The St. Louis Stars, originally the St. Louis Giants, were a
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 competed independently from as early as 1906 to 1919, and then joined the
Negro National League (NNL) for the duration of their existence. After the 1921 season, the Giants were sold by African-American promoter Charlie Mills to Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard, who built a new park and renamed the club the Stars. As the Stars, they eventually built one of the great dynasties in Negro league history, winning three pennants in four years from 1928 to 1931.
St. Louis Giants
![1916 St Louis of the Negro Leagues](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/1916_St_Louis_of_the_Negro_Leagues.jpg)
In 1906, Charles A. Mills,
["LEADING BASEBALL CLUBS" Indianapolis Freeman, Indianapolis, IN, April 1, 1911, Page 7, Column 5](_blank)
/ref> an African-American bank messenger and baseball fan who wanted to upgrade the team, approached Conrad Kuebler, a white man who owned a ballpark, and convinced him to invest in the team. He then persuaded the Leland Giants to visit St. Louis to play against his team. Mills discovered that the Leland Giants' star third baseman, Dick Wallace
Richard Felix Wallace (July 22, 1882 – July 19, 1925) was an American baseball shortstop and manager in the Negro leagues. He played from 1903 to 1924 with several teams, including the Lincoln Giants and the St. Louis Giants. He was Captain ...
wanted a change of scenery, and persuaded him to join the St. Louis Giants as the team's playing manager. Wallace stayed with the team for most of its existence and assembled a core of veterans, including Ben Taylor, shortstop Joe Hewitt, first baseman Tullie McAdoo
Tullie McAdoo (November 24, 1884 – June 16, 1961) was an American baseball first baseman in the Negro leagues. He played from 1908 to 1924 with several teams, playing mostly with the St. Louis Giants.
McAdoo played the first part of the 1910 sea ...
, catcher/outfielder Sam Bennett, pitchers Bill Drake
Bill Drake (January 14, 1937 – November 29, 2008), born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.Douglas, Susan, "Listening In: Radio and the ...
and Bill Gatewood
William Miller "Big Bill" Gatewood (August 22, 1881 – December 8, 1962) was an American Negro league baseball pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. He pitch ...
, and outfielders Jimmie Lyons
James Henry Lyons (October 9, 1889 – February 8, 1961) was a baseball player in the Negro leagues. He pitched and played outfield between 1910 and 1925. He played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Chicago Giants, Lincoln Giants, St. Louis Giants, ...
and Charles Blackwell. Though they were a good club, winning the St. Louis City League championship in 1912 and 1913, they couldn't break the grip of 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" Fo ...
and, later, the 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 ...
on the unofficial western championship of black baseball.
Negro National League
In 1920, the Giants finished sixth in the eight-team NNL with a 25–32 record. For the next season, St. Louis acquired center fielder Oscar Charleston
Oscar McKinley Charleston (October 14, 1896 – October 5, 1954) was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. Over his 43-year baseball career, Charleston played or managed with more than a dozen teams, including the Home ...
from Indianapolis. Led by a historic season by Charleston (the latest research shows him batting .436, with 12 home runs and a league-leading 32 stolen bases in 62 games), who was nearly matched by Blackwell (.430), and with Bill Drake contributing 16 wins, the Giants surged to second place with a 40–28 record. In October, they played a best-of-seven series with the second-place St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
in Sportsman's Park
Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on the ...
, and lost four games to one, even though Cardinals' star Rogers Hornsby did not participate. That would be both the club's high point and its swan song, as Mills gave up the NNL's St. Louis franchise that winter. In 1922, most of the Giants' roster would play for the new St. Louis Stars.
Barnstorming
Mills organized new, independent teams using the St. Louis Giants moniker, frequently signing old Giants' players. That team toured the east coast in both 1924 and 1928. An African-American industrial league team used the name in the late 1930s (it was also known as the St. Louis Titanium Giants), counting eventual major leaguer Luke Easter among its players.
St. Louis Stars
The Stars inherited almost the entire roster of the 1921 Giants (who had finished in second place), with the exception of Hall of Fame center fielder Oscar Charleston
Oscar McKinley Charleston (October 14, 1896 – October 5, 1954) was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. Over his 43-year baseball career, Charleston played or managed with more than a dozen teams, including the Home ...
. Without Charleston, the Stars dropped to fourth place in 1922, though with a creditable 35–26 record. In 1923, they slipped badly, finishing with 28 wins and 44 losses, good for only sixth place. Midway through the year, they acquired several players from the Toledo Tigers
The Toledo Tigers were a Negro National League team that operated during the season, its only season in the league, representing Toledo, Ohio. It played its home games at Toledo's Swayne Field, home of the minor league Mud Hens.
The team was ...
when that team folded, including new manager 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 ...
. A 37-year-old third baseman, Taylor tied for the 1923 league lead with 20 home runs (19 hit while with St. Louis).
More importantly, over the next few years, Taylor put together one of the most impressive assemblages of talent in Negro league history, including Cool Papa Bell
James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell (May 17, 1903 – March 7, 1991) was an American center fielder in Negro league baseball from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. Stories demonstrating Bell's s ...
