The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro National Leagues".
Oscar McKinley Charleston was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. Over his 43-year baseball career,Charleston played or managed with more than a dozen teams,including the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords,Negro league baseball's leading teams in the 1930s. He also played nine winter seasons in Cuba and in numerous exhibition games against white major leaguers. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
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 Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937,and disbanded after its 1962 season.
The first Negro National League (NNL) was one of the several Negro leagues that were established during the period in the United States when organized baseball was segregated. The league was formed in 1920 with former player Rube Foster as its president.
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. Wilkinson was the first white 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 Major League Baseball team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration,and triumphed in the first Negro World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record and produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
James Allen "Candy Jim" Taylor was an American third baseman and manager in Negro league baseball. In a career that spanned forty years,he played as an infielder in the early years of the 20th century for over a dozen black baseball teams;by the mid-1920s,he would play less regularly,with his final game came at 58. In 1920,the same year of the start of the golden era of Negro league baseball,he would take on the responsibilities of manager,where he would manage 1,967 games for twelve teams. Described as one of the great strategists of his era,Taylor is the all-time winningest manager in the Negro league era,having 955 wins along with two Negro World Series titles and one additional pennant in 27 seasons as manager. He has the most seasons managed by an African American manager along with having the seventh most for a manager in the history of baseball.
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 St. Louis Stars,originally the St. Louis Giants,were a Negro league baseball team that competed independently from as early as 1906 to 1919,and then joined the Negro National League (NNL) for the duration of their existence. After the 1921 season,the Giants were sold by African-American promoter Charlie Mills to Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard,who built a new park and renamed the club the Stars. As the Stars,they eventually built one of the great dynasties in Negro league history,winning three pennants in four years from 1928 to 1931.
The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro league baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League (NNL). They claimed the western championship of black baseball in 1915 and 1916,and finished second in the 1922 NNL. Among their best players were Baseball Hall of Fame members Oscar Charleston,Biz Mackey,and Ben Taylor.
Frank C. Leland was an American baseball player,field manager and club owner in the Negro leagues.
The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s,the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband,continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns,joined the Negro American League as the Cincinnati Clowns and,after a couple of years,relocated to Indianapolis. Hank Aaron was a Clown for a short period,and the Clowns were also one of the first professional baseball teams to hire a female player.
William Miller "Big Bill" Gatewood was an American Negro league baseball pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League,and in its first few seasons. He pitched for the Leland Giants,Chicago Giants,St. Paul Colored Gophers,Chicago American Giants,New York Lincoln Giants,Cuban X-Giants,Philadelphia Giants,Brooklyn Royal Giants,St. Louis Giants,Indianapolis ABCs,Detroit Stars,St. Louis Stars,Toledo Tigers,Milwaukee Bears,Memphis Red Sox,Atlantic City Bacharach Giants,and Birmingham Black Barons.
The following is a timeline of franchise evolution in Major League Baseball. The histories of franchises in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP),National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA),Union Association (UA),and American Association (AA) before they joined the National League (NL) are also included. In 1900 the minor league Western League renamed itself the American League (AL). All of the 1899 Western League teams were a part of the transformation with the Saint Paul Apostles moving to Chicago and to play as the White Stockings. In 1901 the AL declared itself a Major League. For its inaugural major league season the AL dropped its teams in Indianapolis,Buffalo and Minneapolis and replaced them with franchises in Boston,Philadelphia,and Baltimore and the Kansas City Blues moved to Washington to play as the Senators.
Theodore Reginald Strong,Jr.,was an American Negro league baseball player who played from 1936 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1951 for the Chicago American Giants,Indianapolis Athletics,Kansas City Monarchs,Indianapolis ABCs,and Indianapolis Clowns.
Tullie McAdoo was an American baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. He played from 1908 to 1924 with several teams,playing mostly with the St. Louis Giants.
William Lindsay,nicknamed the "Kansas Cyclone" and "Lightning",was a Negro leagues pitcher for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League.
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.
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.
