Phil S. Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles Great Teams: The 1910 Chicago Leland Giants Volume II

By Phil S. Dixon

A Galaxy of Stars best describes Andrew “Rube” Foster’s 1910 Chicago Leland Giants. In their only season together, this combination of players played their way into the heart and soul of a nation divided. They are proof positive that the National and American Leagues did not corner the market on athletic talent. Foster's unit began the season with a thirty-two and one record and ended with thirty-one consecutive victories. They scored nearly 1,000 runs and finished the season with a 124-7-1 record. Their win total is elevated to 138-11-2 when Cuban Winter League games are added. They played 64 games in the Chicago portion of their schedule. These games are equivalent to a home schedule for National and American League teams. Foster's Giants finished with a landmark 57-6-1 record for games played in Chicago. That Foster, John Henry Lloyd, and John "Pete" Hill, three members of the 1910 Leland Giants, are enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, is worthy of closer observation. And yet, Bruce Petway, Frank Wickware, and Grant "Home Run" Johnson should be there, too.

Thus, Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles, Volume II, Great Teams, enters the illustrious conversation. The Leland Giants story is uniquely told here in a day-to-day account of every exciting win and every memorable thrill. The comparative scores and related histories are a resourceful and entertaining aid for further analysis of the participation of African-American athletes in baseball as best represented by one legendary team in a single championship season.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369406786

Phil S. Dixon

Author Phil S. Dixon is a pioneer in the study of Negro League baseball history. For the past thirty years he has recorded the African-American baseball experience with a vast array of skill and accuracy. Creative, innovative and detailed, Dixon has researched baseball history and documented the careers of Negro Baseball’s greatest players. Widely regarded for his expertise on baseball, Dixon has authored seven previous books. He has won the prestigious Casey Award for the Best Baseball Book of 1992, and a SABR MacMillan Award for his excellence in baseball research. Formerly an Assistant Director in the Public Relations Department of the Kansas City Royals American League baseball team, he currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, an organization which he co-founded in 1990, and actively lectures on baseball topics. Phil S. Dixon was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and currently resides in Belton, Missouri, with wife Kerry and their three children, Joseph, Erika and Phillip. Dixon can be reached at www.Americanbaseballchronicles.com

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by Phil S. Dixon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Photograph on the cover: Grant Home Run Johnson.

On the back cover, Phil S. Dixon, by Jim Vaiknoras Photography

Rev. date: 12/05/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

854543

I dedicate this publication to Phillip A. Dixon, my son, Doris Foster, Andrew Rube Foster’s daughter-in-law, and William Bill Lindsay, a Leland Giants pitcher of 1910, currently buried in an unmarked plot in Lexington, Missouri. Howard and Margaret Kinslow, my maternal Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother, are also buried in Lexington’s Forest Grove Cemetery.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Racism

Newspaper Sources

Box Score Summary

Indianapolis Freeman and Chicago Broad Ax Coverage

Other African-American Teams before May 15, 1910

Games Played in Chicago

Games Played in the East

Box Scores/Batting Averages/Summaries

Complete box scores with at-bats

Games Won

Games Lost

Doubleheaders

Disputes

Games outside Chicago––West

Games against minor league teams

Winning streaks

Total Runs Scored

Newspaper Resources

Rube Foster’s Genius In The Census Year

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

1910 Chicago Leland Giants Roster

Chicago Leland Giants Pitching Breakdown

1910 Chicago Leland Giants Multi-Hit Games

1910 Chicago Leland Giants Schedule

Leland Giants’ opponents, 1910 (African-American opponents in bold)

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

This edition of my Great Team Chronicles is yet another yearning to understand and expand on the history of Negro League baseball. It involved many years of resourceful and creative energy to perform the research. Completing this project took a significant amount of stamina. I spent many hours scrutinizing this team down to the essential details. Still, completing this publication took the assistance of many people. A small regiment of willing and committed individuals brought this project to fruition. Without their help, this publication would have remained an inconclusive part of American baseball history as it has for the past 100 years. This manuscript is my feeble attempt to recognize many well-deserving individuals who helped to garner this publication titled Phil Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles, The Great Teams: 1910 Chicago Leland Giants, Volume II.

