How a tiny Miami ballpark became a haven for Black baseball: 'The world would come here'
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MIAMI – In the metropolis of Miami, one of the world’s fastest growing cities, 2 1/2 acres of land along Northwest First Avenue and 17th Street have stayed relatively the same.
Dorsey Park resembles the typical youth ballfield, with its simple dugouts, somewhat overgrown grass and a patch of reddish-brown clay.
Except the many luminaries who have passed through this same field make it anything but typical.
For decades, Dorsey Park welcomed some of the world’s greatest athletes, especially Negro Leagues ballplayers, to the historic Overtown neighborhood during the city’s Jim Crow Era.
“I always say, you pass it one thousand times, cutting through Wynwood or cutting to Downtown,” local historian Abel Sanchez said. “They called it, ‘The Dust Bowl.’ It tells you everything.”
One of South Florida’s oldest parks came to be thanks to Dana Albert Dorsey, Miami’s first Black millionaire, who sold the land to the city in 1917 – with the caveat that it must be made into the first official park in “Colored Town.”
Following World War I, Dorsey Park became a central venue for Black sports, ranging from the annual Turkey Day Classic football game between local high schools to boxing matches.
And, of course, baseball.
The segregated neighborhood of Overtown, considered the “Harlem of the South,” represented a cradle of culture where ballplayers of all backgrounds entertained crowds of all backgrounds years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the Major Leagues.
In a Miami News piece, Jack Kofoed wrote of Dorsey Park that the “place is worth a visit” and described those in attendance being as diverse as “men in dungarees, and men in well-tailored clothes, accompanied by women in modish frocks. But, whatever social barriers might exist in their world were out by the thunder of the battle.”
To promote matinee games, a parade traveled down Second Avenue with everyone wearing their Sunday best. Newspaper clippings advertised a special section for white fans. There was even a night game played under floodlights in January 1939, making it a primetime event.
At the time, it was against the law for Blacks and whites to assemble in the same place at the same time without notifying authorities, so Dorsey Park became a unique community gathering.
“We were integrating and a various diverse community before the nation did it, before Major League Baseball integrated,” visual artist and Miami-Dade County Public School teacher Alexandry Douyon said. “While all these things were going on at the same time, baseball or sports brought communities together, because, as I read, they said white families would also come to Dorsey Park to watch the Black and Hispanics play.”
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A mural inside Dorsey Park commemorates some of the Negro Leagues clubs that came for Spring Training before traveling the country for summer tours. The exterior mural celebrates some of the pioneers to play here, like Hall of Famers Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, Cuban Minnie Miñoso and James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey.
It was here that Gibson, known as the “Black Babe Ruth,” pummeled a home run that legend has it soared to the train tracks that still run parallel to the park. In a 1994 story in The Miami Herald, James Everett, a pitcher who was in the dugout when Gibson connected, remembered it as “the longest ball ever. The game stopped. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. It took 20 minutes to get the game started again.”
It was here that Hall of Famer Buck O’Neil played for the semi-professional Miami Giants.
Of all the teams to step foot on this field, however, none made more of a cultural impact than the Miami Ethiopian Clowns, who later changed their name to the Indianapolis Clowns.
The Harlem Globetrotters of baseball gained notoriety with their signature brand of barnstorming, in particular shadow ball – pretending to play with no actual baseball – and vaudeville sketches. They donned war paint and hula skirts.
In order to keep up with demand, 4,000 seats were added to Dorsey Park. The Miami Herald wrote that second only to Paige, the Clowns were the “No. 1 drawing card in negro baseball.”
“They loved the game,” American historian Donald Spivey said in WLRN’s local documentary ‘Never Drop the Ball.’ “There's no question about that. That's one of the great things that the Negro Leaguers understood, that others of other sports would have to learn these lessons, that it's about entertainment.”
In the summer of 1939, local teams squared off for the chance to face the Clowns in the first annual city championship negro sandlot baseball tournament. The Clowns also faced white Minor League teams on occasion. Depending on the gate, the Clowns would make $15-$20 a game. King Tut – considered one of the best first basemen in the country – signed with the Clowns. Peanuts Davis, sometimes known as Peanuts Nyasses, who reportedly beat the indomitable Paige three times in pitchers’ duels, took the mound for them.
The legendary Homestead Grays also came to town in April 1940. A year later, the Clowns claimed the independent Negro League championship and hosted the Kansas City Monarchs, champions of the Negro American League, for two games at Dorsey Park. Paige took the mound that Sunday.
The Miami ballpark also became an important place for these teams to take on international opponents, primarily from nearby Cuba, like the Havana Cuban Stars and the Havana La Palomas.
“The reality of it is the Clowns were drawing huge crowds, and even to this day, people will walk into this museum and they will vividly recall seeing the Indianapolis Clowns play and seeing guys like Goose Tatum, Richard King Tut and some of the others who put on a show,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick said in WLRN’s documentary.
And it wasn’t just baseball legends rolling into town. Over the decades, some of the world’s top athletes showcased their talents at Dorsey Park in front of eager crowds.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, fresh off his success in Berlin, displayed his otherworldly speed following a game between the Clowns and the Toledo Crawfords, with whom he was traveling in March 1940. According to a report in the Miami Herald, he was trying to break the home-to-home record of 13.8 seconds that at the time was held by Hans Lobert.
As one of the premier places for Black boxing, Dorsey Park welcomed Sugar Ray Robinson, the welterweight champion, in 1947. Tickets ranged from $2 general admission to $8 top ringside. Four years later, thousands expected to watch former heavyweight champion Joe Louis train outdoors in preparation for a bout with Cuban Omelio Agramonte at Miami Stadium.
“The history of that place is ridiculous,” Sanchez said.
Today, Dorsey Park features after-school programs and basketball courts. Nestled between concrete suppliers, the crack of the bat competes with construction sounds from the downtown high rises.
“The history is very rich,” said Douyon, who was one of the artists to paint the Dorsey Park murals, a project that took about three years to complete. “It has a little bit of everything: segregation and integration, when the Negro Leagues finally got into Major League Baseball, and it also talks about the history of Miami. In the past, as well as still current, the world travels here. Since baseball is international, many players would come down here to play, and some of the best Hispanic and Black players actually played on this field. It was very popular.
“Families would gather. Whites, Blacks, Hispanics would all come here to the park. The world would come here, meaning various diverse groups would come to play baseball.”