Negro League baseball history fact for today – February 17, 2013

Before the formation of African-American professional baseball leagues began in the 1920s, there were independent black professional teams that made their living playing against low level white minor league teams, white amateur and semi-pro teams, and other black teams.  One of those black teams was the Page Fence Giants.  Formed in 1894 and sponsored by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company of Adrian, Michigan; the Giants were one of the premier black teams in the upper Midwest.  Traveling to games by private railroad car, the Giants would parade down the main street of towns on bicycles inviting people to come see them play.  On the field they mixed baseball talent with showmanship to entertain the fans.  Legend has it the team won eighty-two consecutive games in 1897; it’s next to last year of operation.