Interesting Negro Leaguer Lot on Ebay

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Anyone else see this lot? My bid of $509 was easily topped and I figured it probably would be, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever heard of the Elm City Colored Giants? Or of the player in the colorized photo George Scott. Neither the team name or the player appear in the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=007&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=170080659327&rd=1&rd=1

I wonder what the lot would have went for if Dick Lundy had made the Hall of Fame?

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Both photos are very interesting ... who's Dick Lundy, by the way? ... and could George Scott be related to the former Red Sox first baseman? It wouldn't be the first time a player from the 1960s was related to a Negro Leaguer (Tiant and Cepeda come to mind) ...

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Posted By: Chad

Dick Lundy is an all time Negro League great. He peaked in the 1920's. A really fine fielding shorstop with a good bat. My impression is that he's something like an Alan Trammell. He was a finalist to make the HOF.

There's been some good Negro League stuff on ebay lately.

--Chad

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Chad, have you ever heard of this team before. Did the negro leagues have any sort of organized minor league type of system?

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Posted By: Chad

I'll check my Riley when I get home, though.

A couple of the teams had a B team or working agreements with minor league teams for players--The KC Monarchs for example--but mostly it was more chaotic than that. It wasn't uncommon for a big time Negro League team to lend a young player to a good semi-pro or town team for seasoning, though. Town teams and really good semi-pro teams were just as common in black town and neighborhoods as in white ones. Buck Leonard came out of a semi-pro league in Virginia. Also, there were a lot of factory teams that would play a barnstorming Negro League team and sometimes players would get discovered that way. Luke Easter is an example of this. So, really, I guess you could say there was a minor league system for black ball, but it wasn't anywhere near as organized as the white minor leagues. It's really an undiscovered country for research and collecting, I think.

--Chad