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

8Black Baseball War: The Rise of the Eastern Colored League

271 8 Black Baseball War The Rise of the Eastern Colored League Rube Foster’s series of articles at the end of the 1921 season undoubtedly irritated his fellow club owners, many of whom could have assisted him in the creation of a national organization. On the other hand, many of the obstacles he highlighted surfaced throughout the 1922 season . Franchise shifting continued, and Charles Mills’s St. Louis Giants disbanded due to the apparently insurmountable debt the team accumulated . The franchise was saved, however, when a group of African American businessmen and professionals formed a stock company and renamed the club the St. Louis Stars. The untimely death of C. I. Taylor marked the start of a process whereby the league lost one of its most stable franchises, the Indianapolis ABCs. The season was further aggravated by a rift within the Bacharach Giants’ management team, resulting in two clubs under the same name playing during the year. Other issues emerged during the course of this chaotic year. Chicago Defender sportswriter Frank “Fay” Young ratcheted up the pressure on Foster to hire African American umpires. Several fans wrote to the Defender pointing out several black arbiters who operated throughout the United States. For the first time, former league officials and sportswriters complained about Foster’s scheduling practices. The chief complaint was that the American Giants made fewer road trips than did the other league clubs. The conflict between Foster and Ed Bolden reached its peak, leading to irreconcilable differences. Annoyed by Foster’s grabbing of pitcher Dick Whitworth from the ACs, Bolden withdrew as an associate member and asked for the return of his one-thousand-dollar 272 ◆ Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues, 1920–1931 deposit. The prospects of league clubs raiding the Hilldale AC’s roster for players led Bolden to remain an associated member for another year. However, at the end of the season, Bolden withdrew from the Negro National League. Ed Bolden’s break with the Negro National League led to the formation of the Eastern Colored League (ECL). Utilizing the cooperative business philosophy as a foundation, Bolden advocated the creation of a board of commissioners to promote and govern the league. Within months of the ECL’s formation, eastern owners began inducing NNL players to jump their contracts. The raids crippled John Connor’s Bacharach Giants and contributed to the constant shifting of NNL franchises. The presence of two traveling teams, along with Nat Strong’s setting a precedent for skipping league games, meant that the ECL confronted the same scheduling dilemma that Foster’s NNL experienced. Yet the new league had a relatively excellent inaugural season. In response to the formation of the “outlaw” league, Rube Foster mounted a propaganda war in the black press to sway public opinion in his favor. The basic premise of this campaign was to take a stance against the destructive practice of player jumping and downplay Bolden ’s influence in the new league. He raised the issue of race, primarily in the ownership of eastern teams, and indicted Bolden for race abandonment . Bolden mounted a PR campaign of his own. He attacked Foster for raising the issue of race in the ownership of black teams and claimed the NNL was nothing more than a booking agency designed to maximize his revenues. Paying the booking fee, Bolden said. was a primary reason the HBEC had left the NNL. With Rube Foster losing the propaganda war and while contract jumping threatened to cripple the Negro National League, the NNL confronted internal obstacles. The league continued its practice of franchise shifting, and by July the NNL had begun to unravel. League officials awarded a franchise to Toledo, and the NNL began the season with a compact midwestern circuit. Attempts were made to create a more equitable playing schedule, but the constant franchise shifting made this untenable. Simultaneously, Rube Foster conceded to the fans’ Rise of the Eastern Colored League ◆ 273 and the sportswriters’ demand for African American umpires. Seven black umpires were hired, and they represented the silver lining in the dark clouds that hovered over the league. In the East, the optimism at the end of the 1923 season led the ECL owners to expand their league by two clubs and simultaneously urge NNL players to jump their contracts. The Harrisburg Giants and the Washington Potomacs were selected as the league’s new clubs, and attempts...