Baseball Shirt worn by Homestead Gray First Baseman Buck Leonard
name: label: user
content: Leonard, Walter F.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: White cotton baseball shirt with blue three quarter length sleeves. Jersey from summer uniform worn by Walter "Buck" Leonard, first baseman of the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, 1934-1950. Found inside traveling bag 1981.0342.01.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Ranked as the 47th best baseball player of all time by The Sporting News in 1999, Leonard with Josh Gibson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson were teammates on the Homestead Grays and often referred to as the "Thunder Twins" or the "Dynamite Twins." Gibson was often called the "Black Babe Ruth" as he played outfield and was a prolific batter. This nickname would also lead to observers referring to Leonard as the "Black Lou Gehrig." From 1937 to 1945 the Grays would win 9 consecutive Negro National League championships, largely behind the offense of Gibson and Leonard. One of the two players would typically lead the league in home runs.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Leonard was offered a Major League contract in 1952 to but he was worried that at 45 years of age he was too old to play competitevly at that level. Concerns of embarassing himself and hurting the cause of intergration lead Leonard to turn down the offer.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport or game
content: Baseball
label: web subject
content: negro leagues
label: web subject
content: Sports
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Walter "Buck" Leonard
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0342.02
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0342.02
label: accession number
content: 1981.0342
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shirt, baseball
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 25 in x 20 in; 63.5 cm x 50.8 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 67 cm x 46 cm; 26 3/8 in x 18 1/8 in