BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " STEEL ARM JOHNNY TAYLOR " WAS THE SECOND OLDEST OF FOUR BASEBALL-PLAYING BROTHERS - WAS A PITCHER AND PLAYED IN PROFESSIONAL PRE-LEAGUE AND NEGRO LEAGUE BASE BALL FROM 1903 TO 1925 : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

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Steel Arm Johnny Taylor

John Boyce "Steel Arm" Taylor
Pitcher / Manager
Born: August 12, 1879 Anderson, South Carolina
Died: March 25, 1956 Peoria, Illinois
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Teams
Greenwood, South Carolina Red Stockings (1898) Greenville, South Carolina (1898) Anderson, South Carolina (1899-1900) Birmingham Giants (1903-1909) St. Paul Colored Gophers (1909) Chicago Giants (1910)[1] West Baden Sprudels (1910) St. Louis Giants (1911) [2] West Baden Sprudels (1912-1913) St. Louis Giants (1913) Chicago American Giants (1913) Indianapolis ABCs (1914) Louisville White Sox (1915) Indianapolis ABCs (1916) Bowser's ABCs (1916) Hilldale Daisies (1917) Bacharach Giants (1919) Peoria, IL Black Devils (1920)[3] Indianapolis ABCs (1920)[4] Washington Potomacs (1924)

John Boyce Taylor (1879 – 1956) was the second-oldest of four baseball-playing brothers, the others being Charles, Benjamin, and James. Taylor was a pitcher and played in professional pre-league and Negro league baseball from 1903 to 1925.

Taylor was given his baseball nickname, "Steel-Arm Johnnie," by a white sportswriter for the Charlotte Observer (a predominately white paper during the time) wrote about Taylor's great speed, when he pitched for Biddle University in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1898. In the summer of 1898, he played two months for the Greenwood, South Carolina Red Stockings, and finished the season with the Greenville, South Carolina team.^[5]

In 1899 and 1900, Taylor pitched for his home club in Anderson, South Carolina where he reportedly won 90 percent of his games.

During the spring months of 1899 and later in 1905, he coached the Biddle University team.

He pitched the 1903 season for the Birmingham Giants where he pitched from thirty to forty games per season. He also reportedly never lost over seven games per season while at Birmingham. All four brothers were on that team by 1908, and he beat Hall of Famer Joe Williams 1-0 in San Antonio, striking out the side with the bases loaded in the ninth inning.

In the Spring of 1908, Taylor coached the M. and I College team of Holly Springs, Mississippi, developing players like Cobb and Pinson, who both went on to become the battery for the Birmingham Giants.

Taylor pitched for the St. Paul Colored Gophers in 1909, helping them claim a share of the western championship that year, posting a combined record of 37-6 between Birmingham and St. Paul. He pitched for the Chicago Giants in 1910,^[1] the St. Louis Giants in 1911,^[2] the West Baden Sprudels in 1912, and the Chicago American Giants in 1913 before reuniting with his brothers in 1914 on the Indianapolis ABCs.

When the Negro Leagues started in 1920, Taylor managed the Peoria, Illinois Black Devils^[3] for half a season, joining theIndianapolis ABCs again on June 21 of 1920.^[4] Then 40-year-old Taylor pitched at least 3 known games that year.

Taylor pitched professionally until 1925.

During his years of coaching college baseball, it was said he reportedly never used tobacco, and did not drink alcohol and often emphasized to his players the virtues of clean living and hard work.

Taylor laid in an unmarked grave for 51 years, until researchers with the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project put a proper gravestone on his grave in 2007.^[6]