First and foremost, I thank Doris Foster (now deceased) for her willingness to discuss Rube Foster, Earl Foster, Sarah Foster, and baby Sarah. Much of the family’s unpublished information came from this dear lady. I miss her witty remarks and her passion for having Rube’s story told correctly. Earl, Rube’s son, was married to Doris. Earl, born in 1910, the year his father’s team had their outstanding season, did much to preserve his parent’s legacy. Geneva Foster, Rube’s sister, allowed me to interview her several times. Our telephone conversations, and there were many, remain some of my more pleasurable memories. In addition, Alton Davis, Rube’s nephew, gave important insight into Rube’s medical condition after 1926. These family members provided much insight into the Leland Giants’ leader. Other people deserved recognition for adding their family legacies to this research.

Christine G. Loving, Frank Leland’s niece, lent a helping hand. Fannie Roberts-Leland, her aunt, became Frank Leland’s wife. She outlived Frank by many years and departed life in 1937. Mrs. Loving provided me with insightful and informative materials about this powerful couple. She provided photographs to back her connection and knew the importance of exalting Mr. Leland’s role in baseball history. The team’s name, Leland Giants, created by Frank Leland (1869-1914), shall stand as a baseball monument along with such iconic team names as the Kansas City Monarchs, Homestead Grays, and Pittsburgh Crawfords. My conversations with Christine stopped when she began to suffer from dementia. I have deep emotional feelings related to our final discussions. There are other contributors I wish to recognize.

Andre and Dianne Strothers, the grandchildren of Tim Strothers, assisted in many ways from their home in Illinois. They provided family information on their ball-playing Grandfather and stalked for data on several of his teammates, mainly the elusive John Wesley Pryor. Andre and I have the unique distinction of being the great-grandsons of Civil War veterans. His great-grandfather, Tim’s father, served in the 50th US Colored Infantry, and my great-grandfather served in the 51st US Colored Infantry. Both men joined in Mississippi.

Zann Nelson and Ron Hill deserve more recognition than I could give them here. Nelson’s research into the life of John Preston Pete Hill is essential history. The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, will show her work for generations. Ron willingly shared all that he found on his legendary relative. Every opportunity he gets, Pete is likely to be mentioned. The pioneers of newspaper sports reporting, who printed articles and sports commentary, yielded an unending source of materials. They, too, deserve recognition.

The Indianapolis Freeman newspaper made such a fuss over this team. This newspaper wrote continuously about Foster’s team and supplied much-desired articles and news features. Men like Gary B. Lewis, Sylvester Russell, Dave Wyatt, and others at the Freeman are unsung heroes of this project. Articles by Frank Leland appeared in the Freeman along with essays by William Brown, the original Leland Giants’ assistant manager and traveling secretary. Foster greatly aided this work with articles he wrote in the Freeman between 1907 and 1920. Writers at the Freeman and their circulated box scores, line scores, and reports captured critical data. Armed with little more than pure love for our national pastime, the Freeman preserved essential information for future generations. Historians are still digesting its content. We must maintain this history in literature. Thus, many modern-day scavengers have my hearty thank you. Recognition for Negro baseball has benefited because of their efforts.

A legion of unsung heroes gave real life to this publication. These are the silent and often forgotten individuals employed at libraries, historical societies, and archives that contribute mightily to the work of many. Here is my list of those who assisted with research through the years. Special thanks to Nina Park, Founder and Executive Director of the Black Heritage Library at Findlay, Ohio, for helping to recover Grant Johnson’s life. Paulette J. Weiser of Findlay’s Hancock Historical Museum helped enliven Grant Johnson’s role in history, as did the Findlay Public Library staff. Thanks also to Kathy A. Vente, Director of the Thornton Public Library; The Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library; Darla Wagler, head of the Adult Services division of the Melton Public Library; James L. Hansen Reference Librarian of the Wisconsin Historical Society; Mike Miller of the Texas History Archives in Dallas, Texas; and Cindy Deitiker Librarian at the City of Houston Library Department. Aimee Marshall of the Chicago Historical Society and John Wilson, Special Collections Librarian at the Jacksonville, Florida Public Library, worked closely with me while searching for 1910 games played in those states. You get a special thank you.

