N. Y. Black Yankees

Image of a baseball with crossed bats and baseball at the top with blue text underneath

The New York Black Yankees were a professional Negro league baseball team that played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948.  The team was founded in Harlem, New York as the Harlem Black Bombers in 1931 by famous dancer and Hollywood actor, Bill Robinson and financier, James Semier. The team changed their name to Black Yankees in 1936.  Throughout most of their career as a team, the Black Yankees played their home games at Yankee Stadium except in 1938 and 1948, when home games were played at Triborough Stadium and Red Wing Stadium, respectively. Though the team had talent, which warranted individual players, such as Fats Jenkins to play in the Negro National Baseball League East-West All-Star Game each year, the team itself was less successful. In its thirteen years playing for the league, the team finished their season in last place ten of those times. In their last season, the team ended with a record of 8-32