1927 in the Negro Leagues

1927 in baseball
Japanese baseball
American League
National League
Negro Leagues
<< 1926 1928 >>

1927 in the Negro Leagues

Standings

BOLD indicates League Champion

Negro National League

BR page

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB
1	Chicago American Giants	94	61	32	1	.656	--
2	St. Louis Stars	99	62	37	0	.626	2.0
3	Kansas City Monarchs	88	55	33	0	.625	3.5
4	Birmingham Black Barons	100	53	44	3	.546	10.0
5	Detroit Stars	99	52	47	0	.525	12.0
6	Cuban Stars West	60	23	36	1	.333	26.0
7	Cleveland Hornets	49	13	36	0	.265	26.0
8	Memphis Red Sox	97	25	69	3	.266	36.5

Negro National League Championship Series:

• Chicago American Giants defeat Birmingham Black Barons, 4 games to 1

Eastern Colored League

BR page

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB
1	Atlantic City Bacharach Giants	91	55	35	1	.611	--
2	Harrisburg Giants	69	38	31	0	.551	6.5
3	Cuban Stars East	62	31	29	2	.517	9.0
4	Baltimore Black Sox	72	34	36	2	.486	11.0
5	New York Lincoln Giants	25	10	15	0	.400	12.5
6	Hilldale Club	87	38	48	1	.442	15.0
7	Brooklyn Royal Giants	34	11	23	0	.324	16.0

Independent Teams

Source: Teams list from The Negro Leagues Book by Dick Clark and Larry Lester; records are from The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues, John Holway

• Chappie Johnson's Stars
• Nashville Elite Giants
• Pennsylvania Red Caps of NY
• Philadelphia Giants
• Pittsburgh Homestead Grays
• St. Louis Giants

Leading Players

Achievements

• Laymon Yokely pitched a no-hitter for the Baltimore Black Sox against the Cuban Stars on May 15 in the second game of a double-header, winning 8-0. Yokely had already won the first game of the double-header in relief.
• Joe Strong of the Black Sox no-hit Hilldale 2-1 in 11 innings on August 4. His was the only extra inning no-hitter in Negro Leagues history. No winning no-hitter in the white or integrated majors ever went further than 10 innings.
• Willie Powell of the Chicago American Giants no-hit the Memphis Red Sox 5-0 on August 14 in the second game of a double-header.
• Webster McDonald of the Chicago American Giants had a no-hitter against Memphis on August 15, the day after Powell's gem, but went into extra innings tied 1-1. J.C. McHaskel broke up the no-hitter in the 10th inning, and Memphis scored a run on two hits in the 11th to beat McDonald 2-1. McDonald had been the losing pitcher in Red Grier's World Series no-hitter the previous season.
• Luther Farrell of the Bacharach Giants pitched a rain-shortened 7-inning no-hitter on October 8 against the Chicago American Giants in the Colored World Series, winning 3-2.

Events

• Biz Mackey, Andy Cooper, Frank Duncan, and Rap Dixon joined an entourage made up primarily of Pacific Coast League all-stars and participated in a tour of Japan on the integrated team. Because the tour lasted until near the end of May and the players did not return to their teams until June, the two leagues banned them for a five-year period. When they did return to the states, they were given 30-day suspensions (effectively covering the remainder of the first half of the season) and $200 fines. All served their suspensions. Whether they paid the fines was not reported.

Postseason

Both leagues played split seasons. The Bacharach Giants won the first half of the ECL pennant with a record of 29-17 (.630). Harrisburg claimed the second-half title by virtue of a forfeit win against Baltimore, but that was disallowed when the team failed to send a representative to a league meeting to present their case. As a result, the Bacharach Giants won the second half with a 25-18 (.581) record, narrowly beating out Harrisburg and avoiding a playoff.

Chicago won the first half of the NNL season, and swept the Birmingham Black Barons (second-half winners) four games to none in a playoff before advancing to the Colored World Series.

In the Colored World Series, the Chicago American Giants (NNL) defeated the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants (ECL), 5 games to 3, with one tie. The American Giants won the first four games of the series, all played in Chicago. The teams moved to Atlantic City for the remainder of the series, where the Bacharachs won three and tied one before Chicago finally clinched.