Baltimore Black Sox Team Photo (Late 1910s)

Before the Eastern Colored League, Jud Wilson and the Million Dollar Infield, the Baltimore Black Sox were a hometown club building a following one weekend at a time. Formed in 1913 by Black ballplayers who walked away from a team taken over by white owners, the Black Sox spent the next decade beating local and touring opponents, winning regional titles and saving toward a ballpark of their own. This team photo captures the club in those early years, with players in light flannel uniforms and BLACK SOX across the chest, gathered in front of a tree line with their bats stacked at center. Double matted in a black frame, it arrives ready to hang.

A Closer Look at the Photograph

The team poses in three rows: a standing back row, a middle row kneeling and a front row seated on the grass, with bats leaned together in a pyramid in front of them. Several jerseys carry a "B" above the BLACK SOX lettering. Two men in street clothes stand at either end of the back row, one in a white shirt and bow tie and the other in a long coat. The players have not been individually identified, and the late 1910s date is an estimate based on the team's history before it joined the Eastern Colored League in 1923.

Who Were the Black Sox Before 1923?

The Black Sox grew out of the Weldons, a Baltimore team founded by Wallace Smith, a formerly enslaved man who became a successful businessman and supporter of civil rights. Renamed the Giants, the club became one of the city's top teams, but when white owners took control in 1912, the players left. In 1913 they re-formed as the Black Sox under Howard Young.

Those early seasons were played in Baltimore's semi-pro scene, where the Black Sox faced Black and white teams in front of integrated crowds at a time when much of the city was strictly segregated. By the end of the decade, local businessmen George Rossiter and Charles Spedden owned the club, and home games were played at Westport Park in South Baltimore.

Building a Winner

In 1918, the Black Sox went 35-5 and won a championship series against a team of semi-pro all-stars, and in 1919 they claimed the McCallister Trophy as Colored Amateur Champions of the South. In 1920, the club incorporated and began building a ballpark of its own, Maryland Baseball Park, which opened on May 15, 1921, with a doubleheader before a big crowd. As Baltimore began taking on the best Black teams in the East, it added talent, including first baseman Jud Wilson in 1922, a future Hall of Famer. A year later, the Black Sox became a charter member of the Eastern Colored League.

Complete the Collection

Follow the team into its league years with our Baltimore Black Sox Team Photo (1920s), the 1924 Baltimore Black Sox Team Photo and the Baltimore Black Sox Field Portrait (1920s). Wear the history with the Baltimore Black Sox Legacy Baseball Cap, which carries 1923 on its strap.

The Negro Leagues

Shut out of the major leagues by segregation, Black players built their own professional baseball, first through independent clubs like the early Black Sox and then through organized leagues. Rube Foster founded the Negro National League in 1920, and the Eastern Colored League followed in 1923. In December 2020, Major League Baseball recognized the Negro Leagues of 1920 to 1948 as major leagues, and in 2024 their statistics became part of the official MLB record.

Framing Details

The 5x7 inch image is printed on premium satin (semi-gloss) photo paper, double matted and set in a black frame for a finished size of approximately 12x10 inches. It is available framed only and ships ready to hang.

About the Photograph

Like most images of early Black baseball, this photograph carries no photographer's credit. Black clubs of the 1910s rarely had team photographers, so the pictures that survive came mostly from local commercial studios and the Black press. In Baltimore, the Afro-American followed the Black Sox from their earliest seasons, reporting scores, championships, and plans for a new ballpark, and much of what historians know about the team's independent years comes from its pages. Historian Bernard McKenna drew on that coverage for his book on the Baltimore Black Sox, which traces the club from its 1913 founding to its final season in 1936.