Edward "Ed" Bolden was an American 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...

 executive and owner in the Negro Leagues

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...

. He established and owned the Hilldale Club

Hilldale Club

The Hilldale Athletic Club was an African American professional baseball team based in Darby, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia....

 of the 1910s–1920s and Philadelphia Stars

Philadelphia Stars (baseball)

The Philadelphia Stars were a Negro league baseball team from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Stars were founded in 1933 when Ed Bolden returned to professional black baseball after being idle since early 1930...

 of the 1930s–1950s, until his death. He was also the founding president 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 :...

in 1923.

At the same time, before 1947 baseball was only his "hobby" in that he worked full time in the Central Post Office from 1904 to 1946. He had welcomed professional baseball integration as a force that would improve the black leagues but the commercial basis was practically destroyed by fans new focus on the major leagues.