Chicago historian Shermann Dilla Thomas leads Black baseball bus tour for Sox's Amateur City Elite players
CHICAGO - Young athletes with the Chicago White Sox's Amateur City Elite program explored the city's Black baseball history with historian Shermann Dilla Thomas on Saturday.
Thomas taught the 30 athletes about "Negro Leagues pioneers, city leadership, artists giving back to the Black community and architecture dating back to Chicago’s founding," the Sox said.
The group visited these locations:
- Old Comiskey Park (Home of the annual East-West All-Star Game), 35th and Shields
- Andrew "Rube" Foster’s home, 3700 block of S. Wentworth Ave
- South Side Park (Home of the Chicago American Giants), 39th & Wentworth
- Home of the Chicago Unions, the first traveling Black baseball team, 37th & Butler
- Former home of Leland Giants Park, 69th & Halsted
- Chicago Defender Building, 3435 S. Indiana Ave.
- Mabel Banks Boarding House (popular stop for Negro Leagues ballplayers), 712 East 44th Street
- YMCA (Popular stop for Negro Leagues ballplayers), 3763 S. Wabash