Dick Whitworth

Chicago Whip, July 9, 1919

At the beginning of the 1919 season, Rube Foster crowned Richard "Dick" Whitworth the "greatest pitcher in the world."  He had already been the ace of Foster's American Giants for a few seasons by that point, pitching a no-hitter in his first year with the team.  Despite being a fan favorite in Chicago, Whit was released before the 1920 season as part of a plan to redistribute star players to different teams in the newly formed Negro National League.  He was meant to go to Detroit to play for the Stars but Whitworth had a different plan.  He headed east, joining the independent Hilldale club for two seasons instead.

Foster eventually brought Whitworth back to Chicago for another stint starting in 1922, but he suffered a serious leg injury in an automobile accident at the end of that season and was out for an extended period.  Whitworth was released from the American Giants for the final time before the start of the 1925 season.  He spent the summer in Kansas City instead, where he managed and pitched for the (Montgomery Ward) Monitors.

In the spring of the next year, Whitworth reported to Spring Valley, Illinois where he joined up with Gilkerson's club.  The two men had a long history together.  Before the American Giants, Whitworth had started his career with the 1914 Chicago Union Giants while Gilkerson was the team's traveling business manager.  The two had remained friends over the years.  In joining Gilkerson, Whitworth was also reunited with two of his old teammates from the 1914 squad, Clarence "Pops" Coleman and Jess "Bee" Turner.  Also joining Whitworth on the Union Giants was catcher Otto "Jay Bird" Ray who had been with him on the KC Monitors team the summer before.

Dick Whitworth - 1926 Gilkerson's Union Giants
Source: Phil Dixon

Whitworth started off the 1926 season with Gilkerson's Union Giants but only stayed with the team for about a month, pitching mostly in Illinois.  In one of the first games of the season, Whit gave up just one run on eight hits for an early win over the South Side team of Peoria.  He later pitched in Monmouth and Sterling.   As the team headed west, he was on the mound in Newton, IA but by mid-June, he was no longer travelling with the club.  It is unclear why he left or where he went next.   He would eventually return, but it we be nearly four years later.

In 1930, at the age of 34, Dick Whitworth was one of the main starters for the Union Giants for the entire season, traveling to more than half a dozen states and parts of Canada.  The other pitchers of the team that summer were Owen Smaulding, Cristóbal Torriente, "Yellow Horse" Morris, Earl Harrison, Maurice Young and Fred Sims.   On occasion, Joe Johnson (aka Joe Lillard) and Hurley McNair also pitched when necessary.  Whitworth was the team's ace however, pitching more than any of the others that summer.

According to the available box and line scores, here are just some of the games that Whitworth pitched in during the 1930 season:

Of the games identified, Whitworth started 28 times with 17 complete games (indicated with *).  He pitched in relief on four occasions.  The Union Giants' record when Whitworth was on the mound was 21-11.  It is worth noting that there are many games unaccounted for.  It is plausible that Whitworth pitched at least a dozen more times that summer.  Whitworth did not return to the Union Giants in 1931.

Illinois Giants OR Lost Island Lake Giants

Detail of recently auctioned photo from the Phil Dixon Collection.  Source: Hunt Auctions

 The above photograph was recently sold online with the following description:

Illinois Giants Negro League Semi-Pro Barnstorming photograph c.1915 Original 2 1/2"x4 1/4" sepia tone snapshot image of two un-identified players from the Illinois Giants who were a Midwestern Negro League semi-pro team from 1909-1929.

 

Looking closely at the uniforms however, I wonder if this isn't instead a picture of two players from the 1917 Lost Island Lake Giants, a predecessor to Gilkerson's Union Giants.  The large letters running vertically along the buttons appear to me to read L-I-L and not I-L-L.

The only known photo of the Lost Island Lake Giants we have to compare it to is the team photo which ran in the Sioux City Journal, September 13, 1917.  The angle at which the players are standing makes it difficult to tell, but I believe the GIANTS across the chest is a match.  (That is Robert Gilkerson standing at the front of the line.)

As for the Illinois Giants, they were actually two distinct teams that used that name.  Both have connections to Robert Gilkerson.

The original Illinois Giants were an African American semi-pro team that played primarily in Chicago but also barnstormed around Illinois and Michigan starting in 1909.  When Gilkerson arrived in Chicago in July of that year, the Illinois Giants were one of the first teams he played for.  The team however was only together for two seasons.  There is no evidence that the Illinois Giants were still playing around 1915, when the photograph at the top was thought to have been taken.

In 1921, Louis Murphy, a white theatre owner and wannabe baseball promoter from Spring Valley, Illinois, organized an all new African American barnstorming team called the Illinois Giants.  The team, which was usually advertised as being from Chicago, had several good players over the years, including a young Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe.  Radcliffe eventually played for Gilkerson for part of a season.   He was one of several men to play for both clubs.  

La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press, August 8, 1921

Murphy and Gilkerson, both from Spring Valley, certainly knew each other.  They were mostly cordial towards each other in the press and were very likely friends off the field.  On the field however, Gilkerson's Union Giants and the Illinois Giants were rivals, going head to head against one another multiple times over the years.