Thanks also to Bruce Allardice and Margaret Loitz at the Thornton Historical Society for their assistance in finding and clarifying information on games played in Thornton, Illinois. I appreciate John Hess, President of the Iowa County Historical Society, for his help with game results from the Dodgeville Chronicle newspaper. Tony Borgo at the Whiting Public Library helped me to tell the story of what the Leland Giants did in that city with documents reported in the Whiting Call newspaper. My local library also played a role in the publication of this book.

The Kansas City, Missouri Public Library assisted me in ways I will forever appreciate. Brenda L. Hunnicutt (now deceased) will always be unsung yet more essential than most will ever know. She worked tirelessly at the Kansas City main library and filled decades of interlibrary loan requests long before historical newspapers were online. Having known professionals like Brenda when I needed research materials served me well. She assisted by obtaining inter-library loans for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Press, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily News, and other newspapers used in this book. I am just now publishing research she provided before her retirement. In each book I published, she helped along the way. Thank you, Brenda, you were the greatest. I extend a special note of thanks to my fellow historians.

Thank you, John Holway, for your book, The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues, and for the many books you published over the past forty years. Our conversions, along with the information we shared during those early days of my Negro League interest, are now unsurpassed. I would also like to thank James A. Riley for the data in his book, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. James and I had many discussions about baseball research. His book of biographies rivals information found on the internet. In it, Riley attempted to list details about more Negro League players than anyone else. To have taken on such a daunting task before newspapers online and other online resources had to be a labor of love. Let us continue to remember Mr. Riley for opening this door. I am improving on some items he missed or incorrectly added to his text. Robert Peterson’s Only the Ball was White, and Charles Whitehead’s A Man and His Diamonds added to this work. I never had the pleasure of speaking to Peterson, but Whitehead and I conversed regularly. He sent me a book he had personally marked with corrections, which found a home in my archives. Sol White’s History of Colored Baseball contained interviews with Foster and several of his teammates, which also helped to tell this story.

I must acknowledge Larry Lester for his work, Rube Foster In His Time, which added greatly to this publication. Larry and I co-founded the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Lloyd Johnson, also a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and his publication, The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, helped with information about minor league teams and players that the Leland Giants’ faced. I must thank Wes Singletary for his work, The Right Time, John Henry ‘Pop’ Lloyd and Black Baseball, Anything on Lloyd’s long career is most beneficial to read. Among my most precious resources was a 1981 "Daguerreotypes" volume by The Sporting News. These historians and these publications served me well. Three men, Milton Payne, Fred Langford, and James L. Diamond, contributed mightily to this historical document.

Mr. Payne (now deceased), a retired railroad worker who lived on Chestnut Street in Kansas City, Missouri, was a valuable asset. It was he who helped me locate and track Frank Wickware. Payne, age 85 when we began talking in the 1980s, told stories of how he often discussed baseball with Wickware’s father during train layovers in Coffeyville, Kansas. Armed with names, I contacted Allen Twitchell at the Coffeyville Journal and had him pull the Wickware family obituaries. This information led me to Frank Keetz in Schenectady, New York. Our ongoing conversations and Mr. Payne’s interview helped us locate a death date and burial location for Frank Wickware. Mr. Payne left me with valuable information from 1910 to 1920 on Kansas City ballplayers such as Ben Powell, Fred Hicks, Harlen Ragland, Andrew Love, Ruben Woods, Floyd Webb, Otto Bolden, and others. I couldn’t have completed this work without thanking Mr. Payne.

Mr. Langford (now deceased) lived in Kansas City, Kansas. A former ballplayer in his nineties, he lived through the era of segregated baseball. Arkansas-born, he had moved to Kansas before 1910 and played amateur baseball with Wilber Bullet Rogan and Richard Dick Whitworth of Negro League fame in his youth. Whitworth joined Foster’s American Giants in 1915. Rogan, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in 1998, grew up in Kansas. Langford, a great catcher, joined the Kansas City Kansas Giants and caught on with the St. Louis Giants for a short stint. He knew many men featured in this publication, especially those with Kansas City connections like Andrew Skinner, Otto Bolden, Bingo DeMoss, and Bill Lindsay. I am yet to publish some of the things we discussed, as there were many. A photograph of Mr. Langford appears in my 1992 book, The Negro Baseball Leagues a Photographic History.

