The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based team playing professional baseball in the Negro Leagues.
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 creation, the Negro National League I.
The American Giants won 5 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.
In 1910, Foster, captain of the Chicago Leland Giants, wrestled legal control of the name Leland Giants away from the team's owner, Frank Leland.
That season, featuring shortstop John Henry Lloyd, outfielder Pete Hill, second baseman Grant Johnson, catcher Bruce Petway, and pitcher Frank Wickware.
Foster and the Leland Giants reportedly won 123 games while losing only 6. In 1911, Foster renamed the club the American Giants.
The Chicago Unions and the Chicago Columbia Giants merged for the 1901 season creating the Chicago Union Giants, who later changed their name to the Leland Giants.
The Leland Giants then split into two teams for the 1910 season creating the Chicago American Giants and the new Leland Giants, who later changed their name back to the Chicago American Giants.
Playing in the spacious Schorling Park (formerly the home field of the Chicago White Sox), Foster's club relied heavily on its ability to field, pitch, and an ability to take advantage of the teams above average speed.
Foster played his own version of inside baseball off the filed, ultimately become a huge success in the nascent Negro National League I (NNLI), winning championships in 1920, 1921, and 1922.
When the Kansas City Monarchs supplanted the American Giants as the dominant team beginning in 1923, Foster tried rebuilding but by 1926 his health, both physically and mental began to rapidly become apparent.
Accordingly, Foster’s protégé Dave Malarcher took over on-field management of the team.
Malarcher followed Foster's pattern and management style, emphasizing pitching and defense, leading the American Giants back to the top-tier of the Negro leagues, winning pennants in 1926 and 1927.
Both seasons also saw the American Giants defeat the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, champions of the Eastern Colored League, in the Negro League World Series.
The Negro National League I ultimately collapsed in 1931, and in 1932 the team won the Negro Southern League pennant as Cole's American Giants.
The next season the American Giants joined the new Negro National League I, losing the pennant to the Pittsburgh Crawfords in a controversial decision by league president Gus Greenlee, owner of the ball club.
The 1933 season saw the Giants get evicted from their home field after the end of May; the park owners preferred to use the land as a dog racing track for the remaining summer months.
This forced the Giants to play the majority of their home games in Indianapolis for the balance of that season. [2]
In 1934, the American Giants won the NNL's second-half title, then fell to the Philadelphia Stars in a seven-game playoff for the championship.
In 1937, after a year spent playing as an independent club, the American Giants became a charter member of yet another circuit, the Negro American League.
Ted Radcliffe was appointed manager in 1950.
The team's owner, Dr. J.B. Martin, was concerned about black players joining major league teams so he instructed Radcliffe to sign white players.
Radcliffe recruited at least five young white players (Lou Chirban, Lou Clarizio, Al Dubetts, Frank Dyall, and Stanley Miarka).
Sports entrepreneur Abe Saperstein owned the American Giants in 1952, its last season in the Negro American League. Its players were dispersed to the four remaining NAL teams for the 1953 season.
After dropping out of the Negro American League, the American Giants became unaffiliated and turned to barnstorming, playing games in the Midwest.
The team disbanded after the 1956 season, then was revived in 1958, playing throughout the South until 1961.
The American Giants first played at South Side Park (III) (1920–1940) and Perry Stadium (Indianapolis) (1933), when South Side Park was briefly re-purposed mid-season in 1933.
They finally began sharing Comiskey Park (I) from 1941 to 1950, creating their schedule around the playing schedule of the White Sox.
With the American Giants played at Comiskey when the White Sox were on the road. [3]
The Chicago White Sox have honored the American Giants by wearing replica uniforms during regular-season baseball games on several occasions.
July 1, 2007 (at Kansas City) July 26, 2008 (at home vs. Detroit), and July 16, 2011, during the 9th Annual Negro League weekend at Detroit, where the home team wore replica jerseys of the Detroit Stars during the 17th annual Negro League Tribute Game. [4]
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