The Chicago Whip, Oct. 7, 1922

The Illinois Giants stayed together until at least 1928, after which Murphy went on to manage one of the House of David teams that barnstormed across the country.  Again, Gilkerson and Murphy's teams continued to clash from time to time, much to the delight of baseball fans across the Upper Midwest.

Back to the photograph at the very top, the question remains who might the players be?  If they are indeed members of the Lost Island Lake Giants, they are very likely one of these men:

• W. H. "Bingo" Bingham
• Hugh Blackburn
• Edgar Burch
• ? Davis
• ? Francis
• Will Jones
• ? Lynch
• Hurley McNair
• ? Meredith
• Jess Turner
• Ruby Tyrees
• Clifford White

Can anyone help narrow it down even more?

Lefty Wilson

In the previous post, I mentioned that Gilkerson's team got off to a good start in 1926, in part, due to the fine pitching of "Lefty" Wilson.  Wilson, it turns out, was actually Negro Leagues pitcher Dave Brown.  

By the numbers, Brown was one of the greatest pitchers to have ever played the game.  Of moundsmen with at least 600 innings pitched, Brown has one of the lowest career ERAs (2.36) and highest career winning percentages (.741) in all of the Negro Leagues.   His stats are somewhat skewed however by the fact that his professional playing days was cut woefully short.  

At the start of the 1925 season, while playing in New York for the Lincoln Giants, Brown was (wrongfully) accused of murder in New York City.  Suddenly wanted by the FBI, Brown went on the lam.  He eventually made his way to the Midwest, likely landing in Chicago where he once had great success pitching for Rube Foster and the American Giants.  Those days were gone.

Brown was determined to keep pitching however.  In the spring of 1926, he found his way to Spring Valley, Illinois where he joined Gilkerson and his Union Giants for the next several months.  During his brief tenure with the team and for many years after, Brown used the alias William "Lefty" Wilson on and off the field.  

Wilson is credited with having the first start of the 1926 season for the Union Giants, an exhibition game on May 9th against the Princeton (IL) Tigers.  The Union Giants won, 6-5, in eleven innings.  Dave "Mule" Knight came in to pitch at some point, with Wilson finishing the game in left field.

Here are a handful of other games that Wilson pitched in for the Union Giants based on line scores and game summaries.  He was likely on the mound every 3-4 days so there are plenty more unaccounted for:

• May 22:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 7, LaSalle (IL) 1

• May 25:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 6, Monmouth (IL) Independents 6

Wilson was relieved by Dick Whitworth at some point.  The game ended in a tie after 10 innings because Monmouth had a second game scheduled that afternoon.  

• May 31:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 8, Sterling (IL) 4

• June 7:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 9, Newton (IA) Maytags 1

Wilson gave up one run on three hits.  

• June 12:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 9, Chip's All Stars of Lone Rock (IA) 2

• June 20:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 11, Knights of Columbus (Davenport, IA) 4

Wilson pitched all nine innings in a game against the Caseys, giving up four runs on nine hits.  He struck out seven.

• June 27:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 3, Galesburg (IL) 0
• June 27:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 5, Galesburg (IL) 4

Wilson pitched in both games of a doubleheader.  In the first contest, he threw a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits.  In the second game, he pitched two innings of relief.

• July 4:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 6, Lismore (MN) 1

At a big 4th of July celebration, Wilson pitched a complete game, giving up just one run.  John Donaldson pitched the second half of the game for Lismore.  According to Harry J. Earle of the Fairmont Daily Sentinel, "Lefty displayed pitching form galore."

• July 5:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 14, Charles City (IA) Collegians 6

Despite having pitched a complete game the day before, Wilson entered the contest in the third inning after Maurice Young gave up six runs in the opening innings.  Wilson slammed the door on the Collegians.  "Not a man reached third base in the seven frames he worked.  Lefty knows how to pitch," according to Earle.

• July 9:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 2, Spencer (IA) 0

Wilson threw a one-hitter, striking out 17, against the Spencer team on July 9th. 

• July 12:  Gilkerson's Union Giants 12, Winona (MN) 7

I could not find any evidence of Wilson losing a single game while on the mound for the Union Giants in 1926.  By mid-July however, he was no longer pitching for Gilkerson.  Instead, he was playing for the Pipestone (MN) Black Sox.  In one of his first games with the all African American team, Wilson struck out 14 against Granite Falls (MN).  In a game against Le Mars (IA), Wilson was advertised as the "best southpaw in the USA."

By August, Wilson was pitching for a different African American team, the Lone Rock All Stars of Iowa.  For the next several seasons, Dave Brown (as Wilson) would continue to move around from team to team in the Upper Midwest.  He remained a wanted man.

On at least two occasions in 1927, Wilson faced off against the Union Giants.  At the time he was pitching for the Armstrong (IA) club.  The Union Giants won both contests easily.  The recap for one of the games in the Fairmont Daily Sentinel said that Wilson had done "brilliant work" despite the score.  The newspaper also mentioned that Wilson was going to be rejoining Gilkerson's squad but I could not find any proof that he ever did.

For a detailed article about Dave Brown's entire pitching career as well as his life outside of baseball, including the murder and its aftermath, read Frederick C. Bush's excellent SABR biography.

