The Boss Colored Team Of Base Ballists

There is one fact that can not be disputed, Chicago journals to the contrary notwithstanding, and that is that St. Louis is possessed of the boss colored team of base ballists, who yesterday captured a victory from Chicago's famous nine of the same color. The coming of the Uniques, of the Garden City, has been eagerly anticipated by the Blue Stockings, of this city, for some time, and yesterday the long looked for struggle between these two clubs took place, and St. Louis forced Chicago to pull down her colors. Although the day was damp and disagreeable, there were several hundred people present, including many of the Caucasian race, who were anxious to witness the play between these clubs. The game was marked by many brilliant plays, and resulted in a victory for St. Louis by a score of 11 to 9. The same clubs play again Thursday afternoon, and, should the day be favorable, a large crowd will doubtless be attracted to this novel game.

Another colored club of this city is looming up as a candidate for honorable distinction in the National pastime, and yesterday met a white organization called the Lyons. The colored boys call themselves the Green Sox. The game was closely contested, the white club winning by a score of eleven to ten, in six innings, when darkness setting in put a stop to further play. The game was umpired by James Pollack (colored) who gave general satisfaction.

The Sunsets and Uniques are to face each other this afternoon, at grand Avenue Park.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 14, 1876

This may be the best article I've come across about black baseball in St. Louis during this era. In general, you have two periods when the Globe is covering black baseball to any extent: the mid-1870s and the mid-1880s. Both periods coincide with a peak in baseball popularity in St. Louis and an expansion in baseball coverage in local newspapers.

But even at the peak of its coverage of black baseball, the Globe usually only devoted a sentance or two to a game and would often fail to note the final score. Here we get a mention of three games and two scores. It's like hitting the mother load. Even better, we get an interesting reference to James Pollack, an African-American who umpired the Blue Stockings/Unique game. I'm not sure who he is but I'll have to take a look around and see if I can find anything on him. Also, the Green Sox is a club that I've never heard of before and we can add them to our list of 19th century African-American clubs.

A Blue Stockings/Sunset Game

The Blue Stockings and Sunsets, rival colored organizations of this city, contest for supremacy this afternoon, at the Red Stocking Park.

-The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 12, 1875

The information is in bits and pieces-meager scraps scattered all about-but I'm starting to find it. While I'm certainly no expert on black baseball, all the information that I've seen has ignored the 19th century history of the game in St. Louis. In the one book I have on the subject, the first mention of an African-American team in St. Louis is Charles Mills' Giants early in the 20th century. There's at least forty years of baseball history previous to this that has been neglected.

One interesting thing, it appears that many of the games played by the black clubs in the 1870's and 80's were held at the Compton Avenue Park. I'm not sure how significant this is. It may speak to the character of Thomas McNeary or it may indicate that McNeary, due to the poor location of the grounds and the failure of the Reds as a NA entity, simply needed the money and took any tenant or game he could get.

The Sunset Colored Club

It is reported that the Unique Colored Base Ball Club, of Chicago, will play a match game with the Sunset Colored Club, of this city, at the Grand Avenue Park, next Monday.

-The St. Louis Globe Democrat, September 3, 1875


I'm really excited about this bit from the Globe. While researching the 19th century game in St. Louis, I'm always on the lookout for information about African-American clubs in the city. The information is rather scarce and anytime I find something it's cause to rejoice.

The Sunset Colored Club is now the second black club that I know to have existed in 1875, the other being the Blue Stockings. I had always assumed that there were clubs besides the Blue Stockings-it only seemed logical-and now I have the evidence.

There is evidence of African-Americans playing baseball in St. Louis as early as 1867 and we now have evidence of multiple clubs by 1875. I know this information seems scant but, given the dearth of information in contemporary newspapers, this is a big step forward. Slowly but surely, we'll reconstruct the history of black baseball in St. Louis during the 19th century.