AquaSox To Honor Simpson, Steelheads On Turn Back The Clock Night

Herb Simpson, an important figure in African American and West Coast baseball history, will be at Everett Memorial Stadium on Saturday, July 26 when the Everett AquaSox take on the Boise Hawks. Simpson, who played for the Seattle Steelheads of the West Coast Negro Baseball League, will throw out the first pitch and sign autographs at the game.

After serving in the Army during World War II, the New Orleans native came to Seattle to suit up for the Seattle Steelheads of the West Coast Negro Baseball League. The league, formed in the fall of 1945 to rival the successful Negro Leagues in the Eastern and Southern United States, lasted for only two months of the 1946 season, but the Steelheads became a barnstorming travel team known as the Harlem Globetrotters. Simpson played for the Globetrotters and then got a chance to play in the Minor Leagues with the Albuquerque Dukes and the Spokane Indians following Jackie Robinson's breaking of baseball's color barrier in 1947. After retiring from baseball, Simpson returned to his native New Orleans to work as the head custodian of the New Orleans Parish School Board.

Today, Simpson is the last surviving member of the 1946 Seattle Steelheads. As the AquaSox celebrate their own thirty years of history on Turn Back the Clock Night, Saturday, July 26, we welcome you to join us in celebrating an often forgotten chapter in the history of baseball on the West Coast. Click here for tickets, or contact our offices at 425-258-3673 or 3802 Broadway, Everett, WA 98201 for more information.