Tennessee Rats

The Tennessee Rats was a small club of black baseball players formed in Holden, Missouri running from approximately 1910[1] to 1926.[2]

Run by W.A. Brown,[2] the Tennessee Rats was almost purely a traveling team, and toured much of Iowa and surrounding states, playing baseball and in the early years, producing a minstrel show to add to the box office take after the baseball games.

Many researchers do not consider the Tennessee Rats a "formal" Negro league team. However, like other barnstorming teams of the time, they had considerable impact on the desegregation of baseball. Today, the Tennessee Rats are rarely mentioned in Negro baseball history, and stats and rosters are hard to find.

Notable players

References
  1. "Baseball News" Valentine Democrat, Valentine, Nebraska, Thursday, April 28, 1910, Page 4, Column 4
  2. "LEADING BASEBALL CLUBS" Indianapolis Freeman, Indianapolis, IN, April 1, 1911, Page 7, Column 5
  3. "A GOOD GAME" Bayard News Gazette, Bayard, Iowa, June 1, 1911
  4. "Brown's Tennessee Rats..." Kansas City Sun, Kansas City, Missouri, Saturday, June 30, 1917, Page 8, Column 3


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