Indianapolis ABCs

The ABCs took the western championship in 1916, beating Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants in a series that settled which club was the best in Black baseball that year. C. I. Taylor managed from 1914 to 1921 and went 253-224. The recorded record across 12 seasons is 383-384, resting on surviving box scores rather than a complete count.

The club was named for the American Brewing Company, which sponsored it. Taylor was one of the founders of the Negro National League in 1920 and its vice-president, and his death in 1922 took much of the club's standing with it.

Three Hall of Famers played here: Oscar Charleston, who was from Indianapolis and joined the club at eighteen, Ben Taylor, C. I.'s brother, who played first base and later managed, and Biz Mackey. Washington Park was the ground first, then Northwestern Park.