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Louis Armstrong had a secret [1]

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Date: 2024-06-05  

Louis Armstrong, New Orleans’ famous jazz vocalist and trumpet player, had a secret. Nine secrets to be exact.

An avid baseball fan, Armstrong sponsored his own team – the Secret 9. The semi-pro Negro League baseball team was originally called the Raggedy 9 because the shabby uniforms and cracked cleats looked, well…raggedy.

In the summer of 1931, Armstrong upgraded the team’s appearance with high-quality cotton uniforms, stitched his name across the front and renamed it.

“The local papers poked fun at the team for being the best dressed — thanks to Armstrong’s generosity — but not the most skilled,” the Historic New Orleans Collection states.

In August 1931, the Louisiana Weekly said the Secret 9 was “outfitted with just about everything a good ball club needs … from their baseball caps down to the mascot’s water bucket.”

Because they looked so good, the players didn’t want to get dirty, which affected their performance.

“Yeah, Louis’ boys were all spruced up in their ‘Sunday Go To Meetings,’ but when it came to bucking up against a guy …they couldn’t meet the issue,” the Louisiana Weekly article continued. “Wonder if they were too well dressed?”

For three months, Armstrong traveled with the team as it competed against local college, prison and Black teams. The Historic New Orleans Collection describes a doubleheader at St. Raymond Park. The Secret 9 played the Melpomene White Sox in the opener and the Metairie Pelicans that night.

“In front of 1,500 fans, Armstrong took the pitcher’s mound to ceremonially (and with much camp) strike out the first batter,” the Historic New Orleans Collection article states. “The crowd went wild!”

At the end of the summer, Armstrong returned to playing music, and his baseball team disbanded with no known roster. As a result, the Secret 9 remains a mystery.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/05/bitd-louis-armstrong-secret-9-baseball-jazz/

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