1905 Philadelphia Giants
In 1905, at age 36, manager Sol White was entering his fourth season as captain of the Philadelphia Giants and his eighteenth as a professional ball player. White piloted the 1905 Philadelphia Giants to an unprecedented record of 134 wins 24 losses and 3 tie games. Along the way, his Giants could boast of victories over teams managed by Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, James O’Rourke and Billy Hamilton.
Under White’s astute guidance, the 1905 Philadelphia Giants defeated nine minor league opponents from five different leagues. Against rival African-American teams they went undefeated. In the eight state region surrounding Philadelphia, the Giants won well over 100 games against the most influential semi-professional teams in the east.
Superior hitting teams were difficult to find as the Philadelphians were out-hit by their opponents less than twenty times in over 158 games played. They also played an entire schedule of over one hundred fifty games without ever getting shutout. Slugging their way to nearly 1,500 hits and well over 220 doubles they were as dominant on the field as they were segregated off it. Considering that these high-water marks were reached while “Home Run” Johnson, Bill Monroe and Sol White were having an injury-plagued season only solidifies this team’s quest for greatness. It was pitching, though, that made this Philadelphia Giants team nearly unbeatable.
Highlighting this memorable season, were pitchers “Rube” Foster, Dan McClellan and Emmett Bowman, who transformed the 1905 Philadelphia Giants into a genuine powerhouse. Collectively they combined for a mind-blowing 100 wins, over 20 shutouts, nearly 700 strikeouts and over 1,035 innings pitched. Their cumulative record was in the neighborhood of 101-20.
The uncompromising roster of the 1905 Philadelphia Giants varied from twelve to fourteen men. An elite squad, they were a mixture of many athletic components. In Bill Monroe the Giants’ fielded one the best hitting and fielding third basemen in baseball. Slick fielding “Home Run” Johnson at shortstop, just as the name implied, was a potential long ball in every at-bat. The hitting and fielding of Charlie Grant, at second base, and Pete Hill, in center field, made the Giants extremely strong up the middle of the field – as strong as any team of that era. Whenever a utility player was needed there were few more dependable than steady “Mike” Moore.
The Philadelphia Giants of 1905 were a championship squad with few equals.
1905 Philadelphia Giants
Jump to...
Players:
William "Bill" Monroe
Andrew "Rube" Foster
Dan McClellan
Grant "Homerun" Johnson
Andrew "Jap" Payne
Pete Booker
Charlie Grant
John W. "Pat" Patterson
J. Preston "Pete" Hill
Solomon White
Emmet Bowman
Season Stats:
Fielding
Batting
Pitching
Scrapbook:
Team Photos
Advertisements
Nick-named “Money” for the sheer number of fans that flocked to see him perform, Monroe ranked among the greatest baseball players of his generation. (Image from the Philadelphia Inquirer)
An August 14, 1905 edition of the Trenton Times noted, “ Monroe is the best third baseman seen in Trenton. He made plays Saturday which saved his team. His speed is remarkable as is his fielding and base running. It is a pleasure to see him in action.” Similarly impressed, the Brockton Times of June 24, 1905 wrote, “In Monroe, at third, they [the Philadelphia Giants have a man who can play ball with the best of them.”
Andrew “Rube” Foster caricature. The Harrisburg Telegraph of September 19, 1905 noted, “Foster is the giant who has many pitchers beaten [by] a mile. He proved his ability yesterday when he held Harrisburg down to one hit, and that bingo was looked upon as rather doubtful. Bonner was credited with having the only hit, but many who witnessed the game thought it was a nohit contest.” (Image from the Lynn Daily Item)
Foster surpassed 35 games won for a second consecutive season in 1905. Along the way he tossed at least one shutout each month, from May to September, which included an August 22, no-hitter at Camden, New Jersey. In August alone, Foster won eight games and tied one. This photograph originally appeared in a July 1, 1905 edition of the Philadelphia
Evening Item. (Author’s Collection)
Dan McClellan on the right, with two unknown men. McClellan, the man that an overly zealous edition of the Brockton Times labeled, “the blackest face son of blackness that ever wore a set of spotless ivories,” won over 30 games in 1905 and several had come against minor league opposition.