Plenty Tough At Best

Harry J. Earle was a vaudeville performer turned sports reporter based in Fairmont, Minnesota in the 1920's and 1930's.  He was almost certainly one of only a few African Americans living in Marion County at that time.  Earle's column in the Fairmont Daily Sentinel covered Gilkerson's team extensively whenever they passed through the area.  Thanks to Earle, we have names and details about players and games that would otherwise be lost to time.  He even traveled with the Union Giants for a few days in early July 1926, providing us with one of the best reports of the era about life on the road for a Black barnstorming team.

In late June 1926, Gilkerson's men were bouncing around northern Iowa and would soon reach southern Minnesota. The team had gotten off to a hot start that season thanks in part to the pitching of "Lefty" Wilson and the home runs of "Steel Arm" Davis.  As always, the Union Giants were in high demand for 4th of July celebrations.  The previous year, they drew a crowd of 36,000 people in Wisconsin for a single game during the holiday weekend.  In 1926, they would play five games in three days, traveling hundreds of miles between engagements.

Greene Reporter, June 16, 1926

The Union Giants were in Albert Lea, MN on July 2nd for a game against the local team.  With Dave "Mule" Knight on the mound, the Union Giants beat the Tigers, 3-1.  The win, according to the Albert Lea Evening Tribune, "gave the Giants a record of forty-nine wins and five defeats for the season."  The team quickly headed south to Greene, IA to play the Eldora team as part of the town's Sesqui-Centennial Celebration.

In front of a large crowd in Greene, the Union Giants defeated the Eldora team 4-3.  Maurice Young pitched for Gilkerson while field manager Clarence "Pops" Coleman did the catching.  The team likely did not stick around to enjoy the festivities however.  Instead, they got right back on the road and headed north to Fairmont where they were scheduled to a play a double header the next day, starting at 1 pm.

In Fairmont, they would face the Lismore, MN team which included legendary African American pitcher John Donaldson.  In the second game, they would meet the team from Swea City, IA.  The advertisements for the event called it "the greatest baseball card ever assembled for one day."  

An article promoting the contests claimed, "Donaldson has won more ball games than any living ball pitcher, white or colored, and Gilkerson has won more ball games than any other colored base ball manager in the world.  Swea City will be loaded for bear, as a win for them means a reputation worth thousands of dollars.  The management guarantees this to be the best aggregation of base ball stars they ever had, and has guaranteed these team over one thousand dollars to get them.

The Truman Tribune, July 1, 1926

The Union Giants did not arrive in Fairmont until six that morning due to car troubles.  Despite the all night journey from Iowa, Gilkerson's team won both contests easily.  Harry J. Earle recapped the twin bill for the Fairmont Daily Sentinel the next day.  

 "Gilkerson's Union Giants won both games of the double header at Hand's Park yesterday.  Lefty Wilson held Lismore in check during the opener to cop a 6 to 1 verdict.  Lefty displayed pitching form galore to snatch the victory.  Dedus started the game for Lismore and the famous John Donaldson finished.  Three runs were scored off each pitcher.  Three double steals netted three runs while Donaldson was on the mound.  The Giants' hitting and inside baseball won for them."  He added that "Steel Arm Davis added a home run to his string by dumping one over the right field fence in the first game."

In the second game, the Union Giants defeated the Swea City team 3-0.  Earle wrote, "Knight held Swea City to four hits, but his support was spectacular throughout."  Later he wrote, "it was by far the best game of the season to be staged at the park."  The Union Giants could not enjoy the victories for long however.  They had another doubleheader scheduled in Charles City, IA the next day starting at 10 am.  With little rest, it would mean getting back on the road for several more hours.

Earle decided to make the trip to Charles City with the team.  On July 7th, 1926 the Fairmont Daily Sentinel published Earle's report from the road:

    The writer embarked for Charles City with the Gilkerson caravan Sunday night and experienced once again, the trials and tribulations that go with a traveling baseball club.  We arrived in Charles City about 3:45 a.m.  The Union Giants were slated for a morning game at 10 o'clock with the Charles City Collegians.  The boys were in uniform at 9 o'clock, without breakfast.  Arrived at the Lion's Park, where a huge celebration was staged about 9:30.  With no hitting practice the Giants annihilated the Collegians 14 to 6.  Young started the game but gave way to Lefty Wilson after the Collegians had registered their six runs.  Wilson had just hurled the game at Hand's Park, but he stood the Collegians on their heads.  Not a man reached third base in the seven frames he worked.  Lefty knows how to pitch.

    The morning setto drew a large crowd, but the afternoon game was the knockout.  Fully 5,000 customers saw the afternoon session.

    The morning game did not conclude until after 12 o'clock and as the aftermath was slated for 3, the boys were not allowed to eat.  The four games in two days and the 300 mile jump began to toll.  Knight started on the mound for the Giants but had nothing, not even a prayer, so "Steel Arm" Davis, the home run hitter took up the burden, and his stuff ran short after two frames and Knight was sent back to the mound.  When the smoke had cleared, the score was 14 to 1 in the favor of the Collegians.  The Giants' one run being a homer, coming from Mr. Davis.

    "Red" Learn worked on the mound for the Collegians in the afternoon and had plenty.  His win was merited, but the fans of that city will always believe that Gil's crew laid down. 

