 the homestead grays (also known as washington grays or washington homestead grays) were a professional baseball team that played in the negro leagues in the united states. the team was formed in 1912 by cumberland posey, and would remain in continuous operation for 38 seasons. the team was originally based in homestead, pennsylvania, adjacent to pittsburgh. by the 1920s with increasing popularity in the pittsburgh region, the team retained the name "homestead" but crossed the monongahela river to play all home games in pittsburgh, at the pittsburgh pirates' home forbes field and the pittsburgh crawfords' home greenlee field. from 1940 until 1942, the grays played half of their home games in washington, d.c., while remaining in pittsburgh for all other home stands.snyder 2003, pp. 87â88. as attendance at their games in the nation's capital grew, by 1943 the grays were playing more than two-thirds of their home games in washington.snyder 2003, p. 155. ==franchise history== the grays grew out of an earlier industrial team. in 1900, a group of african-american players had joined together to form the germantown (pa) blue ribbons, an industrial league team. for ten years, the blue ribbons fielded a team every season and played some of the best sandlot teams in the area. in 1910, the managers of the team retired. the players reorganized the team and named themselves the murdock grays. in 1912, they became the homestead grays, the name they retained for the remainder of the franchise's history. ===american negro league=== the grays did join the american negro league in 1929, but that league lasted only one season. the team operated independently again until 1932, when posey organized the ill-fated east-west league; that league also collapsed before completing its first and only season. ===negro national league=== posey entered his g
Defunct_Pittsburgh_sports_teams Defunct_baseball_teams_in_Pennsylvania Homestead_Grays Negro_league_baseball_teams