Dayton Marcos

The Dayton Marcos were a Negro league baseball team based from Dayton, Ohio that played during the early twentieth century.

Dayton Marcos
(c. 1910s-c. 1930s)
Dayton, Ohio
League affiliation(s)
  • Independent (c. 1910s–19,21–25,27–c. 30s)
  • Negro National League (I) (1920, 26)

Founding

The Dayton Marcos history predates the formal organized leagues of Negro league baseball. As an independent team, and also as the only black team in the Ohio-Indiana League [1] they played black and white teams all over the country throughout the 1910s.

Old newspaper accounts and fading memories are some of the only sources of information on the Marcos.[2] The team was started by Daytonian Moses Moore, a real estate agent. Moore owned the New Marco Hotel and apparently named his team after that enterprise.[3] The team was to be entertainment for Dahomey Park, the first black-owned and operated amusement park in the United States.[4] Local newspapers sometimes referred to the team as "Moses Moore's Marcos."

They played in the then newly formed Negro National League, which was formed by Rube Foster. The Marcos were one of the original eight teams to play in the first organized major Negro league to survive a full season. At that time, the Marcos were owned by Daytonian John Matthews who ran the team until his death in 1942. [5]

Negro National League Years

For the inaugural season of the NNL, the team was headed by 36-year-old player-manager Candy Jim Taylor.[6] With his managerial career spanning three decades, Taylor would go on to be the winningest manager in Negro League history, including winning two Negro League World Series with the Homestead Grays. [7]

The Marcos National Negro League home opener was on June 12, 1920 at Westwood Field (present day James H. McGee Blvd. and Rosedale). They defeated the Chicago Giants 5-4.[8]

Barnstorming years

Dayton left the league after one year and a last place finish. They then rejoined briefly for part of 1926, when they finished in second-to-last and left the league once again.

Demise

The Marcos survived until World War II.

References
  1. "The Dayton Marcos: From the Flood of 1913 to the Dragons of 2000" by Margaret E. Peters, Archived 2014-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Dayton Marcos". Negro League Baseball Players Association. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  3. Richard Worth, Baseball Team Names: A Worldwide Dictionary, 1869-2011 (Jefferson NC and London: McFarland and Inc. Publishers, 2013)
  4. "David Garber, Black Ohio and the Color Line, 1860-1915". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
  5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29390031/the_journal_herald/
  6. "A's and Marcos in Two Scraps Here Tomorrow" Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, May 22, 1920, Page 19, Column 7
  7. https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Candy_Jim_Taylor
  8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30187200/dayton_daily_news/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.