    It is great stuff, to listen to the different "why fors" when a colored traveling club gets the short end of the score.  Gilkerson has a better club than Charles City, and that's no joke, but they were beaten without a chance Monday afternoon and offered no alibi.  It was just a simple case of vitality snapping.  The life of a traveling ball club is plenty tough at best, but Gil caught three big celebrations - five games in three days - and the answer is there.  Just why the fans will always think that the game was framed when Gilkersons' drop one, is more than we can understand.

Tired and hungry, the Union Giants still managed to win four out of five games over the long holiday weekend.  Still, unrealistic expectations to win everyday were put upon the team by both their fans and their detractors.  Earle illustrates nicely how, despite having a better team than most of their opponents, life on the road came with challenges that even the best of teams could not always overcome.

Gilkerson's club would continue on in this manner for three more months.  In the end, they would log thousands of miles around the upper Midwest and finish the season with an impressive record of 117 wins, 22 losses and four ties.

Webster McDonald & The Mysterious Duff

Webster McDonald was a right-handed "submarine artist" that pitched for a number of great Negro League teams including the Chicago American Giants, the Homestead Grays and the Philadelphia Stars.  In 1952, the Pittsburgh Courier voted him to their "Honor Roll" team as one of the best African American pitchers of all time.  

This photo, which was published in the Philadelphia Daily News around the time of his death in 1982, appears to show McDonald warming up for Gilkerson's Union Giants sometime in the late 1920's.   

McDonald only pitched for Gilkerson a handful of times in 1928 and 1929.  He was never a regular member of the Union Giants' roster.  Instead, Gilkerson would hire him on a limited basis for big games at the end of the season, especially tournaments with large purses.

Between 1928 and 1931, McDonald pitched for a white team in Little Falls, Minnesota for most of the season.  The Union Giants traveled in that part of the country often, playing the Little Falls team a number of times during those years.  In late August 1928, the Union Giants faced off against McDonald.  He struck out seven of the Union Giants in a extra inning game but had no run support whatsoever.  The Union Giants beat the Little Falls team, 1-0, in 12 innings.  Less than a month later, McDonald was pitching for the Union Giants in Iowa.  In a game against the Bayside Cubs of Mason City, MacDonald's underhand delivery was described as "wizard-like" as he pitched four shutout innings.

St. Louis Argus, Sep 27, 1929

In June 1929, McDonald threw a shutout against the Union Giants in Little Falls, allowing just five singles in the game.  Three months later he was back on the mound for Gilkerson's team pitching in the championship game of the Eastern Nebraska tournament at Arlington.  McDonald and the Union Giants went up against a team from Blair, Nebraska that was made up of mostly Western League players.

"McDonald, former American Giants Hurler Holds Opponents in Palm of Hand," proclaimed the Kansas City Call.  He gave up just one run on six hits.   The Union Giants won the championship easily, 10-1, which came with a $1,000 prize. 

McDonald briefly remained with he Union Giants, pitching again is Sioux City a few days later.  Against the local Stockyards team, McDonald started the game but only pitched three innings, giving up three hits and two runs. This was likely the last time McDonald pitched for Gilkerson...  or was it?

Starting in 1928, Gilkerson had a mysterious "submarine twirler" that would occasionally pitch for him, typically in Canada.   He was only ever listed as Duff.  The Winnipeg Tribune claimed he was "rated as the best colored submarine pitcher in baseball."  In mid-July 1928, Duff pitched part of a game against the House of David team in Winnipeg.  "Duff's peculiar delivery and his underhand ball which broke sharply, had the bearded stars swinging wildly in the two rounds that he worked.   He was nicked for a single hit, while he whiffed four," wrote the local paper.  The very next night Duff pitched again.  This time a complete game against the House of David, giving up only one run on five hits.  The Union Giants won, 2-1.

When the Union Giants returned to Winnipeg in August, Duff was back with the team, at least for one game.  He showed up to pitch against the Plentywood, Montana team which featured six former major league players, including Happy Felsch.  Thanks to Duff, the Union Giants were able to beat the Plentywood club that night.  It would be their only win in a four game series with the all-star team.  

The Winnipeg Tribune reported, "Duff was in his element last night.  His usual control was perfect and he displayed to the fans once again his ability to cut the plate in half at any time he chose to do it.  He didn't walk a man and made eleven Plentywood batters bite the dust.  His submarine ball looked tantalizingly easy to hit, yet the batters couldn't connect."  After one game, the dominant pitcher disappeared as quickly as he came.

The name Duff wasn't associated with the Union Giants again until late in the 1930 season.  The Union Giants provided a possible lineup for the Southwestern Iowa tournament and it included a pitcher named Duff.  There is no evidence however that Duff ever pitched in any of the contests.  The Union Giants lost the tournament's championship game to the Kari-Keens of Sioux City.  Duff however did return briefly the next year.  In early June 1931, he pitched at least one game against the Stockyards team of Sioux City and then was gone for good.

So who was Duff?  The most logical answer is that it was Webster McDonald pitching under an assumed name.  But why?  McDonald told John Holway in a 1970 interview that his top salary with the Little Falls team was $750 a month with expenses and transportation included, making him the highest paid player in the league by a long shot.  With that in mind, it is quite possible he used an alias so as to not jeopardize his contract with the Little Falls team.  This is only a theory however and needs more research.

Additional Notes:

Gilkerson had another pitcher named McDonald in 1933 and 1934 however this could not have been Webster as he was playing and managing in Philadelphia by then.  Instead, it may have been Luther McDonald.

