Ben Taylor Marquee Hall of Fame 2006

b. July 1, 1888 · West Baden Sprudels 1910, 1912–1913, St. Louis Giants 1911, New York Lincoln Giants 1912, Chicago American Giants 1913, Indianapolis ABCs 1914–1918, 1920–1922, Atlantic City Bacharach Giants 1919, Baltimore Black Sox 1923, 1926–1928, Washington Potomacs 1924, Harrisburg Giants 1925, Atlantic City Bacharach Giants 1929

Across ten counted seasons from 1920 he had 727 hits and batted .334 over 590 recorded games, leading his league in doubles in 1921 and 1922 and in hits in 1921. Ten earlier seasons, from 1910, add another 385 hits and fall outside the count, because there was no organized Negro league before 1920.

He played 884 games at first base and pitched 48 more. He was the youngest of the four Taylor brothers, all of whom played, and he managed as well, at Indianapolis, Washington and Baltimore. Biz Mackey is among the players he is credited with teaching.

The record is partial because these statistics were not kept with the resources the white major leagues had. The Hall of Fame elected him in 2006 through the special Negro Leagues committee, fifty-three years after he died.

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1910*	WBS	6	23	0	6	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.261
1911*	SLG	14	34	5	12	3	0	0	5	2	0	0	.353
1912*	NLG/WBS	8	19	0	9	3	0	0	4	0	0	0	.474
1913*	CAG/WBS	25	103	18	34	4	2	1	16	8	0	1	.330
1914*	ABC	60	216	50	79	23	8	4	53	33	0	27	.366
1915*	ABC	60	215	35	63	18	5	1	47	28	0	14	.293
1916*	ABC	41	150	23	47	3	1	0	28	10	0	6	.313
1917*	ABC	57	218	27	64	9	4	0	39	18	0	5	.294
1918*	ABC	41	157	30	48	5	6	2	37	12	0	5	.306
1919*	AC	21	77	11	23	2	4	0	13	9	0	5	.299
1920	ABC	75	275	41	83	13	4	3	46	28	1	13	.302
1921	ABC	88	334	72	131	20	7	2	73	32	1	9	.392
1922	ABC	81	321	65	123	29	6	2	59	28	0	3	.383
1923	BBS	2	6	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.167
1924	WP	60	237	38	72	11	2	4	50	29	0	6	.304
1925	HBG	70	268	40	87	14	4	5	65	26	0	0	.325
1926	BBS	53	167	16	50	7	3	1	23	28	4	4	.299
1927	BBS	65	236	35	79	9	5	2	43	26	0	1	.335
1928	BBS	57	220	26	70	14	3	2	38	12	1	2	.318
1929	ACB	39	115	12	31	6	0	4	17	14	0	1	.270
Major leagues	—	590	2179	345	727	123	34	25	415	223	7	39	.334
All seasons	—	923	3391	544	1112	194	65	33	657	343	7	102	.328

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1910*	WBS	0	2	3	2	0	22.0	24	8	8	9	3.27
1911*	SLG	7	0	8	5	0	51.1	61	23	20	21	4.03
1912*	NLG/WBS	1	1	3	3	0	23.1	28	11	5	10	4.24
1914*	ABC	4	0	7	4	0	59.0	45	10	11	38	1.53
1915*	ABC	1	2	7	1	0	28.0	33	13	8	11	4.18
1916*	ABC	0	0	2	1	0	7.0	8	4	2	3	5.14
1917*	ABC	0	1	2	1	0	15.2	13	5	6	6	2.87
1918*	ABC	1	0	2	0	0	11.2	16	9	2	2	6.94
1919*	AC	0	0	1	0	1	2.2	1	0	1	2	0.00
1920	ABC	1	1	8	1	1	22.1	18	7	3	7	2.82
1921	ABC	1	0	3	0	0	3.2	5	1	2	1	2.45
1922	ABC	0	0	1	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	0.00
1926	BBS	0	0	1	0	0	0.1	1	0	1	0	0.00
Major leagues	—	2	1	13	1	1	28.1	25	8	6	8	2.54
All seasons	—	16	7	48	18	2	249.0	254	91	69	110	3.29

Seasons outside MLB's recognized major leagues appear in All seasons, but not in Major leagues or the leaderboards. For Ben Taylor, that is 1910–1919. Why totals can differ.

On this day & linked events

1888

Born July 1, 1888

Anderson, SC, USA

1953

Died January 24, 1953

1912

Major-league debut: Ben Taylor

Ben Taylor made a major-league debut on August 24, 1912.

1936

Final major-league game: Ben Taylor

Ben Taylor played a final major-league game on August 23, 1936.

Image: Unknown author Unknown, public domain