James Diamond, a historian at the 9th and 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Museum in Tacoma, Washington, who contacted me from the Seattle area, worked tirelessly on connecting these athletes and their military heritage. His research has identified a lot of previously unknown information. For this book, he assisted in locating data on Wesley Pryor and Pete Booker primarily and added greatly on Frank Wickware. Personal computers have certainly changed the way we approach historical research.

Technology and its benefits played an essential role in pulling this publication together. I would like to recognize seamheads.com, nlbm.com, wikipedia.org, and my own NLBalive.com for an ongoing effort to legitimize Negro baseball research on the World Wide Web. A library card subscription to the Mid-Continent Public Library allowed me to tap into Newspaper Archives and Newspapers.com. On hundreds of occasions, I used their web page to research census-type records on HeritageQuest to locate these men and their families while taking advantage of their many library resources. These tools and resources provided an invaluable link to previously located data. As always, I am endeared to my family.

My wife, Dr. Kerry, and our children have been patient with me through these many years of baseball research. This history publication and everything I related to it has benefited immensely from Kerry’s editing expertise, as have previous books and articles. My children have gone with me to many cities. Uniquely, they lived some of this history. Phillip A. Dixon holds a Master’s Degree in History. Thank you, Sidney M. Carroll, my Mother-in-Law, for her love of books. My parents provided extraordinary support.

My Father, Arthur H. Dixon, stepdad, John J. Fields, and Mother, Margaret Elizabeth, supported my research from its infancy. I have never forgotten how you brought me a mighty long way and encouraged me to keep telling these stories.

Furthermore, I thank God for instilling this vision in me and giving me the ability, inspiration, strength, creativity, and endurance to start and complete this vital slice of American sports history.

Indeed, if I have forgotten to acknowledge anyone—it always happens—so please forgive me. As my friends, be you ordinary folk, former professional athletes, a family member of a Negro League ballplayer, a researcher, or simply a baseball enthusiast, consider yourself essential. Again, I thank everyone for your assistance in preserving for generations the history of Andrew Rube Foster’s 1910 Chicago Leland Giants, one of America’s all-time Greatest Baseball Teams.

Phil S. Dixon

November 2023

Preface

The Chicago Leland Giants began as the creation of 36-year-old Frank C. Leland, who started the team using his name in 1905. In 1907, veteran player and first-year manager 28-year-old Andrew Rube Foster signed on to manage the team. Foster immediately shook the unit by releasing most of Leland’s former ballplayers. He saw them as liabilities, not assets. New men, most of whom he’d played with and against in the East, current members of the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cuban X Giants, and Philadelphia Giants, soon joined. Under Foster’s tutelage, the revamped and soon-to-be incorporated Chicago Leland Giants revolutionized the role of African-American performance in baseball. Foster’s on-field leadership created a dynasty that took the organization to its panicle. In four short years, he built the Chicago Leland Giants into a baseball institution. A big shake-up in the fall of 1909, caused by internal strife, split the organization into two fractions. Leland left to form a new team, and many of Foster’s players went with him. Rube, still holding the remnants of his former team, preserved the old unit by signing a few of the team’s former stars. Next, he recruited new talent using the same formula that had worked so well in 1907. Foster lured players from the Philadelphia Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, and Chicago Union Giants to revamp his squad. His newly formed Leland Giants of 1910 would ultimately roll over their oppositions in ways seldom seen and, in only one season, became Champions of the whole wide world.

Petty Jealousy forced the trend of ballplayers in the New York area to jump to teams in Chicago," recalled Foster. He gave the following details in response to the player’s decision to come to Chicago,

The organization of the National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs in the East met in disfavor with Western promoters, and it failed to get the support of the latter section of the county. These actions brought about a guerrilla campaign in baseball, which resulted in most star players landing in Chicago.

