Chicago American Giants
The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Charter members of Foster's Negro National League, the American Giants won five pennants in that league, along with another pennant in the 1932 Negro Southern League and a second-half championship in Gus Greenlee's Negro National League in 1934; the team ended in 1956. In 1910, captain of the Chicago Leland Giants, wrested legal control of the name "Leland Giants" away from the team's owner, Frank Leland; that season, featuring Hall of Fame shortstop John Henry Lloyd, outfielder Pete Hill, second baseman Grant Johnson, catcher Bruce Petway, pitcher Frank Wickware, the Leland Giants won 123 games while losing only 6. In 1911, Foster renamed the club the "American Giants." Playing in spacious Schorling Park, Foster's club relied on fielding, speed, "inside baseball" to succeed in the young Negro National League, winning championships in 1920, 1921, 1922.
When the Kansas City Monarchs supplanted the American Giants as the dominant team beginning in 1923, Foster tried rebuilding but by 1926 his health was failing. Accordingly, his protégé Dave Malarcher took over on-field management of the team. Malarcher followed Foster's pattern, emphasizing pitching and defense, led the American Giants back to the top-tier of the Negro leagues, winning pennants in 1926 and 1927. Both seasons saw the American Giants defeat the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, champions of the Eastern Colored League, in the Negro League World Series; the NNL collapsed in 1931, in 1932 the team won the Negro Southern League pennant as Cole's American Giants. The next season the American Giants joined the new Negro National League, losing the pennant to the Pittsburgh Crawfords in a controversial decision by league president Gus Greenlee; the 1933 season saw the Giants get kicked off of their home field after the end of May. This forced the Giants to play the majority of their home games in Indianapolis for the balance of that season.
In 1934, the American Giants won the NNL's second-half title fell to the Philadelphia Stars in a seven-game playoff for the championship. In 1937, after a year spent playing as an independent club, the American Giants became a charter member of yet another circuit, the Negro American League. Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe was appointed manager in 1950; the team's owner, Dr. J. B. Martin, was concerned about black players joining major league teams so he instructed Radcliffe to sign white players. Radcliffe recruited at least five young white players; the Giants first played at South Side Park and Perry Stadium, when South Side Park was re-purposed mid-season in 1933. They shared Comiskey Park, playing when the White Sox were on the road; the Chicago White Sox have honored the Giants by wearing replica uniforms during regular-season baseball games on several occasions, including July 1, 2007, July 26, 2008 and July 16, 2011 during the 9th Annual Negro League weekend at Detroit, where the home team worn the jerseys of the Detroit Stars during the 17th Annual Negro League Tribute Game.
The following Chicago American Giants are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cool Papa Bell Oscar Charleston Bill Foster Rube Foster John Henry Lloyd Turkey Stearnes Cristóbal Torriente Lyman Bostock Sr. Quincy Trouppe Category:Chicago American Giants players - for a comprehensive list of players Negro League Baseball Players Association Negro Leagues Baseball Museum 1920 Chicago American Giants Calendar° Negro League Traveling Exhibit
Double play
In baseball, a double play is the act of making two outs during the same continuous play. The double play is defined in the Official Rules in the Definitions of Terms, for the official scorer in Rule 9.11. Double plays can occur any time there is less than two outs. During the 2016 Major League Baseball regular season, the average for double plays completed by each team during the course of a 162-game season was 145 — nearly one per game by each team; the simplest scenario for a double play is a runner on first base with less than two outs. In that context, five example double plays are: The batter hits a ground ball to a middle infielder, who throws the ball to the other middle infielder, who steps on second base to force out the runner coming from first, throws the ball to the first baseman in time to force out the batter; as both outs are made by force plays, this is referred to as a "force double play". This is the most common double play; the neighborhood play is a recurring source of controversy: Umpires sometimes call the first out though the infielder is not touching second base but "in the neighborhood". to the first baseman, who steps on first base to force out the batter, with the baserunner trying to advance from first base to second base, throws the ball to the shortstop who puts out the runner.
