With Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaching on Jan. 15 (it falls on his actual birthday this year), I expect we’ll be seeing some uni-related shout-outs to the holiday, and the G League’s Birmingham Squadron have come up with a good one: For their two games on MLK Day weekend — on Jan. 13 and 15, both against Raptors 905 — they’re going to wear uniforms inspired by the old Birmingham Black Barons, a Negro Leagues baseball team.
The jersey is shown above, and features the distinctive “BBB” treatment that used to appear on the Black Barons’ cap:
The basketball/baseball crossover may seem surprising, but it actually makes sense. As the press release explains:
Unbeknownst to most, the Birmingham Black Barons were not just about baseball. Team owner Abe Saperstein also owned the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, and many Black Barons also donned Globetrotters uniforms in the offseason to supplement their income.
Game-worn jerseys from the two upcoming games will be auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
This is shaping up as a big year for Birmingham’s Negro Leagues legacy, as two MLB teams — the Giants and Cardinals — will play a regular season game at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field on June 20. Rickwood was the longtime home of the Black Barons and is the nation’s oldest professional ballpark. The uniforms for that game will presumably be Negro Leagues throwbacks but have not yet been revealed.
(My thanks to David Clemons for bringing the Squadron’s Barons-inspired uniforms to my attention.)
I find it odd that the jersey sale proceeds will go to Kansas City and not the Negro Southern League Museum that is also located in Birmingham, not far from the Barons’ stadium.
Abe owning the BBB is a new fact for me. Too bad they do not show the shorts, but I like this one.
Those BBB jerseys look like AAU jerseys, which is not a compliment, even for the G League. I can already hear the opposing team’s cheerleaders, “U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi. Your unis ugly, yeah it’s ugly.”
Proofreading: “For their two games they’re on MLK Day weekend”
I’m guessing either some words are missing or ‘they’re’ isn’t supposed to be there.
Thanks, Michael. Fixed.