Foster seized on this situation to drive up player salaries. Until that point in history, these men drew paltry wages despite their superstar status. By returning as manager and captain of the 1907 Chicago Leland Giants, Foster and the men who joined him became the highest-paid athletes in history. He gutted Frank Leland’s former team to build one of his own. Only three of Leland’s former players, Walter Ball, Nate Harris, and Mike Moore, remained. Quick stepping Andrew Payne, catcher Pete Booker, Foster’s teammates on the Philadelphia Giants followed him to Chicago. Speedster Clarence Winston from the Cuban X Giants signed on as an outfielder. George Wright, a shortstop, joined the Brooklyn Royal Giants. Their success occurred instantaneously as the team finished that first season with 82 wins, 17 losses, and one tie.

After Foster’s first season in Chicago, the progressive management of the Leland Giants incorporated the fledging team on September 30, 1907. The primary men making the move included Frank C. Leland, J. H. Bolden, Willis V. Jefferson, and Beauregard F. Moseley. Together, they formed The Leland Giant Base Ball & Amusement Association as a stock incorporation authorized under the State of Illinois laws. With new offices at 6258 Halsted, they set out to change baseball forever as a foundational minority business and corporation. Foster changed this team on the baseball field. These businessmen changed baseball as a business. They signaled that this would be an era of prosperity for Negro teams.

In the 1908 season, Foster made efforts to strengthen the Giants further with the addition of outfielder John Preston Hill and pitcher Emmett Bowman. Bowman failed to return in 1909, which opened the way for infielder Fred Hutchinson of Indiana to join the team. In 1909, the Leland Giants captured the official Chicago City League Championship, a designation they captured in 1907 without accurate recognition. Frank Leland was losing more and more prestige within the organization to Foster, who was separate from the original incorporation between those years.

After the three-game series with the Chicago Cubs in the fall of 1909, the team that had been so successful since 1907 shattered into two pieces. In the fall of 1909, Frank Leland and his backers announced their discontent with the corporation. They broke ties with the Leland Giants management group. Foster blamed the breakup on Leland and offered, The men who invested their money in the club thought it advisable to keep me as manager, as I had accomplished in one year what he [Leland] failed to do in a lifetime. Frank Leland left immediately to form a new team. Several key players went with him. Moseley and Foster regrouped by keeping the ballplayers that failed to align with Leland. This separation started a battle for the Leland Giants, as the two teams now fought to use the team’s name.

Leland was on the outs, although the team still bore his name. In an ensuing court battle, Moseley won the right to continue with the name Leland Giants, which forced Frank Leland to create a team with an entirely different mascot to remain active. He started the Chicago Giants. Some players decided to keep their allegiance with Leland, others with Foster. In the meanwhile, Foster and Moseley made plans for an unforgettable season. Foster, moved by a wholesale cleansing of his once great team because of defections by Mike Moore, Walter Ball, Clarence Winston, Nate Harris, and George Wright, went in an entirely different direction. The players Foster acquired after some tenacious recruiting in the spring of 1910 lifted the Leland Giants to their prestigious place in baseball history.

Foster signed third baseman Wesley Pryor, a utility infielder of the Chicago Union Giants, and resigned Fred Hutchison for his new team. He left Chicago with the remnants of the once-great Leland Giants. They headed to Florida for spring conditioning in the South, but not before announcing in Chicago’s Suburbanite Economist that his Leland Giants would embark on a spring training tour of 9,072 miles. The article stated that Foster Would take his players, sixteen strong, to Palm Beach, Florida on January 11 to fill engagements in the south until March 18. Although publicized to have sixteen men, he only had nine. Foster’s traveling unit included Hutchinson, Pryor, Chappie Johnson, Tim Strothers, Pete Booker, Pat Dougherty, Pete Hill, Andrew Payne, and a newly signed Frank Wickware from Texas. Numerous roster additions transformed Foster’s 1910 Chicago Leland Giants into championship mode.

At Palm Beach, Foster recruited catcher Bruce Petway, outfielder Frank Duncan, and shortstop John Henry Lloyd from the Philadelphia Giants. Slick fielding Home Run, Johnson of the Brooklyn Royal Giants joined to play second base. The 1910 Leland Giants, revived and reenergized, began play. They left Florida with an entire regiment of games for March and April.

