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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin 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 Major Leagues".
James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell was an American center fielder in Negro league baseball from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. Stories demonstrating Bell's speed are still widely circulated. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999.
Oscar McKinley Charleston was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. In 1915, after serving three years in the U.S. Army, the Indianapolis, Indiana, native continued his baseball career as a professional with the Indianapolis ABCs; his career ended in 1954 as a player-manager for the Indianapolis Clowns. In addition to a forty-three-year career with more than a dozen teams, including the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Negro league baseball's leading teams in the 1930s, he played nine winter seasons in Cuba and in numerous exhibition games against white major leaguers. Charleston was known for his strengths as a hitter and center fielder. Alongside Josh Gibson, he has the record for most league batting titles among players of the Negro leagues with three, and he is the only one among all nine players who won multiple titles to win batting titles in multiple leagues. He was the second player to win consecutive Triple Crowns in either batting or pitching, a feat matched just one time by a batter. Retroactively, he is credited with having won the Triple Crown three times, which is the most for any player in Major League Baseball. To this day, he holds the record for the second-highest batting average of all-time among major league players. He also has the fourth-highest career OPS. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
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 Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues in the United States.
Willie James Wells, nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924 to 1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America.
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.
Benjamin Harrison Taylor was an American first baseman and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. Taylor played for the Birmingham Giants, Chicago American Giants, Indianapolis ABC's, St. Louis Giants, Bacharach Giants, Washington Potomacs, Harrisburg Giants, and Baltimore Black Sox. His playing career lasted from 1908 to 1929. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Louis Santop Loftin was an American baseball catcher in the Negro leagues. He became "one of the earliest superstars" and "black baseball's first legitimate home-run slugger" (Riley), and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Some sources show a birth year of 1890, but his Navy records and Baseball Hall of Fame records support the earlier date.
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.
The American Series was a set of baseball games played between Cuban and American teams in Cuba. An American team would travel to Cuba and play various professional, all-star and/or amateur Cuban teams throughout the country. The series usually took place either in the fall, after the end of the American season, or during spring training before the season began. The first American Series took place in 1879, with then minor league Worcester team going 2–0 against its Cuban opponents.
Theodore Trent was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played from 1927 to 1939 with several teams, playing mostly for the St. Louis Stars and Chicago American Giants. Trent was considered the best pitcher on the St. Louis Stars, when the team won three pennants from 1927 to 1931. He was nicknamed Highpockets, Stringbean, and Big Florida, because he was one of the tallest players in the Negro leagues.
Charles H. "Rucker" Blackwell was an American baseball outfielder in the Negro leagues. He played from 1915 to 1929 with several teams, playing mostly with the and St. Louis Giants/Stars.
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.
John Britton was an American baseball third baseman in the Negro leagues and in the Japanese Pacific League. He played professionally from 1940 to 1953, playing with the New Orleans–St. Louis Stars, Chicago American Giants, Cincinnati/Indianapolis Clowns, Birmingham Black Barons, and Hankyu Braves. During the 1944 Negro World Series, Britton was injured in a car accident, along with Tommy Sampson, Pepper Bassett, and Leandy Young. Britton suffered a dislocated left hand. Britton and Jimmy Newberry were the first African-Americans to play on a Japanese baseball team.
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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