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Arkansas Giants (1917)

The Arkansas Giants, also known as the Hot Springs Bear Cats, were a Negro baseball team based in Hot Springs, AR in 1917. The team was later based out of Longview, TX.

History

In 1923, Negro League player William "Nacogdoches" Ross detailed his Negro league baseball career in a series of articles titled "My Twelve Years in Baseball" in the Dallas Express. Included in one of Ross' articles was his account of the 1917 Hot Springs Giants.1 According to Ross, the Giants were comprised of a number of young players who later went on to have successful Negro baseball careers, including Arkansans Harry Kenyon, Charles Spearman, and Floyd Gardner. Ross' account also describes how he, as the manager of a Negro team based in Longview, TX, booked Hot Springs to play a series of games in June, 1917. After only the second game of the series, however, the owner of the Hot Springs team abandoned his players. Afterward, Ross offered to become Hot Springs's new manager. As a result, the Hot Springs Giants came under the ownership of Longview's owner W. P. Northcott. Eventually, Ross, as manager of both Longview and Hot Springs, combined the two teams to create the Texas All-Stars, otherwise known as the Fort Worth Black Wonders.2 The All-Stars toured northward, playing the Indianapolis A.B.C.'s and the Chicago American Giants. The season closed with a double-header against the Dallas Black Giants.

Excerpts

"W. P. Northcott, owner of the negro team which played several games here under the name of the Hot Springs Bear Cats, has picked a team from the entire Southern Colored League and will tour the North with a team he has booked as the Fort Worth Wonders. Northcott has already arranged game in Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Chicago. The team will leave here Monday."3

"In 1917 he [William Ross] signed a contract to manage a club for W. P. Northcutt at Longview and he got together a first-class bunch of ball players and in June, the same year, the Hot Springs giants came to Longview and dropped 5 games in a row and their manager took all the money and deserted them and Ross got busy and signed most all the good players on the club to play for him and then changed his club's name to the Hot Springs Giants and most of the fans will agree that he had a tuff [sic] bunch to beat last of the season, he won 14 games, lost 9, he started."4

"On the 2nd of March [1917] I [William Ross] received a letter from W. P. Northcutt of Longview, asking me my terms to take charge of the Longview Ball Club as Manager. So I wired him that before I could agree to take charge of the club I would like to have a talk with him and his answer was my transportation from Monroe to Longview. After he and I had a long talk he agreed to let me be the boss of everything and also run the club as I saw fit; then I signed a contract. The contract I signed in Longview was the best I had ever signed and I was determined to make good. My contract called for $150.00 a month and at the end of the season I was to get 10 per cent of the clubs profit. So one can imagine how eager I was to have a good club. After looking over the bunch of players that had represented Longview I decided they were not the kind to make a winning club; so I only used two of them. Bob Bailey who at the time was a catcher and Charlie Weeks, an outfielder. So I went to Monroe and brought back with me Ed Darden, 3b; Marcus Stanfield, 2b; Emmet Scott, catcher. I also brought players from Marshall; Edwin Reed, 1b; Sandy Thompson, cf; Isaac Watson, lf; and some players from other cities. On April 20th we played our first game against Shreveport and beat them 5-4. My club was as follows: Edwin Reed, 1b; Stanfield, 2b; Darden, 3b; Bailey, ss; Watson, lf; Thompson, cf; Weeks, rf; Scott, Hendrix, p; I kept this club together until July then I disbanded it and took charge of the Hot Springs Giants. While managing the Longview club I booked the Hot Springs Giants which were on their way to Dallas for the 18th and 19th and 20th of June to play in Longview on the 13th, 14th and 15th of June. My Longview Club was booked to play in Galveston in the 17th and 18th and 19th of June, but while playing the Hot Springs club in Longview the night after the second game, the Hot Springs owner took all the receipts and went back to Hot Springs and left the players without an money at all; so we played the third game and I gave them their end of the receipts and that night they held a meeting among themselves and decided to sell the base ball outfit and divide the money. So they came to me to sell out. After listening to them for a while I asked them how they would like to play for me and they all said they would be perfectly satisfied to play for me; at the same time I knew they were booked for the 19th of June and that meant a great deal of money if I could keep them together and fill the date. The Hot Springs Club was composed of the following players: Henry Blackmon, Edgar Wesley, Harry Kenyon, Floyd Gardner, Jelly Roll, Lonnie Clark, Johnnie Watson and others; so I picked the best men of the two clubs and sent them to Dallas. Here are the names of those I sent to Dallas: Bailey 1b; Blackmon, 2b; Clark, 3b; Thompson, lf; Watson, cf; Spearmon, rf; Hendrick, c; Kenyon, p; and I took the rest to Galveston. It was very good, we had two clubs because we only broke even on our trip to Galveston but made money in Dallas. I kept both clubs until July 4th; Bailey was in charge of the Hot Springs bunch. After the 4th I took Scott and put him with the Giants and disbanded my Longview club and with my Hot Springs bunch I beat everybody with ease with the exception of the Dallas club. In August, I took my club to Indianapolis and played C. I. Taylor’s A. B. C.’s which club I am a member of at this present time and from there we went to Chicago. Although we lost most of our games we made money and played good ball and I considered that club as the 2nd best club I have ever managed. I my next article I will tell you the best I have managed. We closed our 1917 season with a double header in Dallas; lost the first game and tied the second."5

