During the forty-five years Ebbets Field stages major league baseball games, it hosts only brief interludes with African-American leagues and teams.
I've so far covered the last two instances:
What follows is the first and perhaps most famous episode involving Ebbets Field and Negro Leagues baseball. When, why, and how, to borrow a Ken Burns phrase, is "something like a war" with Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place serving as a transient battleground in a conflict pitting former partners, new alliances, power brokers, and regional titans. The theaters of operation are Atlantic City, Harlem, and Brooklyn, where an inevitable showdown is gloriously waged at Ebbets Field.
PART ONE: John W. Connor vs. Nat Strong; Control of the Brooklyn Royal Giants
John W. Connor is an African-American born on Dec. 26, 1878, in Portsmouth, Virginia. When he matures to the proper age, Connor enlists in the United States Navy and serves in the Spanish-American War. Upon his honorable discharge, Connor heads north to New York City and becomes a highly reputable restauranteur and nightclub owner. He owns and operates the Brooklyn Royal Cafe and Palm Garden on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn and Porter's Club in Harlem.
John W. Connor is an African-American born on Dec. 26, 1878, in Portsmouth, Virginia. When he matures to the proper age, Connor enlists in the United States Navy and serves in the Spanish-American War. Upon his honorable discharge, Connor heads north to New York City and becomes a highly reputable restauranteur and nightclub owner. He owns and operates the Brooklyn Royal Cafe and Palm Garden on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn and Porter's Club in Harlem.
Mr. Connor is well known, is highly respected and has the confidence of the people in the community. It can be said without braggadocio the Royal Cafe is the finest Afro-American cafe in Brooklyn. Only a few white cafes can surpass it in beauty or in up-to-date service. Mr. Connor's success is an inspiration to others. - The New York Age, Aug. 23 1906
Connor is also a baseball fan, and in 1904 he establishes the Brooklyn Royal Giants. He invests in talent, and the team enjoys initial success. For a brief time (1906-1907), the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers share Washington Park with the Brooklyn Royal Giants.
Sol White is a turn of the century player who both briefly plays for and manages John Connor's Royal Giants. He is also considered the Negro League's first historian. In 1907 he published The History of Colored Baseball. In it, he writes glowingly of Mr. Connor:
"John Conner was the second race man to gain prominence as an owner of a professional baseball club. Mr. Conner played a noble role in keeping the game before the public. Like all true baseball men, he loved the game and went to the limit for the grand old sport." - Sol White, member of Baseball's Hall of Fame
During the seasons 1906-1909, the National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba (NACBC) brings a small measure of order and organization to African-American teams in the East. But it doesn't last. By 1909, the association proves mostly ineffectual. It is splintered into executive factions with Vice President John Connor on one side of the table, and on the other side, Secretary of the Board Nat Strong. Connor resorts to booking his own games against outlaw teams not sanctioned by the NACBC and certainly not approved by Nat Strong, who effectively maintains a stranglehold on booking African-American and semi-pro teams throughout the East. The NACBC is disbanded before the start of the 1910 season. After this, Nat Strong is curiously brought into the Royal Giants fold as the team's official booking manager.
Within three years, Strong wrestles control of the Brooklyn Royal Giants from John Connor. As reported by the New York Age on July 13, 1913, John Connor "transferred" ownership of the Brooklyn Royal Giants to Nat Strong. History never makes clear if money is exchanged or if John Connor ever receives compensation from Nat Strong for turning over the Royal Giants to him.
John Connor nonetheless gives his reasons for leaving the game:
- He is tired of getting bad deals from white owners who did not want to give him a percentage of the gate. Connor instead was being forced into accepting a guaranteed fee for his club's bookings rather than a split of gate receipts.
- He is tired of having to continually deal with players threatening to jump their contracts.
- His investment in the renovation of Harlem Oval had not paid off to his satisfaction.
- After a highly successful run (1908-1910), the quality of play on the field had deteriorated over the last two and a half seasons.
Conner immerses himself back into business, while Nat Strong continues tightening his control as the East's preeminent booking agent. Strong turns the Royal Giants into a traveling team with no home ground. This affords Strong the luxury of scheduling games against the best white semi-pro teams, negro leagues teams, Major League squads, and all-star teams. Strong, a white man, is a long-established baseball magnate having owned several of the metropolitan area's top white semi-pro teams dating back to 1903, the famous Brooklyn Bushwicks among them. His partnership forged with Bushwicks' founder Max Rosner in 1916, and the accompanying access to Dexter Park further serves to fortify Strong's business enterprise.