This team cruised through games in the Southern states. The club lost only once in thirty-four games. In the Chicago region, they had no real rival. Frank Leland’s Chicago Giants, as did many teams associated with the City League, refused to play them. Foster posted an astonishing record of games won and lost. Despite their success, it was impossible to keep this team together. Other owners appeared on the scene with more cash considerations than Foster and Moseley.

A year later, in 1911, Home Run Johnson returned east to manage the Philadelphia Giants. John Henry Lloyd and Pete Booker, lured to the newly formed Lincoln Giants of New York, ended the reign of this great team after just one season. Foster dropped the name Leland Giants in 1911 to start the American Giants of Chicago. The Leland Giants, still under the leadership of Moseley, replaced Foster with Nate Harris as manager.

From 1905 to 1911, with rosters that included such well-known men as Andrew Rube Foster, Walter Ball, Dangerfield Talbot, William Horn, Andrew Jap Payne, William Gatewood, Grant Home Run Johnson, and others, the Chicago Leland Giants forged a legacy out of a mere pursuit for excellence. Operating with the utmost integrity and sportsmanship, the Leland Giants continued in business, but never as they had during the glory years, 1907 to 1910.

In 1917, the Leland Giants Base Ball & Amusement Association resolved to change the corporation’s name to the Idlewild Hotel & Investment Company. Beauregard F. Moseley was the last remaining member from the original incorporation in 1907. Frank Leland operated the rival Chicago Giants until his death on November 14, 1914. Foster would control the American Giants until his health failed in 1926.

In honor of the 1910 Chicago Leland Giants’ contribution to our great American pastime, Dixon’s American Baseball Chronicles fully recognizes this team as one of baseball’s all-time supreme, and in so doing, presents the first-ever journal of their historic one-year campaign.

Racism

Many references to race illustrated the discrimination this team faced during the Leland Giants’ historic season of 1910. These printed narratives confirmed the daily barriers in society that these men experienced while playing America’s national pastime at its highest level. It was an era where writers in the daily press mocked their diction and Southern drawl and utilized name-calling with resounding effect. The newspaper writers in Little Rock, Arkansas, see notes from the April 1, 1910 game, wrote critical and prejudiced articles. It was an effort to gaslight its readers while manipulating and controlling the perception of African-American people and teams. These actions are not limited to Southern states. Newspapers in Illinois and Indiana wrote equally malicious articles when promoting games in their regions.

Newspaper Sources

Our research relied entirely on newspaper coverage and other written references between 1905 and 1915. Newspapers served us well; however, the need for more materials in these same newspaper sources equally hampers us. Superfluous detail informed the public that Black teams were on the diamond while adding nothing important to newspaper articles. Still, the discourse almost always allowed the segregationist to interject their form of discriminatory dissonance about African-Americans.

References about African-American baseball teams appeared regularly, but feature articles, far and few between, rarely existed. When they did occur, they often neglected intimate details. Players’ last names are often misspelled. We have corrected many of these mistakes in this text. Different from the 1931 Homestead Grays research and the 1905 Philadelphia Giants books in the GREAT TEAM series, gathering information on the 1910 Chicago Leland Giants took much more work to compile. Recovering data from the Leland Giants’ historic season of 1910 was one of the most challenging, and at the same time most rewarding, baseball research projects I have yet to encounter.

While feature articles are rare, the apparent omissions, misrepresentations, and gaps in the coverage of African-American sports appeared universal. As a general rule, few American daily newspapers printed the first names of African-American athletes in articles unless the articles bore a criminal nature. Photographs and complete box scores with at-bats and stolen bases are nearly nonexistent. Schedules of where the teams played, almost impossible to reconstruct, remain challenging to find. The author has meticulously recreated the entire 1910 schedule. We haven’t missed much. Chicago had the added complication of Sunday morning a.m. play, games played in Cook County, which rarely relied on printed box scores. Some games are missing final scores.

