- Frank Leland
Frank C. Leland was a
Negro Leagues outfielder, manager and club owner.Frank Leland, from
Memphis, Tennessee , attendedFisk University . He began his baseball career with theWashington Capital Cities in theLeague of Colored Baseball Clubs .In 1888, he organized the black amateur Union Base Ball Club, with sponsorship from some of Chicago's black businessmen. Leland obtained a lease from the city government to play at South Side Park, a 5,000-seat facility. In 1898 his team went pro and became the
Chicago Unions .He played outfield with the Unions in the 1880s. A businessman, Leland returned to baseball in 1901 when he merged the Unions and the
Columbia Giants to form theChicago Union Giants . This became the topNegro League team in the Midwest. Leland served as manager of the Union Giants as well as owner.The team changed its name to the "
Leland Giants " in 1905; in 1907Rube Foster replaced Leland as manager andPete Hill and Foster strengthened the club in the field. A rift between Foster and Leland in 1910 split the team in two; Foster's team won a legal battle over the Leland Giants name, so while Foster ran the team with Leland's name, Leland's club was called the "Chicago Giants ". This confusion ended in 1911 when Foster's team became theChicago American Giants . Leland left baseball a short while later after having been the premier owner and manager in black baseball for a decade.References
*This article includes information from the [http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Frank_Leland article of the same name] in the Baseball Reference Bullpen, accessed
December 5 ,2006 . It is available under theGNU Free Documentation License .
*Holway, John, "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues". ISBN 0803820070. The complete book is available for online viewing at [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803820070&id=1HiIR2RMxqsC&dq=0803820070 Google Books] .
*Lester, Larry, Sammy J. Miller and Dick Clark, "Black Baseball in Chicago". Arcadia Press, 2000. ISBN 0738507040. ( [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/excerpts/black_baseball_in_chicago.stm Excerpts] ).
*Riley, James, "The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues". ISBN 0786709596.External links
* [http://www.joshgibson.org/index.php?page=Negro_League_History A little history] from the Josh Gibson Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