This is referred to as a "reverse force double play", although executing the first out removes the condition that forced the runner to take second base. The second out must be made with a tag; the batter hits the ball in the air a line drive to the first baseman, who catches it, steps on first base before the baserunner can return to first to tag up. This is an example of an unassisted double play. A deep fly ball to the right fielder, who catches it, meanwhile the baserunner tags up and attempts to advance, the outfielder throws the ball to the shortstop who tags the runner before he reaches second base; the batter strikes out. If the runner was trying to steal second base, it is a double play. Double plays can occur in many ways in addition to these examples, can involve many combinations of fielders. A double play can include an out resulting from a rare event, such as interference or an appeal play. Per standard baseball positions, the examples given above are recorded as: 4-6-3 or 6-4-3 3-6 3, unassisted 9-6 kc or ks, 2-6 or 2-4 cs Double plays that are initiated by a batter hitting a ground ball are recorded in baseball statistics as GIDP.
This statistic has been tracked since 1933 in the National League and since 1939 in the American League. This statistic does not include line-outs into double plays, for which there is no official statistic for a batter; the double play is a coup for the fielding team and debilitating to the batting team. The fielding team can select pitches to induce a double play — such as a sinker, more to be hit as a ground ball — and can position fielders to make a ground ball more to be turned into a double play; the batting team may take action — such as a hit and run play — to reduce the chance of grounding into a force double play. In baseball slang, making a double play is referred to as "turning two" or a "twin killing". Double plays are known as "the pitcher's best friend" because they disrupt offense more than any other play, except for the rare triple play. A force double play made on a ground ball hit to the third baseman, who throws to the second baseman, who throws to the first baseman, is referred to as an "around the horn" double play.
A "strike'em out, throw'em out" double play occurs when a base runner is caught stealing after the batter strikes out. The ability to "make the pivot" on a force double play – receiving a throw from the third base side quickly turning and throwing to first base – is a key skill for a second baseman; the most famous double play trio – although they never set any records – were Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance, who played shortstop, second baseman and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1902 and 1912. Their double play against the New York Giants in a 1910 game inspired Giants fan Franklin Pierce Adams to write the short poem Baseball's Sad Lexicon, otherwise known as Tinker to Evers to Chance, which immortalized the trio. All three players were part of the Cubs team that won the National League pennant in 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, the World Series in 1907 and 1908, turning 491 double plays on the way, they were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. The New York Yankees recorded a rare 4-1-5 double play against the San Francisco Giants on July 24, 2016, in the top of the 8th inning.
The Giants had Mac Williamson on first base with one out, when Ramiro Peña hit a ground ball that got by Yankees' first baseman Mark Teixeira but was fielded on the edge of the outfield grass by Starlin Castro. Castro threw to pitcher Chad Green at first base to retire Peña. Meanwhile, Williamson had rounded second on his way to third, a throw from Green to third baseman Chase Headley resulted in Williamson being tagged out, ending the inning. A bizarre 8-6-2 double play occurred in a nationally televised game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox on August 2, 1985, in the b
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital of the U. S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. It is the 4th-most populous city in Texas, it is the fastest growing large city in the United States, the second most populous state capital after Phoenix and the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States. As of the U. S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2017 estimate, Austin had a population of 950,715 up from 790,491 at the 2010 census; the city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan statistical area, which had an estimated population of 2,115,827 as of July 1, 2017. Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, it is home to numerous lakes and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis on the Colorado River, Barton Springs, McKinney Falls, Lake Walter E. Long. In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. In 1839, the site was chosen to replace Houston as the capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name "Waterloo."
Shortly afterward, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state; the city grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. After a severe lull in economic growth from the Great Depression, Austin resumed its steady development, by the 1990s it emerged as a center for technology and business. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin including, 3M, Amazon.com, Apple Inc. Cisco, eBay, General Motors, Google, IBM, Oracle Corporation, PayPal, Texas Instruments, Whole Foods Market. Dell's worldwide headquarters is located in Round Rock. Residents of Austin are known as Austinites, they include a diverse mix of government employees, college students, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers, a vibrant LGBT community. The city's official slogan promotes Austin as "The Live Music Capital of the World," a reference to the city's many musicians and live music venues, as well as the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City Limits.
