RICHMOND, Va. -- The 1935 Negro National League (NNL) Championship Series, decided over seven games in Pittsburgh, New York and Philadelphia, earned the Pittsburgh Crawfords the NNL pennant. It’s not the only title the Craws won over their ten-year history - the team also boasts championships in 1933 and 1936 - but it’s their only crown decisively won on a baseball field, and not “awarded” to the team by NNL president Gus Greenlee…who also happened to be the Crawfords' owner!
By any measure, those 1935 Craws were one of the most impressive teams of all time, fielding four half famers. Amazingly, a fifth, the incomparable Satchel Paige, elected to leave the Crawfords to play with a semipro team in North Dakota, and skipped most of the NNL season!
ROB ULLMAN / DKPS
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