TeamPittsburgh Crawfords
LocationPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Closed1938
Capacity7,500
About Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field was the first Black-owned baseball stadium ever built in America — funded by numbers-game kingpin and Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee. The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords squad it housed is widely considered the greatest single Negro League roster ever assembled: Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, and Judy Johnson — five Hall of Famers on the same team at the same time. The stadium stood for only six years before Greenlee tore it down following financial collapse, and the site is now occupied by the Bedford Dwellings housing project with a historical marker.
Fun facts
- Five future Hall of Famers played for the same team here in 1935 — Gibson, Paige, Bell, Charleston, and Johnson.
- The first Black-owned baseball stadium ever built in America (April 1932).
- Owner Gus Greenlee made his fortune in Pittsburgh's numbers racket before turning to baseball.
- Demolished in 1938 after only six years; the Bedford Dwellings public housing complex now occupies the site.
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