Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1902-1931: The Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues

6The War Years: Toward the Rise of the Negro Leagues

171 6 The War Years Toward the Rise of the Negro Leagues The United States had never prepared in advance for the wars it fought. For a year after the nation entered World War I, it contributed little to the manpower of Great Britain and France, the unofficial allies of the US against Imperial Germany. On May 18, 1917, Congress enacted a conscription law that affected all able-bodied American males between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five. June 5 was declared National Registration Day, yet it wouldn’t be until early in the next year that the Wilson administration’s programs for mobilizing manpower and resources began to take effect. Eventually the draft board registered over 24 million men, and of these approximately 2.8 million would be inducted. Roughly 2 million more volunteered, bringing the total to about 4.8 million who saw service. In most respects, neither the Major Leagues nor black baseball were affected by the American entry into the Great War during the 1917 season . The Chicago American Giants embarked on a winter tour of the South that began in Palm Beach, Florida. The American Giants were hired as waiters to represent the Royal Poinciana Hotel on the diamond. The winter tour marked the start of Rube Foster’s construction of barnstorming tours to the East and Midwest in an attempt to open new markets for midwestern black baseball teams. Foster scheduled games for his club, the Indianapolis ABCs, and the Cuban Stars to be played in Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Despite this ambitious undertaking, several challenges, both internal and external, confronted the black teams in the Midwest and East. 172 ◆ Independent Ball, 1902–1920 The St. Louis Giants, plagued by a constant turnover in ownership, found themselves in the middle of controversy with the St. Louis Browns owner Phil Ball over the use of a ballpark. C. I. Taylor continued to compete with a second ABCs club for gate receipts in Indianapolis. By 1918, rumors were circulating that Taylor was considering moving his ABCs to another city. In New York, Jess McMahon quit black baseball, and several of his former players, along with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, formed the Grand Central Terminal Baseball Club, known as the Red Caps. James Williams, the team’s manager, attempted to obtain the services of Nat Strong to schedule games in New York. Strong refused, leading Williams to accuse the Royals’ owner of discrimination. In the midst of this challenge to the black clubs’ operational autonomy , the Great Migration dramatically expanded the African American population in the North, particularly in urban centers. Black baseball entrepreneurs could no longer marginalize the significance of this growing black consumer market. Club owners like Rube Foster and C. I. Taylor began forging civic ties with their respective black communities and concurrently establishing a business relationship with the black press. Foster further capitalized on the opportunity brought by the migration through the development of a booking service to maximize his revenues by keeping Schorling Park busy. Foster’s goal of maximizing the use of Schorling Park led him to engage in a more ambitious undertaking. By scheduling games for his American Giants, the Indianapolis ABCs, and the Cuban Stars, Foster established a midwestern barnstorming network by making business relationships with Major League owners like Frank Navin in Detroit and August Herrmann in Cincinnati. Finally, Foster formed the Detroit Stars, transferred several of his players to the team, selected John “Tenny” Blount as the club’s business manager, and named Pete Hill as its field manager. Foster benefited from the emergence of a club in Philadelphia and John Connor’s return to black baseball. Although getting their start in the prewar years, the Hilldale Athletic Club evolved from a sandlot team to one the top black teams in the East. Hilldale owner Ed Bolden was the chief architect of the team’s transformation. He followed the fundamental pattern of acquiring top-level players, securing The War Years ◆ 173 a playing facility to build a fan base, and spread the Athletic Club’s brand to other regions of the country through barnstorming. By 1916, the club had been incorporated into the Hilldale Baseball and Exhibition Company (HBEC), and Bolden began signing professional players. Much like Foster and Taylor, Bolden acknowledged the importance of community support, and he devised a marketing strategy to attract the black middle...