| Kansas City Giants | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| League | Western Independent Clubs (1909–1911) |
| Location | Kansas City, Kansas |
| Ballpark | Riverside Park (1909–1911) |
| Year established | 1909 |
| Year disbanded | 1911 |
| Nickname(s) | Kansas City Giants (1909–1911) |
The Kansas City Giants were a professional Negro leagues baseball team, based in Kansas City, Kansas. From 1909 to 1911, the Kansas City Giants played as a member of the Western Independent Clubs. The Kansas City Giants played home games at Riverside Park. The Giants were a rival of the Kansas City, Missouri based Kansas City Royal Giants.
Negro leagues baseball began in Kansas City, Kansas in 1909. Early negro leagues teams weren't formed together into traditional leagues, where teams only play other teams within their league. It was common for teams to "barnstorm" on long road trips against a variety of teams or host games against semi–pro or other local teams, so, statistics and records for teams can vary. The 1909 Kansas City Giants were noted to have played as members of the Western Independent Clubs. Tobe Smith and Felix Payne were co–owners of the team, which evolved from a semi–pro, barnstorming team of the same name, which began play in 1907. [1] [2]
When the Giants turned fully professional, Kansas City Giants owner Tobe Smith signed numerous local players who had played for the Jenkins and Sons and a Kansas City Monarchs semi-pro teams. [2]
In their first season of "league" play, the 1909 Kansas City Giants were noted to have a record of 12–12 within the Western Independent Clubs, placing 5th among those teams. "Topeka Jack" Johnson was the manager of the Giants. Counting all games in 1909, it was reported the Giants compiled an overall record of 128–19. [3] [4] [1]
Beginning on August 25, 1909, Rube Foster and his Leland Giants team played a three–game series at Riverside Park. The Kansas City Journal labeled the series as the "Colored Championship of the United States" with the winning team receiving a $1,000 purse. Leland won the first game 5–0, with Kansas City winning the second game 3–1, as Bill Lindsay struck out 16. In front of 5,000 fans on August 27, 1909, Kansas City won the third game 3–2. [2]
Player/manager "Topeka Jack" Johnson was a former professional boxer, known to have been a boxing sparring partner of heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. In the winter of 1909, Johnson helped form the Kansas City Royal Giants negro leagues team in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royal Giants began play in the 1910 season, immediately becoming a local rival of the Kansas City Giants. [1]
The Kansas City Giants continued play in 1910. Their record among Western Independent Clubs was reported to have been 6–7 and placed the team 5th. The new manager for the Giants was Jim Norman. The Kansas City Giants were reported to have compiled a 9–5 record against their new rival, the Kansas City Royal Giants. In November 1910, the Giants played two Sunday games against the "Johnny Kling All–Stars." Kling was a Kansas City native. Zach Wheat and Casey Stengel played for the Johnny Kling team. The first game ended in a 1–1 tie with Bob Harmon striking out 25 Giants in the game. The teams played again the next week, with the All–Stars winning 6–1 as Harmon struck out 14. [5] [6] [1] [2]
In 1910, the Kansas City Giants released three players who attempted to play for the rival Kansas City Royal Giants in a morning game and then travel across the city to play for their own club. The players were said to have played the morning Royal Giants game and then arrived late for the second game and were released by the Giants. [7]
In their final season of play, Topeka Jack Johnson, returned to manage the 1911 Kansas City Giants. The Giants placed 2nd with an 18–7 record among Western Independent Clubs. It was reported the Giants did not lose a game until April 26, 1911 and defeated a team from Keio University from Japan in late May. With a winning streak of over 30 games, the Giants compiled a 46–9 record playing against other African American baseball teams in 1911. [8] [9] [10] [1]
Beginning on August 27, 1911, the Kansas City Giants and St. Paul Colored Gophers played a four–game series. Kansas City won the first three games at Riverside Park by scores of 8–2, 13–10 and 12–0. The fourth game was played at Stevens Park in Kansas City, Missouri, with the Giants winning 11–0 to sweep the series. The Giants followed with winning four of five games against the Leland Giants at Riverside Park. [2]
In early October 1911, the Giants played a three–game series against the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, with each team winning a game and the final game ending in a tie because of darkness. [1]
After the 1911 season, Kansas City Giants player Dee Williams was shot to death in Kansas City. In subsequent seasons the Kansas City Giants continued play, but as a semi–pro barnstorming level team with a depleted roster. [2] [1]
The Kansas City Giants were paralleled in Kansas City negro leagues baseball by the Kansas City Royal Giants, who played from 1910 to 1912 in the Western Independent Clubs. [11]
In 2016, it was reported that the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) dedicated a new grave marker for "Topeka Jack" Johnson at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Topeka, Kansas. [12] [13]
The Kansas City Giants hosted home games at Riverside Park. The ballpark was located in Kansas City, Kansas and the team was noted to have averaged 1,700 fans for Sunday home games, with other crowds of up to 5,000. The ballpark was said to have had an enclosed grandstand. Riverside park was located at 2nd Ave and Franklin Avenue, near the Missouri River, Kansas City, Kansas. [14] [15] [1] [2] [16]
| Year(s) | # Yrs. | Team | Level | League | Ballpark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1909–1911 | 3 | Kansas City Giants | Negro minor leagues | Western Independent Clubs | Riverside Park |
| Year | Record | Finish | Manager | Playoffs/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1909 | 12–12 | 5th | "Topeka Jack" Johnson | No playoffs held |
| 1910 | 18–7 | 2nd | Jim Norman | No playoffs held |
| 1911 | 6–7 | 4th | "Topeka Jack" Johnson | No playoffs held |
Joseph Williams, nicknamed "Cyclone Joe" and "Smokey Joe", was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He is considered one of the greatest pitchers of all-time and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J. L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team. In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any MLB team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record. The team produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
John Gransfield Kling was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1900 to 1913, most prominently as a member of the Chicago Cubs teams that won four National League pennants and two World Series championships between 1907 and 1910. He also played for the Boston Braves / Rustlers and the Cincinnati Reds.
