Former Negro League Player Spencer Dies

.c The Associated Press

05/22/03 18:14 EDT

GRETNA, La. (AP) - Joseph B. ``JB'' Spencer Jr., who played with the Homestead Grays and Birmingham Black Barons in three Negro Leagues championships, has died. He was 83.

Spencer, who died May 17, spent 14 years barnstorming with a number of Negro Leagues teams and played against and with some of the top players of the time, including Jackie Robinson. On the Grays, Spencer gave Robinson fielding tips, said Herbert Simpson, Spencer's roommate at the time.

Spencer, who played all positions except pitcher, played for the Grays in 1943 and 1944 when they won the championship and with the Barons in 1945 when they won it, said Don Motley, executive director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo.

Spencer also played for the Baltimore Elite Giants, Harlem Globetrotters, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Seattle Steelheads, New York Cubans and New York Black Yankees.

He also spent five years in the minor leagues, ending his career in 1955.

Henderson Murray Funeral Home in Algiers said Spencer's burial is set for Friday in McDonoghville Cemetery in Gretna.