Greenlee Field

From BR Bullpen

The only black-owned Negro League field in the East, Greenlee Field was the home of the Pittsburgh Crawfords in their heyday. Named after Crawfords owner & Pittsburgh numbers operator, Gus Greenlee, the stadium stood at 2400 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA. The first game was held on April 29, 1932, a loss to the New York Black Yankees. The field had a capacity of about 6,000 for baseball and 10,000 for boxing. Lights were installed in August, making it the first stadium to allow for night baseball.

By 1937, Pittsburgh's politicians were clamping down on numbers rackets and put a dent in Greenlee's empire, leading the Crawfords to sell Josh Gibson to their tenant, the Homestead Grays. With Greenlee short on cash, Satchel Paige began a mass exodus from the Crawfords from which the franchise and Greenlee never recovered.

When the Crawfords ceased to exist after the 1938 season, the stadium was quickly destroyed on December 10, 1938. The Bedford Dwellings housing project was built on the site.

Main source: Black Baseball's National Showcase by Larry Lester