OTD at EBBETS FIELD 9/25/1921: Atlantic City Bacharach Giants Defeat the Hilldale Club at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place Grounds

From the desk: JOHN W. CONNOR'S REVENGE

The Standard Union, (Brooklyn, NY), Monday, September 26, 1921

On Sunday, September 25, 1921, the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City defeated their rival, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn.

The Standard Union, (Brooklyn, NY), 

Monday, September 26, 1921

HILLDALE CLUB  vs. 

ATLANTIC CITY BACHARACH GIANTS

Before a crowd upwards of 3,000 fans, Hilldale right-hander Phil Cockrell climbs the bump opposed by Dick "Cannonball" Redding for the Giants.  Both open with three scoreless innings.  

The visitors finally breakthrough with two runs in the fourth, but the Bacharachs answer in the bottom half of the frame with three.  In their next at-bat, Hilldale scores knotting the game at three.  After a quiet sixth, the Bacharach Giants take a 4-3 lead in the seventh.  Cannonball makes it stand, closing out the game with four scoreless frames.  

All told, Dick Redding holds Hilldale to three runs on ten hits and five walks with four strikeouts for the win.  Center fielder Otto Briggs (3) and shortstop Bill Francis (2) account for half of Hilldale's ten hits, while first baseman Toussaint Allen goes 2 for 4 with a double and registers a game-high eleven putouts.  Meanwhile, Redding holds future Hall of Famers Louis Santop and Judy Johnson

hitless in nine at-bats.

Hilldale starter Phil Cockrell in a tightly contested loss, allows four runs on ten hits and two walks with four strikeouts.  Center fielder Jesse Barber leads the Bacharach Giants with three hits, including a double and a run scored, first baseman Bill Pettus goes 2 for 4 with a triple, and second baseman Sam Mongin wields two hits in two trips.

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Background: Why, JOHN W. CONNOR'S REVENGE?  Mr. Connor, in 1904/1905, founded the Brooklyn Royal Giants.  To John Connor's great dissatisfaction, booking games ultimately meant dealing with the East's preeminent booking agent, Nat Strong.  The two maintained a contentious relationship from hello.  Yet by the end of the decade, Nat Strong is officially listed as the Royal Giant's official business manager.  By 1913, John Connor, for stated reasons, decides to step away from baseball, leaving (selling) complete control of the Brooklyn Royal Giants in the hands of Nat Strong.  A debate remains whether Connor exited for stated reasons or was he effectively pushed out by Nat Strong.

The Atlantic City Bacharach Giants were formed in 1916, but they found themselves in financial straits within a few years.  They needed an investor and found one in John W. Connor, who decided he wanted back into the game.  By 1919 he and a partner are bankrolling the team and begin raiding rosters of the Brooklyn Royal Giants and Lincoln Giants.  But Mr. Connor knows to generate profits, they'll need to invade New York City, Nat Strong's territory, where he wields control over almost all the main baseball venues.  Strong, in alliance with the owners of the Lincoln Giants, conspire together to keep such Negro competition outside the New York City limits.

John Connor's ace up his leave is Charles H. Ebbets, co-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers.  During the earlier years of the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Charles Ebbets negotiated with Mr. Connor to let the Royal Giants play at Washington Park.  Their acquaintance endured, and Ebbets once again pledged availability of his ballpark to the Bacharach Giants.  In turn, John Connor's aggregation was in complete control of booking their own games and doing so on Nat Strong's turf.  It's a saga unto itself.

From the New York Age 8/30/1924: New York Lincoln Giants, Hilldale Club Mourn Passing of Bill Pettus; Split Doubleheader at Catholic Protectory Oval, Bronx

From the desk: THE NEW YORK AGE

The New York Age, Saturday, August 30, 1924

As reported in the Saturday, August 30, 1924, edition of the New York Age, veteran baseball player Bill Pettus at the too-young age of forty, passed away (on August 22) of tuberculosis at the Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, New York.  He was laid to rest two days later at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Long Island.

The New York Age, Saturday, August 30, 1924

After a brief stint as a boxer in California, Bill Pettus in 1909 begins his baseball career as a catcher for the Kansas City Giants.  The following season, he joins the Chicago Giants.  That's where he meets a 24-year old Joe Williams, another newcomer to the team who played the previous season with the San Antonio Black Bronchos.  The two become battery mates and best friends.  In 1912, Pettus and Williams joined the New York Lincoln Giants, where they remain teammates for the better part of the next eight seasons.

"...for a long time, Pettus was the only man to catch for Williams." - The New York Age.

Bill Pettus would also play for the Brooklyn Royal Giants and New York Lincoln Stars until rejoining Joe Williams and the Lincoln Giants in 1916 and through the 1920 season.  He retired from play after the 1923 season, but not before organizing the Richmond Giants in 1921 and in 1922 the Harrisburgh Giants.

Led by former teammate and manager Judy Gans, the entire New York Lincoln Giant team attends funeral services.  Also present are representatives of the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Hilldale Club, and Harrisburgh Giants.

Shortly after services, on Sunday, August 24, 1924, the New York Lincoln Giants and Hilldale stage a doubleheader at Catholic Protectory Oval, Bronx.

The New York Age, Saturday, August 30, 1924

EASTERN COLORED LEAGUE

HILLDALE CLUB vs. NEW YORK LINCOLN GIANTS

GAME ONE finds the Lincoln Giants out of sorts.  Starting for Hilldale, Nip Winters holds the Giants to five runs on five hits but issued seven walks.  Otherwise, Winters holds New York scoreless over the final six innings and strikes out five (catcher putouts) for the win.  Lincoln Giant's first baseman Roberts Hudspeth wields two doubles; right fielder Bennie Wilson, shortstop Gerard Williams, and catcher Rich Gee account for the remaining balance of New York hits.  Meanwhile, Hilldale punishes the offerings of Giants' left-hander, Judy Gans, to the tune of 14 runs on 21 hits, with five going for extra bases.  Nip Winters helps his own cause with three hits, including a home run.  Hilldale right fielder Otto Briggs

also wields three hits, including a triple.  Third baseman Judy Johnson goes 3 for 6 with a double and a team-leading three runs scored.  Judy Gans' only claim to success was keeping Biz Mackey

hitless in six trips to the plate, but the same cannot be said about the rest of Hilldale's nine.

The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, Monday, August 25, 1924

GAME TWO is a much more tightly contested affair.  After pitching the final two innings of game one, Judy Gans starts the first four innings of the second match.  Already trailing 3-0 after three, Gans yields a home run to second baseman Frank Warfield in the visitor's fourth.  Southpaw Dave Brown then holds Hilldale scoreless over the final five innings.  The Lincoln Giants rally for three runs in the home fourth, knocking Hilldale starter Red Ryan out of the box.  New York then pushes across the tying run in the fifth.  The score remains unchanged through the eighth.  Dave Brown retires Hilldale in the top half of the ninth.  Frank Warfield's misplay in the home ninth sets the stage for George Scales' game-winning base hit.  Scales leads the Lincoln Giants with four hits, and center fielder Harry Kenyon goes 2 for 3 with a double and two runs scored.  Dave Brown earns the win in relief.

 

The New York Age, 

Saturday, August 30, 1924