Jasper Steers

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Jasper Steers, and friend, this one deserves a slow burn. Now picture East Texas in the 1940s. Segregation touched everything — schools, lunch counters, and yes, baseball diamonds too.

But a logging contractor named Elmer Simmons looked at that landscape and decided he was going to build something. Simmons went and found a defunct Louisiana baseball team — one that had already played its last game, packed up, and gone quiet. And he bought the whole operation.

Not just the name, not just a few bats and bases. He bought the bleachers. The lighting.

The dressing rooms. The concession stands. All of it.

Had it shipped out and reassembled east of Jasper, Texas. They called it Steer Stadium, and it was the home of Simmons's African American baseball team — the Jasper Steers. Now Simmons didn't just build a ballpark.

He hired players, and he sent them out into the world. The Steers were a barnstorming team, which means they traveled around the country, town to town, showing what they had. And what they had was considerable.

These players claimed — out loud, for anyone to hear — that they were capable of playing any professional team. That's not bragging if you can back it up, and the Steers had a way of backing things up. They were one of many independent black semi-professional baseball teams in the United States at the time, part of a whole tradition that flourished because the door to the professional leagues was shut.

Sometimes local white baseball teams came out to Steer Stadium to play practice games against the Steers. You can imagine what the scoreboard looked like on some of those evenings. Then came 1954 and 1955, and here's where the story takes a quiet, unexpected turn.

The Jasper High School Bulldogs — the town's baseball team for white students — had no home field of their own. So Elmer Simmons opened Steer Stadium to them. For two seasons, the Bulldogs played their home games on the Steers' ground.

Segregation was still the law of the land, but here was this stadium, built by a Black man for a Black team, hosting white high school ball. And then Simmons did something else. He looked at one of those high school pitchers and offered him a spot on the Steers roster.

That young man said yes. He spent a year traveling the United States and Canada with the now-integrated team. Just a kid from Jasper, seeing the country, throwing from the mound alongside men his town had kept on the other side of every line.

The Steers played their last game in 1961. By that time, the color barrier had been broken in professional baseball, and more doors were open to African American players than had ever been open before. The team had done what it set out to do — and then some.

Because here's the thing about that roster. The men who played for the Jasper Steers went on. They became teachers, authors, ministers, school administrators, coaches, businessmen, and leaders.

Some of them played in the major leagues. They had been role models for African American youth when that meant everything, when the Steers were sometimes the only proof a young person had that talent was real and worth developing. Elmer Simmons bought some old bleachers from a Louisiana team that folded, and out of that he built something that outlasted itself.

That's the Jasper Steers.

What the marker says

In a time of segregated activities including sports, logging contractor Elmer Simmons organized the Jasper Steers, an African American baseball team. Simmons bought all bleachers, lighting, dressing rooms and concession stands from a defunct Louisiana baseball team in the 1940s. The facilities were shipped and reassembled as Steer Stadium east of Jasper, and Simmons hired African American players for his barnstorming team. The Steers traveled around the country, showing off the talent of the players, who claimed they were capable of playing any professional team. They were one of many independent black semi-professional baseball teams in the United States at the time. Local white baseball teams sometimes played practice games against the Steers. In 1954-55, Steer Stadium also hosted home games for the Jasper High School Bulldogs, the town’s baseball team for white students, who had no home field of their own. Simmons offered a spot on the Steers roster to one of the high school pitchers, who spent a year traveling around the United States and Canada with the now-integrated team. The Steers played their last game as a team in 1961. By this time the color barrier had been broken in professional baseball and there were more opportunities for African American players to enter professional leagues. Many of those who made the roster served their communities as teachers, authors, ministers, school administrators, coaches, businessmen and leaders, and even as baseball players in the major leagues. The team enabled players to showcase their talents, and the games provided community entertainment and created role models for African American youth.