For more info on Webster McDonald please see his SABR bio by Leslie Heaphy.

The No Hitters & Two Perfect Games

Below is a brief account of ten different no-hitters that Robert Gilkerson was associated with, either as a player, a manager or a team owner.

 

HORACE JENKINS - July 24, 1909

Illinois Giants 3, Chicago Wrigleys 1

Robert Gilkerson left his hometown of Pittsburgh in early July 1909 and headed to Chicago hoping to take his baseball career to the next level.  He played at least one game for the Chicago Union Giants when he arrived but soon joined the Illinois Giants.  In one of his first games with the new team, Gilkerson assisted in a no hitter while playing second base.  On July 24th, his new teammate, Horace Jenkins, struck out nine men, giving up a run on two errors, but allowed no hits against the Chicago Wrigleys.

JAMES HARVEY - July 4, 1911

Chicago Union Giants 2, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin 0

By 1911, Gilkerson was back playing for the Chicago Union Giants full time.  In fact he was the team's captain that year and was playing second base when James Harvey threw a no-hitter in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin on July 4th.  According to the South Bend Tribune, "Harvey pitched a no-hit, no run game, only one man reaching second base."  The Chicago Union Giants won the game 2-0.

BILLY NORMAN (Perfect Game) - July 21, 1913

Chicago Union Giants 10, Guthrie Center, Iowa 0

Robert Gilkerson was spiked in a game in June 1913 that ended his season at second base.  That year however Gilkerson was also the team's manager.   Less than a month later in Guthrie Center, Iowa, the Union Giants defeated the local team 10 to 0.  On the mound that day was William Rufus Norman.  According to the Omaha Daily Bee, "The most remarkable game of the season was played at Guthrie Center, only twenty-seven men facing the colored phenom, Norman, during the entire game and not a man reaching first base."  No line or box score for the game has been identified.  While the score was reported in several other newspapers, none made mention of it being a no-hitter.

EDGAR BURCH - May 28, 1917

Lost Island Lake Giants 5, Toulon, Illinois 0

Gilkerson's playing days ended in 1913 but he stayed on with the Union Giants for several more years as the traveling business manager.  In 1917 however he severed ties with the Chicago club and started his own team.  They had yet to adopt the name of Gilkerson's Union Giants and instead went by a few different monikers that summer.

While playing in Illinois, he often passed his new team off as the "Chicago Union Giants."  This was the case in Toulon, Illinois where the Stark County News reported, "The Chicago Union Giants held Toulon to a no hit, no run, game Monday afternoon on the local grounds, while the Giants secured five runs and could have run up a larger score had they been so minded."  The paper did not record the name of the pitcher.  In Iowa however, Gilkerson's team was known as the Lost Island Lake Giants.  The Des Moines Register provided a line score for the exact same game (above) where that team name is used and Edgar Burch is credited with the no-hitter.

EDGAR BURCH & RUBE CURRY (Combined) - June 8, 1919

Gilkerson's Union Giants 7, Sutherland, Iowa 0

In early 1919, Gilkerson's team was still playing near Ruthven, Iowa and still promoting themselves as either the historic Union Giants of Chicago or the Ruthven Union Giants.  By the end of the season, they settled on Gilkerson's Union Giants.  In one of the first games of the season Edgar Burch and Rube Curry threw a combined no-hitter against the Sutherland, Iowa team in front of 1,500 people.  According to the Ruthven Free Press, "Burch pitched the first six innings and did not allow the visitors a hit, and Curry who threw the last three also held them hitless."

RUBE CURRY (Perfect Game) - August 31, 1919

Gilkerson's Union Giants 11, Wellsburg, Iowa 0

The best bit of pitching in a Union Giants uniform however came in the second half of the 1919 season when Rube Curry pitched a perfect game against the Wellsburg, Iowa team.  The Des Moines Register recorded the achievement this way, "The winning pitcher was never in danger at any time during the full nine innings.  The locals failed to put a man on first base, either by the free walk route or by a hit."  The Sioux City Journal reported the win a few days later:  "Wellsburg lost to the Union Giants 11 to 0.  Curry, pitching for the Giants, did not permit a Wellsburg runner to reach first base."

Even a decade later the Kansas City American Sports made note of the accomplishment:  "Currie also pitched a no-hit, no-run game against Wellsburg, while he was playing with the Union Giants in 1919.  He didn't allow a man to get to first."

LUTHER FARRELL - September 20, 1922

Gilkerson's Union Giants 5, Whitehall, Wisconsin 0

By 1922, Curry and Burch were gone from the rotation and Luther Farrell was the new ace of Gilkerson's Union Giants.  In a game in Whitehall, Wisconsin near the end of the season, Farrell blanked the locals in a 5-0 win.  According to the Winona Daily News, "Luther, the colored southpaw ace, was the shining light of the game.  His fast and wicked shoots completely baffled the Whitehall batters with the result that not a single hit was collected off his delivery in the nine frames.  Only one Whitehall player reached first during the game.  That was on a walk.  Luther whiffed ten batters."  The Chicago Whip's recap of the game recorded 12 strikeouts for Farrell.