The city adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies. In recent years, some Austinites have adopted the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird," which refers to the desire to protect small and local businesses from being overrun by large corporations. In the late 19th century, Austin was known as the "City of the Violet Crown," because of the colorful glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Today, many Austin businesses use the term "Violet Crown" in their name. Austin is known as a "clean-air city" for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. U. S. News & World Report named Austin the #1 place to live in the U. S. for 2017 and 2018. In 2016, Forbes ranked Austin #1 on its "Cities of the Future" list in 2017 placed the city at that same position on its list for the "Next Biggest Boom Town in the U. S." In 2017, Forbes awarded the South River City neighborhood of Austin its #2 ranking for "Best Cities and Neighborhoods for Millennials."
WalletHub named Austin the #6 best place in the country to live for 2017. The FBI ranked Austin as the #2 safest major city in the U. S. for 2012. Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of human habitation since at least 9200 BC; the area's earliest known inhabitants lived during the late Pleistocene and are linked to the Clovis culture around 9200 BC, based on evidence found throughout the area and documented at the much-studied Gault Site, midway between Georgetown and Fort Hood. When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area; the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were known to travel through the area. Spanish colonists, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries, though few permanent settlements were created for some time. In 1730, three missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin; the mission was in this area for only about seven months, was moved to San Antonio de Béxar and split into three missions.
Early in the 19th century, Spanish forts were established in what are now San Marcos. Following Mexico's independence, new settlements were established in Central Texas, but growth in the region was stagnant because of conflicts with the regional Native Americans. In 1835 -- 1836, Texans won independence from Mexico. Texas thus became an independent country with its own president and monetary system. After Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital in Houston, be relocated to the area situated on the north bank of the Colorado River. In 1839, the Texas Congress formed a commission to seek a site for a new capital to be named for Stephen F. Austin. Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the newly formed Republic of Texas, advised the commissioners to investigate the area named Waterloo, noting the area's hills and pleasant surroundings. Waterloo was selected, "Austin" was chosen as the town's new name.
The location was seen as a convenient crossroads for trade routes between Santa Fe and Galveston Bay, as well as routes between northern Mexico and the Red River. Edwin Wall
Mexico
Mexico the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States. Covering 2,000,000 square kilometres, the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million people, the country is the eleventh most populous state and the most populous Spanish-speaking state in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, a special federal entity, the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the state include Guadalajara, Puebla, Tijuana and León. Pre-Columbian Mexico dates to about 8000 BC and is identified as one of five cradles of civilization and was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its politically powerful base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain.
Three centuries the territory became a nation state following its recognition in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, characterized by economic inequality and many contrasting political changes; the Mexican–American War led to a territorial cession of the extant northern territories to the United States. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, two empires, the Porfiriato occurred in the 19th century; the Porfiriato was ended by the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system as a federal, democratic republic. Mexico has the 11th largest by purchasing power parity; the Mexican economy is linked to those of its 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement partners the United States. In 1994, Mexico became the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts.
The country is considered both a regional power and a middle power, is identified as an emerging global power. Due to its rich culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas and seventh in the world for number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Mexico is an ecologically megadiverse country, ranking fourth in the world for its biodiversity. Mexico receives a huge number of tourists every year: in 2018, it was the sixth most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals. Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus group of the UN, the Pacific Alliance trade bloc. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely the Valley of Mexico and surrounding territories, with its people being known as the Mexica, it is believed to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, although it could have been the other way around.
In the colonial era, back when Mexico was called New Spain this territory became the Intendency of Mexico and after New Spain achieved independence from the Spanish Empire it came to be known as the State of Mexico with the new country being named after its capital: the City of Mexico, which itself was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Traditionally, the name Tenochtitlan was thought to come from Nahuatl tetl and nōchtli and is thought to mean "Among the prickly pears rocks". However, one attestation in the late 16th-century manuscript known as "the Bancroft dialogues" suggests the second vowel was short, so that the true etymology remains uncertain; the suffix -co is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain, it has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Mexica, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "place where Huitzilopochtli lives".
