The Tampa Smokers was a name used between 1919 and 1954 by a series of minor league baseball teams based in Tampa, Florida. The nickname was a nod to the local cigar industry, which was the most important industry in Tampa during the years in which the Smokers were active. During periods in which the name was not used by a professional team, various local semi-pro and amateur teams took up the Smokers name. Team history Florida State League / Southeastern League (1919 – 1930) The original Tampa Smokers were a charter franchise of the original Florida State League, which started play in 1919. The name reflected the importance of the cigar industry to the Tampa area. In 1928, the team was officially known as the Tampa Krewes, a reference to Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the organization which organizes the local Gasparilla Pirate Festival. In 1929, the club moved to the Southeastern League and restored the Smokers nickname, but it ceased operations when the league folded following the 1930 season. West Coast Baseball League (1932) In 1932, the Smokers briefly returned as a charter member of the West Coast Baseball League, which was composed of teams based in peninsular Florida. The club disbanded again when the league collapsed after a single season. Florida International League (1946 – 1954) The name was revived professionally in 1946, when the Tampa Smokers became a charter member of the Florida International League, a Class C circuit which was notable for fielding a team in Havana, Cuba. This incarnation of the Smokers became one of the first three racially integrated teams in Florida when they signed Afro-Cuban outfielder Claro Duany in 1952. The Smokers folded along with the Florida International League after the 1954 season, and the name has not been used professionally since. The importance of the cigar industry to Tampa's economy had waned by the 1950s, so when minor league baseball returned to the city in 1957, the new team was called the "Tampa Tarpons". Semi-pro and amateur baseball During times when there was no professional baseball team known as the Tampa Smokers (such as the early 1900s and the period from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s), the name was used by various semi-pro and amateur squads, especially local all-star teams composed of the best Tampa-area players. Alumni of Smokers squads regularly reunited for exhibition games during the 1950s and 1960s, usually