LUTHER FARRELL (No Hit One Hit Loss) - June 26, 1923

Tomahawk, WI 2, Gilkerson's Union Giants 0

In early July 1923, the Chicago Defender reported that Luther Farrell pitched another no-hitter in Wisconsin, however this time it was for a loss.  The Tomahawk Leader's recap of the game however, printed two days after the fact, included this rebuke of the no-hitter:  "The remarkable feature of the game was that Tomahawk won although they only got one safe hit and that was by Wangler who beat out an infield hit to the bag."  Wangler's hit did not contribute to the score however.  The Leader confirms that Tomahawk's two runs were achieved without a hit.

TOM COX - July ?, 1925

Gilkerson's Union Giants 14, Guttenberg, Iowa 0

Charles "Tom" Cox was in his second season pitching for Gilkerson when he threw a no-hitter in Guttenberg, Iowa according to the Chicago Defender.  The line score was printed on July 18th but the date of the game was not provided.

ADMIRAL WALKER - August 22, 1926

Gilkerson's Union Giants 4, Newton Maytags 0

In his second year with the Union Giants, Admiral Walker pitched a no hitter against the Newton Maytags of Newton, Iowa in August.  Several newpapers noted that 36 assists were made by the two teams in the game.  The next season, Walker would go on to pitch for the Kansas City Monarchs.

FRED SIMS - August 26, 1926

Gilkerson's Union Giants 10, Lone Rock All Stars 0

A few days after Walker's no-hitter, Union Giants pitcher Fred Sims threw another one in Thornton, Iowa.  This time it was against the Lone Rock All Stars... or was it Rockdale?  Multiple newspapers reported the win over the All Stars, an African American team based in Lone Rock, Iowa.  The newspapers in Davenport, Iowa however reported, "Jimmy Sims hurled a no-hit, no run game at Thornton, Ia., yesterday, the Gilkersons defeating Rockdale by the score of 10 to 0.  The Giants secured 14 hits, including two home runs by 'Steel Arm' Davis."

The Cuban Players

There were at least seven different Cuban players on the Union Giants over the years, including one Hall of Famer.  For most seasons, starting in 1922, Gilkerson had one or two Spanish-speaking players on his roster at a time.  In 1929 and 1930, he had three.  In 1935, shortly before the team folded, Gilkerson even briefly changed the name of his team to the Cuban Giants.

Robert Gilkerson's connection to the baseball-loving island went all the way back to his playing days.  In October 1910, while Gilkerson was still playing for the Chicago Union Giants, the Benton Harbor News-Palladium reported that Gilkerson and the team had just "returned from a trip to Cuba, where they played a series with the Havana team."  

In 1911, the Escanaba Daily Press reported in November that Gilkerson himself was preparing to leave for Cuba where he played for a Cuban team during the winter months.  How much time he actually spent on the island however, is not well documented.  Once he became a team owner, it would be years before Gilkerson signed anyone born on the island.

The Cuban player that spent the most time with Gilkerson's Union Giants was Rogelio Crespo (pictured above, on right).  He was with Gilkerson for a total of ten seasons: 1922-1925, 1928-1930 and again from 1932-1934.  During his long run with the Union Giants, Crespo likely helped bring other Cuban players to the team.  When he wasn't barnstorming with the Union Giants, Crespo played for various teams back in Cuba as well as the Cuban Stars (East).   In fact, several of the Cubans that eventually played for Gilkerson also spent time on the Cuban team from New York.

The reason that Gilkerson kept bringing Crespo back year after year wasn't his connections however, it was his versatility and his reliability.  Most seasons, Gilkerson had him playing at different spots in the infield, either second base, shortstop or third base.  In 1923, 1925 and 1933 however, he was primarily an outfielder for the club.  While other players came and went over the course of a season, Crespo rarely missed a game.

One rare exception was in August 1924 when Crespo was spiked at third base in a game against the Twin City Red Sox of Sauk City, Wisconsin, a team that featured Happy Felsch, former member of the Chicago Black Sox.  The hard slide split Crespo's leg open "from knee to ankle."  According to the Fennimore Times, "Crespo was taken to the Cunningham hospital, where eight stitches were put in to bind the wound."   He was back on the field in a couple of weeks. 

In later years, the Union Giants traveled to Canada regularly, sometimes multiple times a season.  Crespo and the other Cuban players generally went along without incident.  In July 1932 however, having already visited Canada once that season, Crespo refused to travel north of the border.  The Bellingham (WA) Herald reported, "Al Crespo, Giant second sacker, stayed here last night, refusing to go to Vancouver with the team.  Crespo, it appears, was born in Cuba, and fearing any 'foreign entanglements' arising from questioning by the immigration authorities of Canada, he decided to stay here while the team was across the line."   Even though the Union Giants continued to travel to Canada the next two seasons, Crespo doesn't appear in any Canadian box scores after this point.

In 1923, Gilkerson added a second Cuban to the squad when catcher Frank Cárdenas joined the Union Giants.  Cárdenas was behind the plate from May until October of that year.  Cárdenas did not return in 1924 but pitcher David Gómez joined the Union Giants, pitching for the team that entire summer.  Gómez also stayed just one season.  He would go on to pitch for the Cuban Stars (West) for the next several years.

