The Seattle Steelheads were a Negro league baseball team from Seattle, Washington. Owned by Abe Saperstein, they were also known as the Harlem Globetrotters and Cincinnati Crescents, though occasionally the teams split and played each other.
Founding
Abe Saperstein founded the Harlem Globetrotters baseball team in 1944 to complement his world-famous basketball team of the same name.[1]
Catcher and manager Paul Hardy joined the Steelheads while still under contract with the Chicago American Giants, causing the Negro American League to ban its teams from playing games in Seattle.[3]
The Seattle Mariners honored the Steelheads when they wore 1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9, 1995, at home against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals wore Kansas City Monarchs uniforms.[5] The Mariners beat the Royals 6–4 in front of 39,157 fans at the Kingdome.[6] The game was attended by former Steelhead player Sherwood Brewer.[7] The Mariners wore a different variety of the Steelheads uniform on May 16, 2015, on "Turn Back the Clock Night" against the Boston Red Sox at Safeco Field,[8] and lost to the Red Sox 4–2. On June 19th, 2021 and June 19th, 2022 the Mariners again wore the 1946 uniforms as part of Juneteenth. They also wore them on June 17th, 2023 due to not having a game on Juneteenth. [9]