By Jack White
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The Sykesville Giants were a baseball team made up of young African American men who lived up Oklahoma Hill in Sykesville. Mostly they played (and excelled) in the 1920s. Black players were not allowed in the major league until 1947 when Jackie Robinson finally broke the color barrier at Ebbets Field in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
Baltimore had a team called the Baltimore Elite Giants. Elite is not pronounced the way you would think. Here’s a little video about them, including the correct pronunciation of the team’s name.
The following quote comes from Warren Dorsey, who was born in 1920 and still remembers each player on the Giants, including his brother Russell, who played shortstop.
A Valuable Commodity
— Excerpt —
“There were no fences in the outfield, no bleachers or scoreboards or billboards. It was surrounded by trees. A baseball was a valuable commodity. It wasn’t like if a foul ball went into the crowd you could keep it as a souvenir. The balls were returned. And balls hit into the wooded area that bordered the field often got lost, but there was always a group of boys who went into the underbrush and tracked them down. Balls were used till the covering was just about knocked off.
“We got the balls from Devries down on Main Street. He sold a lot of stuff. He sold baseballs. He sold shells the hunters used. He sold bats. I think he sold gloves, too.”
— End of Excerpt —