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Nashville Elite Giants

Nashville Elite · 1930–1934

The Elite Giants played four seasons in Nashville at a recorded 81-116, resting on surviving box scores rather than a complete count. Tom Wilson, a Nashville businessman, owned the club and built Wilson Park for it in 1929 — one of the few Negro Leagues grounds its own club owned.

The Depression made a southern club with northern travel costs unworkable, and it moved: to Cleveland, then Columbus, then Washington, and to Baltimore in 1938, where it stayed and won a playoff the following year. This archive holds the Baltimore club separately.

One Hall of Famer played here, Ray Dandridge, who joined at nineteen and is regarded as the best third baseman the Negro leagues had. Candy Jim Taylor managed the last season.

Season by season

YearClub WLPct FinishResult Attendance
1930 Nashville Elite Giants 2053 .274 8
1932 Nashville Elite Giants 2422 .522 3
1933 Nashville Elite Giants 2018 .526 3
1934 Nashville Elite Giants 1723 .425 5
Total4 seasons 81116 .411 0 World Series

Notable players