The Hudson Valley Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, are proud to play on August 14th as the Newburgh Gorhams. “The rich history of America’s pastime runs directly through the Hudson Valley,” said Dutchess County Legislator Randy Johnson. “In the nascent days of baseball, all-black professional clubs such as the Newburgh Gorhams overcame obstacles that would seem insurmountable to the modern fan and in the process paved the way for generations of future ballplayers. The story of baseball, and the story of America for that matter, cannot be told without telling the story of clubs such as the Gorhams. I am thrilled that the Hudson Valley Renegades will honor their legacy this season and I greatly look forward to this historic event.”
Though the Gorhams are not the first known all-black professional baseball team, Davis is the first known African-American team owner in professional sports.
After spending 1886 barnstorming and playing exhibitions against other New York-area professional and amateur teams, the Gorhams joined the League of Colored Baseball Players, the first-ever all-black professional baseball league, which featured teams in Boston, Pittsburgh, New York, Louisville, Baltimore and Philadelphia, in 1887. The Gorhams beat the Pittsburgh Keystones 11-8 in the league’s first-ever game on May 6, but by May 23 the league folded due in part to financial and travel issues among the clubs.
The Gorhams made the move to Newburgh during the summer of 1887, when the Brooklyn Eagle reported that Gorhams manager John “Bud” Fowler had “leased the ball grounds on Benkard Heights, Newburgh, and the club has made that city its headquarters.”
Fowler, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2022, is the first-known professional black baseball player, and enjoyed a lengthy career playing on both integrated and all-black teams.
The team was tremendously successful in Newburgh, including picking up wins against the other dominant all-black team of the era, the New York Cuban Giants. In the ensuing years, the Gorhams operated as a barnstorming team and occasionally competed in leagues comprised of all-white teams.
As the team moved around to homebases outside the Hudson Valley, they continued to be one of the finest teams in either white or black professional baseball. At various times they boasted three Hall of Famers on their roster including Fowler, Sol White and Frank Grant, as well as several other top black players like George Stovey.
In 1891, there is a record of the Gorhams playing over 100 games and losing only four of them, including going on a 39-game winning streak. On August 15, 1891, President Benjamin Harrison attended a Gorhams game in Cape May, New Jersey, the only time a sitting President watched a game involving a black baseball team during the entire era of segregated baseball.