African-American touring teams played many games in Chicago. Fortunately, the best coverage of these games usually involved the better-known groups. Consequently, box scores of Chicago Leland Giants, Chicago Giants, Philadelphia Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cuban Stars, and Stars of Cuba appeared often. This publication presents my best attempt at finding a complete summary of the coverage printed in various newspapers during the summer of 1910.

Box Score Summary

We have information on 116 games from the Chicago Leland Giants’ 1910 season. We only found 74 box scores. The lack of printed resources illustrates how poorly covered and grossly minimized African-American teams and players were in Chicago. In a society where oppression and segregation in media were customary, these omissions are numerous. The underfinanced minority media demonstrated that they could combat some of this situation. However, they, too, missed opportunities critical to the history of this team. Only ten box scores have been discovered for the first three months of the 1910 season: March, April, and May. July and August yielded an abundance of box scores. In July, newspapers published seventeen box scores. Twenty box scores remain from August. In addition, there are other games where newspapers failed to print boxes or game-ending scores. I scrutinized these articles for their accuracy. I also checked for duplicates.

Indianapolis Freeman and

Chicago Broad Ax Coverage

Thank God for the Indianapolis Freemen, the Chicago Broad Ax newspapers, and other minority publications. Time after time, their reporting rescued our research. We can thank these two African-American publications for publishing box scores and game results missing from the daily newspapers. One such example was the May 15, 1910, first game of a doubleheader against the Nipperskins team, which the Leland Giants won by a 5-2 score. This box score appeared in only one newspaper, the Indianapolis Freeman. We can also thank the same newspaper for covering the opposition the Leland Giants faced.

Two of Gary B. Lewis’ published articles helped with game recaps. His commentary on Rube’s first game against the Stars of Cuba, titled Rube’ Foster’s Day, is highly detailed.¹ The information contained in this article is potentially priceless. Another article titled Observe Charitable Day was equally informative."² Surprisingly, with all of Foster’s success, Lewis was more apt to write about the Chicago Giants, although Moseley, owner of the 1910 and 1911 Leland Giants, was his father-in-law. The author gleaned articles from the Chicago Broad Ax and C.L. Franklin’s Newspaper. The Broad Ax was the only newspaper to publish a box score of the August 18 Charitable Day game, which Lewis so eloquently discussed. The Chicago Defender was helpful on a lesser note. The Nashville Globe newspaper reports solved several questions about players originating from that city. The New York Age printed articles on other teams included within this text.

Other African-American

Teams before May 15, 1910

No schedule of games played by the Leland Giants during their Southern states tour exists. The author has discovered that some games published on the spring schedule failed to occur. The missing information leads me to think that the information published in the media was nothing more than a probable list of cities they sought to visit. Most everything that occurred before May 15, 1910, had to be reconstructed, and it was an uphill task. Documentation included in this text originated from newspaper accounts. Data found in those sources allowed me to contact libraries in cities where the Leland Giants appeared. Research from the first two months of the 1910 season, March and April, yielded only two box scores. The author found other scores, but this research is ongoing.

The Leland Giants played five games in Jacksonville, Florida: three in March and two in October. The author did not find any newspaper results for the March games. Scores, but no boxes, exist from two October games played in that city where Foster’s Giants outscored the Jacksonville Giants 17 to 2. The Jacksonville games were the last played in America. Furthermore, we failed to cover any Cuban Winter League contests in detail for this publication. During the pre-season months, media reports from Chicago listed games in the following cities.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, where the Leland scheduled six games, the media’s harmful coverage of their travels was an assorted bag of sarcasm and racism. The games in Arkansas produced two box scores on March 31 and April 19. Reportedly, a game occurred in San Antonio, Texas. A San Antonio Light newspaper check from April 1 to April 13 yielded no results. A pair of games in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, produced positive results. I was able to locate scores for these games. Final scores for Leland Giants’ wins in some cities have yet to receive publication.

A diligent search of the Tuskegee, Alabama newspapers produced no results. It will surely be a bonus if games in Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; Laredo, Texas; and Houston, Texas, towns advertised on the Leland’s’ schedule, are located. We checked diligently and found no media reports in these cities. Moreover, a check of the Beaumont Daily Journal of April 6 and April 8 yielded no results. A search in the Beaumont Enterprise of April 4, 6, and 7 never mentioned the Leland Giants as having visited their town. Fortunately, a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, printed reports.

