Providence Grays - 1879 Champions

1879 Champions

One of the leading players from the 1879 pennant winner was Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward.

The team had a putative claim to being the first Major League Baseball team to field an African-American baseball player, William Edward White, a Brown University student who played one game for the Grays on June 21, 1879. Evidence is strong but not conclusive: Peter Morris of the Society for American Baseball Research has researched this issue, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on January 30, 2004. However, it has been acknowledged that White, who had at least one Negro ancestor, lived his life as a white man, and his race sparked no controversy when he was hired by Providence. Brothers Dan and Cliff Falk, who were both starting pitchers on the club during the 1883 season, may also have been of partial Negro ancestry.