The Boston Royal Giants were a Negro league baseball team in Boston. The team was also known as the Boston Giants, Quaker Giants, Philadelphia Giants and Boston Colored Giants. The Royal Giants served as a farm team of sorts for the league. They played as far north as Canada's Cape Breton League, and games against mill or industrial teams in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.

History of the team

Black baseball in Boston started in the 1870s when the City League formed teams of men. Though the Boston Giants were never among the most nationally popular black semi-pro teams, Boston was a hotbed of black baseball in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1923, Negro league veteran

Danny McClellan Daniel J. McClellan (July 1, 1878 - March 10, 1962) was an American baseball pitcher and manager who starred for top-tier independent black teams before the Negro National League was founded. His career began about 1903, and he continued as a ...

organized a team that had been playing as the Quaker Giants into a Boston-based contingent called, for marketing purposes, the Philadelphia Giants. Black sports teams often named themselves after cities that would immediately identify them as African American to white fans and media (such as the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...

, who were founded in Chicago). The Boston Royal Giants sometimes played in famed Boston Park League. Venues that hosted the Giants were often small public parks such as Medford's Playstead Park and Boston's Lincoln Park, but

Braves Field Braves Field was a baseball park located in Boston, Massachusetts. Today the site is home to Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University. The stadium was home of the Boston Braves of the National League from 1915 to 1952, prior to the B ...

(now Boston University's Nickerson Field) rented to African American owners as early as 1938, and Fenway Park was used for heavily-promoted games after 1942. On July 13, 2002, the Boston Red Sox dressed in 1948 Boston Royal Giants uniforms to honor the Negro league.

Significant players

Players included Texan sidearm pitcher Will "Cannonball" Jackman and catcher

Burlin White Burlin White (February 5, 1895 – April 5, 1971) was an American baseball catcher and manager in the Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent ...

. Over the 1920s Giants came and went, and the team adopted the names Boston (Colored) Giants and Boston Royal Giants, but Jackman and White were mainstays. Jackman threw a blazing fastball that dropped as it approached the plate — legendary

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

manager John McGraw coveted him so that he called Jackman a great pitcher and hitter who would help bring a pennant to any major league team, but for his complexion. Negro league superstar Bill Yancey, later a New York Yankees scout, said Jackman was the greatest all-around ballplayer he ever saw. According to James A. Riley's "Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues," Jackman was "52-2 one season with the Giants and bested Satchel Paige twice in two outings." Longtime Negro league pitcher Pud Flournoy pitched for the team when he was past his prime, and centerfielder

Gene Benson Eugene Benson (October 2, 1913 – April 6, 1999) was an American center fielder in baseball's Negro leagues. He played for the Philadelphia Stars in 1937, moved to the Homestead Grays in 1938, and returned to the Stars from 1939 to 1948. He ...

told a Black baseball author the Royal Giants left him stranded in Michigan during a road trip. Newark Eagles first baseman

Frannie Matthews Francis Oliver Matthews (November 2, 1916 – August 24, 1999) was a baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. Matthews, whose father was from Barbados, was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended the prestigious Ri ...

, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, also saw time with the RG's.

Known players

Willis Flournoy Willis Jefferson Flournoy (August 9, 1895 – November 22, 1964) was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played from 1919 to 1932. He was nicknamed Jesse, Lefty, and Pud. He won the Eastern Colored League earned run average (ER ...

* William "Cannonball" Jackman *

Fran Matthews Francis Oliver Matthews (November 2, 1916 – August 24, 1999) was a baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. Matthews, whose father was from Barbados, was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended the prestigious Rindg ...

References

External links

"Black baseball in Boston: recovering a lost legacy"
Baseball teams disestablished in 1948 Baseball teams established in 1922 Royal Giants Defunct baseball teams in Massachusetts Negro league baseball teams {{Negro-league-baseball-team-stub