Brothers Jeff and Ed McMahon arrive on the scene in 1911, when they found the New York Lincoln Giants and secure a lease at Olympic Field in upper Manhattan. In direct opposition to Nat Strong, the McMahon's booking terms and promotional fees are more reasonable and more alluring to visiting clubs. However, by 1914, the McMahon Brothers lose their lease on Olympic Field and are forced to sell the club. Nat Strong promptly forms an alliance with new incoming owner James Keenan (and Charles Harvey). Together, spanning the seasons 1914 through 1918, they collude to keep Negro League teams outside their sphere of influence, particularly from the Midwest, from playing within New York City limits. However, in 1919, developers transformed Olympic Park into a parking garage forcing Keenan and Harvey to move their home games to the Bronx.
PART TWO: Rise of the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants
Meanwhile, one hundred thirty miles to the south, Atlantic City (New Jersey) is in the midst of a mayoral election. To keep popular incumbent Harry Bacharach's name before the city's African-American population, Thomas Jackson, a political associate of Bacharach, suggests entering a team in the local African-American circuit with the name Bacharach across the uniform. A second associate, Henry Tucker, is a native of Jacksonville, Florida, where he once managed several semi-pro African-American teams. Tucker travels to Florida and recruits members of the Duval (County) Giants, Jacksonville's top independent semi-pro club. The roster is further supplemented, and in May 1916, the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants take the field. Harry Bacharach throws out the first ball and is shortly elected into office. Local papers refer to them as the Mayors, although Harry Bacharach is never really involved with team operations. That is left to Thomas Jackson and Henry Tucker.
By 1918, the team is in financial distress. Thomas Jackson takes in two partners. One is none other than John W. Connor, and the other is Barron D. Wilkins (restauranteur, Harlem nightclub operator, and former owner of the New York Colored Giants).
To make real profits, Connor knows the team must venture north into Nat Strong territory - New York City. Connor, in 1919, secures a lease for Dykman Oval in upper Manhattan and promptly begins booking out of town clubs. He also begins raiding players from the Brooklyn Royal Giants and New York Lincoln Giants. In turn, Strong and Keenan prevent teams under their control (such as the Brooklyn Royal Giants and New York Lincoln Giants) from playing in Atlantic City.
PART THREE: The Baseball World Descends Upon Ebbets Field
If you recall, when Connor owned the Royal Giants the team took up residence for two seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Washington Park. He and Charlie Ebbets undoubtedly struck up an acquaintance because, with a phone call, John Connor can secure Ebbets Field, where Nat Strong holds no sway for the Bacharach Giants.
Having compiled a 75-29-1 record, by the end of the 1919 season, the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants are considered the best African-American team in the East after finishing in front of the local New York Lincoln Giants.
From Oct. 19 through Nov. 2, they play a five-game exhibition at Ebbets Field against a major league/minor league all-star team billed as the International All-Stars. After losing the first two games, the Bacharach Giants rebound to win the next three.
On Oct. 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act.
On May 16, 1920, the Bacharach Giants became the first African-American baseball team to play a regular-season game at Ebbets Field, against the Treat 'Em Rough semi-pro baseball team from Manhattan.
John Connor's team in 1920 would play six games against African-American teams at Ebbets Field. The first three games take place in July, including a showdown against their instant arch-rival.
NEWSPAPER CLIPS
JULY 9, 1920 - "Why not a game between the Lincoln Giants and Bacharachs? This is the big question in Harlem baseball circles today. It is a known fact that John Connor, owner of the Atlantic City aggregation, is willing to play and, so he says, has been negotiating for some time with the powers that be for this game that beyond a doubt the baseball public wants to see. On with the game. We all want to see it." - Chicago Defender
JULY 11, 1920 - "...negotiations were started a week ago to arrange a double header between the Bacharachs and Lincolns, and it took hours of persuasion to induce the managers to agree to play." - N.Y. Tribune
July 11, 1920 - "The one big game fans have looked forward to for the past two years will finally come to pass when the famous Lincoln Giants hook up with John Connor's Bacharach Giants at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, this Sunday in a big double header. It has been a long time since we saw this - Cannonball Dick Redding vs. Smokey Joe Williams. According to a statement given out recently by Joe Williams, he intends that his team shall take both games, so there you are. The games will really be for blood and the admission price alone to see Joe pitch against Dick Redding will be well worth while. All rooters, get ready for the big noise this Sunday and let your throats be clear. The first game will start at two o'clock sharp!" - Chicago Defender
JULY 11, 1920 - "Followers of semi-pro baseball will be treated to a fine attraction between independent teams when the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City and the Lincoln Giants, colored champions, clash in a double header at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, on Sunday. The contests will bring together the greatest colored semi-pro pitchers of a decade in Cyclone Joe Williams and Cannonball Dick Redding." - The Evening World, N.Y.
