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...

Much of what has hurt Dick Allen in reaching the Hall of Fame has been his reputation in the press of creating racial divisions on the teams for which he played. This is a reputation that has been perpetuated unfairly. To the contrary, Allen has been caught in a world where American society in general, and baseball in particular, has had to come to grips with racial discrimination. While white America preferred to sweep the problem of racial discrimination under the rug, players such as Allen were outspoken, refusing to let the issue be covered up. It is his outspokenness, when many Americans preferred to turn a blind eye to societal ills, that handicapped Allen’s chances of being inducted into the Hall, and which to this day haunts his candidacy.  Some have called Allen Philadelphia’s Jackie Robinson. And rightly so. Allen’s career was marred by racial discrimination by fans in Philadelphia. His endurance of this mistreatment, while acting as one of the greatest power hitte...

While searing the Internet and browsing through social media to find topics to highlight during African-American History Month, I came across a tweet claiming that the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, a team of all African-American women, became the first professional baseball team in 1867, a full two years before the formation of the Cincinnati Red Stockings.   Intrigued, but also skeptical, I wanted to find out more about the Dolly Vardens. The first thing I noticed is that the statement that the Dolly Vardens were the first professional baseball team, or the first team to be paid to play baseball, is repeated on numerous websites, tweets, and Instagram posts without any citation or reference to an original source.   One Facebook page, entitled “The Dolly Varden Project,” even posts a photo of an all-female African-American team claiming it to be of the Dolly Vardens.   Further research, however, reveals the photo to be of a team organized by a YMCA in the 1920s. ...

    “Big Bertha” was the nickname given to large German artillery guns used during the First World War.   It was also the nickname given to a 6’ 4” tall, 240 pound navy veteran hailing from Tyler, Texas named Louis Napoleon Santop. Gifted with explosive power both behind the plate and at the plate, Santop was the premiere catcher and power hitter in African-American baseball in the pre- and early negro league era. In pre-game warm-ups, Santop entertained the crowd with an exhibition of his arm strength, throwing a baseball over the centerfield fence, and then randomly throwing to each of the bases, all while in the crouched position behind the plate. At the plate, Santop hit massive line-drives in the dead ball era.   It has been said that he could call his shots long before Babe Ruth did it in the 1932 World Series, and even hit one home run about 500 feet. At age twenty, Santop made-up half of the “kid battery” of the 1910 Philadelphia Giants,...

In the first decade of the 20th Century, a Philadelphia team dominated African-American baseball, claiming the title of World's Colored Champions from1904-1910. The team included such Hall of Famers as Sol White, Rube Foster, Pete Hill, Frank Grant and John Henry "Pop"Lloyd. By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.

Those who have seen Ken Burns' documentary, Baseball, are familiar with the Philadelphia Pythians. Led by prominent educators Octavius Catto and Jacobs White,  the Pythians were a team of African-American players who pushed for greater racial equality. They frequently spoke about civil rights with the other African-American teams they played when socializing after the game. In 1867, the Pythians first applied for entrance in the Pennsylvania Association of Base Ball Players, but were asked to withdraw their request because of race. They went on to apply for membership in the National Association of Base Ball Players.  They were denied entrance based on the shameful view that by keeping the races separate, there could be no hard feelings. The Pythians faded after their star shortstop, Catto, was murdered on election day by an Irish Democrat who wanted to prevent Catto from encouraging more African-Americans to go to the polls and vote for the more progressive Republican Part...

William J. Kovatch, Jr.             In 1947, Jackie Robinson burst on the scene, breaking the color barrier that plagued the major leagues for seventy years.   Adept with the bat and quick on the base path, Robinson helped make the Dodgers perennial contenders and eventually World Champions in 1955.             Robinson’s accomplishments were made possible by Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey, one of the game’s greatest innovators.   Through Robinson, Rickey was exorcizing his own demons.   As the manager of the Ohio Wesleyan University baseball team in the early twentieth century, Rickey’s star catcher was Charles Thomas, the only black player on the team.   Rickey watched as Thomas encountered racism across the Midwest, and was refused lodging during the team’s road trips.   The memory of the mistreatment Thomas suffered haunted Rickey f...