Selma Cloverleafs

The Selma Cloverleafs, based in Selma, Alabama, played on and off from 1928 through 1962 and won four league championships, more than any other club the city ever fielded. The name ran through two circuits: the Class B Southeastern League from 1928 to 1950, and the Class D Alabama-Florida League from 1957 to 1962.

The first title came quickly. Zinn Beck, a former major league infielder, managed the original Cloverleafs from 1928 through 1930 and took the Southeastern League pennant in his third season. Selma then went through the pattern common to small-city clubs of the era, folding and reforming repeatedly: out after 1930, back in 1932, out again, back from 1937 through 1941, then 1946 through 1950.

The strongest stretch came at the very end. As a Cleveland Indians farm club, Selma won the Alabama-Florida League in 1959, then again in 1961 and 1962, taking three titles in four years before the franchise closed for good. Earlier affiliations had run through the Washington Senators, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs, and the Kansas City Athletics.

Selma baseball predates the Cloverleafs by decades. The city fielded the Christians in the Southern Association's inaugural 1901 season, the Centralites from 1911 to 1913, the River Rats in 1914, and the Selmians in 1927. Home games were played at Rowell Field and later at Bloch Park, which still stands.