Ben Taylor

During a career that spanned 30 years, Ben Taylor played for and managed baseball teams in the Negro Leagues and the era before their formal establishment. He primarily played for the Indianapolis ABCs, becoming a premier first baseman, effective clutch hitter, baseball player and later, as a manager, a key mentor for upcoming players. Taylor’s keen mind and analytical approach to baseball enabled him to hit the ball to all corners of the field and defensively protect first base through quick footwork, flexible lateral movement, and a skill for anticipating a hitter’s intentions. His on-field success and managerial skill earned him a posthumous induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Benjamin Harrison Taylor was born on July 1, 1888 in Anderson, South Carolina, to Isham Taylor and Adeline Hayne Taylor. Among the couple’s nine children were four baseball-playing brothers who achieved renown in the sport: Ben Taylor (the youngest of the four), famed manager C. I. Taylor, third baseman and manager “Candy” Jim Taylor, and pitcher “Steel Arm” Johnny Taylor. This concentration of talent led sportswriters to dub the Taylors the “first family” of Negro League baseball.

Ben Taylor began his baseball career in 1908 as a pitcher with the Birmingham Giants, managed by his brother C. I. Taylor, before switching to first base, where he would gain a reputation as one of the finest in the game. After two seasons with the St. Louis Giants, he joined his brothers Jim and Johnny Taylor on Owner-Manager Rube Foster’s 1913 Chicago American Giants team.

Taylor joined the Indianapolis ABCs in 1914 when his brother C. I. Taylor managed and owned the team. Playing first base and batting left-handed, he quickly became known as “Old Reliable” for his clutch hitting, smooth fielding, and outstanding defensive play. Furthermore, his scientific approach to hitting enabled him to drill line drives to all fields and execute the hit-and-run play expertly. Taylor was considered the best first baseman in the Negro Leagues before Walter “Buck” Leonard’s arrival in 1933.

Taylor maintained a respectable .308 batting average during the 1915 baseball season, though during the subsequent offseason, playing winter ball in Cuba, Taylor achieved a .500 batting average. The next season, he helped lead the ABCs to a western region championship. During the 1916 Negro Championship Series, he batted .611 with three stolen bases as the ABCs defeated the Chicago American Giants four games to one. Taylor remained with the ABCs through 1918, departed briefly in 1919, then returned from 1920 to 1922. Following the death of his brother C. I. Taylor in 1922, Ben replaced him as manager before leaving Indianapolis in 1923. Taylor founded the Washington Potomacs in 1923, bringing his brother Johnny Taylor along as pitching coach.

Over his playing career, which lasted until 1929, Taylor accumulated 1,250 hits and maintained a .300 or better batting average in sixteen different years. After retiring as a player, he continued as a manager and coach. He served as player-manager for the Washington Potomacs, Baltimore Black Sox, Harrisburg Giants, and Bacharach Giants. In 1933, he managed the Baltimore Stars and tutored a young Walter “Buck” Leonard, a future Negro League star, on approaches to the first-base position. Leonard later said, “I got most of my learning from Ben Taylor. He had been the best first baseman in Negro baseball up until that time, and he was the one who really taught me to play first base.”

At the end of his baseball career, Taylor lived in Baltimore where he owned and operated a poolroom, a shoeshine parlor, and a cleaning and pressing business. He also printed and distributed game programs at Baltimore Elite Giants games. He died of pneumonia in Baltimore on January 24, 1953 and was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on February 27, 2006, after Major League Baseball had initiated a process for honoring Negro League standouts who had been excluded from adequate recognition due to racial segregation in baseball during their active careers. Taylor is buried at Arbutus Memorial Park in Arbutus, Maryland. His gravestone reads “A Graceful Player, A Superb Teacher, & A True Gentleman.”

Help improve this entry

Contribute information, offer corrections, suggest images.

You can also recommend new entries related to this topic.