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CHARLIE GRANT A towering first baseman with a long stretch, he was a good fielder whose career spanned 15 years, including stays with the top teams of both the East and West during the deadball era. In the East he played with the great New York Lincoln Giants of 1912-13, batting .284 and .305 against all competition, and in the West he played with Rube Foster's powerful Chicago American Giants of 1917, where he hit .268. After Foster organized the Negro National League in 1920, Grant held down the first base positions as the American Giants captured the first three league championships (1920-22). |
The hulking first sacker was susceptible to bonehead plays in the field and on the bases, and made some critical errors during the 1917 season. Evidently temperamental and moody, he was dropping throws at first base like he had hands of iron and exercised some dubious judgment while plodding around the bases. The press was unkind in their reporting of the incidents, but he apparently overcame the related stigma attached by the media.
In August of the following season, he was drafted into military service for the duration of World War 1, but he was back with the Chicago American Giants before the end of the 191 season but managed only a . 198 batting average. After anchoring the infield for the three consecutive pennant winners under Foster's tutelage, in 1923 Grant was sent to the Indianapolis ABCs, whose ranks had been decimated by the raids of eastern teams. But he was back in Chicago before the end of 1924 and was unconditionally released by Foster, along with a large number of other veteran players, in the spring of 1925.
Courtesy of "The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues"
by James A. Riley