The Lincoln Giants were a Negro League baseball

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

 team based in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 from 1911 through 1930.

Founding

Jess McMahon, a white promoter, hired Sol White

Sol White

* , Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. – identical to Riley * , by Sol White. Compiled and with an introduction by Jerry Malloy -External links:...

, former manager of the Philadelphia Giants

Philadelphia Giants

The Philadelphia Giants were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1902 to 1916. From 1904 to 1909 they were one of the strongest teams in black baseball, winning five eastern championships in six years. The team was organized by Sol White, H. Walter Schlichter, and Harry Smith.- Founding...

, to put together a club. White signed eventual Hall of Famers John Henry Lloyd

John Henry Lloyd

John Henry "Pop" Lloyd was an American baseball player and manager in the Negro leagues. He is generally considered the greatest shortstop in Negro league history, and both Babe Ruth and Ted Harlow, a noted sportswriter, reportedly believed Lloyd to be the greatest baseball player ever.He was a...

, the greatest shortstop in Negro League history, Cyclone Joe Williams

Cyclone Joe Williams

Joseph Williams , nicknamed "Cyclone Joe" or "Smokey Joe", was an American right-handed pitcher in the Negro leagues. He is widely recognized as one of the game's greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues...

, perhaps the greatest pitcher, and slugging catcher Louis Santop

Louis Santop

* , Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. – identical to Riley -External links:* – unknown content, URL confirmed 2010-04-16*...

, together with pitcher Cannonball Dick Redding, center fielder Spotswood Poles, and catcher/first baseman Bill Pettus. Lloyd took over from White as manager midway through the 1911 season. With their powerful lineup, the Lincolns were the dominant team in African-American baseball in 1911, 1912 and 1913, winning the unofficial eastern championship each of those years. In 1913, with second baseman Grant Johnson joining the club, the Lincolns defeated Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team, owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball...

 for the national black championship.

Split and new management

In 1914, McMahon lost control of the Lincoln Giants name, and formed a rival team, the Lincoln Stars, signing away several of the Giants' players. Jim Keenan continued to run the Lincoln Giants. Joe Williams had taken over as manager when Lloyd left for the American Giants after the 1913 season, and Williams would run the club for several years. In 1920, the Lincolns moved from their old home park, Olympic Field (at Fifth Avenue and 136th Street), to the Catholic Protectory Oval in the Bronx.

League play

In 1923, Keenan brought the team into the Eastern Colored League

Eastern Colored League

The Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Clubs, more commonly known as the Eastern Colored League , was one of the several Negro leagues, which operated during the time organized baseball was segregated.- History :...

 (ECL) for its inaugural season; the formerly dominant club performed unexpectedly poorly, finishing with 16 wins and 22 losses for fifth place (out of six teams). Unceremoniously dumping the 38-year-old Williams (who continued his career into the 1930s, first with the Brooklyn Royal Giants

Brooklyn Royal Giants

The Brooklyn Royal Giants were a professional baseball team based in Brooklyn, New York which played in the Negro Leagues. They were one of the premier professional teams before World War I, winning multiple championships in the East.- League play :...

, then the Homestead Grays

Homestead Grays

The Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues in the United States. The team was formed in 1912 by Cumberland Posey, and would remain in continuous operation for 38 seasons. The team was based in Homestead, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh.-Franchise...

), the Lincolns rebounded to third, winning 31 and losing 25 under new manager Jude Gans. But 1925 saw the team plummet to last place with a dismal 7-39 record. In 1926 Silas Simmons

Silas Simmons

Silas Joseph "Si" Simmons was an American semi-professional and professional baseball player for African-American teams in the pre-Negro League era, and became the longest-lived professional baseball player in history. The previous record was held by Chet Hoff, who died at age 107 in...

 pitched for the Lincoln Giants. For the 1927 season Keenan kept the Lincolns out of the ECL, but rejoined in 1928, only to have the league fold by the beginning of June. The Lincolns' signing of Fats Jenkins

Fats Jenkins

Clarence Reginald "Fats" Jenkins was an African American professional baseball and basketball player from about 1920 to 1940 when both professional sports were racially segregated...

, who had been assigned by the league to the Baltimore Black Sox

Baltimore Black Sox

The Baltimore Black Sox were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland.- Founding :The Black Sox started as an independent team in 1916 by George Rossiter and Charles Spedden...

, fanned the flames of dissension among the circuit's owners.

Demise

The Lincoln Giants joined the American Negro League

American Negro League

The American Negro League was one of several Negro leagues which were established during the period in the United States in which organized baseball was segregated...

 for its only season in 1929, then put together a powerful independent team for 1930 before succumbing to Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

-era economics.