Anything But "Sloppy" Lindsay Has Statesville Roots

Leonard Lewis Lindsay, nicknamed “Sloppy” for his dapper dress and smooth performance on the field, played four seasons in the Negro baseball leagues between 1935 and 1946. Born in Greensboro in 1909, he married a Statesville native and lived most of his adult life in Statesville. He played for the Statesville flour mill team in the early 1930s.

Lindsay made his major league debut in 1935 for the Newark Dodgers. In 1943, he split the season between the Cincinnati Clowns and the Birmingham Black Barons. He started all seven games of the 1943 Negro World Series for Birmingham, playing against legends Josh Gibson, Cool Pappa Bell, and Buck Leonard of the Homestead Grays. The first Baseman finished his career in 1946 with the San Francisco Sea Lions and Indianapolis Clowns.

Leonard “Sloppy” Lindsay served as a corporal in the U.S. Army during WWII. He dies in 1988 at age 79 and is buried in the Belmont cemetery.