While the New York Giants of the National League held court at the Polo Grounds in the first half of the 20th century, a couple of other teams with the same name played Negro League ball around the city.
The New York Lincoln Giants got their start in 1911.
Home was Olympic Field, at Fifth Avenue and 136th Street, where they played at least one exhibition game against the National League Giants (the big-league Giants won, 3-0).
The Lincoln Giants reigned over other Eastern teams before World War I, after which they sank to the bottom of the rankings.
The team disbanded in 1930, a victim of the Depression.
The Brooklyn Royal Giants (left), formed in 1905, also dominated prior to World War I.
They played home games at Dexter Park, a former racetrack in Woodhaven, Queens. The Royal Giants threw in the towel in 1942 after slipping into semi-pro status in the 1930s.
Tags: Dexter Park Queens, Negro Leagues, New York Lincoln Giants, New York Negro League teams, New York Royal Giants, Olympic Field Harlem, Polo Grounds
Ephemeral New York 
May 20, 2010 at 4:03 am |
[…] Ephemeral New York reminds us of New York’s other baseball Giants, the New York Lincoln Giants and the Brooklyn Royal Giants, a pair of Negro League teams from the early 20th century. […]
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