Chicago Unions

The Chicago Unions were a professional, black baseball team that played in the late 19th century, prior to the formation of the Negro leagues.

Founding

Organized as the Unions in 1887, the club was led by Abe Jones (1887–1889) and by W.S. Peters (1890–1900). In 1899, they lost a series for the western championship to the Columbia Giants, also based in Chicago.

The Unions, along with the Cuban Giants, are the only Negro teams to survive the political and economic crisis that eventually lead to the Panic of 1893. Every other significant Negro team which operated prior to the Panic ultimately ceased to exist.

Merge

During and 1902, Frank Leland created the Chicago Union Giants by hiring many players from the Chicago Unions and Columbia Giants. The Union Giants "were recognized as the top team in the West, but lost a challenge playoff to the Algona Brownies in 1903 for the western championship" (Riley 168). The Union Giants were renamed Leland Giants in .

Franchise continuum

DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:100
PlotArea = left:20 right:50 bottom:20 top:20

Colors =
id:majorGridColor value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9)
id:lineColor value:gray(0.6)
id:nl1 value:gray(0.9)
id:inactive value:gray(0.5)

id:gold value:rgb(0.99,0.72,0.15)
id:brown value:rgb(0.36,0.20,0.10)
id:vegasgold value:rgb(0.80,0.72,0.49)
id:green value:rgb(0, 0.51,0.28)
id:darkgreen value:rgb(0, 0.20,0 )
id:orange value:rgb(1 ,0.39,0 )
id:redorange value:rgb(1 ,0.20,0 )
id:red value:rgb(0.80,0.01,0.07)
id:red2 value:rgb(0.90,0.01,0.07)
id:darkred value:rgb(0.50,0 ,0 )
id:iceblue value:rgb(0.20,0.60,0.80)
id:lgray value:gray(0.1)
id:gray value:gray(0.3)
id:gray2 value:gray(0.5)
id:sand value:rgb(0.94,0.89,0.77)
id:navy value:rgb(0 ,0 ,0.30)
id:teal value:rgb(0 ,0.65,0.65)
id:teal2 value:rgb(0 ,0.45,0.45)

Period = from:1887 till:1952
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
ScaleMajor = start:1887 increment:5 gridcolor:majorGridColor

BarData =
bar:UNI # Chicago Unions
bar:AMG # Chicago American Giants
bar:COL # Chicago Columbia Giants

Define $Up = shift:(,1)
Define $Left = anchor:from align:right shift:(-1,)
Define $Right = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,)
Define $Right2 = anchor:till align:right shift:(-25,)
Define $Down = shift:(,-10)
Define $UpLeft = anchor:from align:right shift:(-1,1)
Define $UpLeft2 = anchor:from align:left shift:(-1,1)
Define $UpRight2 = anchor:till align:right shift:(-1,1)
Define $UpRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,1)
Define $DownRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,-10)
Define $DownLeft = anchor:from align:left shift:(2,-10)
Define $UpUpRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,10)

PlotData =
color:inactive
textcolor:black
width:20
fontsize:S
mark:(line,black)
anchor:middle # other options are anchor:from anchor:till
align:center # other options are align:left align:right
shift:(0,-5)

# Note on dates: A team's bar begins with the season that team played its first game, and ends with the season after that team played its last game. For example, the Cleveland Tate Stars played their first game in 1922 and played their last game in 1923. Therefore, their bar goes from 1922 to 1924.

bar:UNI from:1887 till:1901 color:skyblue text:"Chicago Unions" $Right2
bar:UNI from:1910 till:1921 color:gold text:"Chicago Giants" $Right2

bar:AMG from:1901 till:1910 color:yellow text:"Chicago Union Giants / Leland Giants (I)"

bar:COL from:1899 till:1901 color:skyblue text:"Chicago Columbia Giants" $Right2
bar:COL from:1910 till:1952 color:gold text:"Leland Giants (II) / Chicago American Giants" $Right2

References

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{{Negro League teams

Negro league baseball teams
Defunct baseball teams in Chicago
Baseball teams disestablished in 1900
Baseball teams established in 1887