*The Lincoln Giants are celebrated on this date in 1911. They were a Negro Baseball League team based in New York City.
The Lincoln Giants can trace their origins back to the Nebraska Indians of Lincoln, Nebraska, from the 1890s. According to Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball, in 1890, the Lincoln Giants were founded as the first colored professional team in the West. In the early 1910s, Jess McMahon, a white promoter, hired Sol White, former manager of the Philadelphia Giants, to put together a club.
White signed eventual Hall of Famers John Henry Lloyd, Cyclone Joe Williams, slugging catcher Louis Santop, 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 potent lineup, the Lincolns were the dominant team in Black baseball in 1911, 1912, and 1913, winning the unofficial eastern championship each year. In 1913, with second baseman Grant Johnson joining the club, the Lincolns defeated Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants for the national black championship.
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 to the Bronx from their old home park, Olympic Field (at Fifth Avenue and 136th Street).
In 1923, Keenan brought the team into the Eastern Colored League (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, 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 pitched for the Lincoln Giants. For 1927, 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, who the league had assigned to the Baltimore Black Sox, fanned the flames of debate among the circuit's owners.
The Lincoln Giants joined the American Negro League for its only season in 1929, then put together a powerful independent team for 1930 before succumbing to Depression-era economics.
