CHARLOTTE — It’s been 58 years since community members in the Charlotte region first came together to form semi-pro baseball teams forming the Triple County Baseball League.
For years, the story of the Negro League organization was rarely told, until two men recently made it their mission to bring it back to the forefront.
Among them was Brandon Lunsford, an historian and the Johnson C. Smith Director of Library Services. Joining him was the late Bob Johnson, The Charlotte Post General Manager and Co-Publisher, who died in June.
Triple County Baseball League
According to The Charlotte Post, Charlotte’s oldest Black media outlet, the league started with four teams in 1966. It grew to include more than a dozen teams over two decades, including the Hoskins Giants, the Rock Hill O’s, and the Queen City Rangers.
Channel 9′s DaShawn Brown recently sat down with four former players.
“It was somewhere everybody went on Saturday and Sunday evening after church,” said Johnny Foster who played catcher with the Hoskins Giants before later forming his own team.
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“They had the best fish sandwiches though,” he said with a smile.
Foster was joined by former players: Ken Koontz, Alfred Thompson and Bobby Reynolds.
“The semi-pro ball here as we were playing, it was just an extension of those times when (the Negro League)) first started,” Thompson said. “Like the Birmingham Black Barons, the Atlanta Black Crackers — all those Negro League teams.”
“We were not just a little ragtag league of guys that liked to play baseball,” Koontz added. “We had some really hard baseball players. Die-hard baseball players.”
Bobby Reynolds, who played with the Charlotte Blue Devils, shared the story of a cousin who was cut from his high school team, but drafted into the Major League.
He believes racism was the reason why.
“To show how things were, he went to Harding High School, but he went to West Mecklenburg [previously] and they cut him,” Reynolds said.
“He went to American Legion Baseball. From American Legion Baseball, they drafted him. So it makes you wonder back then, West Mecklenburg, why these guys all got cut and then got drafted in the major leagues?”
‘A lot [of] people just don’t know about Black baseball in this area’
In it’s heyday, acknowledgement for the Triple-County baseball league often came through The Charlotte Post. Game stories were written under the leadership of late owner Bill Johnson and his son, Bob.
Historian Brandon Lunsford said he learned of its existence when The Charlotte Post shared pictures from their archive. He’d later engage in numerous conversations with Bob Johnson, before recently partnering with him to document its history.
“It was well-known among Black Charlotteans, Black folks who lived in the area,” said Herb White, The Charlotte Post editor-in-chief.
Initially, Johnson and Lunsford held their own meetings. Then, they invited former players to join them.
There, they filmed hours of footage of former players sharing their stories, memories, and reflections.
“Every weekend, it seemed like the group got bigger,” Lunsford said.
The Post’s impact
Their research continued for several months. This past spring, Channel 9′s DaShawn Brown joined them.
In May, she interviewed Lunsford and Johnson for an upcoming story on the league. In June, Bob Johnson, The Charlotte Post general manager and co-publisher, died. He was 84.
“I think Mr. Johnson was a part of us and everything we’d done. He was like our heart and soul,” said Bobby Reynolds.
“He was more than just a newspaper guy.”
“Let’s put it like this. When I started at The Post in 1987, Triple County business — in terms of the teams getting together and hashing out rules, regulations or whatever for a season — they would host those meetings at The Post,” Herb White said.
“(Bob) was the one who would go to the games and write the stories and interview the guys,” he added.
“We’ve got to do it for Bob now,” Lunsford said. “We were going to do it anyway for sure, but now, hopefully I can answer the question he would always ask me.”
“What are you going to do with this stuff? What are you going to do with all these interviews and pictures,” he added.
“Hopefully we are going to assemble something that will tell a story.”
“You missed some of the greatest baseball you could’ve ever experienced,” Ken Koontz said.
“And our Rangers, oh, we were the team!”
(WATCH BELOW: Charlotte FC commemorates Black excellence)
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