ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals will host the San Francisco Giants on Thursday evening at Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field in a tribute to the Negro Leagues.
During the game, the Cardinals and Giants intend to wear the uniforms of two former Negro League Baseball teams with hometown ties: The St. Louis Stars and the San Francisco Sea Lions.
The Negro Leagues consisted of the Stars, Sea Lions, and many other teams across seven baseball leagues from the 1920s to the 1950s, in an era when racial segregation prevented African-American athletes from playing in Major League Baseball.
The origins of the St. Louis Stars date back to the early 20th century. The Stars were founded as an independent baseball team in 1906 and first known as the St. Louis Giants. The team played baseball independently from 1906 to 1919 before joining the Negro National League in 1920.
The Giants were rebranded as the St. Louis Stars after the 1921 season under the ownership of Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard.
The Stars played their home games at a former ballpark known as Stars Park, formerly located at the corner of Compton and Laclede avenues in St. Louis’ Midtown neighborhood.
While part of the Negro Leagues, the Stars often found success in the regular season with an all-time record of 580-388, almost a .600 winning percentage. The Stars qualified for playoffs four times and won three pennants in the Negro National League. However, the Stars never won a championship.
Candy Jim Taylor managed the Stars to more than 300 wins over six seasons.
Shortstop Willie Wells played eight years with the Stars and led the team in many offensive stats, including home runs (119) and RBI (608). Cool Papa Bell and Mule Suttles also rank among the team’s all-time hitting leaderboards. Each of the three had a career WAR rating above 20 with St. Louis.
Logan Hensley and Ted Trent were among the franchise’s most consistent pitchers. Hensley led in wins (80) and innings pitched (1004.2), while Trent led in strikeouts (430) and ERA (3.32).
The Stars disbanded from the Negro National League after the 1931 season. A separate iteration of the St. Louis Stars was founded in 1937, but only lasted one season due to financial difficulties.
The Negro Leagues also attempted to move forward with other iterations of the St. Louis Stars through partnerships with New Orleans and Harrisburg, but those efforts were short-lived, running from 1939 to 1943.
The Negro Leagues stretched into the next decade as Major League Baseball began to integrate African-American players into the league, first with Jackie Robinson in 1947.
More than a century since the St. Louis Stars joined the Negro Leagues, the St. Louis Cardinals will wear Stars uniforms on Thursday in MLB’s tribute at Rickwood Field. The attire consists of a gray jersey with Navy blue “St. Louis” lettering with red striping and a Navy blue hat that reads “STL” similar to the City Connect hats.
Thursday’s game is set for 6:15 p.m. CT at Rickwood Field, the former home of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons and America’s oldest-standing ballpark. FOX 2 will carry the game broadcast.