The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster, they were charter members of Foster's Negro National League. The American Giants won five pennants in that league, along with another pennant in the 1932 Negro Southern League and a second-half championship in Gus Greenlee's Negro National League in 1934.
The Brooklyn Royal Giants were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1905 by John Wilson Connor (1875–1926), owner of the Brooklyn Royal Cafe, the team initially played against white semi-pro teams. They were one of the prominent independent teams prior to World War I before organized league play began.
The St. Paul Colored Gophers was a small club of black baseball players formed in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1907. They were not a formal Negro league team, as the commonly referred-to "Negro leagues" were not created until 1920. However, like other barnstorming teams of the time, they put considerable pressure on the desegregation of baseball. Historians rarely mention the Colored Gophers in Negro baseball history, and statistics are hard to find.
José Colmenar del Valle Méndez was a Cuban right-handed pitcher and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, he died at age 43 in Havana. Known in Cuba as El Diamante Negro, he became a legend in his homeland. He was one of the first group of players elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2006.
King Solomon "Sol" White was an American professional baseball infielder, manager and executive, and one of the pioneers of the Negro leagues. An active sportswriter for many years, he wrote the first definitive history of black baseball in 1907. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Hurley Allen McNair was a baseball player in the Negro leagues and the pre-Negro leagues.
Oscar "Heavy" Johnson (1895–1960) was a baseball player in the Negro leagues. He played catcher and outfielder. Johnson was one of the Negro league's foremost power hitters in the 1920s, reportedly weighing 250 pounds, and known for hitting home runs. Longtime MLB umpire Jocko Conlan once said that Johnson "could hit a ball out of any park."
Cornelius Randall Robinson was a professional major league baseball player in the segregated Negro leagues. Also known by the nicknames Neil (Neal) and Shadow, he primarily played centerfield in the 1930s and 1940s, but as a semipro player he also alternated between short stop, third base, and left field. For the majority of his twenty-three year career, Robinson played for the Memphis Red Sox. Prior to being acquired by Memphis, he played one season for the Homestead Grays and several seasons with the Cincinnati Tigers. Throughout his career, he was known as a power hitter and ranks as the greatest hitter in the history of Memphis Red Sox franchise. Robinson won back-to-back Negro American League home run titles in 1939 and 1940 and appeared in nine Negro League East-West All Star Games. In the history of the East-West All Star Game, Robinson ranks as one of the Midsummer Classic's greatest hitters rivalling Mule Suttles, Josh Gibson, and Ted Strong. He also played several exhibition games against white Major League Baseball players throughout his career. Although his number of plate appearances are limited, Robinson's ability to put the baseball in play against his white counterparts exceeded his career statistics against that of Negro league opponents. In 2006, he was selected as one of ninety-six candidates to be considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame by The Committee on African American Baseball. Despite not being selected, elite hitting and longevity made Robinson one of the great Negro league players with an extended career in the Deep South.
The Topeka Owls was the primary name of the minor league baseball franchise based in Topeka, Kansas, USA.
The West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The WCNBA was organized as a minor league in 1946 by Abe Saperstein and Jesse Owens as a means to provide the west coast with a platform for African-American players. The league lasted about three months.
John Thomas "Topeka Jack" Johnson was a Negro leagues second baseman and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League. He was also a professional boxer and trainer, and his nickname may have resulted from the need to distinguish him from the heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.
The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the late 1920s the Martin brothers, all three Memphis doctors and businessmen, purchased the Red Sox. J. B. Martin, W. S. Martin, and B. B. Martin, would retain control of the club till its dissolution in 1959. The Red Sox played as members, at various times, of the Negro Southern League, Negro National League, and Negro American League. The team was never a titan of the Negro leagues like wealthier teams in northern cities of the United States, but sound management lead to a continuous thirty-nine years of operation, a span that was exceeded by very few other teams. Following integration the team had five players that would eventually make the rosters of Major League Baseball teams and two players that were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Dee Williams was an American Negro league outfielder between 1909 and 1911.
The Kansas City Royal Giants were a professional Negro leagues baseball team, based in Kansas City, Missouri. From 1910 to 1912, the Kansas City Royal Giants played as a member of the Western Independent Clubs, along with their local rival, the Kansas City Giants. The Kansas City Royal Giants played home games at Shelley Park.
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