Another hypothesis suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for "moon" and navel. This meaning might refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco; the system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon rabbit. Still another hypothesis suggests that the word is derived from Mēctli, the name of the goddess of maguey; the name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the letter x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative during the 16th century; this led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries, México was the preferred spelling. In recent years, the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish l
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process. In modern baseball, the feat is achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is the "inside-the-park" home run where the batter reaches home safely while the baseball is in play on the field; when a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored, an RBI for each runner that scores, including himself. The pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a run for each runner that scores including the batter. Home runs are among the most popular aspects of baseball and, as a result, prolific home run hitters are the most popular among fans and the highest paid by teams—hence the old saying, "Home run hitters drive Cadillacs, singles hitters drive Fords.
In modern times a home run is most scored when the ball is hit over the outfield wall between the foul poles before it touches the ground, without being caught or deflected back onto the field by a fielder. A batted ball is a home run if it touches either foul pole or its attached screen before touching the ground, as the foul poles are by definition in fair territory. Additionally, many major-league ballparks have ground rules stating that a batted ball in flight that strikes a specified location or fixed object is a home run. In professional baseball, a batted ball that goes over the outfield wall after touching the ground becomes an automatic double; this is colloquially referred to as a "ground rule double" because the rule is not written into the rules of baseball, but is rather a rule of the field being used. A fielder is allowed to reach over the wall to attempt to catch the ball as long as his feet are on or over the field during the attempt, if the fielder catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out if the ball had passed the vertical plane of the wall.
However, since the fielder is not part of the field, a ball that bounces off a fielder and over the wall without touching the ground is still a home run. A fielder may not deliberately throw his glove, cap, or any other equipment or apparel to stop or deflect a fair ball, an umpire may award a home run to the batter if a fielder does so on a ball that, in the umpire's judgment, would have otherwise been a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is an automatic home run; the ball is dead if it rebounds back onto the field, the batter and any preceding runners cannot be put out at any time while running the bases. However, if one or more runners fail to touch a base or one runner passes another before reaching home plate, that runner or runners can be called out on appeal, though in the case of not touching a base a runner can go back and touch it if doing so won't cause them to be passed by another preceding runner and they have not yet touched the next base; this stipulation is in Approved Ruling of Rule 7.10.
An inside-the-park home run occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with an outside-the-park home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases; this can only happen. In the early days of baseball, outfields were much more spacious, reducing the likelihood of an over-the-fence home run, while increasing the likelihood of an inside-the-park home run, as a ball getting past an outfielder had more distance that it could roll before a fielder could track it down. Modern outfields are much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the game's early days, therefore inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity, they occur when a fast runner hits the ball deep into the outfield and the ball bounces in an unexpected direction away from the nearest outfielder, or an outfielder misjudges the flight of the ball in a way that he cannot recover from the mistake.
The speed of the runner is crucial as triples are rare in most modern ballparks. If any defensive play on an inside-the-park home run is labeled an error by the official scorer, a home run is not scored. All runs scored on such a play, still count. An example of an unexpected bounce occurred during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on July 10, 2007. Ichiro Suzuki of the American League team hit a fly ball that caromed off the right-center field wall in the opposite direction from where National League right fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. was expecting it to go. By the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had crossed the plate standing up; this was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, led to Suzu
New York City
The City of New York called either New York City or New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, exerts a significant impact upon commerce, research, education, tourism, art and sports; the city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of, a separate county of the State of New York. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898; the city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. In 2017, the New York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, it has been the country's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U. S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is an international symbol of the U. S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability, as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, with the city having three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013 and receiving a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world. Times Square, iconic as the world's "heart" and its "Crossroads", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
The names of many of the city's landmarks and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top universities in the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. In 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York.
James's older brother, King Charles II, had appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, which England had seized from the Dutch. During the Wisconsinan glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth; the erosive forward movement of the ice contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island; the first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio.
