Royal Giants, and so on.  The early “Cuban” teams were all composed of African Americans rather than Cubans; the purpose was to increase their acceptance with white patrons as Cuba was on very friendly terms with the US during those years.  It was a very difficult time for the black players who did play on theFor black players on the white minor league teams as they were constantly dodging verbal and physical abuse from both competitors and fans.  In 1888, some of Chicago’s black businessmen joined together to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club which eventually went pro and became the Chicago Unions.  The talent was always there, it was a matter of dealing with the color barrier.  Leading the way for the Cuban X-Giants in 1903, was a young pitcher named Andrew “Rube” Foster.  Rube was considered by historians to have been perhaps the best African -American pitcher of the first decade of the 1900s.    Rube played ball and then took a managing position in 1907.  He joined the Leland Giants and demanded that he be put in charge of not only the on-field activities, but also the bookings as well.  Great move Rube.  He immediately turned the Giants into the team to beat.  Eventually, the owner of the team, Frank Leland and Rube Foster failed to see eye to eye on the operations so Foster quit.  In a heated court battle Rube Foster won the rights to keep the Leland Giants’ name.  The next year Rube went to work on reviving the concept of an all black league and the one thing he was insistent on was that black teams should be owned by black men.  On February 13th and 14th, of 1920, talks were held in Kansas City, Missouri that established the Negro National League and its governing body the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs.  Rube Foster earned the title “father of Black Baseball.”  From 1920 to 1932, Negro league baseball went through so many transitions that it seemed about ready to fade into history when along came Cumberland Posey and his Homestead Grays.  Across town from Posey was Gus Greenlee, a reputed gangster and numbers runner.  He had just purchased the Pittsburgh Crawfords.  His only interest in the team was as a way for him to launder money from his numbers game. But after learning of the money made by Cumberland Posey with the Homestead Grays, he had a change of heart.  It seemed he was indeed obsessed with the sport of baseball and his beloved team the Crawfords.  Greenlee was able to get a fantastic line-up of players, one such was Josh Gibson.  Gibson played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931 and then moved over to the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1932.  Baseball historians consider Josh Gibson to be among the very best catchers and power hitters in the history of any league, including the Major Leagues.  He was known as “the black Babe Ruth” however, some fans at the time who saw both Gibson and Ruth play called Ruth “the white Josh Gibson”.  Unfortunately, Josh never played in Major League Baseball because under their unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” policy, they excluded non-whites during his lifetime.  In 1943,    Josh fell into a coma and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, refusing surgery he decide to live with recurring headaches.  Josh Gibson died of a stroke in Pittsburgh in 1947 at the age of 35, just three months before Jackie Robinson became the first black player in modern major league history.  In 1972, Josh Gibson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and in 1981, Rube Foster was also elected.