Most readers of this blog have probably already seen it, but if you haven’t, check out Scott Simkus’s post on Gilkerson’s Union Giants, an independent second-tier black club of the 1910s, 1920s, and early 1930s run by Robert Gilkerson (co-owner of the Lost Island Giants in 1917):
They were similar to the International League’s Baltimore Orioles, during the Lefty Grove era of the early 1920s. In other words, a dominant minor league team which may have held it’s own, had they played a Major League schedule. Clearly, the Union Giants were better than some of the bottom feeders in the Negro National League, but Mr. Gilkerson had found a niche, traveling to small country towns, where citizens were starved for live entertainment.
The niche the Union Giants occupied also meant that they probably tended to face weaker opposition than the big time Negro League teams Scott compares them to (Homestead Grays, Hilldale, Pittsburgh Crawfords). Still, Steel Arm Davis and Alex Radcliff, among others, were probably in the upper echelon of Negro League players in 1931.
Posted by Gary Ashwill
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