Schedule/Results

DateLocationOpponentW-LRRANotes
4/5/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARMemphis GiantsW536 7 8
4/6/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARMemphis GiantsW769 10
4/7/1917Majestic Park, Hot Springs, ARMemphis Giants 11 12
4/8/1917Majestic Park, Hot Springs, ARMemphis Giants 13
4/16/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARShorter College (North Little Rock, AR) W7114 15
4/17/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARShorter College (North Little Rock, AR) L8916 17
4/21/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets L 2 3 18
4/22/1917Fogel Field, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 19
4/22/1917Fogel Field, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 20
4/23/1917Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets W12 8 21
4/24/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow JacketsL4222
4/29/1917Fogel Field, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 23
4/30/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow JacketsW 24
5/1/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow JacketsL 5325
5/4/1917Whittington Park, Hot Springs, ARWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 26
Team becomes Hot Springs Bear Cats
6/6/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsW5327
6/14/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsL3428 29
6/15/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsW2930
6/23/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsW5031
6/24/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsL3232
6/24/1917Panther Park, Fort Worth, TXDallas Black GiantsL0233
7/8/1917Katy Park, Waco , TXWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 34
7/8/1917Katy Park, Waco , TXWaco (TX) Yellow Jackets 35
Hot Springs combines with Longview to become the Texas All-Stars
7/22/1917Washington Park, Indianapolis, INIndianapolis A.B.C.'sL2136
7/22/1917Washington Park, Indianapolis, INIndianapolis A.B.C.'sL9437
7/23/1917Washington Park, Indianapolis, INIndianapolis A.B.C.'sL11138
7/24/1917Washington Park, Indianapolis, INIndianapolis A.B.C.'sL4239
7/29/1917Schorling Park, Chicago, ILChicago American GiantsL7540
7/30/1917Schorling Park, Chicago, ILChicago American GiantsL7641
7/31/1917Schorling Park, Chicago, ILChicago American GiantsL16242


Players

Arkansas Giants
PlayerBirthDeathNotes
Benson 43
Loney Clark10/12/1895 in Argenta, AR3/29/1937 in Little Rock, AR 44
Cueto 45
Curry 46
Fields 47
Floyd Gardner9/27/1895 in Russellville, AR3/28/1977 in Chicago, IL48
Harry Kenyon4/10/1894 in Arkadelphia, AR11/3/1973 in Morrilton, AR49
Stringbeans Martin 50 51
Smiling Palmer 52 53
Connie Rector6/15/1892 in Arkadelphia, AR May 1963 in NY 54
Charles Spearman11/3/1892 in Arkadelphia, AR 2/28/1963 in Washington, D.C. 55
Tucker 56
Smokey Joe 57
Tootsie Williams 58
B. B. Wilson 59 60 61 62


