The curious story of
baseball’s Atlantic City (NJ) Bacharach Giants originates from a
unique intersection of racism, tourism, and politics.
In 1915, an independent semi-pro “Atlantic
City Colored League” was formed to provide an entertainment outlet
for the city’s 11,000+ black residents – with the hope being they
would attend the games and stay off the boardwalk, a then-booming
summer haven for white tourists.
Two black businessmen
active in the local Republican political machine asked an existing
area team to join the league and promotionally rename itself after
politician Harry Bacharach, the once-and-future mayor of Atlantic
City. When the team refused, the duo travelled south and
convinced eight members of the Duval Giants, a black amateur team
in Jacksonville, Florida, to venture north and create the
foundation for a new independent club instead.
The “Bacharach Giants”
largely dominated whatever opponents came their way during the late
1910s, despite persistent financial wobbliness. In 1920, the
team began a three-year stint as an associate member of Rube
Foster’s new Negro National League (NNL) – allowing them to retain
official independence, but also to coordinate non-league games with
the teams from Foster’s largely Midwest-based circuit.
In 1923, Atlantic City
broke from the NNL to help start the rival Eastern Colored League
(ECL), where they achieved their greatest success – including
winning two league pennants in 1926 and 1927 – though losing both
times in subsequent Negro League World Series play to the NNL’s
Chicago American Giants.
Beset by rancorous
squabbles over player contracts, the ECL folded in 1928. Five
of its clubs – including the Bacharach Giants – formed the bulk of
a new American Negro League for 1929, only to see both the league
and its team from Atlantic City fold by the end of the
season.
Author/historian Jim
Overmyer (Black Ball and the Boardwalk: The Bacharach Giants
of Atlantic City) joins to discuss the history of the
club, and some of the legends that emanated from it, including
Negro League standouts Dick Lundy, Oliver Marcell, Dick Redding,
“Nip” Winters, Chanel White, “Rats” Henderson, Claude Grier, and
Luther Farrell – and National Baseball Hall of Famer John Henry
"Pop" Lloyd.