A mid-May shutout of Newark’s Eastern League team and a late September shutout of Harrisburg’ s Tri-State League team were listed among his many wins. To silence his critics, McClellan beat Newark twice and also defeated Bridgeport of the Connecticut League and Poughkeepsie of the Hudson River League. (Author’s Collection)
In an era when baseball’ s best hitting pitchers were African- Americans, McClellan, Andrew “Rube” Foster, Harry E. Buckner, George Wilson and Walter Ball dominated. It was well understood that McClellan was probably the best left-handed hitting pitcher, post Wilson’ s retirement in 1908, as his nearest rivals were all right-handed. As members of the 1905 Philadelphia Giants pitchers McClellan, Foster and Emmett Bowman combined for over 350 hits. (Baseball Hall of Fame)
“Home Run” Johnson. In 1894 Johnson visited New York and briefly appeared with the Cuban Giants. For reasons which remain unknown, he returned home in May to resume play for the Findlay Sluggers. Johnson ultimately hit two home runs in a game, on five separate occasions, and ended up with over 30 home runs for the year. At season’s end he was tagged with the nickname “Home Run.” He is rumored to be the first African-American player to surpass 100 , 200 and 300 home runs. (Author’s
Collection)
Andrew “Jap” Payne was a member of the original Philadelphia Giants of 1902. However by 1905, Payne had emerged as a celebrated outfielder for the Brooklyn Royal Giants. To strengthen the Philadelphia Giants for the five game series against Harrisburg and Johnstown, Payne was reassigned his old position in the Philadelphia Giants’ outfield. In that series he excelled, rapping a total of seven hits. ( Author’s Collection)
Pete Booker caricature. Writers often characterized African-American athletes with the term “Dusky.” Evidently they had discovered that “Dusky” was a more palatable term than “Darky,” though in reality the word carried the same connotation. As you can see from Booker’s caricature, the newspapers were just as successful with their visual humiliations of African-American athletes. (Image from the Lynn Daily Item)
As a second baseman Grant was one of baseball’s all-time finest. He was the only Philadelphia Giant to surpass 300 putouts and 300 assists in 1905. In achieving these feats Grant participated in an additional 49 double plays and made less than 35 errors in over 130 games. (Baseball Hall of Fame)
The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle of May 2, 1905 noted, “Grant, the Giants’ second baseman, is the player McGraw, of the New York Nationals, tried to ring in as an Indian.” A similar story in a June 24, 1905 edition of the Brockton Times reiterated, “Grant is the player whom Lajoie tried to have remain with Cleveland as an Indian. It wouldn’t quite work, although Grant has the features and color of a red man.” (Baseball Hall of Fame)
Patterson’s career illustrated one of the hardships of baseball behind the color line. He began professional play with the 1890 Lincoln, Nebraska Giants and in 1894 graduated to the Cuban Giants of New York. From that time forward Patterson lived almost exclusively on the road, having appeared with the Page Fence Giants, Chicago Columbia Giants, Philadelphia Giants, Cuban X Giants and the Brooklyn Royal Giants. An article in the July 10, 1909 Indianapolis Freeman summarized Patterson’s career by writing, “He [ Patterson] has not seen his mother in twelve years nor his father in twenty-four.” ( Author’s collection)
J. Preston “Pete” Hill. His 1905 totals included three five-hit games, three games of four hits and an amazing twenty games in which he had three hits - a total of 87 hits in just 26 games. This however was only a fraction of his grand productivity for 1905 as he ranked among team leaders in stolen bases, doubles and home runs. (Author's collection)
