The Indianapolis ABCs, later briefly the Detroit Stars, were a major

Negro league baseball 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 that played in three different leagues in each of its three seasons in existence from 1931 through 1933.

Indianapolis ABCs

Five years after the demise of the original

Indianapolis ABCs The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro league baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League (NNL). They claimed the western championship of black baseball in 1915 and 1916, and fini ...

Candy Jim Taylor James Allen "Candy Jim" Taylor (February 1, 1884April 3, 1948) was an American third baseman and manager in Negro league baseball. In a career that spanned forty years, he played as an infielder in the early years of the 20th century for over a ...

brought Negro league baseball back to Indianapolis and organized a new franchise called the ABCs. They played in the original Negro National League's final season in 1931, when the league collapsed. They then joined the Negro Southern League for 1932. In 1933, Taylor brought the ABCs into

Gus Greenlee William Augustus Greenlee (December 26, 1893 – July 7, 1952) was a highly successful businessman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was born and raised in Marion, North Carolina. After migrating to Pittsburgh as a young man and working in the ...

's new Negro National League for its inaugural season. However, the Cole's American Giants moved their 1933 home games to Indianapolis (and to the ABCs home field) due to a lease dispute with their

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

ballpark. Low attendance led Taylor to move the club to Detroit shortly after opening day.

Detroit Stars

In April 1933, shortly after opening day, the team shifted to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and were renamed the Stars, the name of a former team in that city. The team lasted for the rest of the season before disbanding.

References

External links

Franchise history at Seamheads.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indianapolis ABCs (1931-1933) Negro league baseball teams Sports in Indianapolis Baseball teams in Detroit Defunct baseball teams in Indiana Baseball teams disestablished in 1933 Baseball teams established in 1931