Cuban Giants
 

I happened on this marker in Babylon NY on Long Island. This may have been posted before? Is it likely accurate?

Wikipedia thinks the date and name of the team are correct: "The first nationally known black professional baseball team was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants."

Yes, I have read a few negro league histories that discuss it. Workers at that hotel played to entertain guests. A remarkable piece of baseball history that gets pretty much zero attention.

I also find it fascinating that none of the players were Cuban (like the Harlem Globetrotters weren’t from Harlem). Their hustle was pretty cool.

I believe they were all black men, called Cubans only because that was somehow more palatable to the masses at the time.

Yes, the plaque is accurate. The Cuban Giants were organized by Frank P. Thompson who was the headwaiter at the Argyle Hotel in Babylon, New York on Long Island. He initially formed the team with members of the Argyle wait-staff and they became a popular hotel attraction. Thompson later moved his Philadelphia based Keystone Athletics to the Argyle and merged them with the Philadelphia Orions and Washington, DC Manhattans.

They became a popular barnstorming team called the Babylon Boys until Walter Cook bought the team in 1886 and renamed them the Cuban Giants. The players were NOT Cuban but the reference to Cuba, as Steve accurately points out, made them more palatable to white fans. They were alleged to speak a gibberish designed to mimic Spanish so that fans could confirm in their own limited minds that they were indeed Cuban! They barnstormed up and down the East coast and Florida in the winter playing a version of what African American players called Triple A baseball: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.

Cook sold the team to E. B. Lamar in 1896 and Lamar renamed them the Cuban X Giants who became extremely well known for the quality of their play.

I published an article."Black Baseball Barnstorming," in The Ephemera Journal, Vol. 26, Num 1 (September 2023). If you're interested in a copy you can make enquiry at the Ephemera Society of America: info@ephemerasociety.org.

I've attached the only image I could find of the original team. Sadly I don't own it but if anyone has a copy, I'm a buyer!



Cheers,
Mike

Great photo! I am immensely proud (as a black man myself) for the strength and tenacity that these men exhibited in the most challenging of situations. I’ll follow up to see the article as it’s fascinating to me. Thx for sharing.

Excellent book below. Can't recall if I got off eBay or Amazon, but highly recommended. Covers the Babylon team and many others.

That is a great image of the Giants!

Is that a white guy, top row, second from left?