Negro National League (1920–1931)


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.

League history

Founding

Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the NNL was established on February 13, 1920 by a coalition of team owners at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA. The new league was the first African-American baseball circuit to achieve stability and last more than one season. At first the league operated mainly in midwestern cities, ranging from Kansas City in the west to Pittsburgh in the east; in 1924 it expanded into the south, adding franchises in Birmingham and Memphis.

Competition

The two most important east coast clubs, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, and the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, were affiliated with the NNL as associate clubs from 1920 to 1922, but did not compete for the championship. In 1923 they and four other eastern teams formed the Eastern Colored League and raided the NNL for many of its top players, including John Henry Lloyd, Biz Mackey, George Scales, George Carr, and Clint Thomas, and signing Oscar Charleston, and Reuben Currie in 1924. The war between the two leagues came to an end in 1924, when they agreed to respect each other's contracts and arranged for the Colored World Series between their champions.

Difficulties and demise

The NNL survived controversies over umpiring, scheduling, and what some perceived as league president Rube Foster's disproportionate influence and favoritism toward his own team. It also outlasted Foster's decline into mental illness in 1926, and its eastern rival, the ECL, which folded in early 1928. The NNL finally fell apart in 1931 under the economic stress of the Great Depression.

Legacy

The Negro American League, founded in 1937 and including several of the same teams that played in the original Negro National League, would eventually carry on as the western circuit of black baseball. A separate Negro National League was organized in 1933, but eventually became concentrated on the east coast. To distinguish between the two unrelated leagues, they are usually referred to as the first Negro National League and the second Negro National League.

Negro National League franchises


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bar:STL # St. Louis Stars
bar:COL # Columbus Buckeyes
bar:CTS # Cleveland Tate Stars
bar:TOL # Toledo Tigers
bar:PIT # Pittsburgh Keystones
bar:MIL # Milwaukee Bears
bar:BIR # Birmingham Black Barons
bar:CLB # Cleveland Browns
bar:MEM # Memphis Red Sox
bar:CLE # Cleveland Elites
bar:CLH # Cleveland Hornets
bar:CLT # Cleveland Tigers
bar:NAS # Nashville Elite Giants / Cleveland Cubs
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bar:LOU # Louisville White Sox
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  1. Note on dates: A team's bar begins with the season that team played its first game, and ends with the season after that team played its last game. For example, the Cleveland Tate Stars played their first game in 1922 and played their last game in 1923. Therefore, their bar goes from 1922 to 1924.
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bar:CLB from:1924 till:1925 color:blue text:"Cleveland Browns" $Right
bar:MEM from:1924 till:1926 color:red2 text:" " $Right
bar:MEM from:1927 till:1931 color:red2 text:"Memphis Red Sox" $Right2
bar:CLE from:1926 till:1927 color:kelleygreen text:"Cleveland Elites" $Right
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Pennant winners

From 1920 through 1924, the team in first place at the end of the season was declared the Pennant winner. Due to the unorthodox nature of the schedule, some teams frequently played many more games than others did in any given season. This led to some disputed championships and two teams claiming the title. Generally, the team with the best winning percentage was awarded the Pennant, but other times it was the team with the most victories. The "games behind" method of recording standings was uncommon in most black leagues.
† – Pennant was decided via a split-season schedule with the winner of the first half of the season playing the winner of the second half of the season, unless one team won both halves.
‡ – Pennant winner went on to play in the Colored World Series.

League play-offs

From 1925 through 1931, the NNL split the season into two halves. The winner of the first half played the winner of the second half for the league Pennant. As mentioned above, disputes also occurred in the split season finishes.
For the duration of the league, a Colored World Series took place four times, from 1924 through 1927. The NNL Pennant winner met the champion of the rival Eastern Colored League. Three out of the four years, the Negro National League team prevailed.