First two games of the 1920 World Series

Here are the box scores for the first two games of the 1920 Negro World Series between Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants and the Knoxville Giants.

The Birmingham Reporter - September 25, 1920

This answers some questions, but raises others.  I guess if "Steel Arm" Dickey was to end his 25 game winning streak, it might as well be to Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants.

Who was C. Williams, pitcher for Chicago in the second game?  Did Chicago need to bring in some ringers like Knoxville did?

A big thank you to Larry Lester, Dick Clark, and Wayne Stivers who provided this image.

Note:  I modified the article by splicing portions of it together (it was spread over two images) and digitally removing many of the microfilm scratches and streaks.

American Giants Are Champions

Savannah Tribune - September 25, 1920

From this article we see the schedule of the "World Championship":

• Tuesday, September 21 at Birmingham
• Wednesday, September 22 at Birmingham
• Thursday, September 23 at Birmingham
• Friday, September 24 at Birmingham
• Saturday, September 25 at New Orleans
• Sunday, September 26 at New Orleans
• Monday, September 27 at Birmingham
• Tuesday, September 28 at Birmingham
• Wednesday, September 29 at Birmingham
• Thursday, September 30 at Birmingham
• Friday, October 1 at Knoxville
• Saturday, October 2 at Knoxville
• Sunday, October 3 at Chattanooga

Thirteen straight days of baseball.  No off days for traveling.  Using mapquest.com I've come up with some round distances.  Birmingham to New Orleans is 350 miles.  Birmingham to Knoxville is 260 miles.  Knoxville to Chattanooga is 115 miles.

So, 13 games were scheduled in four cities, which would have entailed about 1,075 miles.

image from GenealogyBank.com

Knoxville Wins Negro Pennant

Knoxville Journal - September 6, 1920

I've transcribed the standings of the clubs.  It is interesting to see that the Knoxville Giants manager shut the season down but is still willing to play games with Montgomery.

	Club	Won	Lost	Pct	Total Games
	Knoxville	55	21	.724	76
	Montgomery	47	39	.547	86
	Atlanta	45	39	.536	84
	Birmingham	43	39	.524	82
	New Orleans	43	39	.524	82
	Nashville	40	40	.500	80
	Jacksonville	18	26	.409	44

The other thing to note from this article is that:

A representative of the local club will leave for Chicago this week to arrange for the playing of a negro world series with the Chicago team, winner of the pennant in the Negro National circuit.

The Chicago team would be Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants.  Gary Ashwill wrote about the series in 2006.  In the coming days I'll be looking at the series in a bit more detail.

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection