| Chicago Unions | |
| Established: | 1887 |
| Disbanded: | 1900 |
| City: | Chicago, Illinois |
| League: |
|
| Nickname: |
|
The Chicago Unions were a professional, black baseball team that played in the late 19th century, prior to the formation of the Negro leagues.
Organized as the Unions in 1887, the club was led by Abe Jones (1887–1889) and by W.S. Peters (1890–1900). In 1899, they lost a series for the western championship to the Columbia Giants, also based in Chicago.
The Unions, along with the Cuban Giants, are the only Negro teams to survive the political and economic crisis that eventually lead to the Panic of 1893. Every other significant Negro team which operated prior to the Panic ultimately ceased to exist.
During and 1902, Frank Leland created the Chicago Union Giants by hiring many players from the Chicago Unions and Columbia Giants. The Union Giants "were recognized as the top team in the West, but lost a challenge playoff to the Algona Brownies in 1903 for the western championship" (Riley 168). The Union Giants were renamed Leland Giants in .
Colors = id:majorGridColor value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9) id:lineColor value:gray(0.6) id:nl1 value:gray(0.9) id:inactive value:gray(0.5)
id:gold value:rgb(0.99,0.72,0.15) id:brown value:rgb(0.36,0.20,0.10) id:vegasgold value:rgb(0.80,0.72,0.49) id:green value:rgb(0, 0.51,0.28) id:darkgreen value:rgb(0, 0.20,0) id:orange value:rgb(1,0.39,0) id:redorange value:rgb(1,0.20,0) id:red value:rgb(0.80,0.01,0.07) id:red2 value:rgb(0.90,0.01,0.07) id:darkred value:rgb(0.50,0,0) id:iceblue value:rgb(0.20,0.60,0.80) id:lgray value:gray(0.1) id:gray value:gray(0.3) id:gray2 value:gray(0.5) id:sand value:rgb(0.94,0.89,0.77) id:navy value:rgb(0,0,0.30) id:teal value:rgb(0,0.65,0.65) id:teal2 value:rgb(0,0.45,0.45)
Period = from:1887 till:1952TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyyScaleMajor = start:1887 increment:5 gridcolor:majorGridColor
BarData = bar:UNI # Chicago Unions bar:AMG # Chicago American Giants bar:COL # Chicago Columbia Giants
Define $Up = shift:(1)Define $Left = anchor:from align:right shift:(-1,)Define $Right = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,)Define $Right2 = anchor:till align:right shift:(-25,)Define $Down = shift:(-10)Define $UpLeft = anchor:from align:right shift:(-1,1)Define $UpLeft2 = anchor:from align:left shift:(-1,1)Define $UpRight2 = anchor:till align:right shift:(-1,1)Define $UpRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,1)Define $DownRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,-10)Define $DownLeft = anchor:from align:left shift:(2,-10)Define $UpUpRight = anchor:till align:left shift:(2,10)
PlotData = color:inactive textcolor:black width:20 fontsize:S mark:(line,black) anchor:middle # other options are anchor:from anchor:till align:center # other options are align:left align:right shift:(0,-5)
bar:UNI from:1887 till:1901 color:skyblue text:"Chicago Unions" $Right2 bar:UNI from:1910 till:1921 color:gold text:"Chicago Giants" $Right2
bar:AMG from:1901 till:1910 color:yellow text:"Chicago Union Giants / Leland Giants (I)"
bar:COL from:1899 till:1901 color:skyblue text:"Chicago Columbia Giants" $Right2 bar:COL from:1910 till:1952 color:gold text:"Leland Giants (II) / Chicago American Giants" $Right2
| The Chicago Unions and the Chicago Columbia Giants merged for the 1901 season creating the Chicago Union Giants, who later changed their name to the Leland Giants. The Leland Giants then split into two teams for the 1910 season creating the Chicago Giants and the new Leland Giants, who later changed their name to the Chicago American Giants. |