, whom Taylor converted from a left-handed pitcher into a brilliant defensive center fielder and leadoff man; Mule Suttles
George "Mule" Suttles (March 31, 1901 – July 9, 1966) was an American first baseman and outfielder in Negro league baseball, most prominently with the Birmingham Black Barons, St. Louis Stars (baseball), St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles. Best ...
, first baseman and all-time Negro league home run king; Willie Wells
Willie James Wells (August 10, 1906 – January 22, 1989), nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924 to 1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America.
Wells was a fast ...
, considered by many historians to be John Henry Lloyd
John Henry Lloyd (April 25, 1884 – March 19, 1964), nicknamed "Pop" and "El Cuchara", was an American baseball shortstop and manager in the Negro leagues. During his 27-year career, he played for many teams and had a .343 batting average. Lloy ...
's only serious rival as greatest shortstop in Negro league history; and Ted Trent
Theodore Trent (December 17, 1903 – January 10, 1944) was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played from 1927 to 1939 with several teams, playing mostly for the St. Louis Stars and Chicago American Giants
The Chicago Americ ...
, pitcher and wielder of one of the most effective curveballs in the league.
Championship years
In 1924, the Stars improved to 42–34 and a fourth-place finish. The next year, they won the second-half title with a 38–12 record after only narrowly losing the first half (69–27 overall) but lost the playoff series to Bullet Rogan
Wilber Joe Rogan, also known as "Bullet Joe" (July 28, 1893 – March 4, 1967), was an American pitcher, outfielder, and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro baseball leagues from 1920 to 1938. Renowned as a two-way player who could ...
and the Kansas City Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 193 ...
. When Taylor left to manage the Detroit Stars
The Detroit Stars were an American baseball team in the Negro leagues and played at historic Mack Park. The Stars had winning seasons every year but two, but were never able to secure any championships. Among their best players was Baseball Hall of ...
and Cleveland Elites The Cleveland Elites were a Negro league baseball team in the Negro National League, based in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1926. In their only season, they failed to finish the second half of the season.
References
African-American history in Clevel ...
in 1926, the Stars slumped to 49–30, good for third place overall, though Mule Suttles enjoyed a historic season at bat. According to John Holway's Complete Book of the Negro Leagues, he hit .498 and led the NNL in doubles (27), triples (21), and home runs (27, the all-time Negro league single-season record). He returned in 1927, and in 1928 the Stars took over the league, winning the first half going away, and compiling the best overall record (66–26). They defeated 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" Fo ...
, second-half winners (and Negro league world champions for two years running) in an exciting playoff series, 5 games to 4.
The Stars continued their winning ways in 1929, but were just edged out in both halves of the season by the Kansas City Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 193 ...
, despite Willie Wells's 27 home runs (tying Suttles's 1926 record). The following year they took their second NNL pennant, defeating the Detroit Stars
The Detroit Stars were an American baseball team in the Negro leagues and played at historic Mack Park. The Stars had winning seasons every year but two, but were never able to secure any championships. Among their best players was Baseball Hall of ...
in the playoff. In 1931, the Stars were awarded the pennant when the league disintegrated partway through the season. Unfortunately, the club folded along with the league.
Home fields
The Giants originally played at Giants Park the first month and a half of the 1922 season, and occasionally played some games in the 1920s at three nearby parks: Vandeventer Lot II, Easton Street Park, and Market Street Park.
The Stars played in Stars Park, located at the southeast corner of Compton and Laclede avenues (), which was the primary home baseball park
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...
of the Stars from 1922 to 1931. It was completed in mid-season 1922 as one of the few ballparks built expressly for the Negro leagues. It had a capacity of 10,000 people. The park became famous for its 269-foot left field wall, built to accommodate a trolley car barn. Despite special rules that in some seasons counted home runs hit over the car barn as ground-rule doubles, the park proved very friendly to power hitters over the years.
Hall of Fame players
Below are the players for St. Louis that were later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
. After each player's name is his primary position, years played with the Giants/Stars, and year inducted into the Hall of Fame. An asterisk denotes St. Louis as his primary team.
MLB throwback jerseys
The St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
have honored the Stars by wearing replica uniforms during regular-season baseball games on several occasions, including July 4, 1997 (at home vs. Pittsburgh), August 1 and 2, 1998 (at Atlanta), June 29, 2003 (at Kansas City), August 12, 2006 (at Pittsburgh), August 14, 2007 (at Washington), July 23, 2011 (at Pittsburgh), September 22, 2020 (at Kansas City), and September 9, 2022 (at Pittsburgh).[https://kmox.radio.com/articles/news/cards-royals-to-honor-negro-league-teams-in-retro-uniforms rel="nofollow"]
References
External links
*
1920 St. Louis Giants Calendar
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Louis Stars (baseball)
Negro league baseball teams
Defunct baseball teams in Missouri
Baseball teams disestablished in 1931
Baseball teams established in 1906