In June of 1925, the Union Giants briefly had an outfielder and backup catcher by the name of Abreu, sometimes spelled Abrew, Abru, or Abrean in box scores.   I originally thought this could have been Eufemio Abreu, however Eufemio was playing pretty consistently for the Cuban Stars (West) in June of 1925.  Perhaps a young Juan Abreu?  For now, it remains a mystery.  Whoever he was, he only stayed with Gilkerson's club for about a month.

Crespo left the Union Giants in '26-'27 to play for the Cuban Stars (East) once again.  When he returned in 1928, he was joined in the infield by Pelayo Chacón, a teammate from the Stars.  Crespo played second base and Chacón was at third for almost the entire season for the Union Giants.

Ogden Standard-Examiner
July 27, 1931

Chacón left in '29 but Frank Cárdenas returned to the team as catcher that year.   The big addition in 1929 however was Cristóbal Torriente.  Torriente stayed with the team, on and off, for three years, primarily as a pitcher but also playing the outfield.  The veteran player was well past his prime at this point in his career but he could still pitch and hit and was often billed as the star attraction on Gilkerson's squad.  

With Cárdenas behind the plate and Torriente on the mound, the Union Giants had a distinct advantage, which was pointed out by the Sioux City Journal, "When the Cuban battery is working they talk over the situation in Spanish, much to the discomfiture of opposing hitters."  The Sioux City newspaper however also reported that Cárdenas had been on the injured list for part of the 1929 season.  

In 1930, Gilkerson got a new Cuban catcher to pair with Torriente, José María Fernández.  Fernández however was only with the team during the first half of the season.   As reported in the Chicago Defender, Fernández and pitcher "Yellowhorse" Morris both left Gilkerson to join the Chicago American Giants in early July.  Torriente also appears to have left the team around the same time.  He returned in 1931 for most of the season.

The last Cuban (sort of) to play for Gilkerson was pitcher Juan Padrón during the ill-fated 1935 season.  According to Seamheads, Padrón was actually born in Key West, Florida.  The Grand Rapids Press described him as "a Cuban of Spanish and West Indian descent.  He speaks Spanish fluently.  He goes back to Cuba each winter, after playing baseball during the summer months in the United States, and plays quite a few games at Havana each winter."

St. Louis Argus, Sep 4, 1931

Padrón had been living and playing in Michigan since at least 1930.  In Grand Rapids in 1931, Padrón pitched in several exhibition games against Major League teams, including both teams in the World Series that year, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Athletics.  Against the Cardinals, Padrón pitched a 10-inning complete game, striking out seven batters and allowing just six hits and one run, which was enough for the win.  A month later, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series.

At the start of the 1934 season, Padrón was leading a team in Michigan called the Cuban Giants.  The team disbanded by June and several of the players, none of them actually Cuban, joined up with Gilkerson mid-season.  In 1935, Padrón joined Gilkerson as well.  The team started out as the Union Giants as usual but by June of 1935 they were now calling themselves the Cuban Giants.  The Green Bay Press-Gazette said the team was "formed out of former Cuban and Hawaiian players."  In truth, Padrón was the only member of the team with any Cuban heritage.  Gilkerson's entire operation came to a stop before the end of the summer.

Clarence Lee Moore

Source:  National Baseball Hall of Fame

Clarence Lee Moore was a born in El Dorado, Arkansas but played an important role in Black baseball in Asheville, North Carolina in the 1940's as the owner and manager of the Asheville Blues.  His life and career are well documented in the 2012 Black Ball article, "Wonder Team of the Carolinas" by Pamela Mitchem. 

Here I want to focus on the few seasons, early in his career, that Moore played for Gilkerson's Union Giants.  According to Mitchem's article, Moore "spent three years with the Chicago Union Giants, with whom he reportedly earned $300 a month and played against Happy Felsch, one of the 1919 'Black Sox' stars banned from the big leagues more than a decade earlier."  

In the footnotes to the article, Mitchem adds, "Moore also told interviewers that the team played for substantial cash north of the border: We played in Canada; the first prize was $20,000.  I knocked in the winning run against a good left-handed pitcher."

First, I should point out, Mitchem's article misidentifies Gilkerson's team as the "Chicago Union Giants," an all too common mistake.  The other quibble I have with the article is the description of the above photo which Mitchem includes as "an undated photograph of Clarence Moore in his Chicago Unions uniform."  I believe this is wrong, though I recognize it may have been mislabeled by the Baseball Hall of Fame, Mitchem's source for the photograph.  According to Mitchem's own article, Moore attended Virginia Union University in Richmond for three years on a baseball scholarship.   I believe the photo is actually Moore in his college uniform and not with the Union Giants.

Beyond these clarifications, here is what I can confirm and add to Moore's baseball biography:  C.L. Moore played first base for Gilkerson's team in 1927, 1928 and again in 1934.  During that time, he took part in several tournaments in Canada and definitely played against Happy Felsch and other major league players, just as Mitchem wrote.

Moore first joined the Union Giants in July 1927 while the team was playing in Iowa.  Two months into the season, the Union Giants were going through a bit of a rebuild.  After adding Moore, Gilkerson acquired southpaw, Ted Shaw, who had been pitching for the Chicago Giants.  Shortly after that, Gilkerson picked up three players from the Sioux City All Stars: catcher Walter Harris, pitcher and outfielder Earl "Iron Horse" Harrison, and outfielder Raymond Sharp.  These five men, with Moore playing first base, would stay on with the Union Giants for the rest of the season.

