The Tulsa Drillers, Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, are wearing replica jerseys this weekend of the T-Town Clowns, a semi-professional Negro Leagues team that played in North Tulsa from 1946 to 1965.
The Clowns name derives from the entertaining style of play the team exhibited on the field—think Harlem Globetrotters, but for baseball. Other Negro Leagues teams used the name, most famously the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League, whose roster included the likes of Hank Aaron and Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball in an otherwise-men’s league.
“They made baseball fun, exciting and their performances were like putting on a show for the fans, though they were serious about the game,” said Michael Reed, a longtime Tulsa resident whose father played for the team, quoted on TulsaPeople.com.
The Drillers played in the Clowns jerseys last night, their third game of a six-game set against the Wichita Wind Surge, and they’ll continue to wear them for the rest of the series, tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.
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