Gilkerson’s Union Giants

Robert Gilkerson’s Union Giants were one of the best “minor league” black teams during the era of segregated baseball.  Based out of Spring Valley, IL, a small coal-mining town 100 miles southwest of Chicago, the Union Giants played over 100 games per season, traveling through the Midwest and Canada each summer.

 

They were similar to the International League’s Baltimore Orioles, during the Lefty Grove era of the early 1920s.  In other words, a dominant minor league team which may have held it’s own, had they played a Major League schedule.  Clearly, the Union Giants were better than some of the bottom feeders in the Negro National League, but Mr. Gilkerson had found a niche, traveling to small country towns, where citizens were starved for live entertainment.

 

The ball club generated enough money to attract top talent, often featuring big name ballplayers either on their way up (or on their way down) from black Major League teams. One of their best seasons was 1931, when they featured Cristobal Torriente, Alec Radcliff, Steel Arm Davis and Hurley McNair in the starting line-up.  According to a November 1931 article in the Chicago Defender, the Union Giants finished the season at 100-26.

There were some other good black teams in 1931.  Putting strength of schedule to the side for one moment, here are the published (unconfirmed) records of several teams you may have heard of.

 

TEAMS  (1931 SEASON)	W	L	PCT.
Homestead Grays	136	17	.889
Hilldale	120	31	.795
Gilkerson’s Union Giants	100	26	.794
Pittsburgh Crawfords	99	36	.733

 

Here are the partial (again, unconfirmed) Union Giants’ batting statistics:

 

PLAYER	AVG.	AB	H	2B	3B	HR
Steel Arm Davis	.430	587	264	60	21	35
Alec Radcliff	.401	531	233	47	27	27
Red Haley	.367	334	190		18	20
Cristobal Torriente	.361	277	100
Owen Smaulding	.340	420	142
Subby Byas				48	13	12
Hurley McNair				38	17
Charlie Akers				37		17

 

And now for the unconfirmed pitching figures:

PITCHER	W	L	PCT.
Jimmy Claxton	13	1	.929
Owen Smaulding	22	3	.880
Cristobal Torriente	20	3	.870
Allen	13	6	.684
James Winston	2	2	.500

 

 

I decided to run a quick alpha-sort of my Black Minor League team database to see what sort of record I could confirm for the Union Giants.  Over a 15 season span (1920-34), I have 232 box/line 237 box/line scores and game stories for the Gilkerson’s team.  In 1931, I have 18 line scores, in which the team went 15-3 .833.  Here is their record, broken down by competition level, for ALL their games in my database (1920-34):

UPDATE(3-10-09): I’ve found a couple more 1931 box scores in the vault.  The team was 20-3 in the games I’ve located, scoring 10.6 rpg versus 4.2 for their opponents.  They were an offensive juggernaut, as the published statistics suggest, winning games by 19-3, 17-5, 15-6 and 15-3.  Against white minor league teams they average 8 runs per game.  In an early season newspaper story, the team was supposedly on the verge of signing Army Cooper and Dink Mothell, both KC Monarchs veterans, but both men wound up staying with the Kansas City squad.  Steel Arm Davis was clearly the marquee player for this group.  During one stretch (late July/ early August) he supposedly hit 14 home runs in a span of 14 games.  Based on several boxes in my possession, it seems probable.  Typcial line-up: Haley, McNair and Davis in the middle of the order.  Sometimes Radcliff was in the middle and Davis would lead off!!

 

GILKERSON’S U.G.	W	L	PCT.
Black Minor Lg teams	9	3	.750
White Semi-Pro	160	54	.748
White Minor Lg teams	5	6	.455

 

Does anybody out there have game stories or box scores featuring the Union Giants against Negro National League teams?  I’m sort of surprised that no such occurrences have popped up in my data base.  Although many of the other black “minor league” teams played the major level squads, I’ve yet to uncover any Union Giants games, circa 1920 to 1934.