The 1927 team would prove to be one of the best teams Gilkerson ever assembled.  The other players already on the squad included Eddie Dwight in the outfield, Dave Thomas at second base, Charley Akers at shortstop, and "Newt" Joseph at third base.  An additional pitcher traveling with the team was Fred Sims from Iowa.  In August, Gilkerson added pitcher "Eggie" Hensley and outfielder ? Jones.  Clarence "Pops" Coleman was the team's manager, although he did some catching and even played first base, early in the season.

Winnipeg Tribune, Aug 20, 1927

The July additions quickly had an impact.  Before the end of the month, Ted Shaw threw both games of a double header against two different teams in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  He struck out 20 men that day and only allowed two hits in the 2nd game.  The Union Giants won both games easily.

In August, Moore went 4-for-4 at the plate in a game against the House of David team in Winnipeg.  Collectively, the Union Giants had three home runs and four doubles that night, winning 9-4 in front of 5,000 people.   

The team returned from Canada before the end of the month and closed out the season in Minnesota and Iowa, winning the majority of their games in the final stretch.   In fact, the Union Giants won almost 84% of their contests that year, finishing the season with an impressive record of 118-22-2.

In May 1928, it was announced that Clarence Moore, "the sensational left handed first baseman of Union University," had joined the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants.  He played in at least one game for the team according to Seamheads.  By June however, he was back at first base with Gilkerson's squad.  Most of the team around him was new however, including two Cubans in the infield, Rogelio Crespo at second base and Pelayo Chacón at third base.  Gilkerson also added pitcher Joe Johnson (aka Joe Lillard), outfielder C. Smith and super utility players,  Clarence Everett and ? Marshall.  While in Canada, Gilkerson also had a mysterious submarine pitcher known only as Duff.  

The Union Giants took multiple trips north of the border that year where they clashed with local all-star teams, as well as the House of David and Happy Felsch's All Stars of Plentywood, Montana.  According to the Bismark Tribune, the Plentywood team featured six former major league players:  "Happy Felsch, formerly with the White Sox; Hruska, former American association player; Clarke, former Chicago Cub pitcher; Allen, second baseman for St. Louis at one time; and Happy Forman, once a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds."

Their first meeting was in July in Virden, Manitoba in the semifinals of a local tournament.  The game was a "nip and tuck affair" however the Union Giants rallied in the bottom of the ninth to win the game 6-5.  The big blow was a long home run by outfielder Sharp that reportedly went "over the cars in center field."   The Union Giants went on to win the entire tournament which came with a $600 prize (far below the amount Moore mentioned).

The Union Giants and the Plentywood All Stars met again in August for a four game set in Winnipeg.  The former major leaguers got the best of the Union Giants this time, winning three out of the four games.  In the second contest, Moore knocked in one of the Union Giants' four runs, helping to win their only game in the series.  

In addition to his hitting skills, Moore was known for his abilities at first base as well.  Earlier in the month, in a game against the House of David, the Winnipeg Tribune applauded Moore's fine glove work at first base:  "Moore made a beautiful play to end the seventh, when Evitt heaved the ball across low.  Moore scooped it up on the bounce in grand style.  Evitt almost swallowed his glove."

A few weeks before the Union Giants finished their season in Iowa, Moore appears to have split off from the team.  Perhaps, he needed to head to North Carolina where he was attending school at Shaw University in the fall.  As the baseball season came to an end, Gilkerson reported his team's record for the 1928 season as 103 wins, 23 losses and 3 ties.

It is unclear where Moore spent his summers for the next few years, possibly remaining in North Carolina.  In July 1931 however, a notice in the Chicago Defender indicated that Moore had signed with Happy Bingham's All Stars in Madison, Wisconsin.  (Bingham and Gilkerson had been partners in 1917 when Gilkerson broke away from the Chicago Union Giants to start his own team.)

Moore eventually returned to the Union Giants in 1934 for one last tour with the team.  The box scores are limited but Moore appears at first base from late May until early September.  The Union Giants started out the season on shaky ground, losing at least nine games in a row to the tough Bismark, ND team, but they were able to end strong.  On September 9, 1934, the Chicago Defender reported that the team had won 67 out of their last 76 games.  The 1934 season would end up being the last full season for Gilkerson's Union Giants.

As for Moore, Mitchem's article says that he spent "parts of two years, 1935 and 1936, as the left handed-hitting first baseman and captain of the Page, North Dakota, team, part of an integrated, informally organized league that included the Dakotas and Minnesota."  On June 28, 1936, the Fargo Forum reported that C.L. Moore and two other members of the Page baseball team were injured when their car overturned, after hitting loose gravel, while returning from a Canadian tour.  In the week after the accident, the Page team went on to play with borrowed players from the Fargo-Moorehead Independents.  It is unclear how long it took Moore and the others to recover from the accident.  That summer would mark the end of Moore's playing days in the Upper Midwest.

That next spring, Moore began his long tenure as coach, manager, mentor and eventual team owner in Asheville.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk), April 17, 1937

For more about Moore's time in North Carolina:

Mitchem, P. (2012). “Wonder Team of the Carolinas.” Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues, 5(1), 33–51.