The Bacharach Giants were a Negro league

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...

 baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team that played in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

.

Founding

The club was founded when two African-American politicians moved the Duval Giants of Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

, to Atlantic City in 1916 and renamed them after Harry Bacharach

Harry Bacharach

Harry Bacharach was the five time Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1912 for 6 months, and from 1916 to 1920, and again from 1930 to 1935. He also served as a city commissioner for Atlantic City, New Jersey.-Biography:...

, the city's mayor. The Bacharachs became a top independent team within a few years, featuring shortstop Dick Lundy

Dick Lundy (baseball player)

Richard Benjamin Lundy was an African American shortstop in the Negro Leagues for numerous teams. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida....

, third baseman Oliver Marcelle

Oliver Marcelle

Oliver Hazzard Marcelle , nicknamed "Ghost", was an American third baseman in the Negro Leagues for a number of teams around the league from 1918-1931. He also played shortstop. A Creole born in Thibodaux, Louisiana, he batted and threw right-handed.While the Negro Leagues had many statistics...

, and the great pitchers Cannonball Dick Redding and Jesse "Nip" Winters

Nip Winters

Jesse "Nip" Winters was a pitcher in Negro League baseball, playing for many top eastern teams from 1920 to 1933, and considered one of the top left-handed pitchers of his day.-References:...

.

League play

In 1920 the club joined the midwest-based Negro National League

Negro National League (the first)

The Negro National League was one of the several Negro leagues which were established during the period in the United States in which organized baseball was segregated. Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the NNL was established on February 13, 1920 by a...

 (NNL) as an associate member. Though the Bacharachs played NNL teams extensively, touring the midwest each year from 1920 to 1922, they did not compete for the league championship. In 1922, the club splintered into two factions; one took most of the roster and moved to New York City under the management of 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...

, while the other remained in Atlantic City.

In 1923, the two clubs were reunited in Atlantic City, and the Bacharach Giants became a founding member of 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). The team hovered around .500 until 1926, when the shortstop Dick Lundy took over as playing manager, and brought home two consecutive pennants, helped by Marcelle, center fielder Chaney White

Chaney White

Chaney White was a baseball player in the Negro Leagues. He would play outfielder and played from 1919 to 1936.-References:*...

, and pitchers Arthur "Rats" Henderson, Claude Grier, and Luther Farrell. The Bacharachs lost the Negro League World Series

Negro League World Series

The Negro League World Series was a post-season baseball tournament which was held from 1924-1927 and from 1942-1948 between the champions of the Negro leagues, matching the mid-western winners against their east coast counterparts....

 to the 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...

 both years, though Grier and Farrell both tossed no-hitters for the Atlantic City team, the only no-hitters in Negro League World Series history. When the ECL failed early in 1928, the Bacharachs continued to play as an independent team.

Decline and demise

Despite the Bacharachs' success, attendance was not high enough to sustain their high-priced roster. In one of the most famous trades in Negro league history, they sent Lundy and Marcelle 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...

 in return for veteran first baseman and manager Ben Taylor

Ben Taylor (Negro Leagues)

Benjamin Harrison Taylor was an American first baseman and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006....

, catcher Mack Eggleston, and cash. Lundy and Marcelle sparked the Black Sox to the 1929 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...

 pennant, while the Bacharachs languished in fifth place (out of six teams), with a 19-45 record. The team disbanded after the 1929 season and its connection to Atlantic City ended.

Later reincarnation and demise

In 1931, white promoter Harry Passon organized a new Bacharach team based out of Philadelphia. The club eventually joined Gus Greenlee

Gus Greenlee

William Augustus "Gus" Greenlee was a Negro League baseball owner and an African American businessman....

's new Negro National League in 1934 but returned to independent baseball in 1935. The Bacharachs then operated independently until Passon's death in 1942 and then disbanded for good.