An 1884 Triple-Header At The Compton Avenue Grounds

There will be three games at the Compton Avenue Park to-day.  The Wainwrights and Mound Social Clubs' nines will occupy the diamond at 9:30 a.m.; at 1:30 p.m. the Spikers and Excelsiors will cross bats, and at 4 o'clock the Athletics and Compton Browns (colored nines) will meet.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 7, 1884

Two More Black Clubs

Manager Kelly's benefit at Compton Avenue Park was a success. Three games were played. The Comptons defeated the St. Louis Reds 12 to 6 in the morning. At 3:30 p.m. the Eclipse Reserves and Athletics took to the diamond, the Athletics winning by a score of 13 to 4. At 4 p.m. the Eclipse and Compton Browns, colored nines, opposed each other, the result being a score of 17 to 12 in favor of the Eclipse team.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 1, 1884

Lots of information here. I had seen a reference before to the Athletics as a black club but wasn't sure that they were from St. Louis. Now I'm reasonably certain. The Compton Browns is a club that I've never heard of before. So we can add both of these to the list of 19th century black baseball clubs in St. Louis.

Again, we're seeing the black clubs playing at the Compton Avenue Grounds, with the possibility that one, the Compton Browns, had a more formal relationship with the park and/or Thomas McNeary. I think it's safe to say that the Compton Avenue Grounds were the center of black baseball in St. Louis during this era. While there are sources that have a few games being played at the Grand Avenue Grounds, the vast majority of games played by the black clubs of St. Louis, that I'm aware of, were played at the Compton Avenue Grounds.