Oscar Charleston Uniform Number?

[bravesfan22]

Hello,
I was curious if anyone had any info on what Oscar Charleston’s uniform number was when he played with the Crawford’s or Grays. They had numbers during that time period however all I can find is numbers from when he was a manager post 1940. The closest I’ve come is seeing a picture of the lineup from the ‘36 all star game however because he managed that game he was not listed although a picture from the same game he is in his Crawford’s uniform. I was hoping that maybe someone here owned a program from one of the east west games or a Crawford’s/Grays program or scorecard that may have his number. To tell you how far my search has went I was just at the NLBM this last week and met the president and one of the couriers and they don’t have anything on file either. As Buck O’Neil said, he’s most likely “the greatest baseball player you’ve never heard of.” And so far I can say he’s very hard to research outside of a book done a few years ago.

Thanks
Adam

[Schlesinj]

I did some Googling and I think he wore #40 as a manager. Possibly #17 as a player.

[bravesfan22]

As a manager I have found 19,30 and 40. 19 and 30 I believe he was still doing some playing. 17 was cool papa bell on the Crawfords. One thing is they also changed their numbers quite often. Josh Gibson is famous for #20 but he also wore 4 and 11 at times. I just wish I could nail down 1 number from his time as just a player. I just wanted it to order a jersey off ebbets. Then when it became so hard to figure out, I’ve been on the hunt haha.

[bravesfan22]

Not sure why this got moved to the basketball section? Oscar Charleston is a baseball player. According to some a top 5 player of all time for that matter. I assume he’s being mixed up with Oscar Robertson.