Black Baseball Teams in Tidewater: A Timeline

Below is a condensed timeline of Black baseball teams in the Tidewater region, starting with the Norfolk Red Stockings in the late 1800s to the Tides in 2025. Most information comes from Baseball in Norfolk, Virginia, written by Clay Shampoe and Thomas R. Garrett; especially chapter seven's "Black Baseball in Norfolk". Additional thanks goes to Norfolk's Slover Library.

NORFOLK RED STOCKINGS

1876 – 1900s

The Red Stockings gained prominence as a professional Black independent team in 1889 after participating in the “Colored Championship of America”, where they played against the Cuban Giants, the Pittsburgh Keystones and the New York Gorhams. They would play through the early 1900s.

NORFOLK ALL-STARS

1919 - 1921

Following the first World War, the Norfolk All-Stars became the next attempt at a Black professional team in Norfolk. Many longtime Negro League players used the All-Stars as a stepping stone in establishing their careers, including Norfolk native John Cason, Jessie “Nip” Winters, and Webster McDonald.

NORFOLK GIANTS

1921

Many Norfolk Stars would join the Norfolk Giants in 1921, including Winters, James Crump and Cecil Johnson. Unfortunately, they would dissolve after one season. Several independent and semi-pro Black teams would form over the next several decades. Cason would return to Norfolk in 1933 to manage the Berkley Black Sox. Other teams include the Lambert Point Slides, Portsmouth Eagles, Portsmouth Revels, Portsmouth Firefighters, Tittustown Trojans, Belleview Grays, Olney Giants and Suffolk Aces.

BATTLING PALMS

Late 1920s - 1955

According to the Norfolk’s premier Black paper, the Journal and Guide, the Battling Palms were described as “one of the pioneering clubs on the Black baseball front.” For roughly 13 years, they played at Norfolk’s Community Field until 1955, a non-segregated field located near Booker T. Washington High School. That park also served as Norfolk State College’s home field.

NORFOLK-NEWPORT NEWS ROYALS

1948 – 1949

In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier while playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Negro American Association (NAA) was founded in 1948 after MLB integration and was meant to rival the Negro American League. 12 teams made up the Negro American Association, four coming from the Negro Southern League (Atlanta Black Crackers, Raleigh Tigers, Asheville/Charlotte Blues, Jacksonville Eagles) and five from the Negro Carolina League (Greensboro Goshen Red Wings, Richmond Giants, Winston-Salem Pond Giants, Durham Eagles, Danville All Stars). The Norfolk-Newport News Royals were founded to compete in the NAA. They would place third in the 1948 season with a 13-8 record. The historic Homestead Grays, who won the Negro League World Series in 1948, joined the NAA in 1949 and dominated the first half of the season with a 24-2 record. The league folded after the 1949 campaign.

ROYALS vs. BATTLING PALMS

On Sunday, June 26, 1949, the Battling Palms would face off against the Royals in a doubleheader. In game one, the Palms managed to win 7-5. However, the Royals took game two, 7-4, in seven innings. Over 1,100 attended the games that day, reportedly one of the most watched games of the season up until that point.

INTEGRATION IN NORFOLK

Up until 1954, Norfolk was known for being one of the most segregated baseball cities among affiliated minor league localities. The Norfolk Tars, who existed since 1906, played in the Piedmont League from 1934 – 1955 at the Class B level. In their final 16 seasons, the Tars home games were played at Myers Field off of Church Street in Norfolk. Unlike Community Field, Myers Field was not yet racially integrated and discriminated against Black patrons. They were required to enter through a designated “Jim Crow” gate and sit in the “color grandstand”. Other local fields at Portsmouth Stadium and War Memorial Stadium in Newport News had desegregated years prior.

Norfolk’s Black fans would boycott Tars games at Myers Field in 1953 due to the segregation and the failure of the New York Yankees, who the Tars were affiliated with, to integrate the team. At the MLB level, the Yankees were the third-to-last team of the time to integrate players (1955, Elston Howard) and that trickled down through their minor league affiliates. Instead those same fans would support the Portsmouth Merrimacs in the same league, who had several Black players and hosted fans in multi-racial bleachers and grandstands. Despite the Tars winning the regular season and the league championship, attendance fell significantly.

The boycott proved to help progress, as the Yankees sold their ownership of the Tars to local investors. They immediately integrated the Tars’ roster and abolished racial segregation in their seating areas. On Saturday, April 17, 1954, the Norfolk Tars hosted the Battling Palms in an exhibition game, one of the first events at Myers Field that desegrated fans by color.

INTO THE PRESENT

With the collapse of MLB’s color barrier, Negro League teams would start disbanding from there. The Palms disbanded after 1955 due to Community Field being sold. Baseball was changing locally and nationally overall. The Tars and would disband in July of 1955 after Myers Field also closed their gates. With the Merrimacs also disbanding after 1955, the Tidewater region wouldn’t have a team until 1961 when the Portsmouth-Norfolk Tides were established and joined the Class A South Atlantic League. They would play at Frank D Lawrence Stadium in Portsmouth, and occasionally at High Rock Park (off Rugby & Church Street) in Norfolk.

After two seasons, the Tides would switch into the Class A Carolina League through 1968, largely due to an overhaul of the minor leagues. The team would switch its identity to the Tidewater Tides while remaining in Portsmouth. In 1969, the Tides would join the Triple-A International League after the New York Mets moved their Triple-A affiliation from Jacksonville. After the inaugural Triple-A season, the Tides would move back to Norfolk and play at Met Park. They were the first team in Norfolk since the Tars and Battling Palms in 1955. Fast forward to 1993, the Tidewater Tides would move into Harbor Park and rebrand as the Norfolk Tides, which remains to this day.

2025

To honor the history of Black baseball in Norfolk, the Tides will play as the Norfolk Red Stockings this season on April 11 vs. the Gwinnett Stripers. It will be the third consecutive year the Tides will wear the alternate uniform.