American Negro spirituals: see spiritual.

The American Negro League (ANL) was a professional baseball league that operated on the east coast of the United States in 1929. The Eastern Colored League (ECL), which had served as the eastern Negro League from 1923 through 1927, had fallen apart in early 1928. The following year, five former ECL teams--the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Cuban Stars, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, and the Lincoln Giants of New York City, with the Homestead Grays, an important independent club, and a revived version of the Harrisburg Giants, formed the American Negro League.

The league operated with a split-season format, in which the schedule was divided into two halves, with the winners of each half to play a series for the pennant. However, the Baltimore Black Sox, led by player-manager Dick Lundy and Hall of Fame first baseman Jud Wilson, won both halves, and were awarded the pennant.

The league did not organize for the 1930 season, and it would not be until 1933 that an eastern Negro League would last for a full season.

The ANL made an unusually conscientious effort, for the Negro Leagues, to compile statistics for the league's players. These were published at season's end in the Pittsburgh Courier.

This league is not to be confused with the later Negro American League, which was based in midwestern and southern cities.

References

• Loverro, Thom. The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball. New York:Facts on File, Inc., 2003. ISBN 0-8160-4430-9.

See also

''Annual final standings: 1929

• Negro League baseball