Frank C. Leland (1869 – November 14, 1914) was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player, field manager and club owner in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

Early life and career beginnings

Leland was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. He attended Fisk University in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

from 1879 to 1886."Frank Lelands' Chicago Giants Base Ball Club" Fraternal Printing Company, 1910
/ref> He began his professional career with the Washington Capital Cities in the 1887 National

League of Colored Baseball Clubs The National Colored Base Ball League, the National Colored League, or the League of Colored Baseball Clubs was the subsequent attempt, after the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, to have a league consisting of all-black teams. It predated ...

, a team which played no league games before the experiment collapsed. He "moved to Chicago and was instrumental in organizing and developing five successful baseball teams in that city" (Riley, 475). In 1888, he organized the black amateur Union Base Ball Club, with sponsorship from some of Chicago's black businessmen, Henry Elby, Albert Donegan, and W. S. Peters. Leland obtained a lease from the city government to play at South Side Park, a 5,000-seat facility. In 1898 his team went pro and became the

Chicago Unions The Chicago Unions were a professional, black baseball team that played in the late 19th century, prior to the formation of the Negro leagues. Founding Organized as the Unions in 1887, the club was led by Abe Jones (1887–1889) and by W.S. ...

. He played outfield with the Unions in the 1880s. Leland also worked as the umpire for the club in the first few years. He also worked as the traveling manager of the Chicago Unions. In 1901 he merged the Unions and the Columbia Giants to form the Chicago Union Giants. This became the top

Negro league The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

team in the Midwest.

Leland Giants

The team changed its name to the ''

Leland Giants The Leland Giants, originally the Chicago Union Giants, were a Negro league baseball team that competed independently during the first decade of the 20th century. The team was formed via a merge of the Chicago Unions and the Chicago Columbia Gia ...

'' in 1905 after his partnership split with W.S. Peters; in 1907

Rube Foster Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster, considered by historians to have been per ...

replaced Leland as manager and Pete Hill and Foster strengthened the club in the field. Leland remained as President of the board of directors for the Leland Giants until he resigned in September 1909. While some researchers believe there was a rift between Foster and Leland, newspapers of the day reported that Frank Leland, who used to own the club on his own, sold away rights to a stock company in 1909 and "had little say in the management of the team.""Frank C. Leland Resigns." Indianapolis Freeman, Indianapolis, Indiana, Saturday, October 2, 1909, Page 7, Columns 3 and 4
/ref> While

continued to run the

Baseball Club, Leland started a new corporation in October 1909 called "Leland's Chicago Giants Baseball Club" or, in short " Chicago Giants" opening his offices at 2551 State Street in Chicago. He signed Bill Lindsay as his first pitcher. The confusion over the Leland name amongst the teams changed as

changed the Leland Giants name to the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" F ...

, and Leland's team became the Chicago Giants. Frank C. Leland produced and worked with well-known pre-Negro league baseball players: Bill Lindsay, Walter Ball,

Harry Buckner Harry Edward "Green River" Buckner (October 22, 1876 – March 26, 1938), also nicknamed "Buck" and "Goat Head", was an American Negro league pitcher and outfielder in the between 1896 and 1918. Biography A native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Buckne ...

, William Horn, George Hopkins, Harry Hyde, William Monroe,

George Wright George Wright may refer to: Politics, law and government * George Wright (MP) (died 1557), MP for Bedford and Wallingford * George Wright (governor) (1779–1842), Canadian politician, lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island * George Wright ...

, Harry Moore, Pete Burns, Lewis Reynolds, William Smith, Dangerfield Talbert, Bert Jones, Nathan Harris,

, and Andrew Campbell.

Personal life

In his life outside of baseball, Frank Leland served as a clerk in the Criminal Court, a clerk in the Circuit Court, and a clerk in the Board of Review. At one point, he served as a Deputy Sheriff. And he also held a position as member of the Board of County Commissioners in Cook County in Chicago, Illinois. He was married to Finnie, and his father's name was Charles, (noted as "Chas.") according to his death certificate. Also on his death certificate, the undertaker appears to have marked Leland's death as Aortic Insufficiency due to exhaustion. He was buried at the Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois."Certificate and Record of Death of Frank Leland" Chicago Department of Health, Chicago, IL, November 14, 1914
/ref>

References

*This article includes information from th
article of the same name
in the Baseball Reference Bullpen, accessed December 5, 2006. It is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. * *Lester, Larry, Sammy J. Miller and Dick Clark, ''Black Baseball in Chicago''. Arcadia Press, 2000. .
Excerpts
. * *(Riley.

Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. – identical to Riley (confirmed 2010-04-14) {{DEFAULTSORT:Leland, Frank Negro league baseball managers Chicago Unions players People from Memphis, Tennessee 1869 births 1914 deaths Negro league baseball executives 20th-century African-American people