1914 NEW YORK LINCOLN GIANTS TEAM CABINET PHOTO WITH HOF'ERS JOE WILLIAMS AND LOUIS SANTOP.
Item Description
Presented here is the only known example portraying the 1914 New York Lincoln Giants baseball club, with the team posed in a single file line. Handwritten identification at bottom reads "1914 Worlds Colored Champions Lincoln Giants N.Y.". All 11 team members as well as the batboy are also identified in period ink below their corresponding images. Photo is highlighted by the inclusion of two National Baseball Hall of Fame members, "Smokey Joe" Williams and Louis Santop. Further adding to the allure of this magnificent piece is the inclusion of two future Cooperstown candidates, Dick "Cannonball" Redding and Spotswood Poles. Other notable stars of the era who are pictured here: Bill Gatewood, Dick Wallace, Johnny Pugh, Joe Hewitt, Leroy Grant, Doc Wiley and Doc Sykes.
Founded by Jess McMahon, a white businessman and sports promoter, the Lincoln Giants were one of early black baseball's greatest and most legendary teams. This club is credited with a 108-12 record in 1911, winning the first of three straight eastern championships. Much of this roster came from two other notable early teams, the 1903-04 Cuban X Giants and the 1905-06 Philadelphia Giants. As manager, Sol White was involved with both of those ball clubs and brought many of his former teammates over with him to New York in 1911. In 1914, several members of the Lincoln Giants broke away and formed a new team called the New York Lincoln Stars, who would only operate for three years before folding after the 1916 season. When the Eastern Colored League was formed in 1923, the Lincoln Giants became charter members but their only winning season was 1924, when they finished with a 31-25 record.
"Smokey Joe" Williams began his professional baseball career in 1910 with the Chicago Giants before becoming the longest tenured member of the New York Lincoln Giants, joining the team at the beginning of their inaugural season of 1911 and remaining there through the 1923 season, when the Lincoln Giants joined the Eastern Colored League. Smokey Joe would finish his career starring for the Homestead Grays dynasty of the late 1920s-early 1930s. Williams was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
The second future HOF'er to join the Lincoln Giants in 1911 was Louis Santop, who would spend the entire decade of the 1910s playing for three different New York baseball clubs, the Lincoln Giants, the Lincoln Stars and Brooklyn Royal Giants. During the 1920s, Louis was a mainstay for the great Hilldale Daisies teams of the Ed Bolden era. Widely regarded as the first great Negro League catcher, Santop was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2006.
Original cardboard mount is 9.75x11.75" w/slightly raised border design around the original glossy 8x10" photograph. Moderate aging to front and back of mount. Photo has small 1" area at top center w/slight bubble where not fully mounted but mostly only seen in reflected light. Moderate age to photo as well but all remains distinct. Fine overall.
Don't pass up this opportunity to own one of the truly historic collectibles in Negro League baseball history, not to mention a very early career image of both HOF'ers, "Smokey Joe" Williams & Louis Santop. The Black Ball Collection.
