The St. Louis 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 that competed independently from as early as 1906 to 1919, and joined the 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) for the 1920 and 1921 seasons. After the 1921 season, the franchise was sold to another group of investors, who built a new park and renamed the club the St. Louis Stars

St. Louis Stars (baseball)

The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League baseball team that competed in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1931. Founded when Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard took over the St...

.

Founding

In 1906, Charles A. Mills, an African-American bank messenger and baseball fan who wanted to upgrade the team, approached Conrad Kuebler, a white man who owned a ballpark, and convinced him to invest in the team. He then persuaded the Leland Giants to visit St. Louis to play his team. Mills discovered that the Leland Giants' star third baseman, Felix "Dick" Wallace wanted a change of scenery and persuaded him to join the St. Louis Giants as the team's playing manager. Wallace stayed with the team for most of its existence and assembled a core of veterans, including 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....

, shortstop Joe Hewitt, first baseman Tully McAdoo, catcher/outfielder Sam Bennett, pitchers Bill Drake and Bill Gatewood

Bill Gatewood

William "Big Bill" Gatewood was a Negro Leagues pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. He pitched for the Leland Giants, Chicago Giants, Chicago American Giants, New York Lincoln Giants, Cuban X-Giants,...

, and outfielders Jimmie Lyons

Jimmie Lyons

Jimmie Lyons was a baseball player in the Negro Leagues. He would play pitcher and outfielder and played from 1910 to 1925. He played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Chicago Giants, Lincoln Giants, St. Louis Giants, and Detroit Stars.From 1918 to 1919 Lyons served in the military during World War...

 and Charles Blackwell. Though they were a good club, winning the St. Louis City League championship in 1912 and 1913, they couldn't break the grip of 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...

 and, later, the Indianapolis ABCs

Indianapolis ABCs

The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro League baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League . They claimed the western championship of black baseball in 1915 and 1916, and finished second in the 1922 NNL...

 on the unofficial western championship of black baseball.

Negro National League

In 1920, the Giants finished sixth in the eight-team NNL with a 25-32 record. For the next season, St. Louis acquired center fielder Oscar Charleston

Oscar Charleston

Oscar McKinley Charleston was an American center fielder and manager in baseball's Negro leagues from to ....

 from Indianapolis. Led by an historic season by Charleston (the latest research shows him batting .436, with 12 home runs and a league-leading 32 stolen bases in 62 games), who was nearly matched by Blackwell (.430), and with Bill Drake contributing 16 wins, the Giants surged to second place with a 40-28 record. In October, they played a best-of-seven series with the second-place Cardinals in Sportsman's Park

Sportsman's Park

Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, all but one of which were located on the same piece of land, the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street on the north side of the city.- History :From...

, and lost four games to one even though Cardinals' star Rogers Hornsby did not participate. That would be both the club's high point and its swan song, as Mills gave up the NNL's St. Louis franchise that winter. In 1922 most of the Giants' roster would play for the new St. Louis Stars

St. Louis Stars (baseball)

The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League baseball team that competed in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1931. Founded when Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard took over the St...

.

Barnstorming

Mills organized new, independent teams using the St. Louis Giants moniker, frequently signing old Giants' players. That team toured the east coast in both 1924 and 1928. An African-American industrial league team used the name in the late 1930s (it was also known as the St. Louis Titanium Giants), counting eventual major leaguer Luke Easter

Luke Easter (baseball player)

Luscious Luke Easter was a professional baseball player in Major League Baseball and the Negro leagues. He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, was 6'4", and weighed 240 lb. The birth year listed here is drawn from census data...

among its players.