On July 11, the rivalry between newly formed alliances pitting John Connor/Barron Wilkins against Nat Strong/James Keenan comes to a head. The Bacharach Giants and New York Lincoln Giants for the first time face-off in a double-header before an estimated 16,000 fans at Ebbets Field. This marks the first time two African-American teams play each other in a Major League stadium in the East.
The anticipation of an epic clash is palpable. But far more than just a game for posterity sake or an on-field confrontation between business rivals and teams, this game, like many others, are societal events of the highest order where and when the African-American community puts on full display their uncompromising passion for the game of baseball.
If watching baseball in the 1920's meant leaving black dominated Harlem, the journey of crowds of several thousands to these stadiums, and their occupation of places otherwise associated with whites, was a quite different experience than leaving Harlem in small groups to go to work. Crowds of fans claimed, albeit temporarily, spaces within the city for blacks. Reporting the beginning of the Bacharach Giants 1920 season, Ted Hooks, the sports editor of the New York Age, describes a parade of automobiles following the team bus from Harlem to Dykman Oval, with many returning for several loads, filling the streets around the stadium with vehicles driven by blacks. Black crowds likewise took ownership of the space of the stadiums. Reporting the first Lincoln Giants-Bacharach Giants game at Ebbets Field, Ted Hooks writes, "Colored autos, colored sight-seeing cars, colored players, colored band, and, above all, colored umpires. All the forgoing proved that they know their business..." Inside the stadium, the press treated the games as social events as much as sporting contests: the New York Age gave several columns of their coverage to descriptions on the field, the team uniforms, the jazz band, the spectators and the noise they made, concluding, "... the game proved the colored fans the equal in deportment of any race that has ever graced Ebbets Field. - extract from Harlem and Baseball in the 1920's by Stephen Robertson
Bacharach Giants starter Dick "Cannonball" Redding pitches a 5-0 shutout over Smokey Joe Williams, but the Lincoln Giants rebound for a 7-5 victory in game two.
JULY 11 - "It was Dick's day and he pitched airtight ball. The sunset tilt went to the Harlem boys. Archer for the Lincolns pitched splendid ball." - Chicago Defender
In late August, the Chicago Giants come East to take on the Bacharach Giants. The first four games are played at Atlantic City's Inlet Park. Then, on Sunday, Aug. 22, the Bacharach Giants host Chicago for a series concluding doubleheader at Ebbets Field. Atlantic City wins three games, loses one, and one game ends in a tie.
AUGUST 22 - "Bacharach Giants play in Flatbush today. The Bacharachs and Chicago Giants will meet in a double header this afternoon at Ebbets Field. "Cannonball" Dick Redding, "String Bean" Williams and "Red" Ryan will do the pitching for the brunette Bacharachs. The Chicago Giants will have John Taylor and Luther Farrell on the mound. This game marks the first invasion of the East by these Western nines." - N.Y. Tribune
AUGUST 22 - "Joe Green's Chicago Giants were defeated in both ends of a double header Sunday at Ebbets Field. Dick Redding, who pitched the first game, was in splendid condition and had the Westerners biting at his offering all the way. In the nightcap Walter Ball opposed Red Ryan and both pitched splendid ball. Twenty thousand persons saw the games." - Chicago Defender
In fact, Cannonball Redding throws a no-hitter in a 4-0 game one whitewashing of the Chicago Giants. Atlantic City takes the second game as well by a 4-1 final. Note: these two sources conflict on game one score.
- On Friday, Aug. 13, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds to reforge a first-place tie with the Cincinnati Reds.
The Israelite House of David baseball team makes its first-ever visit to Ebbets Field on Aug. 28, for one game against the Bacharachs, who defeat House of David by a 7-0 final.
Atlantic City and Lincoln Giants once again come together for a doubleheader on Aug. 29, again pitting Cannonball Redding and Smokey Joe.
