Pittsburgh’s Crawfords and Grays featured in Negro League bobblehead series
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It took 100 years but the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays are finally getting their own bobbleheads.
The Crawfords and Grays are among 15 Negro League teams included in a Kickstarter campaign to produce a series of vintage Negro League bobbleheads. The series was launched to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League and is being produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.
The campaign coincides with Black History Month and the start of the baseball season.
“Our goal is to produce bobbleheads that celebrate and commemorate the Negro Leagues while educating current and future generations about the league and its players, and we think bobbleheads are the perfect way to do that,” said Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.
“Museum visitors love seeing the vintage bobbleheads and we thought it was time for the Negro Leagues teams to be honored with a series of its own.”
Starting in 1960, generic bobbleheads featuring every MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA team were produced and quickly became popular collectibles. But only now are the vintage bobbleheads of the Negro Leagues being produced.
A portion of the proceeds from each Negro Leagues bobblehead will go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum located in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Crawfords began as an amateur team based in the Crawford neighborhood of Pittsburgh’s Hill District. They turned professional in 1931 when Gus Greenlee assumed ownership of the club. Greenlee signed star players like Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige.
The Homestead Grays won an unmatched nine consecutive Negro National League titles behind Gibson, Buck Leonard and the pitching of Ray Brown.