In 2022, the Louisville retired the number 2 worn by Black Caps player Felton Snow.(Tad Myre / Provided )Thursday night, the Louisville Bats will swap their usual uniforms for all-black ensembles in their series against the Gwinnett Stripers of Atlanta at Slugger Field. It’s an homage to the Negr o league team the Louisville Black Caps, which played in in the city in the 1930s."Our players every year since we've created this image, they love wearing those uniforms," Bats president Greg Galiette. "We ended up taking these jerseys on the road with us and wearing them on the road because they liked them so much."(Breya Jones / Provided)According to the few available stats, the team played more than 100 games in its career in the Negro Southern League, which had eight teams.“I would’ve loved to watch them play,” said Bats president Greg Galiette at a recent practice. He worked with the team to coordinate the commemorative jerseys.The move is part of MiLB’s The Nine, named after Jackie Robinson’s number with the Kansas City Monarchs before Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in April 1947.Galliette says The Nine tribute games not only celebrate Robinson but also Negro League teams — such as the Black Caps — and their impact on the sport.“They were a colorful group, very spirited,” Galiette said. “Sounds like they played a fairly aggressive brand of baseball. Loved running the bases. Sounds like they were great athletes.”Records on the Negro leagues are scarce, and they weren’t covered as much as their white counterparts, according the Negro League baseball museum in Kansas City, Missouri. So lesser-known teams’ histories were forgotten over time.Galiette and the Louisville’s Society for American Baseball Research chapter are making efforts to better memorialize the Black Caps’ players.Toward the back of Eastern Cemetery, sits the tall, black marble headstone of Felton Snow, a Black Caps infielder. Felton Snow died in 1974 and was buried in an unmarked grave.(Tad Myre / Provided)On a recent morning, Tad Myer with SABR wiped the water off the memorial marker.“Snow was one of those guys who was just a good teammate and glued a team together, and from that came his calling to be a manager,” Myer said.After playing with the Black Caps, Snow became a coach. In 1945, he managed an All-Star team of some of baseball’s earliest legends, including Jackie Robinson.In the 1950s, Snow hung up his baseball career and became a barber. That’s when Galiette, the Louisville Bats president, knew him simply as “Snow.”“This was just a guy that when my dad had cancer, basically came over and just took care of me, and was my dad's barber,” Galiette said. All Star teams were often called 'barnstorming teams"(Tad Myre / Provided)He had no idea the man who played catch with him in the backyard also sported an impressive baseball career. In 2022, he, SABR, the Louisville Bats and other community leaders funded a gravestone for Snow, nearly 50 years after his death. The Bats also retired Snow’s number, 2.“I'm just hoping their stories don't die with them. I just wish we could have told this story a lot sooner. So while they were alive, they could have enjoyed, you know, being celebrated more,” Galiette said. “It's definitely an injustice.”Minor league teams across the country continue to honor the stories of the Negro leagues through The Nine initiative and remember the players by wearing their jerseys. But Galiette said there’s more to learn about the Black players who carved their own legacy into America’s favorite pastime. ...read more read less