Our Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper The Indianapolis Star has started referring to our local minor league team as the Indianapolis Minor League Team. Don’t know how I feel about this. But until they officially change their name I will call them the Indians. The Indians were formed in 1902. In 1955 the Indians were bought from the Cleveland Indians to become a self owned corporation and recognized as such by the State of Indiana. They have had affiliations with teams such as the Reds and Expos over the years and currently the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The first Indianapolis professional team were the Blues formed in 1878 and were a part of the National League. Over the next 15 years they were affiliated with several leagues and associations. The city always had a professional or semi-professional team playing at various venues throughout the city.
In 1931 a baseball stadium was built on West 16th street which came to be called Bush Stadium. The Tribe, as it was nicknamed, played there until 1996 when it moved downtown to it’s current location. Victory Field is currently considered to be one of the finest minor league ballparks in existence in the U.S.
Indianapolis was home to two Negro League Baseball Teams. The first was the Indianapolis ABCs. Sponsored by the American Brewing Company, the team played in various venues. Playing 12 seasons over a 20 year period, the team first appeared in 1907 as an independent team. They joined the Negro League in 1920. Their last season was in 1939. The Indianapolis Clowns were a barnstorming team. They had no actual home field. In 1951 they signed a 17-year-old sensation named Henry “Hank” Aaron. In 1952 they sold his contract to the Milwaukee Braves. The rest, as they say, is history. The Clowns’ last official season was 1989.
The Boss insisted that I mention my maternal grandfather Lawrence “Lefty” Newbold. In the 1920s Lefty was a left-handed pitcher playing Minor League and Semi Professional Baseball. He was affiliated with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Browns ball clubs. While with Pittsburgh he played for the Indianapolis Indians. In the early part of the 1920s he played for a Semi Pro Team named the Martinsville Beavers. One of his teammates on the Beavers was a husky young outfielder from Southport, Indiana named John Dillinger. My grandfather said John was very strong and could knock the ball a mile if he got a hold of it, but he had a really bad temper when things didn’t go his way. My grandfather threw his arm out by 1930 and had to retire from baseball.
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