Old Knoxville Base Ball: Knoxville Giants

Showing posts with label Knoxville Giants. Show all posts

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Grey Sox Win And Lose To Knoxville

Split games in the Negro Southern League.

The Montgomery Advertiser - June 19, 1920
image from GenealogyBank.com

Monday, July 4, 2016

Knoxville Giants play double header on July 4, 1933

July 4th. A time to celebrate Independence Day. A time to play baseball. In 1933, the Knoxville Giants, part of the Negro Southern League, played a double header against the Alcoa Aluminum Sluggers.

Knoxville News-Sentinel - July 4, 1933

The story in the next day's paper shows that the Giants won both of the games.

Knoxville News-Sentinel - July 5, 1933

So where was Leslie Street Park? From Ronald Allen's book, Same Old Smokies:

The Knoxville Giants, a black Knoxville baseball team, played their games at the Leslie Street Park. The field was located on Leslie Street, south of Western Avenue and north of University Avenue. The field was long a playing field for local African American teams, and also by neighborhood youngsters.

Google Maps locates it where the Knoxville New-Sentinel building is. Some of the street names have changed over the years.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

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.

Friday, July 25, 2014

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

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Court Takes Place of Baseball Emperor

The Winston-Salem Journal - April 21, 1922

Although the following articles don't reference Knoxville specifically I thought that they should be included in this post.

The Winston-Salem Journal - April 20, 1922

Could "Wing" be "One-Wing" Maddox, formerly of Knoxville?

Charleston Evening Post - June 10, 1922

Charleston Evening Post - August 26, 1922

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Giants Top Alcoa, 15-7

The Knoxville Journal - May 13, 1935

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

Monday, August 5, 2013

Knoxville Giants Beat Greeneville

The Knoxville Journal - May 6, 1935

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

Friday, August 2, 2013

Giants To Play

The Knoxville Journal - May 5, 1935

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Giants Capture Second Straight

The Knoxville Journal - May 1, 1935

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

Monday, July 29, 2013

Detroit Mohawks To Play Giants

The Knoxville Sunday Journal - April 28, 1935

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

Monday, May 27, 2013

Eight Cities Enter Negro Southern League

I figured that it might be a good idea to provide a bit of background for the 1920 Negro Southern League.

New Orleans States - April 7, 1920

image from GenealogyBank.com

Friday, May 24, 2013

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

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Asheville Negroes To Meet Local Giants

Knoxville Journal - September 4, 1920

The interesting thing in this article is my introduction to the Negro Blue Ridge league. Gary Ashwill wrote an entry about the Blue Ridge Colored Baseball League of 1921.

image obtained from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection