Cuban Giants - Timeline

Timeline

• May 1885: Keystone Athletics formed in Philadelphia.
• July 1885: Keystone Athletics relocated to Babylon, Long Island.
• August 1885: The Keystone Athletics join the Manhattans of Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia Orions, creating the Cuban Giants.
• Fall 1885: Giants recorded as playing the major league New York Metropolitans (lost 11-3) and Philadelphia Athletics (lost 13-7). Both games are pitched by Shep Trusty
• Winter 1885-86: Cuban Giants play in Cuba
• Spring 1886: The team is bought by Walter E. Simpson who sets up home base at the Chambersburg Grounds in Trenton, New Jersey. The Cuban Giants win the first 40 games, losing 9-3 to the St. Louis Browns, a major league team (May 28, 1886).
• Summer 1886: Team sold to Walter I. Cook. First full season of summer baseball for the Giants begins.
• June, 1886: S.K. Govern signs George Washington Stovey to the Cuban Giants. On the 25th, in his first and only game with the Giants, he struck out eleven batters from Bridgeport of the Eastern League, losing 4-3.
• July 21, 1886: Shep Trusty pitches a 9-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Five days later, he beats the Kansas City Cowboys 3-2, and next loses to the same team 13-4.
• August 13, 1886: The first meeting between the New York Gorhams and the Cuban Giants ends with a Cuban Giants victory, 25-4.
• December 1886 – January 1887: Cuban Giants play in Cuba again.
• June 1887: J.M. Bright buys the Cuban Giants from Walter Cook. (Malloy 11)
• 1888: The New York Gorhams beat the Cuban Giants 4-3 in Newburgh, New York.
• 1889: The team’s last year in Trenton, the Cuban Giants join the Middle States League.
• 1890: Entire team leaves and plays as the Colored Monarchs of York, Pennsylvania.
• 1891: Mid-season, a good portion of the Cuban Giants, under J.M. Bright’s control, leave for the Gorhams managed by S.K. Govern, now called the Big Gorhams. The Giants reassemble annually under Bright.
• 1896: E.B. Lamar, Jr., buys the team, renaming them the Cuban X-Giants. For ten years they are one of the top African American teams, maybe the strongest overall.