Cichon: Buffalo’s Frank Grant was baseball’s earliest black star

From Steve Cichon at the Buffalo News on June 23, 2016:

He is often heralded as the best player the Bisons had in the 1800s, which is no small feat, as he was being matched against four Hall of Fame players. But even after his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame in 2006, 120 years after he first joined the Bisons, few know the name Frank Grant.

A 1915 story in the Buffalo Courier reads, “He played for years for The Buffalos, gained the sobriquet ‘The colored Dunlap,’ and was regarded the equal of any second baseman in the country.” The Dunlap referenced was Fred Dunlap, baseball’s highest paid player of the 1880s, and the game’s best (white) second baseman of his time.

Many believed it was Grant’s prowess on the field that effectively barred African-Americans from major league baseball for the first half of the twentieth century.

Read the full article here: http://history.buffalonews.com/2016/06/23/buffalo-1880s-bisons-2b-baseballs-earliest-black-star/



Originally published: June 24, 2016. Last Updated: June 24, 2016.