Hot Springs Bear Cats
PlayerBirthDeathNotes
Bob Bailey1/17/1895 in Grand Cane, LA5/11/1962 in Dallas, TX63
Henry Blackmon9/19/1891 in Hillsboro, TX8/8/1921 in Baltimore, MD 64 , 65
Loney Clark10/12/1895 in Argenta, AR3/29/1937 in Little Rock, AR 66
Floyd Gardner9/27/1895 in Russellville, AR3/28/1977 in Chicago, IL67
O. T. Hendricks12/25/1894 in Longview, TX 11/1/1930 in Massillon, OH 68 , 69 , 70
William "Nacogdoches" Ross10/5/1893 in Corrigan, TX12/22/1964 in Diboll, TX71 , 72
Emmie Scott9/25/1894 in Natchez, MS4/13/1954 in Alameda County, CA73 , 74
Simmons 75 , 76
Charles Spearman11/3/1892 in Arkadelphia, AR 2/28/1963 in Washington, D.C. 77 , 78 , 79
Sandy Thompson6/5/1895 in Marshall, TX 6/21/1965 in Chicago, IL80
Johnny Watson1/5/1896 in Beaumont, TX7/13/1958 in Philadelphia, PA81 , 82 , 83
Edgar Wesley5/2/1891 in Waco, TX7/12/1966 in Austin, TX84


Texas All-Stars
PlayerBirthDeathNotes
Bob Bailey1/17/1895 in Grand Cane, LA5/11/1962 in Dallas, TX85 , 86
Henry Blackmon9/19/1891 in Hillsboro, TX8/8/1921 in Baltimore, MD 87 , 88
Brown 89
Eddie Buell5/20/1895 in Waco, Texas2/25/1960 in Waco, TX 90
Loney Clark10/12/1895 in Argenta, AR3/29/1937 in Little Rock, AR 91 , 92
Floyd Gardner9/27/1895 in Russellville, AR3/28/1977 in Chicago, IL93 , 94
O. T. Hendricks12/25/1894 in Longview, TX 11/1/1930 in Massillon, OH 95 , 96 , 97
Harry Kenyon4/10/1894 in Arkadelphia, AR11/3/1973 in Morrilton, AR98 , 99
Marcell Probably Oliver Marcell100 , 101
William "Nacogdoches" Ross10/5/1893 in Corrigan, TX12/22/1964 in Diboll, TX102 , 103
Emmie Scott9/25/1894 in Natchez, MS4/13/1954 in Alameda County, CA104 , 105
Sandy Thompson6/5/1895 in Marshall, TX 6/21/1965 in Chicago, IL106
Johnny Watson1/5/1896 in Beaumont, TX7/13/1958 in Philadelphia, PA107 , 108
Edgar Wesley5/2/1891 in Waco, TX7/12/1966 in Austin, TX109 , 110

2 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7/13/1917
3 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7/13/1917
70 Hendricks' WWI draft card lists him as a "Ball Player" for W.P. Northcutt.
76 Possibly Spearman.
79 Spearman's WWI draft card lists him as a "Ball Player" for W.P. Northcutt in the Texas Colored League.
82 Watson's WWI draft card lists him as "Base Ball Player" for "Hot Springs Base Ball Team."
97 Hendricks' WWI draft card lists him as a "Ball Player" for W.P. Northcutt.
101 Oliver Marcell's WWI draft card lists him as a "Ball Player" in the "Texas Colored League."
108 Watson's WWI draft card lists him as "Base Ball Player" for "Hot Springs Base Ball Team."