Philadelphia Baseball History

Beginning with Octavius Catto and Jacob White of the Philadelphia Pythians, the City of Brotherly Love played a large role in the development of African-American baseball. The origins of several talented African-American teams include ties to the Philadelphia area, such as the Cuban Giants, and the Philadelphia Giants. One such team that played in the early 20 th Century was the Hilldale Club. Hilldale played in a city just southwest of Philadelphia, Darby, PA.   The team had its roots in an athletic association for young men, called the Hilldale Athletic Club, formed in 1910. Ed Bolden, who worked in the main branch of the Philadelphia Post Office, founded the club, and had Hilldale Park built in 1914 at Chester and Cedar Avenues in Darby.   Bolden eventually incorporated the team in 1916 as the “Hilldale Baseball and Exhibition Company,” and began recruiting top African-American baseball players. Hilldale had no official nickname, and was mostly referred to as H...

In 1869, two years after Octavius Catto and the Philadelphia Pythians were denied entry into the National Association Base Ball Players because of the color of their skin, fully professional teams emerged. Disappointingly, in the age of professionalism, segregation continued to plague the sport. As professional baseball grew, Philadelphia played a key role in the development of African-American teams.  The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia captured the first pennant of a fully professional league in 1871, and then played the first game of the National League in 1876.  But the professional major leagues were an exclusive club of all-white teams. In 1884, brothers Moses Fleetwood Walker and Weldy Walker discovered just how exclusive that club was.  The Walker brothers were African-Americans who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, a major league that rivaled the National League in the 19th Century. Teams from the American Associ...