Athletes - Sol White

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	Athletes - Sol White

King Solomon (Sol) White (June 12 1868 - August 26 1955) was an American professional baseball infielder, manager and executive, and one of the pioneers of the Negro Leagues. An active sportswriter for many years, in 1907 he wrote the first definitive history of black baseball.

Born in Bellaire, Ohio, White's playing career lasted from 1887 to 1910, followed by several additional seasons of managing. He played a major role on many of the greatest teams throughout that era, and also in the 1902 formation of the Philadelphia Giants and the later development and operation of various leagues.

A hard-hitting infielder, White signed his first contract in 1887 with the Pittsburgh Keystones of the short-lived National Colored League. After the Colored League folded, the 19-year-old White moved to the Wheeling (WV) franchise of the Ohio State League where he batted .381 in 45 games (sixth-best among players with 40 games). Wheeling briefly re-signed him in 1888, but his white teammates forced his release before he even appeared in a single game.

White then moved on to the highest ranks of black baseball. From 1889-91, he appeared with all-Black teams in official minor leagues, batting at least .324 each year, before joining top black barnstorming squads like the New York Big Gorhams (1891), the Cuban Giants (1892-1894), and the Page Fence Giants (1895). From 1896-1900, White split time between classes at Wilberforce University and the Cuban X Giants. He joined the Chicago Columbia Giants for a year then returned to captain the X Giants.

In 1902, he teamed with white sportswriter H. Walter Schlichter to found the Philadelphia Giants. For the next eight years White co-owned, managed and played for his team, one of the era's best. The Giants claimed the mythic black national championship three times under White.

After leaving the Giants, White managed the Brooklyn Royal Giants (1910) and the New York Lincoln Giants (1911-1912), before a long period of semi-retirement, punctuated by stints with the Columbus Buckeyes (1920), the Cleveland Browns (1924), and the Newark Stars (1926).

Drawing on his experiences, White authored and published a history of black baseball in 1907, while still active in the baseball business. Sol White's History of Colored Baseball was the first volume of its kind. White's History begins with the organization in 1885 of the first professional colored baseball team, discusses the brusque removal of all black players from predominantly white teams during the next four years, and then traces the growing strength of "colored base ball" into the early years of the twentieth century. This short book-within-a-book is history, but it can also be described as an almanac, a scorecard, an archive, a who's who of African-American baseball up to 1907. White's accurate narrative preserved the story of pioneering black players for future generations.

White spent his post-baseball years as a journalist, writing columns for, and granting interviews to, important African-American newspapers like the Cleveland Advocate, the New York Amsterdam News, the New York Age, and the Pittsburgh Courier.

White died at age 87 in Central Islip, New York. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006
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Some related entries: Lincoln Kennedy | Dorsey Schroeder | Ivan Stewart | Raymond Philyaw | Steve Williams | Bobby Bell | Bill Walsh | Jim Grobe | Don Meredith | Dexter Reid | Troy Davis
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Athletes - Sol White

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