The Babylon Black Panthers were a professional African-Americanbaseball club, said to be the first such professional team in the United States of America. An African American (also Afro-American or Black American, or black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Baseball is a team sport in which a player on one team (the pitcher) attempts to throw a hard, fist-sized ball past a player on the other team (the batter), who attempts to hit the baseball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical stick called a bat that can be made...
The team was originally formed in the 1880s as a recreation for staff of the Argyle Hotel, a summer resort in Babylon (village), New York. The team was so skilled in the game, and achieved victory over so many of the nearby amateur "white" teams that they attracted the attention of a promoter, Walter Cook. To appeal to a broader audience, Cook styled them the "Cuban Giants," a common ploy to avoid referring to the players as "black" or "Negro." There were no Cubans in the Cuban Giants. Babylon is a village located in Suffolk County, New York. ... Walter Cook was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ...
The team went on to become the "world colored champions" of 1887 and 1888, and spawned imitators.
Members of the hotel staff formed the nucleus of the still-extant African-American community in Babylon
The Southern League was comprised of 10 teams: the Memphis Eclipse, the Georgia Champions of Atlanta, the Savannah Broads, the Memphis Eurekas, the Savannah Lafayettes, the Charleston Fultons, the Jacksonville Athletics, the New Orleans Unions, the Florida Clippers of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Macedonias.
Except the New York Cuban Stars and the Havana Giants, the "Cuban" teams were all composed of African Americans rather than Cubans; the purpose was to increase their acceptance with white patrons as Cuba was on very friendly terms with the US during those years.
In 1890, the Giants returned to their independent, barnstorming identity, and by 1892, they were the only fl team in the East still in operation on a full-time basis.
Perhaps the first full-fledged professional team were the CubanGiants[?], formed in Babylon, New Jersey but relocated to Trenton in 1886.
It should be noted that, due in no small part to the popularity and success of the original CubanGiants many similarly named teams came into existence, including the Genuine CubanGiants, Royal Giants, the Baltimore Giants and the Cuban X-Giants, the latter a powerhouse in the early twentieth century.
The "Cuban" teams, with the exception of the Cuban Stars and the Havana Giants, were all composed of African-Americans rather than Cubans, but the name was thought to increase their acceptance with white patrons.
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