Across Indiana
Remembering the Indianapolis Clowns
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The Indianapolis Clowns were pioneers who challenged segregation in baseball.
The Indianapolis Clowns not only challenged segregation with humor and talent, but who were also baseball pioneers right here in Indiana. Back in 1996, Across Indiana producer Todd Gould took us back to the original days of "barnstorming" baseball with the legendary Indianapolis Clowns.
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI
Across Indiana
Remembering the Indianapolis Clowns
Clip | 8m 17sVideo has Closed Captions
The Indianapolis Clowns not only challenged segregation with humor and talent, but who were also baseball pioneers right here in Indiana. Back in 1996, Across Indiana producer Todd Gould took us back to the original days of "barnstorming" baseball with the legendary Indianapolis Clowns.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipYou had to have some faith in order to stay on that road and travel like that.
Knowing that you just as good as a white ballplayer, but you never will get that chance.
They were America's favorite barnstorming baseball team.
Colorful and controversial.
They combined comedy with serious, hard nosed baseball.
Their routines included a phantom game that featured an imaginary ball, and athletes so talented that audiences swore the game was real.
The team was the Indianapolis Clowns, and the game was shadowball.
Lotta time we played 3 or 4 game interesting at times, you know, because, we might play early in the morning, they would play a noon, they would play an afternoon.
They would play that night.
Mile after mile.
Night after night.
Facing segregation and a grueling schedule.
Barnstorming black baseball teams toured the country, one small town at a time.
Fans embraced them for their talent and cursed them for their race.
This was the life of the Indianapolis Clowns.
At that time, there were very few hotels would let African-Americans stay there.
So to see these guys travel like they did and, you know, hotel somewhere were not they were not as fortunate as maybe Indianapolis even that's having 2 or 3 hotels, some little towns, they go in and have to go 50 to 60 miles to the hotel then come to the ball diamond.
Okay.
It was difficult for the Clowns and other black barnstorming teams to draw enough fans to make money, and survive on the road.
To attract greater interest, many promoters, such as Clowns owner, Syd Pollock, added old vaudeville acts and comedy routines as pre-game entertainment.
So they would have their little little skit that they would do during the game.
You know, like a guy would knock a home run and they would run all the way around the bases and the guy would take an imaginary ball and throw it into home plate, and catcher would catch it, and the guy would get right in front of the catcher and say, stop real quick and put it up in the air and the catcher would look up.
The guy would slide in and the crowd would just go bananas.
Controversy surrounded the Clowns.
Grass skirts and warpaint reflected the stereotypes of the era.
In 1942, the Negro National League issued a statement banning league teams from playing the Clowns, believing their antics were a detriment to Negro League ball.
The Clowns endured socia pressures from whites and blacks as they struggled to continue playing the game they loved.
Took a lot of guts and fait in order to hang out like that.
I mean, they were gentleman's gentlemen, you know, they were athletes.
So, you know, when they when they put the uniform on, they weren't clowns.
Their antics belied their incredible athletic skills.
One of the clown's bes entertainers was Richard King, known as King Tut.
For an amazing 23 seasons, King kept fans in stitches with outrageou outfits, an oversized mit, and his sense of humor.
James “Nature Boy” Williams was the clown's rotund first baseman.
Often sporting a dress Williams antics were upstaged by his powerful hitting and deceptive speed.
The Clowns even signed the first woman in professional ball, Toni Stone, who later played in the Negro National League.
One of the most athletic players on the squad was Sam Brison, known to fans as Birmingham Sam.
He was a great comedian.
Plus he was a good baseball player.
I seen me catching a man on first and the man take off a second and he throw between his le and throw the man out at second.
I couldn't believe it.
I mean, between his leg I dont talk about it.
You know, it was amazing to me he could do stuff like that.
In 1952, an 18 year old rookie from Mobile, Alabama came to the Clowns for a tryout.
His name was Henry Aaron.
When he left home, Aaron's mom sent with him a bag of sandwiches, $2 cash, and a note for the team's manager.
“Forget everything else about his players” she wrote, “just watch his bat”.
Syd Pollac signed him to the club for $50 a week and added a new suitcase as a signing bonus.
In one of his first exhibitions, Aaron hit safely seven out of nine times and hammere his first professional home run.
Afte six weeks of sensational play, Aaron received many offers from professional scouts.
Syd Pollack eventually sold Aaron's contract to the Boston Braves for $10,000.
A lot of the time, we to go to a town, you know, like we'd get there and 6 oclock in the morning, 4 oclock in the morning.
We had to stay on the bus, you know, till the next morning.
We just got through playing late that night.
So sometimes you might travel 3 or 400 miles, you know, to the next game, stuff like that, you know.
But, it was, it was, it was something I tell ya.
The clown spent most of the time on the road, but the team still needed a place to call home.
For a time in 1943, the team played its home games at Crosley Field, home of the Cincinnati Reds.
But the Reds management did not allow a black team to shower or dress in the locker rooms.
Cincinnati's policie on segregation outraged Owen J. Bush, owner of the Indianapolis Indians.
Bush, who owned the Victory Field, insisted the Clowns come to Indianapolis and establish their home base in an atmosphere free of racial prejudice.
Only Bush took a lot of heat for letting the black team come there for that stadium.
Okay, but he did it.
And he and, you know, he was kind of a pioneer.
Throughout the years, the Indianapolis Clowns were black baseball's biggest draw.
Surrounded by turmoil, they brought excitemen and entertainment to the game.
Historians debate their place in baseball history, but without a doubt, the Clowns thrived on a tour filled with laughter, talent and a deep seeded passion for the game.
Indianapolis Clowns would would be, would be one team you could think about if I if I had the Hall of Fame as one team, I would I would consider putting in the Hall of Fame because the name did not... The name did not match the quality of athletes that they had on their team.
Baseball was to me, it was was my life at one time.
I just loved, I just loved the game.
You know?
I loved the game.
For more Across Indiana stories, go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana
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