The Padrón Rea
Kansas City Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro Leagues. Operating in Kansas City and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J. L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team. In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system, transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any major league team did; the Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season. After sending more players to the major leagues than any other Negro League franchise, the team was disbanded in 1965; the Monarchs were formed in 1920 from two sources. Owner J. L. Wilkinson drew players from his All Nations barnstorming team, inactive during World War I, the 25th Infantry Wreckers, an all-black team recruited into the U.
S. Army exclusively for their playing talent, he put together a formidable collection of talent, including pitcher/outfielder Bullet Rogan, an eventual Hall of Famer who established himself as one of the most popular stars of the new league. Immediate contenders, the Monarchs became bitter rivals to black baseball's reigning power, Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants. After three years of failing to break the Giants' hold on the pennant, Wilkinson fired manager Sam Crawford in mid-1923, replacing him with veteran Cuban star José Méndez, who sparked the Monarchs to the league championship. Repeating in 1924, the Monarchs participated in the first Negro League World Series, defeating the Eastern Colored League champion Hilldale team from Darby, Pennsylvania, in a thrilling ten-game series. In this series, Méndez had an ERA of 1.42 in four of the games and was responsible for a shutout in the one game he was the starting pitcher in. Motivated by the Monarchs' runaway pennant victory, NNL president Rube Foster changed the league schedule to a split-season format for 1925.
Kansas City took the league title again in 1925, but lost the World Series to Hilldale when Rogan was injured just before the series began and won one game and lost five to Hilldale. Though Méndez was the manager, it was still possible to see him on the mound during the few years he held the position. Among the team's regulars during these years were the brilliant-fielding second baseman/shortstop Newt Allen who in the 1924 series alone had an average of.282 and seven doubles and Frank Duncan, one of the best-regarded defensive catchers in Negro League history. Newt Joseph played third base for the Monarchs from 1922 through their NNL years, hitting a composite.284 during that time. In 1926 manager Méndez returned to Cuba, Rogan took over as player/manager, he kept up the Monarchs' tradition of fine pitching, as the team's staff over the next few years featured such Negro League greats as Chet Brewer, William Bell, lefty Andy Cooper. The club traded for legendary Cuban outfielder Cristóbal Torriente, but permanently lost the services of star shortstop Dobie Moore, whose career ended that year due to a severe off-the-field injury.
After winning the first-half pennant, the Monarchs dropped a best of nine playoff to the Chicago American Giants when Rogan lost both games of a series-closing doubleheader to the young Bill Foster. In 1928 the Monarchs narrowly missed a second-half title, they made up for this by copping another NNL title in 1929, winning both halves with the best overall single-season record compiled by a Negro League team. By this time, the pitcher Andy Cooper who had made a name for himself by playing for seven years with the Detroit Stars had joined the Monarchs and aided them winning the 1929 pennant. No World Series was played that year between the Monarchs and the Baltimore Black Sox, champions of the eastern American Negro League. Following the death of the original league, the Monarchs spent several years as an independent team barnstorming through the Midwest and western Canada, they toured with the House of David baseball team. Hall of Famers Hilton Smith, a pitcher, Willard Brown, a slugging shortstop/outfielder with a consistent batting average of over.300, became Monarch mainstays during this time.
During the 1940s, Willard Brown became the go-to home run hitter for the Monarchs. With Andy Cooper now at the helm, the Monarchs became charter members of the Negro American League in 1937, winning the first league title. Andy Cooper was responsible for leading the Monarchs to bring home the pennant in 1939 and 1940; the Kansas City Monarchs won the next two league championships and won winning the renewed Negro League World Series in 1942 in four straight games against the Homestead Grays. At the start of this run the Monarchs acquired their most famous player, Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige, who had since his rookie season in 1927 built a reputation as the best hurler in black baseball for the Birmingham Black Barons, Pittsburgh Crawfords, several other teams. Suffering from an arm injury and thought to be done, Paige joined the Monarchs' B team in 1939. Paige was the subject of a lot of stories, both true and folklore, became a legend to people who don’t follow baseball. For example, he was known to have known the outfielders to sit on the g