In 1905, at age 36, the illustrious Ohioan was entering his fourth season as captain of the Philadelphia Giants and his eighteenth as a professional ball player. White piloted the 1905 Philadelphia Giants to an unprecedented record of 134 wins. Along the way, his Giants could boast of victories over teams managed by Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, James O’Rourke and Billy Hamilton. (Image from the Philadelphia Inquirer)
Bowman, a rookie from Pittsburgh, was the Philadelphia Giants’ big stopper. He tossed a total of four two-hit games and posted over 35 wins for the 1905 season. The Plainfield Courier News referred to Bowman as, “he of the fish wagon voice.” (www.nlbpa.com)
1905 Philadelphia Giants Scrapbook
Grant "Home Run" Johnson with 1894 Findlay Sluggers
1894 Findlay Sluggers. Standing (L to R): Harvey Pastorius, Fred Cook, Howard Brandenberg, Bill Ready. Seated: “Home Run” Johnson, George Darby, Charles Strobel, Bobby Woods, “Bud” Fowler. Extreme front: F. Schwartz, “Kid” Odgen. Although local fans considered “Home Run” Johnson to be a far superior player, he was forced to play in the shadow of Cincinnati’s William E. Hoy, Findlay’s well-known mute outfielder. Fowler, his real name was John W. Jackson, became one of the first African- American player to cross the color barrier when he pitched for the Lynn Live Oaks of the International League in 1878. (Hancock Historical Museum)
1905 Philadelphia Giants' Studio Team Photograph
1905 Philadelphia Giants. Standing (L to R ): Harry A. Smith, Harry “Mike” Moore, Emmett Bowman, Sol White, Tom Washington, Dan McClellan. Seated: “ Home Run” Johnson, Charlie Grant, Walter Schlichter, Andrew “Rube” Foster, J. Preston “Pete” Hill. Extreme front seated: Bill Monroe, Pete Booker.
1904-1905 Royal Poinciana Winter League
1904-05 Royal Poinciana Winter League. Standing (L to R) Dan McClellan, unknown, Andrew “Rube” Foster, unknown, Harry “ Mike” Moore, “Home Run” Johnson. Front row: Pete Hill, unknown, Sol White, unknown, Charlie Grant. Prior to the start of the Philadelphia Giants’ championship season of 1905, Sol White had managed the 1904-1905 Royal Poinciana’s to a Palm Beach, Florida Winter League championship . (Transcendental Graphics)
1905 Philadelphia Giants
1905 Philadelphia Giants. Standing (L to R) “Home Run” Johnson, Andrew “Rube” Foster, Emmett Bowman, Walther Schlichter, Sol White, Pete Booker, Charlie Grant. Seated: Dan McClellan, Pete Hill, Tom Washington, Harry “Mike” Moore, William “Bill” Monroe. Ironically, the owners’ experiment of a well-paid, highly skilled team of African-American players failed to catch on in Philadelphia. As a consequence, the Philadelphia Giants were forced to play many games in New York City . To fill out the remainder of their schedule they rode the rails all over the eastern part of the United States. (Baseball Hall of Fame)
1905 Advertisement for Camden, New Jersey
1905 Advertisement for Camden, New Jersey. Admission fees to see African- American teams ranged from 15 to 25 cents, a figure that had gone unchanged for decades. The price to see National League games was already 50 cents in the mid 1890s and the result was higher player wages. Cleveland’s Napoleon Lajoie boasted of earning enormous sums in a national Coca Cola advertisement. “I can make $10,000 a year playing baseball,” Lajoie was quoted as saying, “[but] I couldn’t make more than 50 cent a day at anything else.” (Image from the Camden Post-Telegram)
1905 Advertisement for Lynn, Massachusetts
1905 Advertisement for Lynn, Massachusetts. The Philadelphia Giants met with a cold reception in their visits to Massachusetts. On at least one occasion, the team traveled 200 miles in a crowded “Jim Crow” train from Brooklyn, and played to a disappointing crowd of 100 people at Haverhill, Massachusetts. (Image from the Lynn Daily Item)
1905 Advertisement for Hoboken, New Jersey
1905 Advertisement for Hoboken, New Jersey. While it was evident that the Philadelphia Giants were a much better team, they were prohibited from scheduling games against National and American League opponents. The Hoboken team had the luxury of meeting nearly a dozen big league opponents in 1905. (Image from The Observer of Hudson County)
