Posted By:
ChadI'll check my Riley when I get home, though.
A couple of the teams had a B team or working agreements with minor league teams for players--The KC Monarchs for example--but mostly it was more chaotic than that. It wasn't uncommon for a big time Negro League team to lend a young player to a good semi-pro or town team for seasoning, though. Town teams and really good semi-pro teams were just as common in black town and neighborhoods as in white ones. Buck Leonard came out of a semi-pro league in Virginia. Also, there were a lot of factory teams that would play a barnstorming Negro League team and sometimes players would get discovered that way. Luke Easter is an example of this. So, really, I guess you could say there was a minor league system for black ball, but it wasn't anywhere near as organized as the white minor leagues. It's really an undiscovered country for research and collecting, I think.
--Chad