2021, a “change in conditions” has yet to occur, and the Professional Indoor Baseball League continues its 81-year hiatus.

Squadron ready for duty

Birmingham coach Ryan Pannone talks to media members Monday morning at Protective Stadium.

The last official professional basketball game played by a Birmingham-based NBA affiliate came on March 25, 1992, when the Birmingham Bandits lost to the Quad City Thunder in the Continental Basketball Association playoffs. That team, linked with the Atlanta Hawks and San Antonio Spurs, was one-and-done – finishing dead last in the CBA in attendance.

Nearly 30 years later, a bolder and better Birmingham is back in the pro basketball business, and the NBA G League team looks to hold court much longer than a single season.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

The Birmingham Squadron has joined the ranks of the 29-team league (plus the NBA G League Ignite, the club reserved for elite Draft prospects) and will play its home opener at the renovated Legacy Arena on December 5 against the Capitanes de Ciudad de México, aka the Mexico City Capitanes. The regular season lid-lifter is Friday at Greensboro (Birmingham’s first six games are on the road).

The Squadron’s on-court debut actually came on Saturday in College Park, Georgia, in a 95-90 exhibition victory over the College Park Skyhawks.

Squadron head coach Ryan Pannone and various players met with the media earlier today at Protective Stadium to officially talk up the newest member of Birmingham’s sports scene.

“We met with some of the community leaders in August and I thought there would be about 50 people there, and there were 150 people,” Pannone said. “I was blown away at how excited people were about having a team here. That’s the nature of the G League. At the end of the day it’s a minor league sport, and when you’re in a bigger city it’s just not that important to a lot of people. What you want as a player is to feel like it’s important, and I was blown away by the support.”

The team formerly known as the Erie BayHawks relocated from Pennsylvania, where they were well supported. Pannone hopes the team can win over new fans in the Magic City.

“I spent two years in Erie and the people in the town and the fans loved the team,” he said. “They love their minor league sports. In one way it’s sad to move away from there but obviously it’s exciting to move to Birmingham. Legacy Arena is amazing. It’s the top arena in the G League.”

The circuit is the NBA’s developmental league so it’s obviously quality stuff; 41 percent of players on this season’s opening night NBA rosters (205 total) had G league experience, and every NBA team started the 2021-22 campaign with at least three former G leaguers. But there’s also just something that seems fun about it from a fan standpoint, everything from rule experimentation to a nice, tight 36-game regular season schedule plus a 14-game tournament called the Showcase Cup.

“The fans are truly dialed in and making a lot of noise about the Birmingham Squadron coming into the city,” said guard Joe Young, who played three years with the Indiana Pacers and was one of the top players in China last season with the Beijing Royal Fighters. “I feel like we have a great new beginning. I’ve been through a lot of training camp and this is one of the best I’ve been through, from the high intensity and how we’ve become a team. There’s a lot of unity and as early as the season is, it’s like we’ve been knowing each other for years.”

The arrival of the New Orleans Pelicans affiliate is the city’s next and best chance to prove it can support pro hoops. The 1991-92 CBA team that called State Fair Arena home made the playoffs despite a losing record, but fans had lost interest in them long before the postseason. Birmingham averaged 1,058 fans per game during the regular season, last in the 17-team league. Its three home postseason games in March drew crowds of 405, 825, and 2,274.

By May the team was gone, moved to Rochester, Minnesota, and rebranded the Renegades.

The modern era has seen Birmingham host several semi-pro teams, but like most semi-pro teams they’re here today, gone tomorrow and quickly forgotten.

But the Pelicans’ farm club has a chance to be memorable right out of the gate, which could go a long way toward a much different fate than that of the Bandits.

The roster features former Auburn star Jared Harper and Alabama standout John Petty Jr. – both guards – and there are currently 15 players in training camp hoping to survive Thursday’s cut day.

“I think anything you do, it’s easier with higher character people and one thing I’ve learned about the G league is it’s essentially the junior college of professional basketball,” Pannone explained. “It’s not a place where a player wants to be for the rest of their career. It’s hopefully a stopping ground in terms of improving their career. When you get high character guys, it’s not hard. When you get guys like Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham (who has a career G League average of 14.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game from the forward spot), Jared Harper … those are really high character guys that want to be here and understand this a necessity to get where they want to go. Joe Young has turned down millions playing overseas to be here. His engagement and humbleness and excitedness to be here has been amazing. He’s got the most NBA experience on our team and he’s been a great leader. He’s imparting knowledge to the other players.”

Pannone said regardless of who’s on the court when the Squadron meets the Greensboro Swarm on Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum, they’ll be defined by “unselfishness and effort.”

“It’s what we talk to the players about,” Pannone said. “The game is full of mistakes. The coaches and players don’t want mistakes, but it’s an imperfect game. You’re gonna make mistakes but when you do, make them with unselfishness and effort. I want execution to be great and to execute our game plan, but if we play hard and play the right way, that’s what we want the identity of our team to be.”

Harper is confident fans will like what they see.

“We play great as a collective,” he said. “Nobody’s worried about stats or whatever – we just want to win.”

And with the Squadron coming in right as the Uptown entertainment district starts to take shape, the time seems right for Birmingham and pro basketball to be a winning combination.