AUGUST 29 - "Brooklyn fans will not have to worry this afternoon about not having any major league ball game across the bridge, as Charlie Ebbets, in the absence of the Dodgers, has arranged a game for Ebbets Field between two of the strongest semi-pro teams in the East, the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City and the Lincoln Giants of this city." - N.Y. Tribune
AUGUST 29 - "The two best semi-pro teams in the East will help swell the coal fund for Brooklyn's poor when they clash in a double header at Ebbets Field... In the last game Dick Redding will oppose Joe Williams, and a battle royale as usual when these men meet will be in order." - Evening Public Ledger, Philadelphia
AUGUST 29 - "A battle of Giants will take place at Ebbets Field Sunday afternoon when the Lincoln Giants of this city and the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City clash in the second of their series of double headers for the colored championship of the East. Cannonball Redding will again hook up with Joe Williams in the curtain raiser." - N.Y. Tribune
Dick Redding again tops Joe Williams, this time dealing the Lincoln Giants a 6-0 defeat.
In September, the Indianapolis ABC's make their way to Ebbets Field.
SEPTEMBER 5 - "Although tomorrow is an off-day at Ebbets Field, so far as major league baseball is concerned, Brooklyn fans will not have to go to the Polo Grounds to see a good ball game. Instead, all they will have to do is to go to the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers and watch the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City and the A.B.C. team of Indianapolis clash in a double header." - N.Y. Tribune
SEPTEMBER 6 - "Brooklyn baseball fans will not have an idle afternoon at Ebbets Field today because of the absence of the Dodgers. Charley Ebbets, through J.W. Connor and Barron D. Wilkens (sic) has arranged to have the famous Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City and the A.B.C. team of Indianapolis play the eighth and ninth games of their series for the colored championship. To date the Bacharach Giants have the edge. The teams rank among the best in the country and two good games are assured." - N.Y. Tribune
- On Monday, Sept. 27, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the National League pennant. Then on Oct. 7, the Robins take a 2-1 World Series advantage against the Cleveland Indians at Ebbets Field.
Shortly after that, the famed Chicago American Giants come East to play the Bacharach Giants for the "Colored World's Championship." Chicago wins two of three at Shibe Park. The next four games are played at Ebbets Field, where the Bacharach Giants, on Oct. 17, win both games of a doubleheader. However, the American Giants take games six and seven to clinch the title.
On Oct. 23, John Connor and Baron Wilkins announce they will host an end of season banquet and invite Charlie Ebbets of the Brooklyn Dodgers as their guest of honor.
On Oct. 24, the Bacharachs take both games of a doubleheader against [Wait] Hoyt's Stars at Ebbets Field. Hoyt, born in Brooklyn, spends a fleeting moment with the Boston Red Sox, and as a teenager, pitches for Erasmus High School.
John Conner has one last trick up his sleeve. In a deal struck with Rube Foster, the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants become associate members of his Negro National League. They retain independence but have no championship rights. However, the Bacharachs benefit from fixed scheduling and NNL roster protections from other league members. This arrangement also gives Rube Foster a business foothold in the East.
Partners John Conner (this time of his own volition) and Barron Wilkins step away from baseball after the 1922 season. Sadly, within two years, Barron D. Wilkins meets a tragic end when he is murdered in front of his own nightclub in Harlem. In 1926, a 48-year old John Connor suffered a stroke and also passes away.
In their head to head confrontation, I would argue that John Connor enjoys the last laugh over Nat Strong. However, Strong's stranglehold in the East is ongoing. He mounts a response in 1923 by founding (with partners) the Eastern Colored League to rival the Negro National League. The first-ever negro World Series between competing major leagues is played in 1924, pitting the Kansas City Monarchs versus Hilldale.
It is also debated that were it not for Rube Foster, Nat Strong would have come to dominate the West and virtually all of Negro Leagues baseball. In the same breath, were it not for Nat Strong, perhaps Rube Foster would have come to dominate the East and virtually all of Negro Leagues baseball.
POSTSCRIPT
What a way to ring in Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, and Roaring Twenties ...
Imagine what the summer of 1920 in and around Ebbets Field might have been like. I can hear the uproarious revelry now. The Atlantic City Bacharach Giants become the first Negro League team to play at Ebbets Field. In 1920, they posted a remarkable 100-37-4 regular-season record and brought top tier Negro League championship baseball to Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Robins are winning their second National League pennant in five seasons. A great time to be had by everyone. Well, mostly, everyone. The Brooklyn Royal Giants season was also culminating in a "Colored World Championship." However, Nat Strong per his usual books, the championship series against the Cuban Stars in Washington D.C. at Griffith Stadium. In October, the Royal Giants and Hilldale Club face off to decide a "Colored Champion of the East." Nat Strong likewise books the four-game series just outside Philadelphia. So much for Brooklyn being home sweet home.
Sources:
James E. Overmyer: Black Ball and the Boardwalk: The Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City
Center for Negro League Baseball Research
NegroLeagues.Bravehurst/The DonaldsonNetwork
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