Memphis, Tennessee, the site of a three-game series against the Memphis Tigers, generated significant results. The local team, also called the Bluff City Giants, was well-known in the region. The Chicago Defender reported on three games, with scores and batteries, but added little detail. A report in the Broad Ax printed nearly the same story about the three Memphis games with no additional information. The best coverage came from the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper. This newspaper covered the Cubans’ visit in early April and the Leland Giants’ three-game visit with more details. We confirmed other games by utilizing similar sources.

An edition of the Broad Ax reported on the Giants’ win over Wiley University in Marshall, Texas, with scores on April 16. This same article gave scores of another game played against Bishop College in Marshall and scores for a double victory over McGars Wonders in Fort Worth, Texas. Since the Broad Ax was a weekly newspaper, the publication date proves these games occurred before their April 16 printing. A check of the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times-Herald, and Fort Worth Record yielded few results of contests reportedly played in that city. The Broad Ax referenced two games against McGars Wonders in Fort Worth with the only known scores of these games.

The Leland Giants played three games against the Oklahoma Monarchs at Oklahoma City in April. A written account with a line score appeared in the Oklahoman for game two. In Oklahoma, there are no write-ups of games one or three. The Chicago Tribune had brief articles on the first and second games of the series. Information on all of the Oklahoma games, with starting batteries, appeared in the Chicago Defender and Indianapolis Freeman. The Leland Giants left Oklahoma City and headed for Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, where coverage of their games grew worse.

Playing against the Kansas City Cyclones, Foster’s Giants won two games. A game one account appeared in the Kansas City Post and Chicago Defender newspapers. The Chicago Tribune covered game two. While in Kansas City, Foster’s team battled the Kansas City Kansas Giants in a four-game series covered to a lesser extent. Leavenworth, Kansas, was set for the opener, with the remaining games at Kansas City, Kansas’ Riverside Park. The Leavenworth Times should have mentioned the event planned for that city and missed an opportunity to make history. Results of the series’ third game, a 3-2 final, appeared in the Kansas City Post. Another account of this exact game appeared in the Chicago Tribune with a different final score. The Tribune gave the Leland Giants a 5-2 win. Both newspapers agreed that the crowd watched a pitcher’s battle between Rube Foster and Bill Lindsay. Moreover, on May 11, The Chicago Examiner reported,

The Leland Giants, 1909 champions of the Chicago League, returned yesterday from a 9,072-mile tour of the South and West. They will open their local season on Saturday with a game against Gunther at Gunther Park and meet the Candymakers the following day at Normal Park. The Lelands started South on January 10 and went on the road after a short training season at Palm Beach, Florida. They played thirty-three games on the tour, winning thirty-two, their only defeat administered by the Fort Worth Giants. They have won their last twenty-two games. Of their victories in the South, eighteen were shutouts. There are several new faces on the Giants, among the newcomers being Home Run Johnson, former captain and manager of the New York Royal Giants.³

Frank Leland complicated matters with his team. Leland took his new Chicago Giants on a Southern tour, and many newspaper articles about his team referred to them as the Leland Giants. Leland played in several of the same cities as Foster’s Lelands. One example is Memphis, Tennessee, where Leland took his team on April 25. African-American clubs were located all over the country. I show their abundance by listing their games daily.

Included in this text are spring and summer scores for nearly 500 games. Teams featured are the Kansas City Kansas Giants, the Kansas City Royal Giants, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Brown’s Tennessee Rate, the Philadelphia Giants, Frank Leland’s Chicago Giants, Louisville Cubs, the Stars of Cuba, Cuban Stars, and many others. In addition, I added scores from the Texas Negro League teams and lesser-known regional teams.

Games Played in Chicago

The Leland Giants scheduled 70 games in Chicago. However, only 64 of the games transpired because of weather and cancelations. This total does not include two games played at Chicago Heights, Illinois, or Fennimore, Wisconsin. This total is equivalent to a major